Why the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence? – the research of Chinese consumer xenocentrism: take electronics as an example

Abstract

PurposeThe economy of China has developed rapidly, and its international status has quickly risen in the past 30 years. China is shifting from a major exporter into a major consumer, becoming an essential part of the international market. However, some global brands make wrong market decisions because of a lack of understanding of Eastern consumer culture.Design/methodology/approachBased on consumer xenocentrism, this paper helps global enterprises better understand Chinese consumers' psychology in foreign goods, which is conducive to the development of transnational trade. This study proposes a hypothesis model based on previous literature. The authors collected 300 questionnaires from China and tested the model by SPSS24 and AMOS24.FindingsThe findings show that curiosity and country of origin positively affect consumer xenocentrism, consumer xenocentrism has a positive impact on word-of-mouth and purchase intention, word-of-mouth plays a mediating role in xenocentrism and purchase intention and social comparison tendency plays a moderating role in consumer xenocentrism and purchase intention. Simultaneously, this paper develops a scale measuring consumer xenocentrism to provide some quantitative support for this research.Originality/valueThe authors propose some suggestions basing on the research of consumer xenocentrism and provide some further directions.