The effects of nationalism and economic nationalism on consumer ethnocentrism in the Maltese wine industry

Abstract

The following study investigates the levels of generic nationalism, economic nationalism and consumer ethnocentrism in Malta. The main aim is to find a relationship between nationalism and ethnocentrism, and economic nationalism and ethnocentrism. Wine was chosen for the purposes of the study as an exemplary Maltese product, mainly because it represents an industry, which received a blow, due to the abolition of importation taxes upon Malta's accession to the European Union in 2004. The Shimp and Sharma CET Scale ( 1987) was utilized in order to measure consumer ethnocentrism. This scale has been proven and tested in various studies and countries. Parts of the Nationalism Scale, devised by Kosterman and Feshbach (1989), were taken to measure nationalism, while the Economic Nationalism Scale proposed by Baughn and Y aprak (1996) was used to test economic nationalism. The results show that Maltese do not hold either generic or economic nationalistic tendencies and are non-ethnocentric consumers. The study also shows that both types of nationalism influence consumer ethnocentrism. This further supports findings of previous studies, which posit that a relationship between generic nationalism and consumer ethnocentrism does exist. Some classificatory variables (gender, age, education and wine consumption) are also examined in relation to nationalism and ethnocentrism. For future research it is important to note one major limitation in this study; both questionnaires testing generic and economic nationalism did not translate well to the Maltese situation, displaying very low statistical reliability. While in the USA these scales have proven to be successful they might not be applicable to smaller countries.