Comparison Study on Impacts of Chinese Consumers' Ethnocentrism on Purchase Behavior to Green Automobiles form Korea and U.S.

Abstract

Purpose - China is one of the most fast-growing green automobile market. However, it is not easy to enter the Chinese green automobile market for global automaker companies. One of the entry barriers into Chinese green automobile market is Chinese consumers’ ethnocentrism. Political and economic conflicts between China and major exporting countries seem further intensify the ethnocentrism of Chinese consumers. Therefore, the study tries to empirically test whether the Chinese consumer ethnocentrism negatively affect consumers’ attitude and behavior to Korean vs. U.S. green automobiles. Design/Methodology/Approach - The study collected 423 Chinese consumer samples at the automobile exhibition in China and analyze the data using structural equation modeling with AMOS22. Findings - The study results show that Chinese consumer ethnocentrism is negatively related with product perceived social value and trust for Korean green automobiles, while Chinese consumer ethnocentrism is negatively related with only product perceived social value for U.S. green automobiles. Meanwhile, Chinese consumer ethnocentrism has no significant impacts on purchase intention for Korean and U.S. green automobiles. Research Implications - The study results serve an evidence how global green automobile companies respond to consumer ethnocentrism in China. The study also presents theoretical and practical implications for building a successful international marketing strategy for green automobile market in China.