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Home country bias in product evaluation: the complementary roles of economic and socio-psychological motives

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Abstract

Consumers often are positively biased in their evaluations of domestic products vs foreign alternatives. This study establishes economic and socio-psychological motives for this home country bias. Building on social identity theory, this paper shows that home country bias is in part driven by a need for self-enhancement. This influence is stronger for consumers who identify more strongly with their own country, and is complementary to the effect of consumer ethnocentrism, which provides an economic motivation for home country bias. The framework is supported in empirical studies conducted in the Netherlands and in the USA.

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Notes

  1. Demographics entered in my model had no systematic effects on willingness to buy, although small isolated effects occurred (see Table 1).

  2. The survey also included measures for attitudes towards Japan and the USA, and for intentions to buy Japanese and American cars. Results for these measures are not discussed here, in order to save journal space. They can be obtained from the author.

  3. The model allows for correlated errors between USQUAL and JPQUAL, which is in line with the conceptual and empirical relationships between these perceived quality measures. Restricting this correlation to zero results in a significantly poorer model fit [χ2 (3)=18.98; Δχ2 (1)=14.40 (P<0.001)], but does not substantially alter the other paths in the model.

  4. Simultaneous inclusion of paths from NID and CET to PREF produces a saturated model, in which paths from NID and CET to PREF are both nonsignificant (t<1.5, P>0.14).

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Acknowledgements

This paper was based in part on the author's doctoral dissertation at Wageningen University. The author would like to thank his advisors, Jan-Benedict Steenkamp and the late Thieu Meulenberg, for their immensely valuable guidance and advice. The manuscript further benefited from discussions with Gerrit van Bruggen, Ad Pruyn, and Ale Smidts. Koert van Ittersum, Annet Bosma and Chuan He are thanked for their assistance with data collection. Departmental editor Güliz Ger, and the anonymous reviewers of this paper, are thanked for the thorough and encouraging reviews, which have greatly improved this manuscript. ERIM and the Erasmus University Trustfund are thanked for their financial support of Study 2.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marketing Management, RSM/Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Peeter W J Verlegh

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  1. Peeter W J Verlegh
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Correspondence to Peeter W J Verlegh.

Additional information

Accepted by Bruce Blonigen, Departmental Editor, 1 September 2006. This paper has been with the author for three revisions.

Appendices

Appendix A

Scales for National identification and consumer ethnocentrism

Table A1

Table a1 Items measured on seven-point scales, from ‘Not agree at all’ to ‘Completely agree’.
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Appendix B

Table B1

Table a2 Correlates of national identificationa
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Verlegh, P. Home country bias in product evaluation: the complementary roles of economic and socio-psychological motives. J Int Bus Stud 38, 361–373 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400269

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