Attitudes of Turkish Consumers toward Foreign Products in Political Crises Period

Abstract

This study aims to understand the attitudes of Turkish consumers toward foreign products in diplomatic crisis period. With this aim, at first, demographic characteristics of the consumers identified and then the relationship between independent variables which are consumer ethnocentrism and consumer animosity, and dependent variable which is willingness to buy foreign products is determined. In addition, the effect of product judgment as a moderator on the relationship between willingness to buy foreign products and consumer ethnocentrism and animosity is explored. Convenience sampling method was used in the study. Data was collected from students in Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences of Afyon Kocatepe University as based on voluntary basis. The data were collected between 20.10.2015 and 02.11.2015 and within this time period, it was reached to 418 students, totally. Thus, these 418 students in Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences became the sample of the research. Research findings show, different from the many researches in the literature, that consumer ethnocentrism, and consumer animosity do not negatively affect the willingness to buy foreign products even in a case when Turkey has a diplomatic problem with some countries. So the previous findings about the consumer ethnocentrism and the consumer animosity are challenged with the findings of this study within Turkey context. In this sense, this study contributes to the literature scholarly, by offering new findings about the existing constructs within different country context.