The role of animosity on purchasing foreign-made products: Evidence in the relationship between Vietnam and China
Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, Nguyen Van Anh/ MICA 2018 Proceedings
International Conference on Marketing in the Connected Age (MICA-2018), October 6th, 2018
Danang City, Vietnam
The Role of Animosity on Purchasing Foreign-made Products:
Evidence in the Relationship between Vietnam and China
Nguyen Thi Phuong Thaoa, Nguyen Van Anha*
aDalat University, Vietnam
A B S T R A C T
The purpose of this research was to contribute to the development of animosity theory by exploring sources
of consumer animosity that can stimulate feelings of animosity toward a target country. Also, investigate the
relationships among consumer animosity, consumer ethnocentrism, cultural acceptability, product judgment,
reluctance to buy foreign product and product ownership in a developing context – Viet Nam.
We find that there are four sources composed of animosity in Viet Nam context called war experience,
economic impact, territory conflict and health issue. The research extends the domain of the animosity
construct to a four-dimensional structure rather than the two-dimensional structure used in most previous
studies. There is a significant relationship between consumer animosity and product judgment, which was not
supported in the original research. Also cultural acceptability plays a role in reducing consumer ethnocentrism
and improving product judgment. In addition, consumer animosity has a positive impact on ethnocentrism
which reinforces consumers’ patriotism in order to stimulate reluctance to buy foreign product made in target
country. Furthermore, the result shows interesting points are distinctiveness of two constructs: willingness to
buy and reluctance to buy foreign products, and significant differences between groups: living in a big city
and living in a small city. The study provides theoretical and empirical insights into direct and indirect effects
of consumer animosity on purchase intentions, which may be beneficial for both local and international
managers who suffer from boycotts of foreign merchandise.
.
Keywords: Animosity; ethnocentrism; cultural acceptability; product judgment; Vietnam; China
1. Introduction
The extant consumer behavior literature proves that the two most significant non-tariff barriers to
international trade are consumer ethnocentrism and consumer animosity (Klein et al., 1998). Ethnocentrism can
be defined as a tendency to buy domestic products and avoid buying foreign products whereas animosity refers
to an emotional status in consumers toward a country of origin that leads to a denial of choosing that country’s
commodity.
Animosity or tensions among countries are present throughout the world which may stem from territory
disputes, economic arguments, and diplomatic disagreements leading to cool relations between countries or even
armed conflicts. The investigation of the impact of such bilateral disputes on consumers’ behavior towards
products of companies from the offending nation has gained research attention in recent years (Klein et al., 1998;
Klein, 2002; Nijssen and Douglas, 2004; Ang et al., 2004; Riefler & Diamantopoulos, 2007; Ferrin et al., 2015;
Ahmed et al., 2013;Lee & Mazodier, 2015; Sohail & Opoku, 2016; Ma et al., 2012).
Consumer animosity has been an emerging subject of intense research interest in international marketing
during the past two decades. Results from this stream of research show that foreign consumers' anger towards a
country they perceive as hostile may affect a country’s image perception and the export performance of products
associated with it (Riefler & Diamantopoulos, 2007). Studies have confirmed the impact of animosity on
products in general (Leong et al., 2008; Nakos & Hajidimitriou, 2007), on specific categories of products (Klein,
2002; Klein & Ettensoe, 1999), and finally on hybrid products (Funk et al., 2010). For example, in a recent study
* Corresponding author. E-mail address: vananhdhdl@gmail.com
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reports of the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have incited anti-American and anti-European
sentiments overseas to the point of provoking a rejection of American or European brands (Tabassi et al., 2012).
Consumer ethnocentrism (CET) is also a part of the attitude that consumers hold towards products made in a
foreign country. According to Shimp and Sharma (1987) consumers who hold strong ethnocentric beliefs are
more likely to evaluate foreign products negatively than are those who do not hold such beliefs. Consequently,
due to patriotic reasons, they avoid buying foreign products even though the quality of the foreign supplier is
superior. As noted in previous research, consumer ethnocentrism is positively related but distinct from consumer
animosity. According to Shankarmahesh (2006) consumer ethnocentrism, or “the beliefs held by … consumers
about the appropriateness, indeed morality, of purchasing foreign-made products”, is a good predictor of a
preference for domestic products but it cannot adequately explain foreign product purchase decisions. Moreover,
it is noted that consumer ethnocentrism contributes to a consumer's propensity to avoid buying foreign products
in general, while animosity is directed towards a specific country (Klein & Ettensoe, 1999).
Recently, China has made a declaration on the ownership of the East Sea, also known as South China Sea
called by the Chinese government (Vietnamnet, 2014)*. The debate controversy, has provoked Vietnamese
consumers’ hatred for China (BBC, 2015). In Vietnam in early 2014, there were a series of anti-China protests.
These were followed by unrest and riots across Vietnam in May 2014 in response to China deploying an oil rig
in a disputed region of the South China Sea. In addition, some of Chinese products can create a negative effect
on people’s health. Like using melamine on food, unhealthy Chinese traditional medicine, and meat from dead
animals can create unhealthy conditions (vnexpress, 2015)†. As a consequence, Vietnamese consumers have
negative attitudes toward “Made in China” products, and are reluctant to buy them (Phan, 2014)‡. It can be seen
that the disagreement over China’s claims on the East Sea are the dominant source that intensify patriotic attitude
and hostility toward China, thus resulting in the hesitation to purchase Chinese commodities.
Mentioned above, these emotional factors are called animosity and ethnocentrism, respectively, and have
been adopted in earlier studies as a construct for predicting consumer behaviors in different circumstances (Klein
et al., 1998; Ettenson and Klein, 2005; Shoham et al., 2006). However, in light of the current Vietnam-China
situation illustrated above, this paper considers tensions arising from the East Sea sovereignty crisis as an
opportunity to provide an original contribution to the consumer behavior and international marketing literature in
a developing country context as Vietnam.
Moreover, although a large body of research on animosity and ethnocentrism has been conducted in many
different contexts and countries, with different modifications, there remain various issues to be addressed in
Vietnamese contexts. First of all, there are few papers on Vietnamese consumer behaviors toward purchasing
Chinese merchandise and Vietnamese attitudes toward Chinese branded products. Secondly, due to the recent
territory and unhealthy product affairs between Vietnam and China, there is an urgent demand to administer this
study as it proves to be beneficial for researchers and industry practitioners. Thirdly, although literature
recognizes that animosity and ethnocentrism can be interrelated (Klein et al., 1998), this is the first study that
empirically investigates the role of animosity as an antecedent of consumers' ethnocentrism and provides a
comprehensive framework aiming to clarify the interaction between the two constructs and their impact on the
evaluation of foreign countries and products in emerging nation context. In doing so, the proposed research
model also responds to calls by Shankarmahesh (2006) stating that “future research should investigate the merit
of animosity as an antecedent of consumer ethnocentrism”. Finally, it is the first discussion that covers
empirically the role of cultural acceptability on ethnocentrism and product judgment in an animosity model. For
the above reasons, it is necessary to analyze consumers’ behaviors and attitudes at this moment, when the two
countries’ connection has become more intense.
2. Literature review and theoretical background
2.1. The Consumer attitude toward foreign product studies
In examining the literature on consumer attitudes towards foreign products, two principal streams of research
can be identified. One focuses on the impact of country of origin on consumer attitudes and specifically, its use
as a cue in making inferences about or evaluating foreign products (Bilkey & Nes, 1982; Han, 1988; Johansson
et al., 1985; Levin & Jasper, 1996; Papadopoulos et al., 1988). This often generated conflicting and ambiguous
findings. The second stream looks at factors underlying attitudes towards foreign products, such as the impact of
hostile attitudes towards a specific country, and the effect on purchase intent and ownership (Klein, 2002; Klein
et al., 1998).
The stream of research examines consumer attitudes towards foreign or imported products and brands. This
has typically emphasized negative attitudes towards foreign products in general, though a number of studies have
examined attitudes towards specific countries, particularly large industrialized countries such as Germany, Japan
and the UK. In some studies, attitudes towards foreign products are the dependent variable and the determinants
* Website: http://vietnamnet.vn/vn/tuanvietnam/tq-lai-giang-bay-ve-chu-quyen-tren-bien-dong-157847.html
† Website: http://vnexpress.net/thuc-pham-doc-trung-quoc/topic-13618.html
‡Website: http://dantri.com.vn/suc-manh-so/cang-thang-leo-thang- dien-thoai-trung-quoc-kho-song-tai-viet-nam-872401.htm.
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of these attitudes are the primary research focus, while in other cases, attitudes towards foreign products are used
as the independent variable, in understanding purchase behavior or intentions (Balabanis et al., 2001).
More recent research has focused on examining whether hostile attitudes towards a specific foreign country
impact attitudes towards products from that country. Klein et al., (1998) for example, suggests that the influences
on foreign product evaluations may be extremely complex. They may result from attitudes towards a given
country and the history of relations with that country as well as the interaction of quality judgments based on
country of origin, and attitudes towards foreign products in general. Klein et al., (1998) defines animosity as the
remnants of antipathy related to previous or ongoing military, political, or economic events. They hypothesized
that feelings of animosity towards a specific country, as distinct from consumer ethnocentrism, would affect
consumers’ willingness to purchase foreign products rather than their judgment or evaluation of these products.
