Management Paper

Consumer Ethnocentrism and Seafood selection in Southern Mississippi

Author: Stephanie Brauchle

Introduction

There are many factors that influence a consumer’s purchase decision. Many economical and environmental factors can alter a consumer choice. This paper examines ethnocentrism and consumer choice in Southern Mississippi and the influences that can affect a purchase decision which include ethnocentrism, sanitation, taste, price, and the all inclusive, quality. Consumer ethnocentrism (CET) is defined as the belief that one’s own culture is superior to others. Ethnocentrism creates a negative bias towards foreign products and a positive bias towards domestic products. This study examines Sanitation should be the most important factor that influences a buyer’s decision. Consumers assume that the food they buy at the grocery store is healthy and without contaminants but they are not knowledgeable that some sanitation operations are deficient.

“Fernie, Hahn, Gerhard, Pioch, and Arnold found that the push to ‘Buy Domestic’ appears to have greater consumer appeal for some product than for others. They found that research suggests that consumer preferences for domestic versus imported products are a function of consumer demographic characteristics, level of consumer ethnocentrism, country or origin, and domestic country bias” (Lambert, 2008 pg 17,18).

Ethnocentrism can be problematic for foreign markets but beneficial for local markets.

This study will show the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and salary, age, and gender. It will also inspect the correlation between education and consumer ethnocentrism. It will show the difference between residents' answers from Gulf Coast seafood and shrimp. The survey will examine if people over 50 years of age put more value on purchasing a fresh product and supporting the economy than the younger people do. The analysis examines if younger consumers focus on the price of...