Essay On Ethnocentrism In Malaysia

1.0 Introduction In this chapter, a brief introduction on the background of study, problem statement and significance of the study are discussed. The research objectives and research questions are then listed, hypotheses are outlined and conceptual framework is presented. Finally, variables of this study are defined conceptually and operationally.

1.1 Background of the Study

The Malaysian economy had experienced a rapid growth, with imports and exports of products of every kind at a large scale. Maybank Investment Bank Research (2014) forecasts Malaysia’s exports and import growth in 2014, to improve to 5.9 percent and 8 percent, respectively. However, even though Malaysians are proud that their country’s products are being exported overseas,

Operational Definition of Ethnocentrism

Consumer ethnocentrism will be operationalized via the 6-item “Consumer Ethnocentrism Tendencies Scale (CETSCALE)” with such items “To purchase domestic products instead of imports” and “Preference for domestic products despite the long-term cost implications” will be measured on a 5-point Likert Scale, from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” to represent the beliefs held by consumers in supporting the purchase of domestic products (Jiménez & Martin, 2007).

Conceptual Definition of Perceived Product Quality

Perceived product quality describes consumer’s judgment about a product’s overall excellence or superiority (Tsiotsou, 2006).

Operational Definition of Perceived Product Quality

Perceived product quality is defined as consumers’ judgment of the quality of products based on performance, aesthetics, features, reliability, conformance, durability, serviceability and intangible elements. The level of agreement of 11-item scale with item like “foreign products have good design” will be ranked according to 5-point Likert-scale from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” (Shum,