A Cross-National Assessment of the Reliability and Validity of the CETSCALE

Abstract

Consumers in markets worldwide are exposed to and are selecting from a wider range of foreign brands than ever before. Accordingly, marketers have shown a renewed interest in understanding the factors related to consumers' evaluation and selection of imported goods.One widely-used construct to understand consumers' attitudes toward purchasing imports is consumer ethnocentrism. developed by Shimp and Sharma ( 1987) and measured by their CETSCALE.In general, results from previous studies of consumer ethnocentrism have found an inverse relationship between scores on the CETSCALE and willingness to purchase imports, judgments of the quality of imported goods, cultural openness, education, and income (Netemeyer et. al. 1991;Shimp and Sharma, 1987: Sharma, Shimp andShin, 1995).The present research introduces the animosity construct to the marketing literature and tests the theory that animosity toward another nation can be an important and powerful predictor of foreign product purchase, even when this enmity is unrelated to beliefs about the quality of products produced in that country.As such, this present study represents a point of departure from the large research literature assessing foreign product purchase generally, and consumer ethnocentrism specifically. Our specific aim is to understand how attitudes toward a country --in particular, remnants of antipathy left by previous military, political, or economic conflict might affect willingness to buy that nation's products.We present the results from three separate but related studies which employed the animosity model to understand Chinese (n=231) and US (n=220) consumers' evaluations of Japan and Japanese goods, and Australian consumers (n=268) evaluations of France and French products. Specifically, respondents in each country were asked to indicate their agreement (on a I "strongly disagree" to 7 "strongly agree" scale) with statements concerning four general constructs: (I) Japanese/French product quality; (2) willingness to buy Japanese/France products; (3) consumer ethnocentrism; and ( 4) consumer animosity towards Japan/France.For each country, the results from structural equation modeling support each of the research hypotheses and provide cross national empirical support for the animosity model of foreign product purchase. Specifically, the results from the three studies provide marketing managers with ample evidence that factors above and beyond both the quality of foreign products and beliefs about the appropriateness of purchasing imports will affect consumers' purchase behavior in the international marketplace.Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Influence of Shopping Orientation and Store Image on Patronage of Furniture Store

“…Purchasing foreign products may be viewed as improper because it costs domestic jobs and hurts the economy. The purchase of foreign products may even be seen as simply unpatriotic (Klein, 2002;Netemeyer et al, 1991;Sharma, Shimp, & Shin, 1995;Shimp & Sharma, 1987). Another stream of literature, however, counters this position.…”

Development of a scale to measure the perceived benefits and risks of online shopping

“…The importance of establishing nomological validity has been well documented (e.g., Babin et al, 1994;Bagozzi, 1984;Netemeyer, Durvasula, & Lichtenstein, 1991), and researchers have noted the need for a broader research focus, building on more general theories that link multiple constructs. A nomological model is thus proposed based on a synthesis of consumer decision-making (Sheth, Mittal, & Newman, 1999) and innovation adoption (Rogers, 1995) theories.…”

Cross-cultural equivalence of materialistic values scale (MVS): An exploratory study between the United States and Thailand

“…The use of a student sample may or may not be representative of all the consumers in each country, although using student subjects was considered appropriate for the purpose of sample comparability. 54,55 Thus, future research needs to replicate the study with different samples to maximize the generalizability of the results. In addition, given the partial scalar invariance of the reduced 10-item three-factor model of materialism, future studies need to validate the reduced MVS through the use of different samples in order to assure the confi dence of valid measurement.…”