The Effect of Personal Cultural Orientation on Consumer Ethnocentrism: Evaluations and Behaviors of U.S. Consumers Toward Japanese Products

• Published in: Journal of international consumer marketing 2005-12, Vol.18 (1-2), p.7-44
• Main Authors: Yoo, Boonghee, Donthu, Naveen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bias; CETSCALE; Consumer attitudes; consumer ethnocentrism; Consumers; Culture; Ethnocentrism; foreign products; Geert Hofstede; Imports; international marketing; International markets; Personal cultural orientation; Rule of origin; Studies; values
• ISSN: 0896-1530; 1528-7068
• DOI: 10.1300/J046v18n01_02

A great challenge in the global environment lies in consumers' reluctance to buy imports rather than domestic products. Recently, research has begun to explore the link between consumer type and adversarial attitudes toward imports. However, relatively little is known about the relationship between individual consumers' cultural orientation and their bias against imports. The objective of our research is to examine the relationship between cultural orientation and consumer ethnocentrism. We hypothesize that each of Hofstede's (2001) five dimensions of cultural orientation, operationalized at the individual level, affects consumer ethnocentrism. We test our hypotheses, investigating U.S. consumers evaluations of and behaviors toward Japanese products. The results show that collectivism (versus individualism), masculinity (versus femininity), and uncertainty-avoidance are related positively to consumer ethnocentrism, whereas long-term (versus short-term) orientation are related negatively to consumer ethnocentrism. The results also confirm the relationships between consumer ethnocentrism and its consequential variables of U.S. consumers' evaluations and behaviors toward Japanese products are meaningful and strong.