Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
ABSTRACT Through technological advances in winemaking, New World wine‐producing countries have achieved wines of comparable or superior quality relative to traditional European producers. Nevertheless, the symbolic value associated with European wines may still outweigh that of domestic products, particularly in countries where historical sociocultural structures foster a preference bias toward the outgroup at the expense of the ingroup, which underlies consumer xenocentrism (C‐XEN). This study examined whether presenting the intrinsic quality of a New World wine as superior to an Old World wine influences purchase intentions through C‐XEN. Hypotheses were tested with a representative sample of consumers in an experimental setting, where the intrinsic quality of foreign versus domestic wines was compared through expert and science‐based information. Building on a social identity–system justification framework, this study identified the conditions under which these effects occur by employing moderators (product involvement, trust in science, material self). Consistent with Social Identity Theory, the findings indicate that superior quality reduced C‐XEN. Yet, this reduction did not translate into significantly higher purchase intentions for the domestic wine. According to System Justification Theory, this indicates that self‐enhancement and social‐aggrandizement motives associated with choosing foreign wine remain strong despite quality. Theoretically, the study advances understanding of C‐XEN by demonstrating how scientific quality information can reduce this preference bias and by suggesting avenues for research to explore how System Justification processes can be further challenged. Practically, it suggests that marketers can promote domestic products through expert‐ and science‐based communication, offering a pathway to attenuate C‐XEN without undermining social‐signaling motives.
Cassago et al. (Thu,) studied this question.