Title: Attitude towards foreign product purchase: Malaysian consumers' perspective

Authors: Khairul Anuar Mohammad Shah; Hazril Izwar Ibrahim; Nurliyana Maludin; Zurina Ismail

Addresses: School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia 11800 USM, Penang, Malaysia ' School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia 11800 USM, Penang, Malaysia ' Department of Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Business and Finance (FBF), Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Perak Campus), Jalan Universiti, Bandar Barat, 31900 Kampar, Perak, Malaysia ' Institute of Energy Policy and Research (IEPRe), Universiti Tenaga Nasional, 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract: The current research examined Malaysian consumers' attitudes towards foreign product purchase. Specifically, the study investigated the consumers' attitude, which is characterised by boycott, animosity, ethnocentrism, patriotism, and world- mindedness towards foreign made products. The study also examined how these constructs can affect consumers' foreign product judgment and willingness to purchase such products. In total, 512 responses were collected from the states of Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Melaka and Terengganu. The goodness of fit analysis and hypotheses testing were performed using SEM-PLS software. The findings exhibited that consumer patriotism and consumer world-mindedness mediated the relationship between product judgement and purchase willingness. The results also indicated that consumers with attitude of animosity and ethnocentrism negatively perceived foreign made products and consumers with world-mindedness attitude positively perceived foreign made products. As expected, only world-mindedness was positively related to purchase willingness. Finally, discussion for future direction and managerial implications are highlighted.

Keywords: consumer attitudes; purchase willingness; product judgement; foreign made products; Malaysia; consumer boycott; consumer animosity; consumer ethnocentrism; consumer patriotism; consumer world mindedness; product judgement; consumer attitude; willingness to purchase; Malaysian consumers.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2021.115492

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2021 Vol.21 No.4, pp.533 - 549

Received: 28 Apr 2019
Accepted: 29 Apr 2020
Published online: 07 Jun 2021 *

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