1. Introduction
With the rise of anti-globalization, regional protectionism, and nationalist discourse worldwide, there has been a growing trend of defending domestic products and companies. For instance, in 2017, former President Donald Trump signed an executive order called “Buy American, Hire American”, aimed at supporting domestic products and companies [
1]. Similarly, in 2021, the incumbent president Biden signed an executive order titled “Ensuring the Future is Made in All of America by All of America’s Workers” [
2]. Many other countries, including Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam, South Africa, and China, have also launched similar campaigns to promote domestic products and companies [
3].
Given the great importance of promoting domestic products, many studies have investigated the influencing factors of domestic purchasing intention and behavior, including product characteristics [
4], consumer demographics [
5], consumer characteristics [
6], and cultural factors [
7]. However, there is still a research gap in understanding the role that social influence plays in this.
Social norms, which refer to the rules and standards that are shared by members of a group, are the most typical social influence [
8]. In this research, social norms refer to the perception, attitudes, and behaviors about domestic purchasing that are approved of and expected by the majority of people in society. Previous studies have confirmed that social norms have an impact on domestic purchasing intention and behavior [
9,
10,
11]. However, no study has investigated the mechanism of the effect. The current study aims to examine the mechanisms of social norms’ effect on domestic purchasing intention. Based on previous research showing that social norms affect people’s behavior in four ways, we come up with the four paths through which social norms influence domestic purchasing intention, i.e., the direct path, the motivational path, the cognitive path, and the motivational–cognitive path. Consumer ethnocentrism and domestic product judgments represent the motivational factor and cognitive factor, respectively.
This research employed a questionnaire survey to measure variables and path analysis and a mediation test to examine the data. The advantage of this method is that it not only provides information about the direct relationships between variables but also enables the examination of indirect effects. Additionally, simultaneously including different paths in the model allows for mutual control of the variables. In the current study, the direct effect of social norms on domestic purchasing intention and the mediating effects and serial mediating effect of consumer ethnocentrism and domestic product judgments on the relationship between social norms and domestic purchasing intention are examined.
The current study is the first empirical investigations to explore the mechanisms of social norms’ effect on domestic purchasing intention. Moreover, coming up with the four paths through which social norms influence domestic purchasing intention and simultaneously examining them in the same model is a novelty. This research can fill the current gap in knowledge on how domestic consumption is affected by social influence and help policy makers and marketers to develop targeted strategies and interventions to promote domestic consumption.
This research takes China as the research object, because China has a large consumer market which plays an important role in the world economy; people in China accept the idea that domestic purchasing is the socially desirable way of consumption [
12]; and social norms about purchasing domestic products have an impact on people’s consumption behavior [
13]. It is worth mentioning that although the specific objectives of the campaigns promoting domestic products may vary across countries, encompassing economic, social, and environmental dimensions, they can all play a role in domestic purchasing intention and behavior through social norms.
5. Discussion
The current study reveals that social norms affect domestic purchasing intention through four paths, i.e., the direct path, motivational path, cognitive path, and motivational–cognitive path. In addition, this research shows that consumer ethnocentrism has two dimensions, i.e., pro-domestic and anti-foreign consumer ethnocentrism, and they function differently in the model.
Specifically, this research shows that social norms are positively related to domestic purchasing intention, and their direct effect on domestic purchasing intention is significant, which is consistent with H1 and previous studies [
9,
10,
11]. The results support the theory of planned behavior, showing that social norms are important predictors of people’s behavioral intentions [
19].
Social norms are positively related to pro-domestic consumer ethnocentrism and pro-domestic consumer ethnocentrism is positively related to domestic purchasing intention. The mediating effect of pro-domestic consumer ethnocentrism is significant, while it is not significant for anti-foreign consumer ethnocentrism, which is consistent with H2 and previous studies [
38,
39,
40]. These results support social cognition theory and norm activation theory, i.e., people will internalize social norms as their personal norms (pro-domestic consumer ethnocentrism) through social learning, and personal norms are the direct predictor of people’s behavioral intention [
30,
33]. The results further validate norm activation theory, which indicates that social norms can impact behavioral intention indirectly through personal norms [
66]. The “social norms-personal norms-consumer behavior” link has been tested in many fields, such as organic food consumption [
26,
31,
32] and fair trade products consumption [
25]. This research is the first to apply this theory to domestic product consumption.
