Consumers’ Ethnocentrism and Perception of Country-Of-Origin of Automobiles: Evidence from Nigeria

Abstract

The Nigerian Automotive Industry is one sector that has recently sprung up as foreign investors are establishing automotive factories coupled with indigenous efforts like the Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company at Nnewi, Anambra State. Automobiles are high involvement products that require adequate planning and saving before a purchase decision is made. In arriving at a purchase decision, paramount among the considerations is quality and price. Nigerians high preference for foreign products against locally manufactured ones is a concern to the government and policy makers especially the patronage of locally manufactured automobiles in the face of competing foreign brands.  This therefore makes country-of-origin (COO) effects an interesting area for marketing researchers. This study is aimed at understanding the perception of Nigerian automobiles users towards made in Nigeria automobiles. Specifically, it compared country image perception of locally manufactured automobiles against four (4) selected foreign brands and ethnocentric tendencies for the patronage of locally manufactured automobiles. SPSS 21 was used for the analysis which utilised descriptive statistics and ANOVA. The study found that automobiles manufactured in developed economies were rated higher than the ones from developing economies. An interesting finding of the study is that a segment, that is, ethnocentric Nigerians prefer locally manufactured automobiles to foreign ones. It is also revealed that though this segment prefers quality but are willing to pay more in order to sustain the industry for job creation and economic development. It is therefore recommended that the government and industry regulators should provide incentives to the automobiles manufacturers like tax holidays while increasing tax on foreign brands, amidst other recommendations.

Keywords: Ethnocentrism, quality, price, country-of-origin, locally made, product image, perception, automobiles