Consumers’ Global Versus Local Brand Choice In Foreign Context

Although there is a consensus in the literature that industries are globalizing and that consumer attitude and behaviors worldwide are homogenizing (Cleveland, Laroche, and Papadopoulos 2009, Steenkamp and Jong 2010), only limited research so far has followed the global consumer across national borders to examine brand preferences abroad. This research addressed the case of consumer brand choice in the context of travelers to a foreign destination, in particular the case of a host nation not known for any tradition in the respective product category and whose local brands therefore engender higher levels of perceived risk. We focus on a variety of origin specific (product ethnicity), consumer specific (cosmopolitanism vs. ethnocentrism), as well as situational variables (word of mouth) to determine if and when conditions consumers prefer local or global brands abroad. Importantly, this is the first research addressing these variables jointly.