Cosmopolitanism, Materialism, Consumer Ethnocentrism and Consumer Behaviour: Evidence from Aboriginal Tripuri Tribe of India

Culture plays an important and complex role in shaping consumer behaviour. This article attempts to appraise the role of culture in determining consumer behaviour of the aboriginal Tripuri tribes. Cultural aspects are measured by three globalization-linked cultural dispositions: cosmopolitanism (COSMO), materialism (MAT) and consumer ethnocentrism (CET). Consumer behaviour is measured by the importance a consumer attaches to purchase/use of a particular product. A total of 39 product items from seven product categories are evaluated. The categories included are global foods, global fashion, local foods, luxury items, appliances, technology and electronic items, and networking platforms. Collecting and analysing data from 702 Tripuri tribes, this study concludes that CET is the most dominant construct among Tripuri tribes. CET and COSMO also had significant roles in shaping consumer behaviour. COSMO is observed to have a significant positive association with both MAT and CET. No significant association is observed between MAT and CET. Tripuri tribes’ income class, religious belief, nature of residential location and dominating culture of the location are observed to have significant impact on shaping COSMO, MAT and CET tendencies. The study also concludes that it is not desirable for firms to utilize generalized findings related to impact of globalization-linked cultural dispositions in shaping consumer behaviour in their marketing strategy for specific niche groups like aboriginal tribes in India