Urban adult Chinese consumers favour foreign products? An investigation of the effects of Country of Origin and Consumer Ethnocentrism on product preference and willingness to buy.

Since the then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping introduced the „open door‟ policy, the Chinese
economy has experienced rapid economic growth for over 30 years. It has now surpassed
Japan as the world‟s second largest economy. (Bloomberg, 2010) Mainland China has fast
developed into one of the world‟s largest consumer market. It had already proved its worth by
becoming the second biggest luxury goods market, and is expected to become the largest in
next five to seven years. (Boston Consulting Group, 2009) Further encouraged by Chinese
central government‟s policy to stimulate domestic consumption, that is to shift from an export
oriented economy into a more balanced development model, China presents a tremendous
opportunity to both Chinese and foreign companies.
This study is to investigate the impact of Country of Origin (COO) and Consumer
Ethnocentrism (CE) on Urban Adult Chinese Consumers‟ (UACC) product preference and
willingness to buy. To put it in plain terms, it will seek to clarify whether UACC prefer
foreign products or Chinese products and investigate the rationale for such decisions