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rcle to Portugal, from Ireland to Crete. The grouping
represents a huge array of opportunities because of the size and wealth of the EU. Yet,
there are several challenges to marketers, as there are different cultures present within the
Union. For example, twelve countries are now using a common currency, the Euro, a
reflection of an effort to act as a unique group. However, each country releases its own
Euro bills and coins with a ‘personalized’ side. For instance, in the Netherlands, a coin
may bear a picture of Queen Beatrix, while in France it would show Marianne, the symbol
of the Republic. While the use of the Euro manifests the desire of the people to embrace
one common currency, the majority of the people in the EU seem to hold on to their
cultural heritage (Muller-Peters & Pepermans, 1998).
The objective of the current study is to understand the level of ethnocentrism in France,
a country full of paradoxes. While it was a founding member of the EU and has always
been supportive, France has shown much nationalism. French people have the reputation
of being extremely proud of their country, because of its history, philosophy, art,
architecture, reputation in wine-making, and in fashion (Hampden-Turner & Trompenaars,
1993). Actually, it is the honest opinion of many French men and women that
France has always led the world in cultural matters, such as architecture, painting, music,
cinema, literature, sculpture, mime, theater, and ballet, for example. The French care about
what matters in life—being French. They are convinced of their corporate, moral, and
individual superiority over all others in the world (Yapp & Syrett, 1996). French
consumers have an appetite for foreign products and have welcomed new ideas from
abroad. France has traditionally exported many products and services abroad ranging from
wine to perfume, from atomic reactors to sophisticated movies. But in turn, the nation has
also welcomed goods from other countries, ranging from cars to textiles, from electronic
goods to professional services (Johansson, 1994; ‘Poll: Europe favors US products,’
326 R.G. Javalgi et al. / International Business Review 14 (2005) 325–344
1991). Thus, France provides a useful backdrop upon which to explore consumer
ethnocentrism in the EU.
2. Consumer ethnocentrism
‘Buy French products’ is an example of the ethnocentric buying behavior of the Frenchconsumer. Ethnocentrism was first studied in the 1970 s by sociologists, such as Lewis(1976) and Lynn (1976). These theorists believed that as a social being, a person gives
preferential treatment to members of the groups to which they belong. Subsequently,marketing researchers have drawn from these theories to study what they classified as‘consumer ethnocentrism.’ Ethnocentric people believe that their own group is the center
of their world and will use their own culture as a comparator. The concept ofethnocentrism extends to the field of marketing when one considers factors that influenceand forge consumer behavior. Consumer ethnocentrism is a construct that was developedby researchers on country of origin images and can be defined as ‘the beliefs held by
[American] consumers about the appropriateness, indeed morality, of purchasing foreignmade
products’ (Shimp & Sharma, 1987, p. 287).Research on ethnocentrism has been extensive and concentrated in several areas.
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