The impact of country-of-origin labelling and product´s ethnicity on the purchase intention of portuguese individuals

: the moderation effect of patriotism

Abstract

The call to consume domestically produced products from governments and national companies is something consumers are used to. However, the Covid-19 pandemic is bolstering the appeals on patriotic feelings.Patriotism affects the decision to buy domestic products, but the product’s attributes and the buyer’s perceptions also do. This lead us to question if playing on patriotic feelings is optimal for every product. Is it possible that emphasizing the product’s country-of-origin can make consumers aware of an origin they do not associate with the product in question, leading them to purchase another product? This study aimed to answer to this question.The research approach includes secondary and primary data. The latter comprises three studies: a survey to collect products’ ethnicity, interviews to test and confirm the designed stimuli and another survey to assess the hypotheses’ validityFindings suggest that Portuguese consumers have higher purchase intentions for products “made in Portugal” if these are neutral or ethnic associated with Portugal. However, for ethnic products associated with foreign countries, differences were not found on the purchase intentions between domestically produced, imported or without information on their origin. Furthermore, patriotism moderates the relationship between the country-of-origin labeling and purchase intention. Ergo, managers are advised to keep using “made in Portugal” labels together with calls on consumer’s patriotic feelings. However, it is prudent not to do it for ethnic products associated with foreign countries until further research.

Date of Award	3 Feb 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Daniel Fernandes (Supervisor) & Paulo Romeiro (Co-Supervisor)