Proceedings of Annual Tokyo Business Research Conference
15 - 16 December 2014, Waseda University, Tokyo, japan, ISBN: 978-1-922069-67-2
Consumer Ethnocentrism and the Country of Origin
under Cultural Twist: The Case of Multiethnic
Consumers in Kuwait
Sam Toglaw
This study explores consumer ethnocentricity (CET) and perception of
country of origin (COO) in Gulf countries where expatriates from different
parts of the world outnumber the citizens of these countries. Kuwait was
taken as a case study. Seventy two interviews and four focus groups were
conducted in addition to author's personal observations. Results indicated
that Kuwaiti citizens reflected low levels of ethnocentrism towards Kuwaiti
products but a high level of perception of country of origin as an indication
of quality of imported products. On the other hand, expatriates didn’t
demonstrate CET towards Kuwaiti products but there was a positive
association between consumers of Asian background and consumer
ethnocentricity towards imported products from their home countries.
However, this association was not detected with western expatriates.
Finally, Asian expatriates reflected lower perception of country of origin
than Kuwaiti citizens but higher than the western consumers' perception of
COO.
The study has important marketing implications as well as special
significance for local producers and manufactures. It provides
recommendations to increase awareness and appreciation of locally
produced products among citizens and expatriates. This includes
government sponsored marketing campaigns and subsidies to support the
locally produced products. Future research could focus on quantitative and
comparative methods in order to investigate causal relations and
moderating effects of demographic and environmental variables.
Keywords: Consumer ethnocentricity (CET), ethnocentrism, country of origin
effect (COO), cultural openness, feminine culture, masculine culture,
collectivism, individualism, patriotism,
Field of Research: Marketing
______________________________________________________
Dr. Sam Toglaw, Department of Marketing, School of Business, Australian College of Kuwait,
P.O. Box 15079 Daiya, z.c. 35451 Kuwait, Tel: +96550250350, Email: s.toglaw@ack.edu.kw,
samtoglaw@gmail.com