Consumer ethnocentrism and buying intentions: an empirical analysis of Iranian consumers

Purpose: This study investigates the moderating roles of country-of-origin (C.O.O) as influencing factor on quality judgment of domestic products and conspicuous consumption (C.C) in the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism (C.E) and buying intentions in Iran's clothing industry. Design/methodology/approach: Four main constructs (Consumer ethnocentrism, country of origin, conspicuous consumption, buying intentions) identified from the literature and then tested the relationship between them. A questionnaire developed and successfully administered to a national sample of 1200 individuals in four big cities of Iran through personal interviews. Consumer ethnocentrism were measured by the popular CETSCALE developed by Shimp and Sharma (1987); country-of-origin were adapted from measures developed by Pisharodi and Parameswaran (1992); conspicuous consumption adapted from the work of Marcoux et al. (1997). Results are analyzed by model fitting, a path diagram generated and six hypotheses tested. Findings: All but one of the hypotheses were accepted. The impact of consumer ethnocentrism on proclivity of consumers to buy domestic products tends to be weaker when consumers judge them as a low quality, or when consumers hold higher C.C values. Practical implications: This study can be valuable to the international marketers since it provides some empirical information about the competitive positions of the products originating from different countries, ethnocentrism level of Iranian consumers, and several other ideas about how to improve the effectiveness of marketing practices in the Iran's clothing industry. Originality/value: This study both supports and adds to the existing literature. It is also showed that in a developing country, C.O.O and C.C moderate the relationship between C.E and proclivity to buy domestic products.