Consumer Ethnocentrism : Validating the CETSCALE in India

Abstract

Several researchers have extensively employed Consumer Ethnocentric Tendencies Scale (CETSCALE) to measure consumer ethnocentrism in cross-cultural settings albeit generally in the context of developed economies. Thus, the present study makes an attempt to assess its validity and reliability in the context of an emerging economy like India. In this sense, the main purpose of this paper is to validate the CETSCALE as a measure of Indian consumers’ ethnocentric tendencies. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) results showed the CETSCALE is not unidimensional in the Indian context. The researchers proceeded with Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to assess the unidimensionality and validity of the CETSCALE in India. CFA revealed that the 17-item single factor model suggested by Shimp and Sharma (1987) was not found to be a universally “good ?t” solution for India. A large geographically dispersed sample of 403 respondents was relied upon to refine the original 17-item measure to obtain a better fitting 6-item unidimensional scale with the help of CFA. The fit indices of the modified 6-item CETSCALE were much better therefore proving that it measures a unidimensional construct and is a better measure of Indian consumers ethnocentric tendencies.

Keywords : Consumer Ethnocentrism, CETSCALE, Validity, Reliability, EFA, CFA.

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