Consumer ethnocentrism, product necessity and Polish consumers’ perceptions of quality

Abstract

Poland appears to be an attractive consumer market, based on strong demand for consumer products during the past several years. However, this may not be the case for Western marketers, because of the influence of strong feelings of national pride on behavior of Polish consumers. Measures of consumer ethnocentrism may provide Western marketers with the information necessary to target consumers who do not allow nationalistic feelings to influence product quality evaluation and purchase behavior. Also, the necessity of the product to consumers may provide marketers with clues on which products will be accepted in the Polish marketplace. The purpose of this study is to learn, for various consumer products, whether Polish consumers’ perceptions of product quality differ based on consumer ethnocentric tendency, product necessity, and country of origin. A repeated measures ANOVA test provides empirical evidence that perceived quality differs by necessity, by product, by country, and consumer ethnocentrism influences quality perceptions of Polish consumers.