Identifying Xenophobic Consumer Behaviour and its Outcomes

Abstract

Understanding consumer's attitudes to foreign and domestic goods is a key element of building successful marketing strategies. Extensive research has been conducted on consumer ethnocentrism, yet the concept of consumer xenophobia is surprisingly under-researched. It was found that the widely cited Consumer Ethnocentrism scale merges positive domestic and negative foreign dispositions, creating an incomplete picture of consumers' attitudes. This study aims to explore the conceptual and empirical differences between these two country biases, seeking to answer the research question "Is consumer xenophobia different from consumer ethnocentrism, and do they have different antecedents and outcomes?". Primary research has been conducted to gain direct insight into the attitudes of Danish consumers, and the data was analysed using structural equation modeling as well as mean difference testing. The results indicate that there are statistically significant differences in the antecedents, demographic drivers, and also in the outcome variables. The paper discusses both the managerial and theoretical implications of the results. Overall, the findings point towards the need for a deeper understanding of consumer xenophobia, instead of the current approach of erroneously equating it to ethnocentrism.