Abstract
Recent marketing campaigns have urged American consumers to “Buy American.” Marketers can improve the success of their campaigns if they understand the network of influences that lead American consumers to help threatened domestic workers. Consumers’ cooperation in purchasing domestic products may be viewed as a form of help for American workers whose jobs are threatened by the success of imported products. This study presents a model designed to explain consumers’ willingness to help these workers. Survey data were subjected to structural equation analysis to test the model. Results confirmed willingness to help is influenced by the salience of the problem, identification with the workers, inequity of the situation, felt similarity with the workers, empathy with the workers, and the costs of helping. These findings suggest ways to market the Buy American theme.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Amato, Paul R. 1986. “Emotional Arousal and Helping Behavior in a Real-Life Emergency.”Journal of Applied Social Psychology 16 (7): 633–641.
Amato, Paul R., Robert Ho, and Sonia Partridge. 1984. “Responsibility Attribution and Helping Behaviour in the Ash Wednesday Bushfires.”Australian Journal of Psychology 36 (August): 191–203.
Anderson, James C. and David W. Gerbing. 1988. “Structural Equation Modeling in Practice: A Review and Recommended Two-Step Approach.”Psychological Bulletin 103 (May): 411–423.
Bar-Tal, Daniel. 1976.Prosocial Behavior: Theory and Research. New York: Halsted Press.
Batson, C. Daniel, Michelle H. Bolen, Julie A. Cross, and Helen E. Neuringer-Benefiel. 1986. “Where is the Altruism in the Altruistic Personality?”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 50 (January): 212–220.
Batson, C. Daniel, Pamela J. Cochran, Marshall F. Biederman, James L. Blosser, Maurice J. Ryan, and Bruce Vogt. 1978. “Failure to Help When in a Hurry: Callousness or Conflict?”Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 4 (Winter): 97–101.
Batson, C. Daniel and Jay S. Coke. 1981. “Empathy: A Source of Altruistic Motivation for Helping?” InAltruism and Helping Behavior: Social, Personality, and Developmental Perspectives. Eds. J. Philippe Rushton and Richard M. Sorrentino. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 157–187.
Batson, C. Daniel, Suzanne Pate, Harold Lawless, Paul Sparkman, Scott Lambers, and Bradley Worman. 1979. “Helping Under Conditions of Common Threat: Increased ‘We-Feeling’ or Ensuring Reciprocity?”Social Psychology Quarterly 42 (December): 410–414.
Bentler, Peter M. and Douglas G. Bonett. 1980. “Significance Tests and Goodness of Fit in the Analysis of Covariance Structures.”Psychological Bulletin 88 (November): 588–606.
Bilkey, Warren J. and Erik Nes. 1982. “Country-of-Origin Effects on Product Evaluations.”Journal of International Business Studies 13 (Spring/Summer): 89–99.
Bleda, Paul R., Sharon E. Bleda, Donn Byrne, and Leonard A. White. 1976. “When a Bystander Becomes an Accomplice: Situational Determinants of Reactions to Dishonesty.”Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 12 (January): 9–25.
Bollen, Kenneth A. 1989.Structural Equations with Latent Variables. New York: Wiley.
Byrne, Barbara M. 1989.A Primer of LISREL. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Carlson, Michael and Norman Miller. 1987. “Explanation of the Relation Between Negative Mood and Helping.”Psychological Bulletin 102 (July): 91–101.
Churchill, Gilbert A., Jr. 1979. “A Paradigm for Developing Better Measures of Marketing Constructs.”Journal of Marketing Research 16 (February): 64–73.
Cialdini, Robert B., Donald J. Baumann, and Douglas T. Kenrick. 1981. “Insight from Sadness: A Three-Step Model of the Development of Altruism as Hedonism.”Developmental Review 1 (September): 207–223.
Cicirelli, Victor G. 1983. “Adult Children’s Attachment and Helping Behavior to Elderly Parents: A Path Model.”Journal of Marriage and the Family 45 (November): 815–825.
Coke, Jay S., C. Daniel Batson, and Katherine McDavis. 1978. “Empathic Mediation of Helping: A Two-Stage Model.”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 36 (July): 752–766.
