Unveiling the psychological drivers of home-country Bias: Implications for passengers' behaviours toward national and foreign airlines

Abstract

Despite strong field evidence highlighting the significant role of home-country bias in airline travel markets, academic and empirical research into its underlying psychological drivers remains limited. In light of ongoing geopolitical and economic disruptions, this study seeks to examine key psychological antecedents of home-country bias—specifically, passengers' national identity and ethnocentrism—and their influence on passengers' behaviours toward national versus foreign airlines. Additionally, the study investigates how passengers' perceptions of price fairness can moderate the potential effects of these constructs on passengers' actual purchase behaviour. Data were collected from 411 international passengers and analyzed using CFA and SEM via AMOS software. The findings indicate that national identity and ethnocentrism exert distinct and significant influences on passengers' behaviours toward both national and foreign airlines. Moreover, passengers' perceptions of price fairness were found to moderate the impact of these psychological factors on actual purchase decisions. The study concludes with outlining its theoretical contributions to the travel and hospitality literature and implications for airline service marketers.