Turkish Consumers' National Identification and Willingness to Buy From Syrian-Owned Supermarkets

Abstract

Focusing on the current ‘Syrian Wave' phenomenon in Turkey in line with consumer behavior through social identity theory, this study examines the serial mediator role of consumer ethnocentrism and consumer racism in the relationship between national identity and the willingness to buy from supermarkets owned by Syrians. Also, this study evaluates the effect of education on these variables. Finally, the robustness of the predicted model is checked on the basis of control variables such as age, income, and gender. Data was collected from 322 Turkish consumers through an online survey. The bootstrapping method was used to estimate the indirect effects. The results show that consumer ethnocentrism and consumer racism completely mediate the relationship between national identity and the willingness to buy from Syrian-owned supermarkets. In addition, the results supported that education level reduces national identity, consumer ethnocentrism, and consumer racism.