Partners or Foes? Cross-Country Consumer Animosity, Ethnocentrism, and Nationalism in Times of International Crisis

Abstract

International financial crises affect some countries more than others, and general ethnocentric tendencies favoring domestic products may be exacerbated by nationalism as well as animosity toward a specific country that consumers consider responsible for their own country’s difficulties. This study uses the continuing Eurozone crisis as the research setting to investigate the relationships among ethnocentrism, economic animosity, and nationalism, and their effects on consumers’ views of products associated with a target country that is seen as contributing to their predicament. Results show that both animosity and ethnocentrism negatively affect consumer acceptance of products associated with a disliked country but are not related with cognitive beliefs about these products. Findings also reveal that nationalism has a significant moderating effect by amplifying the influence of both animosity and ethnocentrism on willingness to buy. Important implications for theory, consumers, managers, and public policymakers in countries affected to different degrees by the crisis are discussed.

Keywords:

• Country image
• animosity
• ethnocentrism
• nationalism
• international crisis