Consumer Behavior Towards Foreign Versus Local Products and Brands: Future Research Directions

This paper reviews five theories explicative of consumer predispositions towards foreign or local products and brands: social identity theory, personal identity theory, cultural identity theory, system justification theory, and categorical cognitive theory. This paper also identifies research questions and adjoining disciplines to propose future directions of research; these directions follow the research stream of consumer culture theory. Moreover, the paper proposes further studies of recent trends in the fourth industrial revolution and the (post-) COVID-19 pandemic setting. These research avenues are particularly noteworthy in the context of developing countries. They may lead to studies of each theory that are sharper, deeper, and more focused and allow the application of adjoining disciplines into consumer behavior studies, especially the consumer culture theory stream.