Implications of Being Ethnocentric

Introduction

Being a group member, it is advisable all members possibly give importance to group’s interests first rather forcing their individual opinions. The main reason is, all members are in one cluster (group) and based on similarity (thoughts and beliefs) they are working as a part of the diversified group. Globalization plays an important role in ethnocentric behavior and due to the increasing span of global trades domestic and international markets of different countries collaborates with each other This is nothing but expansion of many companies and organizations from different countries. Therefore to cope with diverse cultural beliefs and geographical factor there is need to educate the employees who increase self-awareness by finding common factors in different culture & lifestyles. This helps learning cross cultural differences to avoid future conflicts. Notable point is increasing diversity in work environments promote study of consumption behavior. Cross-cultural communication and globalization helps maximizing new dimensions in dealing with ‘ethnocentrism’.

Diversity And Consumer Ethnocentrism

The main aspect in ethnocentrism is dealing with diversity, which is nothing but different ethics, attitudes and lifestyles as there are people from different cultures. There could be possible clashes due to misunderstanding because of resistance to learn other culture, lifestyle etc. Being a part of the society one cannot set own lifestyle and culture as a universal index. One should not judge others based on the universal index set with own culture lifestyle and it is good to understand others, their beliefs etc.

Another example, it is assumed that purchasing imported goods is wrong or sometimes feels like unethical. In any country, people are patriotic and believe purchasing foreign products may affect the domestic production. It relates to the different economic factors like domestic recession, investment through FDI (foreign direct investment) and the important factor profit takeaway by the international companies. Many domestic products are comparatively better than imported products and therefore, trade organizations of different countries expecting government should impose limitations on the FDI. This type of ethnocentrism found in highly ethnocentric consumers in many countries. Many nationalists raise questions on buying foreign products? Few people compare these domestic and international products based on the quality. If one conducts the survey based on quality, it is possible that survey will surely have mix responses from different persons.

Consumer ethnocentrism specifically refers to the consumers from different countries, different groups, and ‘n’ views (perceptions) about different products. Consumers may believe that, it is not appropriate and possibly even immoral to buy products from other countries (foreign products). International trade activity is becoming a dominant part of the world economy, and it is recognized that there is a better need to gauge consumer’s attitudes toward both domestic and foreign products. With regard to the customer ethnocentrism, cultural similarity between countries is an issue that may affect consumer ethnocentric tendencies on attitudes toward the foreign products. Individual perceptions of cultures as similar or dissimilar may vary person to person and it may also impact on businesses. In contrast to ethnocentric consumers, non-ethnocentric consumers have been found to place less emphasis on the origin of the product, but rather evaluate foreign products on their own merits, i.e., quality and price. However, if a domestically manufactured product is not available, ethnocentric consumer will have no choice and obviously purchases imported goods.