This research was also the first to show that animosity affected the willingness to purchase separately from
product quality judgments. The finding that animosity affected purchase decisions separately challenged the
findings from previous country-of-origin (COO) literature (Riefler & Diamantopoulos, 2007). Previous COO
literature had suggested that COO affects purchase decisions through product judgments (Bilkey & Nes, 1982;
Liefeld, 1993). Therefore, consumer animosity may act as a direct independent variable instead of a moderating
variable of product quality perceptions. This challenged the conventional wisdom in the country-of-origin
literature, according to which “made in” influences on consumers’ willingness to buy foreign products were
assumed to impact on buying decisions indirectly via product judgments (Bilkey & Nes, 1982; Liefeld, 1993;
Papadopoulos & Heslop, 2003; Peterson & Jolibert, 1995; Verlegh & Steenkamp, 1999). Importantly, consumer
animosity was shown to have independent effects on the willingness to buy from consumer ethnocentrism which
describes as the beliefs held by consumers about the appropriateness, indeed morality, of purchasing foreign-
made products (Shimp & Sharma, 1987); indeed, animosity and ethnocentrism were shown to be distinct
constructs (Klein & Ettenson, 1999; Hinck, 2005; Witkowski, 2000), having distinguishable effects on foreign
product preferences. Thus, while ethnocentric consumers tend to avoid buying products from any foreign
country, consumers possessing feelings of animosity may find it well acceptable to buy products from a variety
of foreign countries but refuse to purchase products coming from one specific foreign country which is the target
of animosity feelings.
Since Klein et al.'s (1998) study subsequent research has studied animosity in other contexts. Much of the
research studied animosity in less extreme contexts (Shin, 2001; Klein, 2002) because the Nanjing massacre is
such an extreme antecedent to the development of animosity. Also, Amine et al. (2005) reviewed animosity
research with a focus on managerial implications instead of focusing on the conceptualization or measurement of
the animosity construct. However, Riefier and Diamantopoulos (2007) categorize previous consumer animosity
studies into three categories. The first group of research is the original papers that contributed to the theoretical
foundation of the animosity construct. The second group of research consists of replications of the original
animosity research provided by Klein et al. (1998) that sought to validate the behavioral impact of the consumer
animosity construct. The third group of research focuses on extending the applicability of the animosity
construct. For example, Hinck (2004) studied “domestic animosity”, looking at the impact of inter-border
tensions on buying behavior. Also, Shoham et al., (2006) studies inter-ethnic animosity between Jewish and
Arab Israelis. These more recent studies that attempt to extend the animosity construct supports our suggestion
of a need of a broader consumer animosity model.
2.2. Consumer animosity
The animosity concept in a marketing context was introduced by Klein et al. (1998) and has since been
applied in a series of studies, most of which are reviewed in Riefler and Diamantopoulos (2007) and in Nes,
Yelkur, and Silkoset (2012). Most of the bi-national studies that followed the Klein et al. (1998) study built on
one or both of their two animosity dimensions (war animosity and economic animosity). Nes et al., (2012a)
expanded the animosity concept, and found that animosity is related to four dimensions: war animosity,
economic animosity, political animosity, and people animosity. These studies illustrate that animosity toward
specific foreign countries has an important role in a wide range of international business and global marketing
strategies.
2.2.1. Sources of animosity
Rice & Wongtada, (2007) identified five sources of animosity mentioned in the literature: war, policy,
economy, ecology, and social-cultural activities.
War animosity: Existing literature indicated that both historical warlike events and current military conflicts
can generate animosity towards a country (Klein et al., 1998).
Policy animosity: Rice and Wongtada (2007) distinguished policy animosity from war animosity as it arises
from hostility toward a country’s foreign or domestic policies. These policies are implemented and enforced
through non-military actions such as diplomatic and legal activity.
Economic animosity: According to Klein et al. (1998), economic animosity arises from a foreign country’s
economic acts that a consumer finds both grievous and difficult to forgive. Feelings of economic animosity
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toward other countries might be based on anger against unfair economic affairs or on fear of being dominated
(Rice and Wongtada, 2007).
Ecological animosity: Issues of ecological concern can result in anxiety and animosity among consumers
towards alien races or foreign countries.
Social-cultural animosity: Consumers may experience negative emotions such as discontent, worry, and
animosity when they feel their own cultures are threatened by invasion of foreign brands related to other
cultures.
2.2.2. Extension of animosity sources in this study
In the original study, animosity was assessed on two levels – general animosity and war and economic
animosity, using a set of attitude statements. This measurement method was principally adopted by subsequent
studies in consumer animosity. Riefler and Diamantopoulos (2007) pointed out that war and economic based
factors were presumed to be the standard sources of animosity widely accepted by fellow researchers. However,
there is a concern that many possibly relevant sources of animosity were ignored. Taking this into account, they
conducted an investigation of Austrian consumers’ animosity towards foreign countries. US, Germany and
Turkey were found to be the three target countries that Austrian consumers held animosity towards. Moving
away from the standard war and economic based causes, this study revealed a number of sources of animosity
aimed towards different countries.
The outstanding source of animosity towards the US is foreign policy and economic policy, for example, US
was perceived as taking advantage of its economic power at the expense of other nations. This factor was
followed by current issues and the rejection of the US President George Bush and his policy in Iraq. Other
elements contributing towards the animosity were American mentality and way of life and the existence of the
death penalty. In terms of animosity towards Germany, as expected, the occupation during World War 2 was
significant. The German mentality, loss of Austrian identity and economic issues all contributed to the animosity
towards Germany. Similarly, Turkish mentality, role of women and religion were the key issues associated with
Turkey.
As mentioned above, Riefler and Diamantopoulos (2007) underlined the necessity to explore a wider range
of sources of animosity and extended these sources into war-related, political, economic and personal factors.
Although economic and war related issues play an important role as drivers of animosity, there are further
sources that have considerable impact on consumers’ negative feelings towards foreign countries. Based on
exploratory research and Vietnam context we found that new source should consider in our research: territory
conflict and health issue. At the heart of the tension between China and Vietnam is an ongoing territorial conflict
over the Paracel and Spratly Islands in the East Sea in recent time. This tension has sparked Vietnamese
consumer animosity toward China and protest movement to oppose strongly china’s aggression in terms of East
Sea. In addition, Consumers may experience worry and animosity when they feel their health and community are
threatened by invasion of Chinese product contains many harmful chemicals. Issues of unhealthy product
concern can result in anxiety and animosity among Vietnamese consumers towards China country.
2.3. Consumer ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism is seen a component of attitude that is strongly affiliated with social and interracial factors.
This part will review prior research on the construct of consumer ethnocentrism and the measurement issues. In
addition, the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and animosity are analyzed.
Shimp and Sharma (1987) defined consumer ethnocentrism as the beliefs held by consumers about the
propriety and morality of purchasing foreign products. It has been further stated that people who are consumer
ethnocentric tend to distinguish products from the in-group (home country) and from out-groups (foreign
countries) and to shun the purchase of foreign products because they feel that doing so is inappropriate,
unpatriotic, and possibly even immoral because it hurts their domestic economy. As such, highly ethnocentric
consumers are more likely to rate foreign products’ quality negatively and be willing to purchase domestic
products (Shimp and Sharma, 1987). The magnitude of consumer ethnocentrism is measured by the CETSCALE
(Consumer Ethnocentric Tendencies Scale), which has been developed and validated by Shimp and Sharma
(1987).
Relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and animosity
Klein and Ettenson (1999) indicated that consumer ethnocentrism and consumer animosity may be positively
correlated. Both can stem from economic and political events and both provide insight into consumers’ attitudes
towards foreign products. Empirical evidence also suggests that both animosity and consumer ethnocentrism
negatively predict purchase intentions. However, animosity is a distinct construct from consumer ethnocentrism
in that they play different roles in affecting buying behavior (Klein et al., 1998). More in detail, the animosity is
directed toward a particular target country while consumer ethnocentrism concerns beliefs regarding foreign
products in general (Klein, 2002). For instance, Chinese consumers have shown a tendency to avoid foreign
products in preference for domestic products due to increasing consumer ethnocentrism and improving domestic
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products (Zhou & Hui, 2003). However, consumer ethnocentrism cannot explain the refusal of Japanese
products, which has been triggered by anti-Japanese sentiment rife in China.
Studies also showed that consumer ethnocentrism and animosity have differing influence on consumers’
evaluations of foreign products. Researchers have consistently found that consumer ethnocentrism is
significantly related to both product judgments and purchase intentions (Netemeyer et al., 1991; Shimp and
Sharma, 1987). Those who believe it is wrong or immoral to purchase foreign products also tend to hold
negative attitudes of the quality of those goods. In contrast, the effects of animosity on buying may or may not
be associated with quality judgments of the target country’s products. For example, consumers who harbor
economic animosity towards Japan are likely to rate the quality of Japanese products positively while those who
hold war-related animosity might denigrate Japanese products.
2.4. Cultural acceptability
Individuals in a society have different experiences and attitudes toward the value and norms of cultures
different to their own. If members of a culture have opportunities to be exposed to individuals belonging to other
cultures, their prejudice against the difference of their own culture from others tends to be lessened (Sharma et
al., 1995). This characteristic reflects their cultural acceptability, which refers to the degree of awareness,
understanding, and acceptance of the values of other cultures (Craig & Douglas, 2005)
Previous research has shown that consumers in the emerging world are willing to participate in, and be
perceived as, members of the global consumer community (Venkatesh and Swamy, 1994; Batra et al., 2000).
Nguyen et al., (2008) shows that cultural acceptability has a positive impact on imported product judgment. This
implies that consumers with a high level of cultural acceptability tend to evaluate imported products more
highly. Therefore, foreign exporters should convey to Vietnamese consumers that acceptability to foreign
cultures is a means to become members of the global community.