Crawford, John C. and Charles W. Lamb. 1981. “Source Preferences for Imported Products.”Journal of Purchasing and Material Management 17 (Winter): 28–33.
Dickerson, Kitty G. 1982. “Imported Versus U.S.-Produced Apparel: Consumer Views and Buying Patterns.”Home Economics Research Journal 10 (March): 241–252.
Dillin, John. 1992. “Top Retailer Wal-Mart a Target of Strong ‘Buy American’ Push.”The Christian Science Monitor 84 (June 5): 3.
Dovidio, John F. and William N. Morris. 1975. “Effects of Stress and Commonality of Fate on Helping Behavior.”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 31 (February): 145–149.
Duval, Shelley, Virginia H. Duval, and Robert Neely. 1979. “Self-Focus, Felt Responsibility, and Helping Behavior.”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37 (October): 1769–1778.
Ettenson, Richard, Janet Wagner, and Gary Gaeth. 1988. “Evaluating the Effect of Country of Origin and the Made in the U.S.A. Campaign: A Conjoint Analysis.”Journal of Retailing 64 (Spring): 85–99.
Geer, James H. and Lynn Jarmecky. 1973. “The Effect of Being Responsible for Reducing Another’s Pain on Subjects’ Response and Arousal.”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 26 (May): 232–237.
Granzin, Kent L. and Janeen E. Olsen. 1991. “Characterizing Participants in Activities Protecting the Environment: A Focus on Donating, Recycling and Conservation Behaviors.”Journal of Public Policy & Marketing 10 (Fall): 1–27.
Han, C. Min and Vern Terpstra. 1988. “Country of Origin Effects for Uni-National and Bi-National Products.”Journal of International Business Studies 18 (Summer): 235–254.
Hatfield, Elaine, G. William Walster, and Jane A. Piliavin. 1978. “Equity Theory and Helping Relationships.” InAltruism, Sympathy, and Helping: Psychological and Sociological Principles. Ed. Lauren Wispe. New York: Academic Press, 115–139.
Hayden, Shelly R., Thomas T. Jackson, and J. Guydish. 1984. “Helping Behavior of Females: Effects of Stress and Commonality of Fate.”Journal of Psychology 117 (July): 233–237.
Herche, Joel. 1992. “A Note on the Predictive Validity of the CET-SCALE.”Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 20 (Summer): 261–264.
Herting, Jerald R. and Herbert L. Costner. 1985. “Respecification in Multiple Indicator Models.” InCausal Models in the Social Sciences. Ed. Hubert M. Blaylock. New York: Aldine, 321–393.
Hirsch, James S. and Dana Milbank. 1992. “Buy American is Easier Said than Done.”Wall Street Journal 219 (January 28): B1,B5.
Hong, Sung-Tai and Robert S. Wyer. 1989. “Effects of Country-of-Origin and Product Attribute Information on Product Evaluation: An Information Processing Perspective.”Journal of Consumer Research 16 (September): 175–187.
Hoover, Claudia W., Elizabeth E. Wood, and Eric S. Knowles. 1983. “Forms of Social Awareness and Helping.”Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 19 (November): 577–590.
Jasso, Guillermina. 1983. “Social Consequences of the Sense of Distributive Justice: Small-group Applications.” InEquity Theory: Psychological and Sociological Perspectives. Eds. David M. Messick and Karen S. Cook. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 243–294.
Johansson, Johny K., Susan P. Douglas, and Ikujiro Nonaka. 1985. “Assessing the Impact of Country of Origin on Product Evaluations: A New Methodological Perspective.”Journal of Marketing Research 22 (November): 388–396.
Konrad, Walecia, Russell Mitchell, and Laura Zinn. 1992. “Why Leslie Werner Shops Overseas.”Business Week No. 3250 (February 3): 30.
Kramer, Roderick M. and Marilynn B. Brewer. 1984. “Effects of Group Identity on Resource Use in a Simulated Commons Dilemma.”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 46 (May): 1044–1057.
Krebs, Dennis. 1975. “Empathy and Altruism.”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 32 (December): 1134–1146.
