Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jretconser Do ethnocentric consumers really buy local products? ☆ Hélène Yildiz a , Sandrine Heitz-Spahn b, ⁎ , Lydie Belaud b a CEREFIGE – Université de Lorraine, IUT de Longwy, 186 Rue de Lorraine, 54 400 Cosnes-et-Romain, France b CEREFIGE – Université de Lorraine, IUT de Metz, Ile du Saulcy, 57045 Metz, France ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Ethnocentrism Commitment Local products Purchase behavior Global products ABSTRACT While the impact of consumer ethnocentrism on preference for local products has received extensive attention by researchers, this research provides further understanding by investigating the impact of commitment to a consumer's place of leaving on consumer's attitudes towards local product and on effective purchase of local products. Based on the concept of behavioral commitment from Kiesler's theory (1973), this research shows that a consumer with a high degree of ethnocentrism has a more favorable attitude towards local products than the one committed to his place of life. However, when it comes to effective purchase of local products, a consumer who is strongly committed to his place of life tends to purchase local products more than a consumer with a high level of ethnocentrism. This research contributes to existing research in supporting Kiesler's argument that consumer behavioral commitment has a stronger effect on local product purchase than beliefs (in this case ethnocentrism). In terms of practice, this research may orient retailers, manufacturers and public organizations to strengthen consumers’ commitment to their place of life. 1. Introduction As pointed out by Siamgka and Balbanis (2015), since the last fi- nancial crisis, there has been a worldwide rise in the nationalist dis- course which defends national / local products / companies. This posture can go as far as disrupting the international trade, which has been falling since 2014 despite the global economic recovery (World Bank data base, 1990–2015). This type of nationalist discourse tends to exacerbate consumer ethnocentrism and the literature on ethno- centrism (Xie et al., 2015; Fischer and Zeugner-Roth, 2017) underlines how this variable tends to encourage the consumption of local products. Defined as "the beliefs held by consumers about the appropriateness, indeed morality, of purchasing foreign-made products"(Shimp and Sharma, 1987, p.280), ethnocentrism is manifested through a social value that dis- criminates against products that are manufactured outside the area of the local community (Shimp and Sharma, 1987; Nguyen et al., 2008; Steenkamp and De Jong, 2010; Xie et al., 2015). This construct is related to the literature on the country of origin (COO). Literature in the field of marketing has long stressed the im- portance of the role played by the origin of the product ('country of origin') in consumer purchasing decisions (Schooler, 1965; Tan and Farley, 1987; Peterson and Jolibert, 1995; Kreckova et al., 2012; Strizhakova and Coulter, 2015). As well as price, brand name, or the possibility of a guarantee, the origin of the product is considered as an essential attribute of consumer choice (Papadopoulos and Heslop, 1993). To explain the choices consumers make in the area where they live, researchers have deliberately placed themselves in the cognitive world of the individual. Thus, the preference for local products rather than global products is deeply rooted in the values and beliefs of in- dividuals in relation to their own countries (Nijssen and Douglas, 2011). The COO literature primarily relies on cognitive factors in order to explain the buying preference for local products. However, it is possible to assume that other factors explain this purchasing preference for local products. Yildiz (2007), Julienne (2013) and Yildiz, Heitz-Spahn and Belaud (2017) show that beliefs or attitudes cannot explain any future consumer behavior and that it is necessary to take into account actual behaviors. These results show how behaviors can generate other be- haviors consistent with the former. Moreover, these behaviors can have a greater impact than attitude, as revealed in the study by Yildiz (2007) and confirmed by Julienne (2013) who also demonstrated a higher predictability of behaviors over attitudes and beliefs. Thus, in line with Bourdieu's work on behaviors that engender other behaviors coherent with the first (habitus), and more specifically with reference to Putnam's (2000) work on behavioral civic engagement, we may ask if some behaviors reinforce the importance of other behaviors such as the purchase of local products. In fact, ethnocentrism encourages consumers to choose local https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2018.03.004 Received 25 April 2017; Received in revised form 5 February 2018; Accepted 6 March 2018 ☆ This research did not receive any specific grand from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: helene.yildiz@univ-lorraine.fr (H. Yildiz), sandrine.spahn@univ-lorraine.fr (S. Heitz-Spahn), lydie.belaud@univ-lorraine.fr (L. Belaud). Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 43 (2018) 139–148 0969-6989/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T