2.5. Judgment of product
Another core aspect of the animosity concept to be questioned is, whether animosity affects purchase
intention independent of product judgement. Klein et al. (1998), Klein and Ettenson (1999) and Klein (2002)
established that animosity will affect willingness to buy, independent of product judgment. This means that
consumers will be unwilling to buy products from a country that they hold animosity against, while
acknowledging their products have good quality. It is one of the key distinctions between consumer animosity
and consumer ethnocentrism. This was the generally accepted notion and shown to be true in a number of
different countries. However, this key argument has been challenged in some recent studies.
Leong et al., (2008) carried out an animosity study in five countries: Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia,
Singapore and Thailand, where were all severely damaged by the 1997 Asian economic crisis. U.S. and Japan
were considered to be responsible for this crisis and four of these countries were invaded by Japan during World
War 2. The results of this study suggest that animosity negatively affects consumers’ willingness to buy U.S. and
Japanese products. However, it also revealed animosity negatively affected the consumers’ evaluation of U.S.
and Japanese products. This contradicts the previous findings that animosity affects purchase intention
independent of product judgment, which was the foundation of consumer animosity theory. Maher and Mady
(2010) concluded that animosity does not lead to less favorable product judgment but is associated with less
willingness to buy products from a target country. It means that product judgment was not completely un-related
to purchase intentions. This was further supported by Huang et al. (2010), who examined how consumer
animosity, economic hardship and normative influence affect consumers’ purchase intention. It tested Taiwanese
consumers’ attitudes towards Japanese and Chinese products. The results confirmed animosity influenced both
Taiwanese consumers’ purchase intention and product evaluation on Japanese and Chinese products. There is no
doubt that the notion that animosity affects purchase intention independent of product judgment has been
effectively challenged. Further clarifications on this fundamental issue of consumer animosity theory are
urgently needed to address the contradictions. This indicates consumer animosity is a much more complex issue
than originally anticipated.
2.6. Reluctance to buy
This study adopts reluctance of buying foreign products, defined as perceived guiltiness and tendency to
avoidance in buying foreign-made product (Suh & Kwon, 2002). The framework would be quite meaningful and
challenging because, until now, there is not much research addressing factors determining consumers’ reluctance
to buy a foreign product. This reluctance to buy construct is selected instead of “willing to buy” in order to
clearly show influence of animosity on Vietnamese consumer behavior intention. It may take a more specific
research setting with a specific product as attitude target to explain the positive change in a proactive buying
behavior (i.e. willing to buy foreign products). A decrease in a passive behavior (i.e. reluctance to buy foreign
products), on the other hand, is relatively easy to be induced when a particular product name is not mentioned.
This is suitable with this research which applies for general products (Suh & Kwon, 2002).
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First of all, previous research has examined a network of relationships involving consumer ethnocentrism and
various product attitude measures (Durvasula et al., 1997; Netemeyer 1991, Shimp and Sharma, 1987). Since
consumer ethnocentrism has been known as one of the antecedents strongly influencing attitude measures of
foreign products including general product beliefs and willingness to buy, we accordingly predict that the
construct will significantly affect reluctance to buy foreign products, but positively in this case. Particularly for
the effect on reluctance to buy, the magnitude might be stronger because the dependent variable (reluctance) is
rather a passive form of attitude, which is relatively easier to be influenced and changed than a proactive attitude
(e.g. willingness) (Suh & Kwon, 2002). In sum, consumer ethnocentrism is proposed to influence general
product beliefs and reluctance in buying decisions of foreign products. Hypothesized path from consumer
ethnocentrism to general product beliefs, her named as product judgment, is supported by previous results. On
the other hand, although there is no evidence of literature support, the hypothesized path to reluctance to buy
foreign products seems less doubtful in terms of the significance for the reason discussed above.
2.7. Hypotheses development and research model
Hypotheses development
Scholarly literature on ethnocentrism and animosity argues both concepts as antecedents of purchase
intention of foreign and domestic products (Javalgi et al., 2005; Maher and Mady, 2010). Therefore, we argue
that understanding the interactions between animosity, ethnocentrism and cultural acceptability and their
combined effect(s) are critical to understanding the purchase behavior of consumers towards foreign products in
a progressive developing country like Vietnam. In this study, we consider the influence of five constructs on
Vietnamese consumers: animosity, ethnocentrism, cultural acceptability, product judgment, and reluctance to
buy foreign product. The framework used in this research is given in Figure 1.
Relationship between animosity and product judgment, consumer ethnocentrism and reluctance to buy
Consumer animosity is an essential construct that was taken into consideration in measurement and
prediction of consumer behaviors in numerous previous researches (Klein et al., 1998; Nijssen and Douglas,
2004; Riefler and Diamantopoulos, 2007). As our review of the academic literatures, most of them adopted
Klein’s prevalent definition of Animosity (1998, p.90), which is: “the remnant of antipathy related to previous
ongoing political, military, economic or diplomatic events will cause a direct negative effect on consumers’
purchase behavior in the international markets”. Alternatively, another definition shows that animosity is a
strong emotion of dislike and hatred stemming from past or present military, political or economic aggression
and actions either between nations or peoples that are perceived to be unjustifiable or as going against what is
socially acceptable (Abraham, 2013)
Two scholars’ definitions on animosity are considerably alike regarding to the primary meanings. Hence,
animosity can be understood as people negative sentiments toward a country due to its aggressive manners in
various aspects. Animosity consists of two main categories in accordance with the inducements. They are war
animosity, which is the reaction to war provocative and impetuous activities, and economic animosity, which is
likely to result from trade disagreement or economic dominance from another stronger country (Klein et al.,
1998; Hinck et al., 2004). Notwithstanding that Russell & Russell (2006) have placed special emphasis on the
restriction of animosity definition to the past crucial occurrences; progressing incidents can actually trigger
animosity (Tabassi et al., 2012). Past researches on Country-of-Origin reported that consumers focused on the
provenance of the products as an instrument to evaluate that product. In consumers’ perception, reputation of the
country’s name could be much more reliable than impartial information on characteristic (Hong & Wyer, 1990).
Furthermore, two psychological theories mentioned in previous sections should be examined. While Social
Identity Theory indicates that people would support their in-group and be favorable of it to any other “out-
group”, Realistic Group Conflict Theory anticipates the fear of sufferings and losses caused by an out-group
creating negative bias toward these aliens, and apparently prejudices is dominant in consumers’ appraisal of their
item rather than objective assessment (Sherif & Sherif, 1979). Likewise, the homogenous hostility results in the
reluctance and rejection to redeem product from infiltrating nations (Njissen and Douglas, 2004). In
consequence, animosity toward the foreign counterparts negatively influences product judgment and reluctance
to buy products from that country (Ettenson and Klein, 2005; Shoham et al., 2006; Verlegh, 2007). Although
Klein denied the negative effect of animosity on quality judgment (Klein et al., 1998; Klein, 2002), Shoham et
al. (2006) found that this relationship exists.
In addition, animosity and consumer ethnocentrism are unique constructs and contain several differences.
The essential point to mention is the context in which these constructs can be applied. While Ethnocentrism can
be applied in all country and culture, Animosity is context- specific (Klein et al., 1998; Abraham, 2013).
However, both constructs are relevant in Vietnam context, not only because of the patriotism that has long
manifested in the Vietnamese, but also owing to Chinese government’s unreasonable action that aroused
hostility amongst the people. Through the review of earlier papers, this study figures out the inconsistent
hypothesis and findings among different researches and scholars. The majority the animosity studies stated out
that animosity would increase the level of ethnocentrism (Klein et al., 1998; Nijssen and Douglass, 2004).
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LeVine & Campbell (1972) said that the aggressive behaviors from another country would lead to negative
attitude to objects related to that country, hence reinforcing ethnocentrism. Shankarmahesh (2006) also pointed
out this relationship as “animosity might be generalized to consumer ethnocentrism. The concepts of
ethnocentrism and animosity are variables associated with the origin of a product. They have been introduced
into marketing literature from others disciplines such as psychology and sociology (Balabanis et al., 2002).
Marketing literature describes animosity and ethnocentrism as concepts that imply psychological and
behavioural reactions to specific countries of origin (Nijssen & Douglas, 2004). We could describe
ethnocentrism as a link between social and moral norms and consumer behaviour, while animosity is a variable
that emphasizes a consumer’s emotional attachment to the geographic origin of a product. Ethnocentric
consumers believe that buying foreign products hurts the domestic economy and national employment
(Balabanis et al., 2002; Shimp & Sharma, 1987). Animosity refers to remnants of antipathy, or hostility towards
a country (Klein et al., 1998; Riefler & Diamantopoulos, 2007). This emotion can act as a protective instinct and
increase in-group solidarity, domestic defensive behaviours and ethnocentrism (Nijssen & Douglas, 2004).
Researchers have laid great stress on the need to study animosity as an antecedent of ethnocentrism, because
they may be related (Klein et al., 1998; Shankarmahesh, 2006). Thus, animosity is an important variable to
consider when studying consumer evaluation of foreign products, especially if it can reinforce consumer
ethnocentrism (Nijssen & Douglas, 2004).
Furthermore, an out-group’s warlike and hostile behavior will enhance feelings of ethnocentrism, and hence
negative attitudes towards objects, people, ideas or products from the aggressor country. Consequently,
consumer animosity will lead to reluctance, in some cases refusal to buy products from the aggressor country, as
well as reinforcing consumer ethnocentrism.
Therefore, this research aims to examine whether the former hypotheses exist in Vietnamese context.
H1: Vietnamese Consumer Animosity to China negatively affects Chinese Product Judgment.
H2: Vietnamese Consumer Animosity to China positively affects to reluctance to buy Chinese product.
