Some Factors Influence the Willingness to Buy Thai Products – A Case Study in Vietnam

Abstract

As a predominant trend, the globalisation of markets continuously imposed opportunities and challenges on international firms competing in the huge global market. Due to the predominant trend facilitating foreign purchasing by consumers across national borders, consumers’ sentiments are emerging as essential and prevailing elements to investigate when explaining consumption behaviours. This research aims to empirically test the effect of consumer ethnocentrism, consumer cosmopolitanism, consumer affinity, and consumer xenocentrism on foreign product judgements and willingness to buy. In the context of Thai product purchasing, data analysis was performed based on 687 valid responses from Vietnamese consumers, which were gathered via an online survey. The result indicated that 45.3% of the variance in the willingness to buy construct and 9% of the variance in the product judgement construct were explained by related independent variables. Accordingly, the research empirically confirmed the positive impacts of consumer affinity and the negative influence of consumer ethnocentrism on willingness to buy Thai products. Empirical evidence supports the positive relationship between consumer cosmopolitanism and foreign product judgements. Notably, based on prior scholars’ recommendations and scant empirical evidence, this research examined and confirmed a significant positive impact of consumer xenocentrism on both willingness to buy and judgements towards foreign products. Constructive managerial implications were hence discussed.