A study of the influence of religiosity, materialism and animosity on consumer ethnocentric behaviour

The main focus of this thesis is to investigate consumer ethnocentric behaviour (indeedmorality, appropriateness to buy domestic products; Shimp and Sharma, 1987) and the effectof different socio-cultural and psychological constructs namely religiosity, materialism andanimosity on consumer ethnocentrism in two different cultural perspectives. This researchextends ethnocentric studies to the level that has not been carried out this far and constructs ofthis thesis are uniquely brought together for the first time in an academic study.Based on a quantitative research approach & survey design using already validated scales,two empirical studies were carried out to investigate Pakistani consumers residing in Pakistanand UK. Study 1 was undertaken in Pakistan to explore the effect of religiosity andmaterialism as antecedent/moderator on the levels of ethnocentrism and animosity causingwillingness to purchase home-country products among home country consumers. Study 2repeated the same conceptual scheme to investigate the behaviours of UK based Pakistaniconsumers. Representing two different cultural contexts, a total of 1050 responses wereobtained and subjected to data analysis involving descriptive analysis, scale reliability test,regression analysis, t- test, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and analysis ofstructural models.The study results revealed that religiosity is a strong predictor of consumer ethnocentrism inboth cultures with moderating role of materialism in Pakistan. So higher the level ofreligiosity, greater would be the consumer ethnocentrism and animosity favouring willingnessto buy home-country products. Moreover, there were significant differences in the levels ofconsumer ethnocentrism, religiosity and willingness to buy home-country products betweenthe respondents in Pakistan and those in the UK with UK based consumers scoring lower. Onthese grounds, the current research contributed to the literature of consumer ethnocentrism byconfirming unique causation and moderating factors affecting Pakistani consumer'sethnocentric and animosity behaviour influencing their willingness to buy home-countryproducts