H3: Consumer Animosity to China positively affects Consumer Ethnocentrism.
Relationship between ethnocentrism and product judgment, reluctance to buy
Another distinct construct applies in this paper is Consumer Ethnocentrism, which has been presented widely
in multiple marketing papers (Shimp and Sharma, 1987; Klein et al., 1998; Pecotich & Rosenthal, 2001;
Balabanis & Diamantopoulos, 2004). It is defined in psychological as well as in consumer behavioral method.
An original definition of ethnocentrism is “the view of things in which one’s own group is the center of
everything, and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it” (Sumner, 1906). According to Shimp &
Sharma (1987), ethnocentrism is defined with respect to consumer viewpoint, being “a belief held by consumers
on the appropriateness and indeed morality of purchasing foreign-made products”. Implication can be made that
consumers would favor any cultures that are analogous to their own, whereas reject any that is conflicting to
their own culture (Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, & Sanford, 1950).
Upon our review of previous academic literatures, in ethnocentric consumers’ perspective, buying products
manufactured in other countries causes harms to their own economy, and increase unemployment rate. Hence,
they boycott these oversea products regardless of various advantageous features of such products (Shimp and
Sharma, 1987; Sharma et al., 1995). Ethnocentrism is constantly a vital actor in consumer’s assessment, albeit
the unavailability in domestic substitution (Nijssen and Douglas, 2004). Further, Sharma et al. (1995) found out
and documented in their studies a belief of ethnocentric consumers that the redemption of exotic commodity
involves with morality. Therefore, the construct carries the intention not to purchase such objects. Consequently,
the construct has a negative causal relationship with consumers’ behaviors on the purchase intention and
evaluation of foreign products, which is identical to the reflection of the CETSCALE score (Olsen et al., 1993;
Marcoux et al., 1997; Shoham and Brenic, 2003). Furthermore, previous studies using the CETSCALE to
measure consumer ethnocentrism (Netemeyer, Durvasula, & Lichtenstein, 1991; Shimp & Sharma, 1987) have
found that high scores on the CETSCALE are related to negative evaluations of foreign products and reluctance
to purchase them. Therefore, these mentioned above is a solid theoretical foundation for two next hypotheses:
H4: Consumer Ethnocentrism negatively affects Chinese Product Judgment.
H5: Consumer Ethnocentrism positively affects reluctance to buy Chinese products.
Cultural acceptability and ethnocentrism, product judgment
Consumers with high levels of cultural acceptability are likely to accept the differences between their own
cultures and other cultures. They are willing to learn from, enjoy being with, and are less threatened by people
from other cultures (Loo & Shiomi, 1999). Accordingly, consumers with a high degree of cultural acceptability
tend to evaluate imported products more favorable than those with a low degree of cultural acceptability.
In fact, cultural acceptability reflects the degree of awareness, understanding, and acceptance of the values of
other cultures (Craig & Douglas, 2005). This implies that consumers with a high level of cultural acceptability
tend to evaluate imported products more highly.
Meanwhile people who are consumer ethnocentric tend to distinguish products from the in-group with
positive view (home country) and from out-groups with negative view (foreign countries). Therefore, consumer
with a high level of cultural acceptability would decrease their ethenocentric toward to domestic product. For
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more detail, in this research when Vietnamese people with a high level of cultural acceptability tend to decrease
their ethnocentric toward domestic product. In other words, their attitude toward evaluation Chinese products
more positively then others who have low level of cultural acceptability
Research also shows that, when consumers accept the difference in cultures and appreciates the values of
other cultures, their degree of ethnocentric behavior is likely to decrease (e.g., Sharma et at., 1993). Therefore,
H6: A positive relationship between cultural acceptability and product Judgment is expected.
H7: A negative relationship between cultural acceptability and consumer ethnocentrism is expected.
Product Judgment and reluctance to buy Chinese product
Product judgment regards to the attitude of consumers toward specific objects or products (Rezvani et al.,
2012). When products are taken into account, the evaluation is influenced by both cognitive and affective
perspectives. However, emotions often prevail over reasons and logics when it comes to purchasing behaviors.
In other word, consumers’ sentiments influence buying decision more significantly as emotions could lead to
both mental and behavioral responses (Hansen, 2005). Animosity could result in foreign product underestimation
as mentioned (Ettenson and Klein, 2005; Shoham et al., 2006). Purchase intention has received special attention
in recent marketing studies. The simplest definition of “what we think we will buy” is from the paper by Park
(2002). Purchase intention can also be defined as the “the decision to act or psychological action that shows the
individual’s behaviors according to the products” (Wang and Yang, 2008). Furthermore, purchase intention and
attitude are not alike in that attitude is the evaluation of products while intention is the process of self-
motivation to perform the purchasing action of individual (Ramadania et al., 2014). Ramadania et al. (2014) has
mentioned the essential relationship between product judgment, through consumer attitudes, and purchasing
behaviors. If judgment has not had such vital role in the final step of purchasing and owning the product,
marketers and scholars would not pay intensive attention to it (Javalgy et al., 2005). In spite of Fishbein et al.’s
declaration that the attitude toward merchandise does not strongly affect the behavior to purchase them (Fishbein
and Aizen., 1975), other researchers have proven the positive relationship, especially with foreign products
(Javalgy et al., 2005). Mowen and Minor (2002) stated that the actual behavior consists of all other behavior “to
own, use and dispense” the products (Ramadania et al., 2014). Therefore, spiritual influences such as judgment
and feelings are assumed to affect purchase intention (also referred to as “willingness to buy” or “reluctance to
buy” as well as the behavior intention to use and dispense a product. Previous researches on Animosity and
Ethnocentrism has also established the relationship of the factors and Purchase intention (reluctance to buy), in
which Product judgment play a role of a mediator (Huang et al., 2010; Nguyen et al., 2008; Klein et al., 1998).
From the result of these studies, it is reasonable to propose the last hypothesis:
H8: Chinese Product Judgment negatively affects reluctance to buy Chinese Product
Reluctance to buy and Chinese product ownership
These hypotheses focus on Vietnamese consumers' attitudes toward buying Chinese products and their
behavioral intentions (i.e., reluctance to buy). To assess nomological validity, we also include in the model
measures of actual ownership of products from the target country (China). Therefore,
H9: reluctance to buy will be a significant predictor of ownership of products from the target country
(China).
Animosity construct and its antecedents
Animosity can also be directed by sources of animosity. This indicated and suggested by Riefler &
Diamantopoulos (2007). At a national or macro level, animosity towards a country is based on perceptions of
how well that foreign country has treated the home country. At a personal or micro level, animosity can be based
on negative personal experiences one has with the foreign country or with people from that country.
Furthermore, according to Riefler & Diamantopoulos (2007), the very nature of the animosity construct is
such that it cannot be operationalized on a “general” or “generic” scale but has to be adapted to the underlying
reasons of tensions between the specific countries concerned. In this context, it appears the more surprising that
the majority of subsequent animosity studies adopt Klein et al.’s (1998) measures with minor adaptations as if
they were of a general nature. These adaptations essentially involve the change of the event of reference for war-
animosity measures and the swap of the target country’s name for economic animosity measures. This is nothing
short of a “universal” use of a context-specific scale. The appropriateness of this approach is highly doubtful
since there is no obvious reason for which it can be taken as granted that: (1) the same bilateral economic issues
causing dispute are present for any two countries; and (2) the same number of war-animosity items are
applicable across studies.
Therefore, in the present study, we take a different approach for appreciating of the situation of Vietnam
context. The measurement of animosity construct in this research was considered as a latent variable according
to suggestion’s Riefler & Diamantopoulos (2007). This approach will operationalize the animosity construct
goes a long way towards overcoming the measurement problems of extant research identified in previous
studies. Thus,
H10a: There is a positive relationship between war experience to overall animosity
H10b: There is a positive relationship between economic impact to overall animosity
H10c: There is a positive relationship between territory conflict to overall animosity
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H10d: There is a positive relationship between health issue to overall animosity
Dissimilarity between reluctance and willingness
According to Suh & Kwon (2002), reluctance to buy foreign products, defined here as perceived guiltiness
and tendency to avoid buying foreign-made products, is the core construct in our model because a less
ethnocentric consumer may be characterized as less reluctant in buying foreign-made products rather than as
more willing in buying foreign-made products. One, however, might raise a question that reluctance and
willingness are theoretically and statistically convergent. This study argues “reluctance” to buy foreign products
to be a distinctive construct from “willingness” to buy foreign products, particularly when they are measured in
the general product level of a country. Yet, since the construct has never been previously used, it may be
important to justify “re1uctance” as a construct distinct from “willingness”, a seemingly related construct
previously used in research.
The justification for separating these two constructs can be argued both theoretically and statistically. First,
theoretically, if “reluctance” is a different construct than “willingness”, it should be possible for a consumer to
be both reluctant and willing, or neither reluctant nor willing to buy the same object. While it is not unrealistic to
assume these scenarios, a consumer may have experienced a moment of conflict when he or she not only wanted
to buy a foreign product, but also had a reluctant or guilty feeling in doing so. And, in a different situation,
consumers can be neither willing nor reluctant in buying foreign products if they think that it is somewhat
unlikely for them to buy a particular foreign product and that the very producing country is not perceived as a
competitor of their own country. Second, statistically, “reluctance to buy is not a reversed form of “willingness
to buy”. For instance, it has been reported that reliability coefficient among measure items tends to be
consistently lower when negatively worded or reverse worded items (e.g. “reluctance to buy”) are combined with
the positively worded items (e.g. “willingness to buy”) than when only positively worded items are used
(Parasuraman et al., 1991). If the two groups of items are theoretically significantly distinguishable, they should
be treated separately because each group of items might explain a different construct. Although the non-
homogeneity problem in a measure is often created by measurement artifact, this study argues that the expected
two-dimension structure reflects the reality.
