Socio- psychological variables as antecedents to consumer ethnocentrism: A fuzzy logic based analysis study

Despite the growing homogeneity of world markets, ethnocentric tendencies are of the strongest motivations that influence purchasing foreign products. The consequences of consumer ethnocentrism have been well studied in previous research. Yet, the sources of consumer ethnocentrism phenomenon have not been well acknowledged. This study empirically investigates the influence of socio-psychological variables namely, dogmatism, conservatism and world-mindedness on consumer ethnocentrism. All previous studies in the field of consumer ethnocentrism have used traditional statistical techniques to explore the relationships between consumer ethnocentrism and socio- psychological variables; however, this study is the first to apply fuzzy logic on a consumer ethnocentrism research. Such a technique is highly suited to the current research problem. MATLAB® ANFIS has been employed to model the relationships between three inputs (conservatism, dogmatism, and world-mindedness) and one output (ethnocentrism). The results of employing fuzzy logic have proved that high level of dogmatism and high level of conservatism lead to high consumer ethnocentrism. Nevertheless, high level of world-mindedness leads to low consumer ethnocentric tendencies. Overall, fuzzy logic can improve the research of consumer ethnocentrism and can illuminate uncovered sides in the area of consumer ethnocentrism.