Imported Product Acceptance when National Origin Is Not an Issue: The Influence of Personal Choice in a Low CETSCALE Environment‪.‬

INTRODUCTION Global business depends upon consumer acceptance of imports; products and services originating outside of the nation or region are commonly among the choices available to consumers. The majority of consumer ethnocentric research has been conducted in high CETSCALE environments, in which clearly-defined nationalistic, patriotic and cultural influences impact the success of imports. This research examines the product perfume among females exclusively in the State of Mississippi in the United States. The researchers cannot identify any predominance by U.S. brand names in the perfume market that could be said to have captured large swaths of the perfume business. Thus, the cultural identity may exist with other consumer products or services may not exist with perfume. Indeed, the use of chic or classy names for perfume products, even the use of languages other than English on perfume containers has nothing to do with product origin. Thus, at least within this market, for this product, are consumer ethnocentric issues an impediment to imports, or instead, is this an easy market to penetrate?