The assumption of use of “reluctance” to buy foreign products in our model is that the construct makes a
different dimension than “willingness” to buy foreign products, since, in some contexts; buyers’ willingness to
buy a foreign product is not so highly correlated with their reluctance to buy the same product. Therefore, we
hypothesize that, particularly in assessing attitudes toward foreign products at a general level, reluctance to buy
foreign products has a heterogeneous structure differentiated from willingness to buy foreign products. We,
using a covariance structure modeling, will show that the reluctance is not statistically synonymous with
willingness in a buying situation. Thus,
H11: The construct, reluctance to buy foreign products, will be statistically distinctive from willingness to buy
foreign products.
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Consumer
Animosity
H10+a,b,c,d
War
experience
H2+
H1-
Economic
impact
H3+
Product
Judgment
Reluctance
To buy
Product
ownership
H8-
H9-
Territory
conflict
Health issue
H5+
H4-
H6
Cultural
acceptability
H7-
Consumer
Ethnocentrism
Fig. 2. Conceptual model
3. Methodology
The research comprised two phases, a pilot study and a main survey, and was conducted in (1) Ho Chi Minh
City, principal business center of Vietnam; (2) Da Nang city, principal business center of middle Viet Nam; and
(3) Da Lat city, the small city located in highland central area. The pilot study was undertaken in two stages:
qualitative and quantitative. Focus Group Interview with 8 people (6 students and 2 lecturers) was used in the
qualitative phase to explore the sources of animosity and test understandable ability items which translated from
original scale adopted previous researches. Then, there were 8 consumers were recruited by an interviewer using
a screening questionnaire. A quantitative pilot survey was then undertaken with a convenience sample of 130
consumers. These pilot studies were used to modify and refine the scale items.
The main study was conducted using convenient sampling. The control characteristics were gender, age,
education, living area, and income. Interviewers distributed the questionnaire to respondents with instructions of
how to complete the questionnaire. In order to minimize possible response bias, instructions also emphasized
that the study only focused on the respondents' personal opinions. There were no right or wrong answers. After
completing the questionnaire, interviewers were responsible for checking and collecting it. The purpose of the
main study was to assess the scales and test the models.
3.1. Population and Sample
The target population for the present research was Vietnamese young consumers in some big and small cities
of Viet Nam. As mentioned, the sample was collected by two ways: (1) paper-self survey and (2) online survey*
that was formed by author with supported from Google drive. In this study, the researcher made efforts to obtain
the relatively large absolute numbers of respondents so the research attempted to carefully match the sample to
population demographic characteristics.
* Link of online survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1HDwiMvL8CVywZCd4YS2gQ72sb24J6mcK-eyZ7bPY4RY/edit
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3.2. Questionnaire development
Among the questions asked were scales for war experience, economic impact, territory conflict, health issue,
general animosity, consumer ethnocentrism, cultural acceptability, product judgment, reluctance to buy Chinese
product, willing to buy Vietnamese product, and demographics. Eight of ten constructs proposed in the model
were measured using preexisting scales drawn from prior studies. The use of established scales from the extant
literature leads to a higher level of confidence in the reliability and validity of the measurements in this study.
However, two constructs: territory and health issue were developed in discuss group based on Vietnam context.
The initial questionnaires were translated into Vietnamese and then back-translated into English to ensure the
correct meaning and cross-cultural equivalence of the measures. The revised Vietnamese version of the
questionnaire was pre-tested on consumers and items were further refined. A 7-point rating scale was used in the
questionnaire with 1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree.
3.3. Pretesting
Pretesting is a necessary step to ensure face and content validity of the instrument in the process of
developing a questionnaire. It is especially useful when researchers in a cross-cultural survey environment need
to identify problems in the translated scales or other concepts that may be associated with the target population.
At the end of September 2016, a total of 130 pretest surveys were collected from a non-probability sample of
Vietnamese consumers through an online survey and a paper questionnaire survey. The questionnaire was
composed of three parts. Part 1 inquired about Chinese products owned which was categorized into 7 different
categories including cars/trucks, motorbikes, computers/laptops, smartphones/tablets, fashion, household
appliances and foods. Part 2 included a total of 39 items about information in ten areas: general animosity, war
experience, economic impact, territory conflict, health issue, ethnocentrism, cultural acceptability, product
judgment, reluctance to buy foreign product, and willingness to buy Vietnamese products. Part 3 examined about
demographics. It took approximately 10 minutes to complete and included opportunities to discuss any
difficulties in understanding or answering the questions. They were also asked to provide concrete suggestions to
modify and improve the questionnaire.
As a result of the pretest, some adjustments were made to the questionnaire: The wording of items was
revised to reflect the context of this study; five positive item wordings were turned into negative ones; and the
survey instructions were modified in order to reduce ambiguity. Cronbach’s alpha was also analyzed for each
scale, and 2 items contributing to low reliability were dropped. This procedure resulted in a total of 36 individual
items for the main constructs in this study (4 for cultural acceptability, 5 for product judgment, 3 for reluctance
to buy Chinese products, 6 for ethnocentrism, 3 for general animosity, 3 for war experience, 5 for economic
impact, 3 for territory conflict, and 4 for health issue). In addition, we also added 3 items for willingness to buy
Vietnamese products.
4. Data analysis and Results
4.1 Sample Characteristics
The original dataset consisted of sending surveys to a consumer panel of 800 consumers through the internet
and paper administrated, with an expected goal of obtaining at least 60 percent full participation rate. A total of
549 consumers responded to the online survey and paper questionnaire administered. After eliminating 24
incomplete questionnaires, this study was able to include 525 (65.6 percent) participants for the actual data
analysis
A summary of characteristics for demographic variables is presented in Table 4.1. Of the 525 individuals
who provided gender information, males (50.3 percent, n = 264) were in almost equal proportion to females
(49.7 percent, n = 261) in this study. In terms of respondents’ age, approximately two-thirds of the respondents
(n = 492) were under 30 years of age, 5.5 percent (n = 29) in the range of 31 to 40 years, and 0.8 percent (n = 4)
were over 41. The average age of the respondents was young, this indicated that this study main focus on young
people.
Most respondents were students (n = 486) accounting for 92.9 percent of total respondents, while a small
proportion of respondents (4.2 percent, n = 22) were below the bachelor’s degree level and postgraduate’s degree
level (3.2 percent, n=17).
The majority of study subjects (76 percent, n = 399) reported a personal monthly income of less than 250
USD, while 16.2 percent (n = 85) received a monthly income between 250 - 500 USD, 7 percent (n=37) received
a monthly income between 500 USD and 1000 USD and only 0.8 percent (n = 4) indicated that they earned
higher 1000 USD per month.
Regarding living areas, 65 percent (n=341) of respondents were living in small cities while 23.8 percent (n=
125) of respondents were living in big cities such as Ho Chi Minh, Ha Noi, Da Nang and 10.5 percent (n=55)
were living in rural areas of Viet Nam. As a whole, this sample consisted of generally young, well-educated
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Vietnamese consumers. These characteristics should be taken into careful consideration during the data
analyzing process and discussion.
Table 4.1. description of sample
Characteristics
Gender
Male
Female
Age
Frequency (n=525)
percent
50.3
264
261
49.7
< 20
20-30
31-40
41-50
138
354
29
3
26.3
67.4
5.5
.6
> 50
1
.2
Education
Less than college/college
Undergraduate
postgraduate
Monthly Income
below 250usd
250-500usd
500-1000usd
>1000usd
22
486
17
4.2
92.6
3.2
399
85
37
4
76.0
16.2
7.0
.8
Living area
small city
Big city
rural
oversea
341
125
55
65.0
23.8
10.5
.8
4
4.2. Non-response bias
In order to assess non-response bias, t-tests were employed to compare construct scores for all model
variables from early respondents to those from late respondents. Following the suggestion of Compeau and
Higgins (1995), the survey data was split into two sets based on the dates the responses were received. The early
group contained 264 responses and the late group was comprised of 261 responses. T-tests were then conducted
to compare differences between these two groups for the model variables. The result indicates that none of the
study variables were found to be significantly different between the early and late respondents. Moreover, chi-
square tests were also conducted to compare the demographic variables age, gender, living town, education, and
income between these two groups. No significant differences were observed in demographic variables.
Therefore, it can be assumed that response bias may not be problematic for this study.
4.3. Normality
Data normality is generally focused on the premise that data samples originate from one or more normally
distributed populations. Since SEM procedures require normal distribution of data (Hatcher, 1994), the skewness
and kurtosis tests were performed using SPSS 18 for Windows to scrutinize univariate normality for each of the
variables in the model. DeCarlo (1997) suggests that a sample’s skewness and kurtosis values should be within
the range of -3 and 3. By applying the above criteria to the skewness and kurtosis coefficients for each of the
observed variables, the results were within the +3 to -3 range for skewness and Kurtosis. Hence, these results
provide clear evidence that scales data for the study are normally distributed with no outlying observations.
4.4 Measurement Assessment
Reliability Analysis
Reliability was done to test the degree to which the set of latent construct indicators are consistent in their
measurements. The reliability of the variables was assessed by the Cronbach’s Alpha and Item-total Correlation.
The acceptable threshold for Cronbach’s Alpha is 0.70, while constructs which are highly inter-correlated
indicates that they are all measuring the same latent constructs. Results show that the Cronbach’s alpha values
ranged from 0.790 to 0.912, which is above the acceptable threshold of 0.70. Also, the Item-total correlation test
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results are satisfactory.
