Effects of Consumer Ethnocentrism on Evaluation of Foreign vs. Domestic Brands: A Study of Consumer Behavior in Southeast Europe

The main objective of the pilot project has been to get new insight into the field of international trade and export marketing. We aimed to gain new knowledge of the factors that may impact how consumers from different countries vary in willingness to buy own products (produced in own country) versus imported products (produced from other countries). We have studied how consumers’ attitudes towards divergent countries-of-origin impact their product choice. More specifically the purpose has been to identify factors that influence consumers’ willingness to buy products between neighbouring countries within the SEE region versus willingness to buy products from the West. The analyses especially focus on the negative impact of negative attitudes caused by foregoing warfare between the countries of Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The report present the findings from a survey conducted in these three SEE-countries.