Product-specific regional image as a moderator of regional identity and consumer

regiocentrism effects on wine purchasing behaviour

Sandra Pestar Bizjak, Hristo Hristov, Aleš Kuhar

Abstract
Consumer ethnocentrism and national identity are constructs deriving from social identity theory which address
the importance of place of origin in consumer behavior where consumers prefer products from their own
country. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of consumer regiocentrism and regional identity
on wine purchasing behavior. Further, we aimed to understand the influence of wine-specific regional image on
the perception and wine purchasing behavior. A sample of 221 residents from two Slovenian wine regions who
at least occasionally buy and drink wine filled in an online questionaire. To measure consumer regiocentrism and
regional identity adapted versions of CETSCALE and regional identity scales were used. Once realiability and
validity of constructs were established, hypotheses were tested. Consumer regiocentrism and regional identity
scores in two studied regions were similar, however only in wine region Podravje it was shown that those
consumers who had higher scores of consumer regiocentrism and regional identity were more likely to buy wine
from their own wine region. Contrary, respondents from region Primorska purchased majority of wine in the last
year from their home wine region independently of levels of consumer regiocentrism and regional identity,
which could be a consequence of very positive wine-specific regional image. Our study confirms that product
perception is influenced by product-specific regional image and we propose that when product-specific regional
image is very positive, consumer regiocentrism and regional identity scores seem to be less relevant in wine
purchasing decisions.

