Browsing by Author "Pentz, Christian Donald"

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    A study of consumer attitudes towards mail order catalogue marketing
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 1996) Pentz, Christian Donald; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of . Dept. of .
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    Consumer ethnocentrism and attitudes towards domestic and foreign products : a South African study
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2011-12) Pentz, Christian Donald; Terblanche, N. S.; Boshoff, Christo; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Business Management.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The continued growth of international trade has resulted in levels of global product availability that is not only unprecedented, but would have been regarded as impossible not too long ago. Products of almost every conceivable national origin are now readily available in numerous countries throughout the world. Because the “country of origin” label of a product is a factor that could influence the buying behaviour of consumers, prescient international marketers know that they need to investigate consumer attitudes toward both domestic and imported products and the findings of these investigations should be used to formulate more effective marketing strategies. Previous research into the “country of origin” phenomenon has focused on consumer ethnocentrism as a possible reason why consumers would buy a domestic rather than an imported product. The basic premise of the concept of consumer ethnocentrism is that the attitudes and purchase intentions of consumers can be influenced by what could be called nationalistic emotions. In short, consumer ethnocentrism implies that consumers might regard the purchase of foreign products as “wrong”, as it might harm the domestic economy and result in job losses in industries that compete with imports. As a result, consumer ethnocentrism has been actively researched in developed countries in particular, but there seems to be a dearth of knowledge about consumer ethnocentrism in developing countries. This study‟s primary objective is therefore to investigate consumer ethnocentrism in a developing country, in this case South Africa. The study is based on a review of the literature, covering aspects such as marketing, consumer behaviour, globalisation and especially the phenomena of country of origin and consumer ethnocentrism. The literature review was followed by an empirical, survey-based study investigating consumer ethnocentrism in South Africa. A novel contribution of this study is that consumer ethnocentrism was investigated among different racial groups in the same country. This was done to assess whether there are significant similarities and/or differences between different racial groups in terms of consumer ethnocentrism and any of the attitudinal variables relevant to international marketing. A conceptual model (containing sixteen variables) was developed as a guideline from the literature review to investigate consumer ethnocentrism and how it could influence the attitudes of South African consumers (of different races) towards the import of foreign products (Chinese clothing in this case) and ultimately the willingness of these consumers to buy imported clothing. A questionnaire was subsequently developed to collect data from a sample of black and a sample of white South African respondents. An exploratory factor analysis of the data was done and the results indicated that for the samples of both black and white respondents, the original number of variables (excluding demographic variables) that drive consumer ethnocentrism could be reduced to ten. These variables were exactly the same for both sub-samples studied. The proposed theoretical model was also empirically tested by means of the structural equation modelling technique. The result of these tests was the creation of structural models for both sub-samples, illustrating all the variables and indicators of the measurement model and the structural relationships among the different variables. From the results it is clear that even though there were differences in terms of the impact of a number of antecedents on consumer ethnocentrism, the two sub-samples responded in a relatively similar way. The results also indicated that the antecedents, cultural openness, patriotism, individualism, age, income, attitude towards human rights and history of oppression, were regarded as antecedents for consumer ethnocentrism by both sub-samples. The differences confirmed were that the sample of white respondents also regarded nationalism and gender as predictors of consumer ethnocentrism. The results also revealed that black respondents seemed to be more ethnocentric than their white counterparts. From the results it seems that, due to the differences between the two sub-samples of this study, marketing strategies related to consumer ethnocentrism should not be identical for white and black South African consumers. Based on the results, a number of marketing strategies that could be implemented by both local and international marketers for the South African market are proposed.
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    To bu(Y) or not to bu(Y) : perceived risk barriers to online shopping among South African generation Y consumers
    (Cogent OA, 2020) Pentz, Christian Donald; Du Preez, Ronel; Swiegers, Liezel
    In South Africa the adoption and growth of online shopping is relatively slow. The primary objective of this study was to investigate possible perceived risk barriers that might influence the online shopping behaviour of technologically enabled Generation Y South African consumers. Perceived risk was investigated by means of an online questionnaire in the context of high-involvement products (clothing), and low-involvement products (books). Consideration was also given to experienced and inexperienced online consumers. Results indicate that, for experienced online shoppers, the dimensions of perceived risk that showed significant relationships with their online repurchase intention were psychological risk and social risk (both retailer reputation and social influences), for clothing and books. Time risk was furthermore significant for experienced consumers in terms of books. For inexperienced online shoppers, results showed that financial risk and social risk (retailer reputation), had a significant relationship with online purchase intention for clothing and books. In addition, an equal size multi group analysis between the experienced and inexperienced online consumers for books, indicated no significant differences in the relationship between all the perceived risk dimensions and purchase/repurchase intent. For clothing significant differences were found for the relationships between financial risk and psychological risk and purchase/repurchase intent. The insights gained from the findings can be used by South African online retailers to improve their understanding of technologically enabled consumers and develop more focused and effective marketing strategies to grow online shopping.