Table 4.2. Cronbach’s Alpha of constructs
Construct
Cultural acceptability
Product judgment
Reluctance to buy
Ethnocentrism
Animosity
War experience
Economic impact
Territory conflict
Health issue
Items
Cronbach’s Alpha
4
5
3
6
3
3
5
3
4
3
0.897
0.830
0.805
0.891
0.912
0.881
0.856
0.790
0.903
0.815
Willing to buy Vietnam
Construct Validity Analysis
A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the measurement model. All the model-fit indices
exceeded their respective common acceptance levels suggested by previous research, thus demonstrating that the
measurement model exhibited a fairly good fit with the data collected (χ2 (558) = 1055.944, CMIN/df= 1.892, p
= .000; GFI = .897; CFI = .954; TLI = .948; RMSEA = .041).
This assesses what the construct (concept) or scale is, in fact, measuring. To construct validity, two checks
have to be performed: the convergent validity and discriminant validity. Convergent validity was evaluated by
examining composite reliability and average variance extracted (AVE) from the measures. Values for composite
reliability are recommended to exceed 0.70 (Chin, Marcolin, & Newsted, 2003) and AVE values should be
greater than the generally recognized cut-off value of 0.50 (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). All composite reliability
and AVE values meet the recommended threshold values. Table 4.3 summarizes the results indicate that the
AVE for each variable was obtained to check discriminant validity. As shown in Table 1, the square root of AVE
for each construct is greater than the correlations between the constructs and all other constructs, indicating that
these constructs have discriminant validity (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).
Table 4.3. Composite reliability, AVE and correlation of constructs values
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
CR
AVE
0.56
0.50
1.economic
2.judgment
0.86
0.83
0.75
-0.17
0.71
3.reluctance to buy
4.cultural
0.81
0.90
0.58
0.69
0.27
-0.55
0.17
0.76
-0.07
-0.03
0.83
-0.13
-0.17
0.01
5.ethnocentrism
6.animosity
7.health
0.89
0.92
0.90
0.81
0.89
0.58
0.78
0.71
0.60
0.73
0.28
0.37
0.44
0.46
0.57
-0.20
-0.37
-0.26
-0.14
-0.13
0.36
0.39
0.31
0.19
0.22
0.76
0.27
0.25
0.11
0.36
0.89
0.34
0.34
0.46
0.84
0.35
0.36
8.territory
9.war
0.09
0.77
-0.14
0.32
0.85
Note: Diagonal elements are the square root of AVE; Off-diagonal elements are the correlations among
constructs.
4.5 Structural Results: Hypothesis Testing
Structural equation model was used to test the hypotheses. The SEM results indicated that the model had an
acceptable fit, χ2 (607) = 1228.901, CMIN/df=2.025, p = .000; GFI = .881; CFI = .943; TLI = .937; RMSEA =
.044
Table 4.4 presents the unstandardized structural paths; and Figure 4.1 presents the significant structural
relationship among the research variables and the standardized path coefficients with their respective
significance levels. For more detail, hypothesis H1 postulated that consumer animosity were likely to decrease
perceived product judgment while (H2) increase reluctance to buy Chinese products. As shown in figure 3, a
significantly negative path was found from “general animosity” to “product judgment” (β1 = –.33, p < .001) and
a significantly positive path was found from “general animosity” to “reluctance to buy” (β2 = .18, p < .001). This
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suggests that increased feelings of animosity will reduce consumers’ perceptions of product quality and
increased ability of reluctance to buy foreign products. Thus, both Hypotheses H1 and H2 were supported.
In terms of the relationship between consumer animosity and consumer ethnocentrism, hypothesis H3, which
proposed that there is a positive relationship from animosity to ethnocentrism, was supported through (β3 = .26,
p < .001).
Hypothesis H4 and H5 proposed that consumer ethnocentrism has a negative effect on product judgment and
a positive effect on reluctance to buy. The proposed relationships were supported by the results: product
judgment (β4 = –.10, p < .05) and reluctance to buy (β5 = .22, p < .001). These suggest that high levels of
ethnocentrism will decrease a consumer’s product judgment while increasing the reluctance to buy foreign
products.
Hypotheses H6 and H7 predicted that cultural acceptability would negatively effect consumer ethnocentrism
and positively effect product judgment. β6 = -.09, p < .05 and β7 = .09, p < .1 indicate that both hypotheses were
supported even though the standardized coefficients are not high but still has meaning for this research.
Hypothesis H8 shows the negative relationship between product judgment and reluctance to buy was strongly
supported with β8 = -.47, p < .001. This suggests that when customers perceive product quality is good, they
would decrease their reluctance to buy Chinese products. On the other hand, when they evaluate that product
quality is not good they would increase their reluctance to buy.
Hypotheses H9 was supported with β9 = -.15, p < .05 at the statistical significant level of p<0.05. This
indicates that there is a negative relationship between reluctance to buy and product ownership. The reasons can
be explained as young Vietnamese consumers trying to have the reluctance to buy Chinese products but in some
cases they have no choice because they lack alternative products or they cannot overcome the cheap prices of
Chinese products.
Last but not least, Hypotheses H10a, H10b, H10c, and H10d proposed that there are positive effects of war
experience, economic impact, territory conflict, and health issues on general animosity. The result was supported
for Hypotheses H10a (β10a = .34, p < .001), H10c (β10c = .16, p < .001) and H10d (β10d = .15, p < .001).
However, Hypothesis H10b was not supported which means that economic impact has no effect on general
animosity
In addition, the squared multiple correlations indicate the proportion of variance of an endogenous latent
variable that is explained by its exogenous latent variables. For example, 28.1 percent of the total variance in the
general animosity variable is explained by its three predictors: war experience, territory conflict and health issue.
The results of path coefficients indicated that the predicting factor of war experience explained more of the
variance of general animosity than did the other two predictors: territory conflict and health issue. Likewise, 15.1
percent of the total variance in the product judgment factor is explained by its three predicting factors: general
animosity, cultural acceptability and ethnocentrism. Moreover, because ethnocentrism, general animosity and
product judgment were the three significant predictors for the latent variable reluctance to buy in the model, they
explained 38.3 percent of the variance on consumer intentions reluctance to buy Chinese products
Table 4.4
Regression
estimate
P-
value
*** Accept***
.483 Reject
Accept/
reject
Hypothesis
Construct
Animosity <--- war
Animosity <--- economic
Animosity<--- territory
S.E
C.R
6.2
.503
.082
.091
.138
.056
.052
.044
.031
.030
.033
.068
.036
.035
.063
H10a
H10b
H10c
H10d
H6
H3
H4
H1
H7
H8
H5
H2
H9
.064
.434
.171
-.103
.248
-.062
-.198
.065
-.523
.170
.127
-.138
.71
3.14
3.08
-1.98
5.63
-1.98
-6.55
1.94
-7.74
4.73
3.61
-2.20
.002 Accept***
.002 Accept***
.048 Accept**
*** Accept***
.048 Accept**
*** Accept***
.052 Accept*
*** Accept***
*** Accept***
*** Accept***
.028 Accept**
Animosity<--- health
Ethnocentrism <---cultural
Ethnocentrism<--- animosity
Judgment <--- ethnocentrism
Judgment<--- animosity
judgment <---cultural
Reluctance <---judgment
Reluctance ---ethnocentrism
Reluctance <---animosity
Ownership <---reluctance to buy
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4.6. Test for dissimilarity between reluctance and willingness
The structural equation models to test the distinctiveness of two constructs: willingness to buy and reluctance
to buy foreign products. With no violation of the multivariate normality assumption, the result showed that all
model-fit indices exceeded their respective common acceptance levels suggested by previous research, thus
demonstrating that the measurement model exhibited a fairly good fit with the data collected (χ2 = 9.385,
CMIN/df= 2.346, p = .052; GFI = .995; CFI = .989; TLI = .973; RMSEA = .042).
Fig. 3. Distinguishability between reluctance and willingness
As expected, the coefficient estimates between reluctance and willingness to buy foreign products were
relatively low (-0.28), which suggests that the two constructs can be considered distinctively different.
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Table 4.5. Correlations between the measure items (reluctance versus willingness)
reluct1
1
reluct2
1
reluct3
wbuy1
wbuy2
reluct1
reluct2
.475**
reluct3
wbuy1
wbuy2
.330**
-.084*
-.110**
.376**
-.198**
-.123**
1
-.073*
-.042
1
.405**
1
**: Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed); *: Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
As shown in Table 4.5, another interesting finding here is the correlations between the five items also
confirm the same result of the dissimilarity. For example, it was shown that there were higher correlations
between the items within the “same” measures (greater than 0.3) and lower correlations between the “different”
measures (i.e. between the reluctance item and the willingness item; all less than -0.198). This result verifies
convergent validity between the items of each construct and discriminant validity between the constructs by the
multitrait-multimethod approach (Campbell and Fiske, 1959).
4.7. Multi-group analysis
Multi-group analysis was used to analyze the moderating variable. A moderator effect implies that the
moderator variable (relationship strength) modifies the form of the relationship (i.e. the slope of the regression
line as represented by the regression coefficient) between the independent variable (A) and the dependent
variable (B). The chi-squared differences were compared between the two groups (models). In one model, the
path co-efficient was constrained to be equal across both groups and in the other, the path co-efficient was left to
be unconstrained (unconstrained model). If the difference between the two models based on chi-square test is a
significant difference, then the unconstrained model will be chosen. After that, each path in the model will be
evaluated and tested again by using Z-score to find the exactly differences among the path coefficients.
