Research co-authored by the assistant professor of international business examines the influence of corporate social responsibility and consumer ethnocentrism.
Carri Tolmie, assistant professor of international business in the Martha and Love School of Business, co-authored the paper titled, “Identification with the foreign company: the influence of CSR and consumer ethnocentrism,” which was published in the Journal of Business Environment.
Tolmie and co-authors Yung-Hwal Park, assistant professor of business administration at Truman State University, and Kevin Lehnert, associate professor of marketing at Grand Valley State University, explored the role ethnocentrism plays in the relationship between a foreign firm’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) and consumers’ purchase intention.
The authors discovered that a socially proactive image of a foreign company increases local consumers’ identification with the firm, which in turn, increases purchase intention. This finding indicates that identification with the foreign firm is an important development in the relationship between CSR and purchase intention.
The paper’s abstract reads:
“Previous literature has explored how ethnocentrism influences consumers’ attitudes and behaviour toward foreign products; however, few studies have explored whether ethnocentrism diminishes the effect of a foreign firm’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) on consumers’ purchase intention and the role of consumer-foreign company identification in the CSR-purchase intention relationship. Motivated by this gap in the research, the current study explores these relationships using survey data from American consumers. The results reveal that consumer ethnocentrism moderates the effect of CSR on purchase intention. The results also demonstrate that consumers’ identification with the foreign company mediates the effect of CSR and purchase intention. Implications for managers of multinational enterprises are discussed, as are avenues for future research.”
Tolmie joined the Love School of Business faculty in 2013 after completing her doctorate in international business and marketing at Saint Louis University. She teaches courses in international business, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, as well as global marketing and business strategy. Her primary research interest is in corporate social responsibility, sustainability and ethics, specifically how these concepts are influenced by culture, consumer perceptions and identification.
The International Journal of Business Environment addresses managerial issues in the social, political, economic, competitive, and technological environments of business. The journal publishes original and practical contributions.