Consumer Ethnocentrism in the USA and Wine Choice

Wine consumers have access to ever-expanding choices of domestic and foreign wines. Marketers need to understand consumers’ perceptions regarding the acceptance of foreign wines over wines produced within the United States or locally produced wines. Abundant research exists on country of origin and ethnocentrism as a cue in consumer decision making attributes; however, there is a need to address distinctions of consumer ethnocentrism toward locally sourced food products. The pilot study addresses this gap and examined consumer ethnocentric behaviorism and tested the ethnocentric measures of consumers’ loyalty and preferences toward locally produced wine and wine produced in the U.S. versus imported wine. Using an adapted version of Shimp and Sharma’s (1987) commonly used Consumer Ethnocentric Tendencies Scale (CETSCALE). Data were collected from participants in nine states representing two regions of the U.S. Consumers’ ethnocentric tendencies were not shown to be an influence in the choice of wine.