Antecedents of purchase intentions in growing and declining markets: empirical evidence from China and Greece

This study investigates consumer ethnocentrism, brand equity, brand origin confusion and customer involvement’s impact on purchase intentions between domestic and import shampoo brands amongst Chinese and Greek consumers. It seeks to validate a new measurement scale–CEESCALE and test political event’s influence on consumer ethnocentrism. Street surveys were conducted in Guangzhou and Athens with a total of 257 and 211 questionnaires collected respectively. Regression analysis and structural equation modeling were employed for the data analysis. The findings validate the CEESCALE as a reliable multidimensional scale to measure consumer ethnocentrism in China and Greece. The sub-dimensional impact of consumer ethnocentrism on purchase intentions varied between Chinese and Greek consumers. Compare to consumer ethnocentrism, product involvement and brand origin confusions, brand equity’s effect on purchase intentions are more consistent. Political event only strengthened Chinese consumers’ ethnocentric beliefs.