Consumer Product Perceptions Within Emerging Markets: The Product Adoption Process and Consumer Ethnocentrism

The general acceptance of globalization and free trade across most national governments has led to the massive proliferation of foreign goods across the globe within the past few decades. As a result, the consumer adoption of imported products has been researched extensively; however, the bulk of these studies have focused on developed countries, leaving less developed and emerging countries vastly unexplored compared to their developed counterparts. Using Mexico to represent an emerging market with high levels of consumer ethnocentrism, this study examines the relationships among consumers’ attitudes toward imported products, their behavioral intentions, and consumer ethnocentrism within the product adoption process framework. The results provide evidence of positive direct effects of attitude and behavioral intention towards imported products. The hypothesis that the product adoption process leads to purchase intention was also supported; however, there was insignificant evidence to support the proposed moderating effect of consumer ethnocentrism upon this product adoption process and purchase intention relationship.