Introduction
Regionality of food products has become important criterion for European consumers in their product evaluation
and purchasing decisions (Lorenz et al., 2015). Aim of this study was to identify opportunities to tailor
marketing approach to a region-of-origin level considering the effects of regional identity and consumer
regiocentrism on wine purchasing behavior on the background of product-specific (in this study wine-specific)
regional image from the perspective of regional consumers. In addition to quality cue, country-of-origin has
symbolic and emotional meaning for consumers (Verlegh and Steenkamp, 1999). However, while country-of-
origin strategies have been succesful in helping a firm or an industry to attain brand equity for a given product;
these strategies do not necessarily derive their uniqueness from a specific geographic location (Thode and
Maskulka, 1998). Region-of-origin effects are expected to operate through similar processes as country-of-
origin, however regions have some unique aspects, which make useful to investigate them (van Ittersum, 2002;
van Ittersum et al., 2003). Strategy of marketing agricultural products based on region-of-origin enables the
perception of superior quality and development of long-term competitive advantage (Thode and Maskulka,
1998). Moreover, regions in general are much more homogenous in terms of cultural, social, emotional and
environmental factors as countries. According to van Ittersum (2002) and van Ittersum et al. (2007) a region is
defined as an area situated in one or more countries which forms an entity based on local and regional
characteristics, such as traditions, culture and scenery. They defined regional product as a product whose quality
and/or fame can be attibuted to its region of origin and which it is marketed using the name of the region-of-
origin. Van Ittersum et al. (2003) demonstrated that product perception is significantly influenced by the
perceived product-specific regional image. With our study we aimed to understand if product-specific regional
image also affects consumers purchasing behaviour.
Normative preference for regional products is based on the concept of ethnocentrism (Lorenz et al., 2015). The
consumer ethnocentrism evidence and CETSCALE importantly contribute to the growing body of county-of-
origin studies (Shimp and Sharma, 1987). General concept of ethnocentrism was introduced more than 100 years
ago by Sumner (Sumner, 1908) but conceptualised later on the backbone of social identity theory which
examines the relationship of the individual with the group (Sharma et al., 1995; Zeugner-Roth et al., 2015).
Shimp and Sharma (1987) used term consumer ethnocentrism to describe beliefs of consumers about the
appropriateness and morality of purchasing foreign-made products, which would (from the perspective of
ethnocentric consumers) be wrong as it hurts domestic economy, causes loss of jobs and is unpatriotic. In
functional terms they said that consumer ethnocentrism gives an individual a sense of identity, feelings of
belongingness and an understanding of what kind of purchasing behavior is acceptable or unacceptable for the
ingroup. They also formulated and validated CETSCALE, an instrument to measure consumer ethnocentric
tendencies related to purchasing foreign versus American made products (Shimp and Sharma, 1987). Later,
consumer ethnocentrism as a construct to study consumer behaviour has been studied extensively (Sharma et al.,
1995; Vida and Fairhurst, 1999; Lindquist et al., 2001; Vida and Reardon, 2008; Vida et al., 2008; and others),
also in relation to agricultural products (Orth and Firbasova, 2003; Bianchi and Mortimer, 2015), and also on the
Slovene population (Vida and Maher Pirc, 2006; Vida and Reardon, 2008; Zeugner-Roth et al., 2015) where it
was shown that consumer´s attachment to and concern for his or her country, its people and national symbols
directly transcend into consumers´preference for domestic vs. international products, brands and institutions
(Vida and Reardon, 2008) and also that the relationship between consumer ethnocentric tendencies is moderated
by product necessity and the extent of threat these products are perceived as having on the consumer personally
and on the domestic economy more generally (Sharma et al., 1995; Lee et al., 2016). Shimp and Sharma (1987)
noted, that regional marketing is an especially exciting application of the CETSCALE.
Etnocentrism relates to the social identity theory which is based on a set of concepts which address intergroup
relations and was proposed by Tajfel and Turner (Tajfel, 1981; Tajfel and Turner, 1986). According to the social
identity theory a person´s social identity is seen as a part of the self-concept, which tipically contains
characteristics that represent the social groups or categories to which one belongs (Halldorson, 2009).
Transformation of the self-concept to the collective level of identity is presumed to underlie many important
group processes, including conformity to group norms, group polarization, crowd behavior, and in-group
favoritism in relation to out-groups (Brewer et al., 1993). Later it was shown that social identity approach can
also be employed to social contexts comprising ingroups at different levels of inclusiveness and that social
groups with which people identify vary, among other dimensions, on the dimension of inclusiveness, where
regional identity is an example where smaller, in this case regional group of people consider themselves as a
rather disctinct entity and not just a sample of the more inclusive national group (Simon et al., 1995). Regional
identity is explaining pro-in group while consumer regiocentrism desribes anti-out group tendencies meaning
they are conceptually different constructs therefor it is important to study the effects of both independently
(Zeugner-Roth et al., 2015). One of the aims of our study was to determine how both constructs independently
affect actual wine purchasing behavior.
Contrary to consumer ethnocentrism and national identity, which were intensively analysed, the constructs of
consumer regiocentrism and regional identity have been somewhat neglected from academic point of view. The
first study measuring both constructs was done in 1998 by Lantz and Loeb, where they measured what they
called community identification (regional identity) and community consumer ethnocentric tendencies (consumer
regiocentrism) and showed on a sample of students that greater levels of regional identity lead to greater levels
of consumer regiocentrism and that those consumers who demonstrated greater levels of consumer regiocentrism
had a tendency to express preference for locally manufactured products (Lantz and Loeb, 1998). Similarly, van
Ittersum (2002, p. 93-94) found that consumer regiocentrism negatively influenced consumers´ intention to
purchase products from other regions and positively affected their intention to purchase from their own region of
