The Effects of Consumer Cosmopolitanism on Purchase Behavior of Foreign vs. Domestic Products Oliver

The purpose of this empirical study is to investigate the effects of con-sumer cosmopolitanism on foreign product purchase behavior in three major categories of consumer products (alcohol products, clothes, fur-niture). Based on the existing theoretical and empirical knowledge, we develop a conceptual model and identify two additional constructs as antecedents of foreign purchase behavior, i. e., consumer ethnocen-trism and consumer knowledge of brand origins. The measurement model is examined using a data set of 261 adult consumers and tested via structural equation modeling. The study results confirm the strong total effect of consumer cosmopolitanism in purchase behavior and indicate a strong direct effect of this phenomenon on the behavioral outcome. The more cosmopolitan consumers have a stronger tendency to buy foreign rather than local products. On the other hand, the di-rect relationship between cosmopolitanism and consumer knowledge of brand origin was not supported in the study. Key Words: cosmopolitanism, consumer ethnocentrism, knowledge of brand origins, foreign product purchase behavior, Sloveni