Consumer boycotts of foreign products: A metric model

Abstract

Even if reactions to foreign goods are measured by means of various conceptual structures, few studies approach the question from the point of view of boycotts. Responding to this scarcity and with the aid of netnography, this study examines antecedents of consumer boycotts of foreign goods. The study considers the degree to what a measurement model is useful for examining this boycott process. When the study examines the boycotting of foreign goods as an individual or social process, the study examines the phenomena of nationalism, xenophobia, country-of-origin, and ethnocentrism as antecedents. The conversion of the dimensions obtained from discourse analysis into items and that were tested by means of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis lead to two discoveries: 1) three basic dimensions - hate against foreign products, citizen consumers and economic independence - influenced decisions to boycott and 2) the second-order model (all constructs load on one construct as consumer boycotting) was more valid than the three first-order models.