Krebs, Dennis and Cristine Russell. 1981. “Role-Taking and Altruism: When You Put Yourself in the Shoes of Another, Will They Take You to Their Owner’s Aid?” InAltruism and Helping Behavior: Social, Personality and Development Perspectives. Eds. J. Philippe Rushton and Richard M. Sorrentino. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 137–165.
Latane, Bibb and John M. Darley. 1976. “Help in a Crisis: Bystander Response to an Emergency.” InContemporary Topics in Social Psychology. Eds. John W. Thibaut, Janet T. Spence, and Robert C. Carson. Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press, 309–332.
Lerner, Melvin H. and Hames R. Meindl. 1981. “Justice and Altruism.” InAltruism and Helping Behavior: Social, Personality and Development Perspectives. Eds. J. Philippe Rushton and Richard M. Sorrentino. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 137–165.
Long, J. Scott. 1983a.Confirmatory Factor Analysis: A Preface to LISREL. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
—————. 1983b.Covariance Structure Models: An Introduction to LISREL. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Lumpkin, James R., John C. Crawford, and Gap Kim. 1985. “Perceived Risk as a Factor in Buying Foreign Clothes.”International Journal of Advertising 4 (Number 2): 157–171.
Mayer, Stephan F., Shelley Duval, Rolf Holtz, and Craig Bowman. 1985. “Self-Focus, Helping Request Salience, Felt Responsibility, and Helping Behavior.”Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 11 (June): 133–144.
McClelland, Gary and John Rohrbaugh. 1978. “Who Accepts the Pareto Axiom? The Role of Utility and Equity in Arbitration Decisions.”Behavioral Science 23 (November): 446–456.
McGee, Robert W. 1989. “The Protectionist Mentality: An Economic and Philosophical Analysis, Part II.”The Mid-Atlantic Journal of Business 26 (Fall): 81–104.
Meyer, John P. and Anne Mulherin. 1980. “From Attribution to Helping: An Analysis of the Mediating Effects of Affect and Expectancy.”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 39 (August): 201–210.
Morgan, William R. and Jack Sawyer. 1976. “Bargaining, Expectations, and the Preference for Equality over Equity.”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 6 (June): 139–149.
Mulaik, Stanley A., Larry R. James, Judith Van Alstine, Nathan Bennett, Sherri Lind, and C. Dean Stilawell. 1989. “Evaluation of Goodness-of-Fit Indices for Structural Equation Models.”Psychological Bulletin 105 (May): 430–445.
Narayana, Chem. 1981. “Aggregate Images of American and Japanese Products: Implications for International Marketing.”Columbia Journal of World Business 16 (Summer): 3–33.
Netemeyer, Richard G., Srinivas Durvasula, and Donald R. Lichtenstein. 1991. “A Cross-National Assessment of the Reliability and Validity of the CETSCALE.”Journal of Marketing Research 28 (August): 320–327.
Obermiller, Carl and Eric Spangenberg. 1989. “Exploring the Effects of Country of Origin Labels: An Information Processing Framework.” InAdvances in Consumer Research. Ed. Thomas K. Srull. Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 454–459.
Ofir, Chezy and Donald R. Lehmann. 1986. “Measuring Images of Foreign Products.”Columbia Journal of World Business 21 (Summer): 105–108.
Olsen, Janeen E. and Kent L. Granzin. 1992. “Gaining Retailers’ Assistance in Fighting Counterfeiting: Conceptualization and Empirical Test of a Helping Model.”Journal of Retailing 68 (Spring): 90–109.
Peterson, Laurie. 1991. “Buy American, But Only Sometimes.”Adweek’s Marketing News 36 (September 2): 9.
Piliavin, Jane A., John F. Dovidio, Samuel L. Gaertner, and Russell D. Clark, III. 1981.Emergency Intervention. New York: Academic Press.
Reisenzein, Rainer. 1986. “A Structural Equation Analysis of Weiner’s Attribution-Affect Model of Helping Behavior.”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 50 (June): 1123–1133.
