Consumer Ethnocentrism, National Identification, and Cosmopolitanism

In a context of reduced consumption and an increasing presence of foreign products, this study examines asymmetric relationships in the consumer ethnocentrism (Ce) construct, analyzing the formation of attitudes toward the purchase of domestic versus foreign-made products as behavioral outcomes of Ce and the marginal impact of cosmopolitanism and national identification as its antecedents. Although relationships among these constructs have been well established in the literature, previous research has not specifically examined their marginal impact. Overall, the results confirm that the explanatory power of Ce and its sources is not symmetric. The Ce construct seems more capable of explaining consumers’ positive bias toward home products than a negative bias against foreign products. Similarly, the results suggest the role of cosmopolitanism in decreasing Ce, but its predictive capacity is weak compared with the sentiment of national identification. The findings provide a deep understanding of the Ce construct, introducing the concept of «asymmetric ethnocentrism» and suggesting a modification of Shimp and Sharma’s original definition of Ce. The findings also highlight the notion that the opposite of national identity is not the cosmopolitan orientation and suggest further investigation of the xenophile phenomenon as a new antecedent of Ce.