Consumer Ethnocentrism and Its Influence on Impulsive Buying Behav-iour in Sri Lankan Milk Powder Market: The Moderation Effect by the Consumer Impulsiveness Traits

Abstract

The dairy industry faced an unexpected and serious crisis regarding the Dicyandiamide (DCD) factor. Then an impulsive buying situation was raised and the milk powder brands were focusing on the ethnocentric appeal to rebuild their brands in the market. In buying the milk powder brand in this impulsive situation the impulsiveness personality trait of the customer has raised as an influential for the buying process. Therefore, identifying the impact of the Ethnocentrism on the Consumer Impulsive Buying Behaviour moderated by the Consumer Impulsiveness trait is the key issue of this study. The hypotheses were formulated to verify the relationship between the variables; in order to answer the research questions. The data collection was done with a sample of 350 consumers. The tool used to collect data was a questionnaire and it was developed using already developed measurements by researchers. The key findings of the study were that the Sri Lankan dairy product consumers have medium level Impulsiveness and there is a positive relationship between Ethnocentrism and Impulsive Buying Behaviour. But when this relationship is moderated by the Impulsiveness trait the relationship gets stronger. When the ethnocentric consumers involve in the purchasing, most of the time, goes with a pre-planned purchasing decision. Therefore, all the local and multinational companies should get into activities that can stimulate and arouse the impulsiveness personality trait of the milk powder consumers. Then the consumers who have the ethnocentrism trait will stimulate to go for impulsive buying.