Living in a Global World: Influence of Consumer Global Orientation on Attitudes Toward Global Brands from Developed Versus Emerging Countries

Despite increasing attention to consumers in developing markets, few studies explicitly explore the psychological mechanisms underlying their attitudes toward global brands from developed versus developing countries. The author proposes that global orientation, including global consumption orientation and global identity, are key factors accounting for the attitude variance. The results of Studies 1 and 2 in China show that consumers' global orientation positively influences their attitudes toward global brands of developed-country origin. In addition, ethnocentrism negatively influences their attitudes toward these brands, but this effect diminishes for consumers with high global identity. Study 3 strengthens these findings by ruling out the alternative explanation that imports, not global brands, drive such results. Finally, Study 4 indicates that Indian consumers yield a similar pattern to Chinese consumers with regard to the global orientation effect, but the study reveals a relatively weak influence of ethnocentrism.