CONSUMER ANIMOSITY: DOES IT EXIST IN AFRICA?

Abstract

Globalization has been hailed by some as the panacea of world’s economic, social and political problems. However, the same has had its own challenges and has come to be a topic of major study. One area that has generated interest is the effects of globalization on marketing and specifically consumer behavior. In different parts of the world, consumers have responded differently to products from different countries based on their perceptions about the country of origin. One of the highly debated aspect of consumer behaviour is consumer animosity. Consumer animosity is defined as an individuals’ negative feelings and attitudes toward a specific foreign country that are often developed by various triggers, such as traumatic historical events, economic disputes or even as a result of basic differences in cultural norms and values. This paper addresses consumer animosity and focuses of whether African consumers have animosity tendencies towards products from other countries. It forms a basis for preparation of an empirical study to validate the consumer animosity construct among African consumers and contribute to the ongoing debate of animosity highly studied in USA, Asia and Europe but little in Africa.