Consumer Ethnocentrism
Consumer ethnocentrism is a measure of how strongly consumers favour buying from their own country. In the 2003 study of perceived brand globalness by Jan-Benedict Steenkamp, Rajeev Batra and Dana Alden, the effects of a global image on perceived value and purchase likelihood were weaker among consumers higher in ethnocentrism.
What it is
In marketing research the term names a consumer attitude toward buying domestic products. It is a variable measured across individuals, so people within any one country differ on it. The Why We Project uses it in the narrow sense of the 2003 paper, as a moderator, a factor that changes how strongly one thing relates to another.
The general idea of ethnocentrism in the social sciences is a broader subject with its own note in the vault. This page covers only the consumer measure as the paper used it.
In effect
In the paper's samples from the United States and Korea, a global image was positively related to perceived quality and prestige. The relationship was weaker for consumers who scored higher on ethnocentrism. For a brand deciding how much global identity to show, the practical reading is ours: a local presence may matter more to buyers who weigh the home market more heavily.
What it does not say
The concept does not say that any country or group of consumers is more ethnocentric than another, and the page makes no such comparison. It does not say that favouring home-market products is good or bad. The evidence is the abstract of one paper using two samples.
Sources
- Steenkamp, J.-B. E. M., Batra, R., & Alden, D. L. (2003). How perceived brand globalness creates brand value. Journal of International Business Studies, 34(1), 53-65. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400002