Why Do Russian Consumers Prefer Foreign-Made Products and Brands?

Abstract

This study’s purpose is four-fold: (1) To test the nomological validity of the X-Scale; (2) To assess the bi-dimensionality of the consumer xenocentrism construct in a new geographical setting; (3) To determine the predictive validity of consumer xenocentrism on the willingness to buy foreign-made products and preferences for foreign brands; and (4) To analyze the relationship between consumer xenocentrism and demographics variables. The conceptualization of this research is based on System Justification Theory and Social Dominance Theory. The study was carried out across Russia employing an online survey. Results support the bi-dimensionality of the X-Scale, and indicate that consumer xenocentrism is negatively related to the consumer disposition of ethnocentrism and positively with cosmopolitanism. The X-scale explains significantly more variance on foreign brand preferences than its related consumer dispositions. In addition, consumer xenocentrism is manifested toward preferences for products and brands coming from developed countries instead of developing or transitional ones. Russian consumers are xenocentric, and the ones significantly scoring higher in this construct are males and those speaking more than one language. These results lead to a discussion of the nature of Russian consumer xenocentrism and its potential managerial implications.