Title: Identification with the foreign company: the influence of CSR and consumer ethnocentrism

Authors: Yung-Hwal Park; Carri R. Tolmie; Kevin Lehnert

Addresses: School of Business, Truman State University, 100 East Normal Street, Kirksville, MO 63501, USA ' Martha and Love School of Business, Elon University, 2075 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244, USA ' Seidman College of Business, Grand Valley State University, 50 Front Avenue, Grand Rapids, MI 49504, USA

Abstract: Previous literature has explored how ethnocentrism influences consumers' attitudes and behaviour toward foreign products; however, few studies have explored whether ethnocentrism diminishes the effect of a foreign firm's corporate social responsibility (CSR) on consumers' purchase intention and the role of consumer-foreign company identification in the CSR-purchase intention relationship. Motivated by this gap in the research, the current study explores these relationships using survey data from American consumers. The results reveal that consumer ethnocentrism moderates the effect of CSR on purchase intention. The results also demonstrate that consumers' identification with the foreign company mediates the effect of CSR and purchase intention. Implications for managers of multinational enterprises are discussed, as are avenues for future research.

Keywords: identification with the foreign company; corporate social responsibility; CSR; consumer ethnocentrism; purchase intention.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBE.2017.087933

International Journal of Business Environment, 2017 Vol.9 No.3, pp.210 - 224

Received: 15 Jul 2016
Accepted: 27 Dec 2016
Published online: 13 Nov 2017 *

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