Scales to Measure Consumer Ethnocentrism: A Guide for Researchers

The study of consumer ethnocentrism is, and has been, widely studied in academic literature. The need to analyze what drives the consumer to adopt an attitude of rejection towards specific products/services from abroad is undoubtedly a crucial consideration for many companies wishing to access new markets. One of the most important reasons is, actually, the concern for sustainability in the production process, a key aspect to satisfy many consumers who are increasingly demanding environmentally sustainable products. With the aim of studying this characteristic of consumer behavior, various measurement scales have been proposed in the literature, with CETSCALE—developed by Shimp and Sharma in 1987—being the most commonly utilized. In the present work, we conduct a study of the different scales designed to measure consumer ethnocentrism, with the goal of offering researchers a comparative analysis of the advantages and drawbacks of these scales to guide them in their future research.