The Country-of-Origin Effect and Consumer Attitudes to “Buy Local” Campaign

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between ethnocentrism of Ghanaian consumers and their attitudes toward a "buy local" campaign. Two hundred and thirty three consumers were interviewed in Cape Coast, the capital city and administrative centre of the Central region of Ghana. Data for the study were collected through interviewing using the mall intercept approach and factor analysed. Our findings show a relationship between ethnocentrism and attitudes of Ghanaian consumers toward the "buy local" campaign. Furthermore, the factor analysis results indicate that the attitudes of the Ghanaian consumers to the buy locally-made products can be characterized as protectionist, nationalistic, and self-interest. Implicitly, the consumers will buy Ghanaian-made products where they are of comparable quality and price as foreign-made products. This requires companies to ensure that their products are of high quality and prices are commensurate with quality. This study contributes to the ethnocentrism and country of origin literature pertaining to the African region, which is sorely under-researched.

Do Ghanaians Prefer Imported Textiles to Locally Manufactured Ones?

“…They also found that the superior reliability and technological advancement of foreign products are the most important correlates of the Nigerian consumer's likelihood to purchase foreign products. Reference [24] examined the impact of country-of-origin effects and consumer attitudes towards buy local campaign initiatives. They found that, the attitudes of consumers to buy locally-made campaigns can be characterized as protectionist, nationalistic, and self-interest seeking.…”

Omani Consumer’s Ethnocentrism and Demand for Locally Produced Products

“…Examples of these studies include studies conducted with samples from Japan and West Germany [28] [36] and Turkey [37]. Over time, shorter versions of the CETSCALE, based on the original 17-item scale, were developed.…”

“…Data was collected by means of a questionnaire developed based on a review of key literatures [13] [21] [36] and [41]. Table 2.…”

“…The mean scale value of the CETSCALE is used as an indicator of the level of Consumer Ethnocentrism As reported by [47], high CETSCALE scores (above 68 for a 7-point Likert-type scale and above 51 for a 5-point Likert-type scale) indicate a high level of ethnocentrism, while low CETSCALE scores (below 68 for a 7-point Likert-type scale and below 51 for a 5-point Likert-type scale) indicate a low level of ethnocentrism. Attitudinal scales developed and tested by [50] and employed in [36] have been utilized in this study to address the second and third research questions.…”

“…Following [36] and [50], the same attitudinal statements will be employed in this study with a 5-point Likert-type scale, (1 = Strongly Disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree (Neutral (Undecided)), 4 = Agree, and 5 = Strongly Agree). The attitudinal statements are intended to solicit the opinions of Omani consumers, first about Oman produced products (Table 2), and then secondly about "Buy Locally-produced products" campaign (Table 3).…”