The effect of consumer ethnocentrism on purchase intention of females towards local skincare products: evidence from Colombo district, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Sri Lanka has been facing consumer ethnocentrism, which can be seen as the tendency to prefer local products. The Sri Lankan skincare industry has a forecasted annual average growth rate of 4.4%, a pattern that can be explained by increased levels of awareness, the spread of ebusiness platforms and the increased disposable income. The current research is aimed at determining how consumer ethnocentrism affects the buying interest of the women consumers in the Colombo District in the context of locally made skincare products. The study adopts the quantitative design to examine the influence of diverse aspects of ethnocentrism, including insecurity, reflexiveness, habituation, cognition and prosociality, on the buying behavior of these local female buyers. An analysis on sample sizes of 317 participants was done, and the regression method was used to test the hypothesized assumptions. The results indicate a positive correlation between the dimensions which have been evaluated and the consumer purchase intention. These findings provide meaningful information to local skincare marketers regarding the possibility of exploiting ethnocentric values to increase product desirability, and such findings provide a theoretical framework for interpreting the dynamics of consumer behavior in a highly growing and developing economy. Further studies can be characterized by the enlargement of geographical areas and the implementation of comparative gender examinations.