Rogers, Marian, Norman Miller, F. Stephan Mayer, and Shelley Duval. 1982. “Personal Responsibility and Salience of the Request for Help: Determinants of the Relation Between Negative Affect and Helping Behavior.”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 43 (November): 956–970.
Rugman, Alan M. and Michael V. Gestrin. 1991. “U.S. Trade Laws as Barriers to Globalization.”The World Economy 14 (September): 335–352.
Rushton, J. Philippe. 1981. “The Altruistic Personality.” InAltruism and Helping Behavior: Social, Personality and Development Perspectives. Eds. J. Philippe Rushton and Richard M. Sorrentino. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 251–266.
Schmidt, Greg and Bernard Weiner. 1988. “An Attribution-Affect-Action Theory of Behavior: Replications of Judgments of Help-Giving.”Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 14 (September): 610–621.
Schroeder, David A., John F. Dovidio, Mark E. Sibicky, and Linda L. Matthews. 1988. “Empathic Concern and Helping Behavior: Egoism or Altruism?”Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 24 (July): 333–353.
Schwartz, Shalom H. 1973. “Normative Explanations of Helping Behavior: A Critique, Proposal, and Empirical Test.”Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 9 (July): 349–364.
Shimp, Terence A. and Subhash Sharma. 1987. “Consumer Ethnocentrism: Construction and Validation of the CETSCALE.”Journal of Marketing Research 24 (August): 280–289.
Shotland, R. Lance and Charles A. Stebbins. 1983. “Emergency and Cost as Determinants of Helping Behavior and the Slow Accumulation of Social Psychological Knowledge.”Social Psychology Quarterly 46 (March): 36–46.
Sternquist, Brenda and Lisa A. Phillips. 1991. “Hong Kong, U.S. Retail Buyers Increase Purchase of Imports.”Marketing News 25 (Oct. 14): 7,9.
Stotland, Ezra. 1969. “Exploratory Investigations of Empathy.” InAdvances in Experimental Social Psychology. Volume 4. Ed. Leonard Berkowitz. New York: Academic Press, 271–314.
Taormina, Robert J. and David M. Messick. 1983. “Deservingness for Foreign Aid: Effects of Need, Similarity, and Estimated Effectiveness.”Journal of Applied Social Psychology 13 (September/October): 371–391.
Terpstra, Vern and Ravi Sarathy. 1991.International Marketing. Fifth Edition. Chicago: The Dryden Press.
Waheeduzzaman, A. N. M. and Lawrence J. Marks. 1989. “Halo Effects, Consumer Etho-national Affinity, and Behavioral Intentions: An Extension of the Multi-Attribute Model of Country of Origin Effects.” InProceedings of the American Marketing Association Educators’ Conference. Ed. Paul Bloom. Chicago: American Marketing Association, 252–257.
Walster, Elaine, G. William Walster, and Ellen Berscheid. 1978.Equity: Theory and Research. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Wang, Chih-Kang and Charles Lamb, Jr. 1983. “The Impact of Selected Environmental Forces Upon Consumers’ Willingness to Buy Foreign Products.”Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 11 (Winter): 71–84.
Weiner, Bernard. 1980. “A Cognitive (Attribution)-Emotion-Action Model of Motivated Behavior: An Analysis of Judgments of Help-Giving.”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 39 (August): 186–200.
—————. 1985. “An Attributional Theory of Achievement Motivation and Emotion.”Psychological Review 92 (October): 548–573.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
She received her Ph.D. from the University of Utah. Her research interests include international marketing and channels of distribution. Her work has appeared in theJournal of Business Research, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Retailing, and other marketing journals.
He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. His research interests include the fitness market, consumer logistics, helping behavior, and marketing channels. His research findings have been reported in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science and in various other business and social science journals and proceedings.
He received his Ph.D. from the University of Houston. Dr. Biswas’s work has been published in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Psychology and Marketing, andJournalism Quarterly, as well as other refereed journals.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Olsen, J.E., Biswas, A. & Granzin, K.L. Influencing consumers’ selection of domestic versus imported products: Implications for marketing based on a model of helping behavior. JAMS 21, 307–321 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02894523
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02894523