A Global Investigation into the Constellation of Consumer Attitudes toward Global and Local Products

Abstract

In this article, the authors introduce attitude toward global products (AGP) and attitude toward local products (ALP) as generalized attitudinal constructs and address the four issues these constructs raise: (1) How are AGP and ALP related to each other? (2) What is the motivational structure underlying AGP and ALP? (3) Is the proposed theory culturally circumscribed, or does it generalize across countries? and (4) What are the managerially relevant implications of these consumer attitudes? To answer these questions, the authors propose and empirically test an integrated structure for AGP and ALP and their antecedents, organized around the powerful motivational concept of values. They test their theory using a unique data set involving 13,000 respondents from 28 countries in the Americas, Asia, and Europe, thus allowing for a global investigation of a global issue. The study findings provide managers with strategic direction on how to market their products in a globalized world.