Relationships between Brand Perception, Ideology and Consumer Ethnocentrism in Post-Communist Romania

The present study seeks to empirically test the relationship between ideological orientation, consumer ethnocentrism, brand perception, and demographic factors in Romania. Since previous studies have not empirically examined these relationships, the present study therefore contributes to filling this research gap. The results show a strong link between communist ideology and consumer ethnocentrism and between the ethnocentric tendency of the Romanian consumers and their brand perception. Furthermore, demographic characteristics, like gender, age and education, seem to moderate the ideological orientations as well as the degree of ethnocentrism and brand perception. Additionally, the decomposition of the ethnocentric statements in the CETSCALE into 3 component factors adds value to existing research knowledge in the field since previous studies have been based on uni-dimensional or two factor estimates.