Social norms are positively related to domestic product judgments, and domestic product judgments are positively related to domestic purchasing intention. Domestic product judgments play a significant mediating role. The results are consistent with H3 and previous studies [
41,
47], supporting attribution theory and the hypothesis of the economic man, i.e., people will attribute the fact that most people buy domestic products to their high quality to some extent, and better product judgments lead to higher purchasing intention [
44].
Pro-domestic consumer ethnocentrism is positively related to domestic product judgments. The two factors have a sequential mediating effect on the relationship between social norms and domestic purchasing intention, while anti-foreign consumer ethnocentrism does not. These results are consistent with H4 and previous studies [
52,
56], supporting social identity theory, i.e., people who are identified with a group will have an in-group preference [
22]. The results confirm that motivations influence cognitions and these factors function together in consumer behavior [
47,
67].
The current research shows that consumer ethnocentrism has two dimensions in China, namely, pro-domestic and anti-foreign consumer ethnocentrism. The mean score of the former is higher than midpoint 4, while the mean score of the latter is lower than 4. These results confirm previous studies conducted in China and are consistent with the situations in other countries, including Azerbaijan and Greece [
5,
55,
59]. Moreover, this research finds that pro-domestic consumer ethnocentrism has a great impact on domestic product judgments and domestic purchasing intention, while anti-foreign consumer ethnocentrism does not. This is because anti-foreign consumer ethnocentrism solely represents a negative attitude towards purchasing foreign products, which does not necessarily imply a positive attitude towards buying domestic ones. Domestic purchasing intention can be influenced by numerous other factors. Hence, even if consumers hold negative attitudes towards foreign products, they will still take into account other factors to make their purchasing decisions. The different effects of the two dimensions of consumer ethnocentrism on domestic product judgments and domestic purchasing intention are consistent with previous studies [
56,
58].
5.1. Contributions and Implications
The current study has theoretical contributions. Firstly, it is the first to explore the mechanisms of social norms’ effect on domestic purchasing intention, making up for the lack of empirical results and expanding the application of related theories, such as norm activation theory; secondly, it is the first to investigate the effects of the two dimensions of consumer ethnocentrism on domestic product judgments and domestic purchasing intention at the same time, and it is the first to explore the effects of the two dimensions of consumer ethnocentrism on domestic product judgments in China, increasing the knowledge on Chinese consumers and enriching the literature on consumer ethnocentrism.
This research has practical contributions. Firstly, it shows a significant direct effect of social norms on domestic purchasing intention. This suggests that administrators can cultivate pro-domestic social norms by issuing pro-domestic policies or using celebrity endorsement to promote people’s domestic purchasing intention. Secondly, it indicates a significant mediating effect of pro-domestic consumer ethnocentrism, instead of anti-foreign consumer ethnocentrism. This reminds us to pay attention to the internalization of social norms and to distinguish the different dimensions of consumer ethnocentrism. Appropriate policies should be set up to encourage people to support domestic products without excluding foreign ones, which will benefit both domestic and international economies. Thirdly, it demonstrates a significant mediating effect of domestic product judgments, suggesting that more attention should be paid to improving the quality of domestic products and expanding the influence of domestic brands.
5.2. Limitations and Future Studies
The current research is not without limitations. Firstly, it uses cross-sectional data, which can only claim correlational relationships. Future studies can conduct experiments to indicate causal relationships. Secondly, it adopts a general construct of social norms, which cannot distinguish the effects of different types. Future studies can divide social norms into pro-domestic social norms and anti-foreign social norms, or descriptive social norms and injunctive social norms to obtain more specific results. Thirdly, it measures purchasing intention only. Future studies can measure real purchasing behavior to obtain more concrete conclusions. Fourthly, it uses a convenience sample in China, which limits the generalizability of the results to some extent. Future studies can verify the relationships in other samples or other cultures to improve the external validity of the current findings.
6. Conclusions
The current study reveals that social norms affect domestic purchasing intention through four paths, i.e., the direct path, motivational path, cognitive path, and motivational–cognitive path. Consumer ethnocentrism and domestic product judgments, as the motivational factor and the cognitive factor, respectively, play mediating and serial mediating roles in the relationship between social norms and domestic purchasing intention. In addition, consumer ethnocentrism has two dimensions, i.e., pro-domestic and anti-foreign consumer ethnocentrism, and only the former plays a significant role in the model. This research has theoretical contributions to research on domestic purchasing intention and practical implications for interventions in domestic purchasing behavior.