The results of the analysis are shown shortly in Table 13 and Table 14. This reveals that significant
differences were found between groups: living in a big city and living in a small city (
,
). For details, the significant differences were found with respect to the following paths: war
experience to animosity, health issue to animosity and product judgment to reluctance to buy Chinese products.
Therefore, moderating effects exist in these paths.
Table 4.6. Chi-square of two models for living area
Chi-square
1542.547
1669.339
df
p-val
730
740
2
Unconstrained
Partial constrained
Number of groups
Difference
126.792
10
0.000
Table 4.7. The results of Moderating Effects Exist for living area
Paths
Big city
Small city
Estimate
P
Estimate
P
z-score
War animosity
0.178
0.368
-0.249
0.135
0.000
0.010
0.861
0.134
-0.506
0.000
0.034
0.000
3.948***
-1.908*
Health animosity
Judgment reluctance
-2.077**
Notes: *** p-value < 0.01; ** p-value < 0.05; * p-value < 0.10
The rest of the demographic variables such as age, gender, monthly income and education level have no
moderating effect on this research model. Therefore, the results were not shown here.
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5. Discussion and implications
5.1. Discussion
The research found interestingly that the effects of consumer animosity and consumer ethnocentrism on
product judgment were supported. Firstly, the negative impact of animosity on product judgment (H1) indicated
an inconsistency with the findings of the initial Nanjing study of consumer animosity by Klein et al. (1998),
which indicated that animosity was unrelated to an evaluation of product quality. However, this is not a
surprising finding given that many studies reported mixed results with respect to the relationship between
animosity and product judgment (Amine, 2008; Klein, 2002; Klein et al., 1998; Nes et al., 2012; Tian &
Pasadeos, 2012). Several theoretical and empirical factors may be used to interpret the results concerning the
relationship of animosity and product judgment. First, according to Festinger's (1957) cognitive dissonance
theory, people are inclined to seek consistency in their attitudes and beliefs in any situation where certain
cognitions are incongruous, even if that may lead to irrational kinds of actions. Therefore, the tendency toward
harmony and consistency among those who harbor strong animosity toward China could result in Chinese
product denigration and hence reluctance to buy Chinese products. Second, the perception of Chinese product
quality may have decreased in the Vietnam market due to the entrance of well recognized global brands come
from large countries like the United States, Japan, Germany, France and South Korea in comparison with
Chinese low quality products and cheap prices. Therefore, the animosity and evaluations of product quality may
come to affect one another more easily. Other alternative interpretations for this impact may also exist. Secondly,
the negative influence of ethnocentrism on product judgment implies that consumers with strong ethnocentric
attitudes are more likely to adversely evaluate Chinese products than those with less ethnocentric attitudes. This
is also consistent with previous findings (Klein et al. 1998; Netemeyer et al., 1991; Shimp & Sharma, 1987).
This indicates that both antipathy toward China and the feeling of Ethnocentrism affect the assessment of
Chinese products. Two constructs affect differently, but both result in Chinese product underestimation. While
animosity leads to the depreciation of objects related to its sources, ethnocentric consumers value domestic
products much more than foreign countries’ products.
Furthermore, it can be seen from the results that there were the positive impacts of animosity (H2) and
ethnocentrism (H5) on the reluctance to buy Chinese products. This confirms that animosity towards a particular
country (China), is an important variable to consider in relation to attitudes towards foreign products, especially
insofar as it reinforces consumer ethnocentrism (H3). This finding is consistent with previous findings on the
negative effects of consumer animosity (Klein, 2002; Klein et al., 1998).
Also noteworthy is the finding that animosity reinforces consumer ethnocentrism (H3). Even though the
relationship between these two variables has hardly been studied, our findings support the idea that negative
emotions, and particularly animosity, can enhance consumer ethnocentrism, strengthening the belief that
purchasing foreign products is inappropriate or even morally wrong because it damages the domestic economy
and is unpatriotic. Nijssen and Douglas (2004) have obtained similar findings from a study carried out in
Holland, in which they report the significant influence of Dutch consumer animosity towards Germany on Dutch
consumer ethnocentrism regarding automobiles and televisions.
For the role of cultural acceptability, the result shows that cultural acceptability plays a certain role in this
study even though the level of its impact is not big. Previous researches have shown that consumers in the
emerging world are willing to participate in, and be perceived as, members of the global consumer community
(Venkatesh & Swamy, 1994; Batra et al., 2000). The findings of this study show that cultural acceptability has a
positive impact on imported product judgment and a decrease in feelings of consumer ethnocentrism toward
foreign products. This implies that consumers with a high level of cultural acceptability tend to evaluate
imported products more highly and also their degree of ethnocentric behavior is likely to decrease. Therefore,
foreign exporters should convey to Vietnamese consumers that sensitivity to foreign cultures is a means to
become members of the global community.
In terms of the relationship between reluctance to buy Chinese products and Chinese product ownership, the
result indicates that product ownership can be predicted by the reluctance to buy. Although, only a 2.4 percent
variance of product ownership is explained by reluctance to buy, it still has a significant meaning in this
research. Therefore, it can be explained that Vietnamese consumers’ marketplace behavior (actual ownership of
Chinese products) was predicted by attitudes toward buying Chinese products (reluctance to buy), which in turn
was predicted by animosity toward China (Klein et al., 1998).
The other interesting finding in this study is that we endeavor to contribute to the development of the
animosity theory in important areas. First, due to a shortage of exploratory research, we still have limited
knowledge of the domain of the animosity construct. In all previous quantitative studies, the animosity targets,
and thus the nature of the conflicts, are selected by the researchers. But this also implies that the domain of the
animosity construct is predetermined, and it limits our understanding of the construct itself and the processes
through which it influences consumer behavior. In our study we endeavor to explore the domain when the
restriction of pre-selection of the animosity target is lifted. We found the domain of the concept is four
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dimensions rather than two dimensions as applied in most of the previous studies (Klein, 2002; Klein et al.,
1998; Ma et al., 2012; Nijssen & Douglas, 2004; Sohail & Opoku, 2016). By treating four constructs such as
war, economic, territory and health issue separately, our study extended this finding. We demonstrated that
general animosity mainly resulted from war experience, territory conflict and health issue but not from economic
impact. In other words, in four dimensions which can impact general animosity, we found that three dimensions
have a directly effect on general animosity such as: war experience, territory conflict, and health issue then
impact indirectly on product judgment and reluctance to buy through general animosity, meanwhile economic
impact does not have a positive influence on general animosity. Past research found that economic impact is a
result of feelings of economic dominance or aggression (Klein et al. 1998). Results of the present study
somewhat indicate that Vietnamese consumers appear not to be apprehensive about the China’s economic
dominance. This is interesting because previous studies have suggested that people have negative attitudes
toward products from a dominant country, resulting in a reluctance to buy products from such a country (Nijssen
and Douglas 2004). Also of interest was that, for Vietnamese consumers, historical war-related factors were
associated more closely with animosity toward China than were contemporary concerns (territory conflict and
health issue), this is consistent with the previous study of Klein et al., (1998) when talking about feelings of
Chinese people toward Japan.
The reason why Vietnamese consumer animosity is not affected by economic impact can be explained by
China providing capital for infrastructure projects in recent years; also both Chinese and Vietnamese
governments have been attempting to incite economic corporation between the two countries more and more.
Furthermore, Vietnamese consumers have an obvious attraction and admiration for the economic development of
China over the past few years and they think that they can learn from China’s success and apply their methods to
their country’s developing process. Since Vietnamese consumers’ longstanding animosity toward China stems
largely from past military events, the effect of animosity on product evaluations through general animosity may
be stronger for warlike sentiments than for economic issues. Thus, the perceived public opinion on China’s
economic dominance may not be as homogenous as it may appear in Viet Nam’s context. In short, this is an
important finding because it shows not only the distinct effects of two basic dimensions: war experience and
economic impact on evaluating, indirectly, the quality of product in Vietnamese markets but also indicates that
there are other sources (territory conflict and health issue) that still impact product judgment through general
animosity which has been lacking from previous studies. This result was consistent with the viewpoints of
Riefler & Diamantopoulos (2007) who called for extending knowledge about the sources of animosity based on
the different contexts of each country.
In terms of comparing the effect level of consumer animosity and consumer ethnocentrism on product
judgment and reluctance to buy foreign products, the result found that consumer animosity played more vital role
than ethnocentrism when evaluating foreign products, meanwhile for reluctance to buy foreign products,
ethnocentrism is more important than animosity. However, this does not mean that ethnocentrism plays a more
vital role than animosity on reluctance to buy because animosity has an indirect impact on reluctance to buy
through product judgment. The total effects in Table 5.1 indicated that total effects of animosity on reluctance to
buy Chinese products were bigger than those of ethnocentrism on the reluctance to buy Chinese products. This
result shows clearly that the effect of Vietnamese consumer animosity toward China is quite high which would
cause disadvantages for Chinese companies when they want to enter Vietnam’s market in a contemporary
context.
