The beginning of this study is related to the master thesis of Vilma Dapkutė “Modelling of Lithuanian consumer ethnocentrism assessment". That was the master project which later evolved into the scientific project funded by the Research Council of Lithuania. The latter has created a scientific basis for this study authors to carry out subsequent research on ethnocentrism. When the study on the phenomenon of ethnocentrism began, the authors discovered that Lithuania is attractive and a good place to study it because of its phenomenal situation. It was interesting to find out whether ethnocentrism exists in the country which is in transition from the soviet to the capitalist society.
Some concerns and hesitations caused the rating scale of consumer ethnocentrism, which has attracted considerable criticism and support at international level. Therefore, was conceived to attempt to create for it a possible alternative - consumer discrimination index, which eventually turned out to be a good profiling tool of the Lithuanian consumer ethnocentric attitudes. Namely, the application of this index succeeded in describing in more detail the phenomenal differences between ethnocentric and non-ethnocentric Lithuanian consumers.
This scientific study consists of three parts. The first (theoretical) part "The inherent features of ethnocentrism: theory and praxis" presents the discussions about the concepts of general ethnocentrism and consumer ethnocentrism. In this part the study conception is developed and the findings of other authors about the consumer ethnocentrism are compared as well as an overview of the main consumer ethnocentrism evaluation theories and practice is presented. This overview is intended theoretically ground the content validity of the tool designed to study the ethnocentric attitudes. The reader in this part will find the descriptions of ethnocentrism and consumer ethnocentrism, their formation attributes and the models of interpretation.
The second (theoretical) part "Lithuanian consumer ethnocentrism" describes the consumer ethnocentrism studies carried out in Lithuania and their results. The Lithuanian consumer ethnic identity, which is considered as one of the key preconditions to encourage consumer tendency towards ethnocentrism, is discussed. In this part the descriptions of Lithuanian consumer profiles determined by the other researchers are also compared. These descriptions were important as an information source designing the research tool for consumer ethnocentrism in Lithuania and were used as survey data interpretation framework.
The third (methodological-empirical) part "Design and results of consumer ethnocentrism in Lithuania" describes the input of study authors to the research of Lithuanian consumer ethnocentrism. This part consists of two logical sections. In the first section, the methodology of conducted studies is described. This methodology covers the description of: the tool used to study the Lithuanian consumer ethnocentrism; the test-re-test methodology and validation outcomes used to validate this tool; the methodology of pilot research; and in depth research methodology of the ethnocentric Lithuanian consumer profile. In the second section, the results of Lithuanian consumer ethnocentrism are discussed. The presentation of results covers the outcomes of the pilot study, description of Lithuanian consumer ethnocentrism model empirical construct and discussion about the empiric-ethnocentric Lithuanian consumer profile. This scientific study is more methodological than empirical, so there's more emphasis on research methodology design. The results of this study are intended for methodological validity demonstration rather than for an empirical description of Lithuanian consumer ethnocentrism.
Keywords: consumer, ethnocentrism, methodology, ethnocentric profile.
Vaitkevičius, S.; Piligrimienė, Ž.; Dapkutė. V. 2013. Vartotojų etnocentrizmas ir jo raiška Lietuvoje (Pilotinio tyrimo rezultatai) : Mokslo studija [elektroninis išteklius]. Vilnius: Lietuvos agrarinės ekonomikos institutas. 168 p. eISBN 978-9955-481-41-6.