PhD Event

Events

1st year PhD presentation - Carolina Ferrales

Food ethnocentrism: Multiple groups and implications for Agri-food systems

Info about event

Time

Thursday 23 September 2021,  at 15:00 - 15:45

Location

2628-M211, Aarhus BSS, Aarhus University

Organizer

Department of Management

On 23 September, there will be a 1st year PhD presentation by Carolina Ferrales entitled Food ethnocentrism: Multiple groups and implications for Agri-food systems.

Supervisors: Klaus G. Grunert & Lars Esbjerg
Discussants: John Thøgersen & Irene Pollach

Abstract
Consumer ethnocentrism is defined as the moral bias that consumers may manifest in order not to consume or even show an aversion towards products that they do not consider belonging to their group (Shimp and Sharma, 1987). Both this concept and ethnocentrism have been addressed by the literature on many occasions, regardless, their research continues to expand, as they exceed the idea of territory and spatial proximity, considering social networks and identity (Bizumic, 2019; Fernández-Ferrin et al., 2018; Siamgka and Balabanis, 2015). Likewise, individuals are often members of more than one ethnic group which they identify with (Micevski et al, 2019; Gill, 2000), which leads us to the possibility that consumers have more than one group with respect to which develop ethnocentric behavior without the need to exclude their other groups, but simultaneously, being able to be more ethnocentric with respect to any. As this has not been approached before, there is no instrument to consider multiple groups and their Consumer Ethnocentrism.

Expanding the knowledge of ethnocentric consumers and different groups will allow for more specific considerations of food products and the multiple dimensions of consumers. This could as well enable local producers to establish differentiating characteristics in production and marketing. Specifically, is important to consider that food producers in developing countries have been adversely affected by the dynamics of globalization and economic liberalization (Reardon and Berdague, 2008; Torres-Salcido, 2018). In the case of Mexico, for example, crop varieties have been lost while small and medium sized producers have been forced out of business by multinationals (Kinchy, 2010). For local food producers in undeveloped, the origin of their products might allow them to survive and grow if consumers behave ethnocentrically.

The PhD work is divided into three sequential studies. The first study seeks to analyze if and how it is possible to measure different levels of ethnocentric consumption in relation to multiple groups. In this study, an instrument for measuring multiple levels of consumer ethnocentrism will be developed and tested in accordance with its reliability and nomological validity. Studies two and three will use the instrument developed in the first study, through two studies that involve Multiple Levels Consumer Ethnocentrism, considering other elements of the production chain of local producers and the characteristics of origin indications.