Table 5.1. Direct and indirect effects of research model
Direct
effects
Indirect
effects
Total
effects
1.Animosity-->reluctance
0.176**
0.390*
0.267*
*
*
A
B
2.Animosity -->judgment-->reluctance
1.Ethnocentrism-->reluctance
0.214**
0.044*
0.223**
2.Ethnocentrism-->judgment--> reluctance
* p<0.05; ** p<0.01
Another contribution of this study can be seen where this study used “reluctance to buy” as a core variable
rather than “willingness to buy”, we supported the assumption that reluctance to buy is a unique construct
theoretically and statistically differentiated from willingness to buy. Even though these two concepts would be
used in the same measure of willingness to buy (Ferrin et al., 2015; Klein et al., 1998; Ma et al., 2012), it has
been recognized by researchers that reversed items in a measure may form a distinctive factor from other non-
reserved items in the same measure (Parasuraman et al., 1991). The result of the research is consistent with the
previous study of Suh & Kwon (2002)
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Finally, the results of multi-group analysis show some interesting differences between big city citizens and
small city citizens. Firstly, the impact of health issues on general animosity is significant in the big city sample
meanwhile insignificant in the small city sample. This difference is interesting since urban people usually have a
higher education and high income, they seem to be more sensitive to the quality of food because food is one of
the factors directly affecting their health. Moreover, traditionally, people in rural areas are farmers, they are used
to producing agricultural products for themselves, they rarely buy food items at the market. Secondly, the paths
of war experience and general animosity, it is notable that war experience dimension impacts on general
animosity of small cities is significant meanwhile this is insignificant in big cities. This difference is attributed to
the fact that in the past most wars happened in small cities and caused serious effects on the life, as well as, the
people in small cities. Therefore, small city people have bad memories as well as they hate wars that made
children orphans, women widows and caused mothers to lose children. They hated the ones who caused wars and
hardly felt the desire to forgive those countries. By contrast, city citizens, thanks to many cultural exchange
opportunities and the globalization trend, tend to close the past and think of the beautiful and peaceful future;
they are ready to shake hands with anyone who treasures friendship and solidarity. Therefore, the animosity of
big city people about the war did not impact on general animosity, but it did in small city people. Thirdly, the
path of product judgment and reluctance to buy Chinese products, against the backdrop above, it can be seen that
small city people have stronger animosity than big city people so that reluctance degree to buy the products of
China of small city sample is stronger than that of the big city people. This result is very surprising because in
Vietnam small city people buy Chinese products much more than big city people. This is explained by the price
factor which requires further research in the future.
5.2. Implication
These findings suggest a number of implications for local as well as international managers in planning
marketing strategies, especially positioning strategies in the Vietnamese market.
The strong causal relationship between consumer animosity and product judgments found in this study
contradicts previous researches. Some authors have argued that animosity had no impact on product judgments
(Klein et al., 1998; Klein, 2002). Our findings predict that animosity negatively affects such product judgments
in some contexts. The past war experience, territory conflict and health issues seem to evoke animosity towards
China in Vietnam, which lead to a reluctance to purchase Chinese products and biases Vietnamese consumers’
judgments regarding such products as well. Overall, this finding provides researchers with considerable evidence
that not only war-related factor but also other sources such as territory conflict, health issues are closely
associated with the quality of foreign products’ judgments in the international marketplace. In addition to, we
demonstrated that there are different sources that could directly impact general animosity with had a different
nature then influence indirectly on product judgment and purchase intention. Therefore, when animosity
threatens their products in practice, marketers should identify the primary sources of that animosity first, and
then employ specific strategies to deal with it. In the Vietnamese context, economic impact has no effect on
general animosity but other sources (war experience, territory conflict, health issues) relate positively to general
animosity, and then impact on the evaluations of Chinese products and exert harmful impacts on purchase
intention (reluctance to buy) among Vietnamese people. Therefore, the right way to reduce the detrimental
influences of animosity toward Chinese products in Vietnam is to reduce the animosity arising from the war,
territory and unhealthy products as is actually occurring. In addition, according to Nes et al., (2012) many
research studies provide strong support for the notion that national animosities caused by war, economic policies,
and other conflicts may have a profound impact on consumer buying behavior. It is important for those engaged
in international business to understand the nature and impact of conflicts and animosity between countries on the
demand for products in international markets. For example, Edwards et al., (2007) found that 58% of French
businesses operating in Australia and/or New Zealand reported a loss of sales as a result of the French nuclear
tests in the South Pacific. Several French companies responded to this increase in animosity by using strategies
such as temporarily deferring investment in the region or even modifying their brand/ company name.
Furthermore, the results also enforce the role of consumer animosity and ethnocentrism which has been
indicated in many previous researches (Ahmed et al., 2013; Klein et al., 1998; Lee & Lee, 2013; Ma et al., 2012;
Maher et al., 2010; Nijssen & Douglas, 2004; Smith & Li, 2010; Sohail & Opoku, 2016). Therefore, seeking to
understand controversies would allow managers to consider courses of action in order to mitigate the damaging
effects of consumer animosity and consumer ethnocentrism. These could include efforts to improve product
quality judgments by highlighting objective product benefits. However, such efforts might be insufficient.
Further efforts could be directed toward displaying the source company as international and distinct from the
country of origin; reducing the degree of consumer ethnocentrism by emphasizing the benefits to the local
market, which a Chinese company provides; and avoiding using symbols of the country of origin in order to
reduce the sense of threat on the domestic market (Viet Nam).
Chinese managers should understand that when levels of Vietnamese consumer animosity toward a producer
nation (China) are high, consumer ethnocentrism does translate into bias for imported products. Therefore,
traditional marketing tools such as sales promotions, price promotions, and brand advertisements will not be
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sufficient in attracting highly ethnocentric consumers. Instead, strategies that take into account the role of
consumer ethnocentrism are more appropriate. Marketing programs of imported products should convey to
Vietnamese consumers that the consumption of imported products is not harmful to the economy in order to
reduce such a bias. Furthermore, a more appropriate strategic response might be to downplay promotion of the
“made in...” aspect of the product and use brand names that are not obviously associated with the target country
(Ettenson & Gaeth, 1991; Levin & Jasper, 1996). In addition, cultural acceptability plays a role in reducing
negatively toward foreign products, so Chinese companies or the Chinese government could exploit this to
decrease Vietnamese consumer animosity and ethnocentrism through cultural and academic exchange programs.
International marketers also can choose to address the animosity issue directly in certain markets. One
strategy would be to engage in public relations and other communications efforts to improve country perceptions
and address sources of international tension. Such efforts might be more effective for minimizing animosity
stemming from current diplomatic or territory disputes than from historical and military conflicts. For example,
South Korea has made many efforts to improve its negative image with Vietnamese people from its participation
in the Vietnam War in the 1960s. Such as the Korean-Vietnamese Peace Foundation’s efforts to honor
Vietnamese victims killed by Korean mercenaries during the war, cultural and scholarship exchanges between
the two countries, “Hallyu (the Korean entertainment wave)” in Viet Nam. These actions have been contributing
positively in recovering South Korea’s image in the Vietnamese consumer mind. Therefore, nowadays,
Vietnamese consumers have a good perception not only for the South Korean country but also Korean brands.
This helps many Korean companies succeed in the Vietnamese market.
On a broader scale, knowledge of international animosity and its effect on product purchase in select target
markets can also guide the development of strategic marketing and manufacturing alliances and the production
of so-called “hybrid” products (products manufactured in one country and branded by a firm from another
country). Marketers of hybrid products have the benefit of promoting or de-emphasizing their products’ origins,
as well as flexibility in the selection of the products’ brand names (Ettenson and Gaeth, 1991; Han, 1988; Levin
and Jasper, 1996). The manufacture of hybrids might prove fruitful to the international marketer whose products
or brands have failed to capture satisfactory levels of shares in a target market because of consumer animosity.
For local mangers, as the global trend of cross-border trade increases, the animosity construct can be applied
by domestic Firms seeking to defend their markets against increases in imported goods and, in particular,
imported goods from a particular nation (China). To the extent that levels of animosity are high toward China,
Vietnamese firms can exploit and promote “buy domestic” campaigns, capitalizing on the ethnocentric influence
of eschewing goods from China through campaigns such as “Vietnamese use Vietnamese products”, Vietnam’s
high quality products, Vietnamese brands festivals, and so on.
Furthermore, marketing managers of domestic companies (Vietnamese companies) should also recognize
consumer animosity and consumer ethnocentrism, since they can benefit by using them properly. Local
companies understand the local market and consumer feelings better than international companies. Local
companies can highlight benefits of the local market and the society at large, while emphasizing relevant topics
according to sources of consumer animosity/consumer ethnocentrism (e.g., war, territory, unhealthy product,
etc.).
The findings of this study suggest that brand positioning strategies based heavily on the physical attributes of
brands are no longer suitable. Such positioning strategies may create serious problems for local brands in the
market since Vietnamese consumers often consider imported products to have superior quality to the local
products (Nguyen and Nguyen, 2004). Consequently, positioning strategies which focus on consumer
ethnocentric tendencies may be more appropriate in persuading highly ethnocentric consumers to purchase local
products.
5.3. Limitation and future research
One of the limitations of this study has been in using a majority of student respondents. It has been noted by
some researches that studies using a student sample suffer from a lack of external validity (Sears, 1986). Even
though concerns about representative samples may be sacrificed in favor of addressing threats to internal validity
in research designed for theory testing (Calder et al., 1981), it is hoped that testing should deal with samples
from life stages other than late adolescence. According, to recent trends in marketing research, external validity
concerns require more attention in theoretical research (Lynch, 1999; Winer, 1999). Nevertheless, using student
samples in this research can be plausibly rationalized. The student-age group, which represents the samples of
this research, is identified as a large number of Vietnamese young consumers who play a greater vital role in the
Vietnamese consumption market. Therefore, future researches should pay attention on how to generalize a whole
sample from various groups and areas.
Secondly, this study was based on surveying consumers’ opinions toward general product categories. This
may have overlooked two potential problems; consumers could have differentiated product evaluations and
purchase intentions across different product categories and their self-reported opinions may not be consistent
with their actual consumption decisions. We strongly suggest future studies to further examine our findings with
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