residence. In 2011 a qualitative study from Poland on a small sample of students was published, where they
showed importance of regional identity and indicated that it should play a much more important role in the future
research on consumer ethnocentrism (Siemieniako et al., 2011). There are two studies from Spain, both
published in 2013 (Bernabeu et al., 2013; Fernandez-Ferrin and Bande-Vilela, 2013). In paper from Bernabeu et
al. (2013) they identified low levels of consumer regiocentrism and did not link it to wine purchasing behavior
directly, however the most regiocentric consumers from Barcelona tended to prefer regional wines. The second
study (Fernandez-Ferrin and Bande-Vilela, 2013) demonstrated that consumer regiocentrism significantly
influenced preference for regional products. Results showed that as consumer regiocentrism increases, so do
tendencies to avoid products from outside the region and to prefer regional products, and also that regional
identity is an important antecedent of consumer regiocentrism. Final study was done in Australia in 2016 (Lee et
al., 2016) confirming similar findings as other studies but also indicating that for some of the low necessity
products (golf clubs, jewellery and chocholate; but not for wine), consumers with high levels of regiocentric
tendencies were more likely to buy products from their own region.
Our study was done with an attempt to understand the impact that the two different socio-psychological factors
have directly on the consumers purchasing behavior. In a recent review on consumer perceptions and preferences
for local food (Feldmann and Hamm, 2015) it was poited out that in the context of local food research there is an
evidence of a gap between attitudes and behavior: while attitudes determine consumers´intentions to purchase
local food, these intentions might deviate from actual behavior, as there is a difference in consumers´stated
behavior and true behavior. In previous studies on effect of consumer regiocentrism and/or regional identity
(Lantz and Loeb, 1998; Fernandez-Ferrin and Bande-Vilela, 2013; Lee et al., 2016) it was shown that consumer
regiocentrism is positively related to preference or willingnesss to buy products from own region and that
regional identity is an important antecedent of consumer regiocentrism. None of the studies looked at the effect
of both constructs independently on actual purchasing behavior. Study from Zeugner Roth et al. (2015) done on
a national level showed that national identity is a stronger predictor of product judgement and willingness to buy
than consumer ethnocentrism however the influence of both constructs directly on purchasing behavior in a
regional setting has not been explored yet.
To add additional level of understanding into how the two constructs independently affect regional agricultural
product purchasing behavior we chose a product which is very typical for the two regions which we were
studying: wine. Wine-making is one of agricultural segments with biggest development potential in Slovenia
(Kuhar, 2011). Annual production is between 80 to 100 million litres of wine produced in little over 16.000
hectares of vineyards. 63 % of produced wine is white and 27 % is red, the rest is rose and sparkling wine. 83 %
of wineyards are located in Podravje and Primorska wine regions, the rest is in the smallest Slovenian wine
region Posavje (Zagorc in sod., 2016). Besides being in diferent wine zones (“Council regulation (EC) No
479/2008 on the common organisation of the market in wine”) and consequently producing diferent wines by
variety and style these two regions are historically and culturally very different. Therefor their selection as the
study regions was appropriate in order to achieve the research objectives: to understand how regional identity
and consumer regiocentrism independently predict wine purchasing behavior in two main Slovenian wine
regions. Due to the fact, that there are many differences between the two studied wine regions and their wines we
also wanted to understand, what is the wine-specific regional image from the perspective of regional consumers;
and to understand how it affects wine purchasing behavior. Van Ittersum et al. (2003) demonstrated that region-
of-origin has product-specific influence on product preference and that product preference is a function of
product attribute perception. They also found that product perception is significantly influenced by the perceived
product-specific regional image, which was confirmed by Lorenz et al. (2015). With our study we wanted to
understand if product-specific (in this case wine-specific) regional image has effect not only on product
preference but also on consumers purchasing behavior.
In light of the above theoretical background, our research hypotheses were the following:
H1: In the perception of Slovenian wine consumers their home wine region has significantly higher wine-
specific regional image than the other studied wine region.
H2: Wine-specific regional image significantly affects wine purchasing behaviour.
H3: More regiocentric consumers buy statistically significant more wine from their home wine region.
H4: Consumers with higher degree of regional identity will buy significantly more wine from their wine region.
H5: Regional identity has a stronger positive impact on consumers wine purchasing behaviour than consumer
regiocentrism.
The paper is structured as follows: first we explain the methodology in detail, including the development of the
scale to measure wine-specific regional image. Results including validation of scales to measure consumer
regiocentrism and regional identity and discussion with regard to other published studies are described in the last
part of the paper, which is ending with limitations of the study.

Material and Methods

Data collection
First part of the reseach was of qualitative nature done by means of focus groups. Test focus group with 7
participants was done in June 2011 in order to prepare questions for the other focus groups in the language
understandable to average wine drinker. In July 2011 three focus groups were done with in total 20 Slovenian
wine consumers. Each focus group consisted of participants from different adult socio-economic status groups.
Main purpose was to get a set of typical attributes describing perception of Slovenian wine regions with the
purpose to prepare measurement tool to assess wine-specific regional image. Through non-structured leaded
discussion participants were asked to describe with as many words as possible characteristics of Slovenian wine
regions and wines from different regions. Most common attributes were then selected and included in the
quantitative questionnaire. The data for the quantitative part of the study were gathered in July and August 2016
from 221 wine consumers from two Slovenian wine regions, namely 109 from Primorska and 112 from Podravje
wine region. After pre-testing of the questionnaire data were gathered through an online questionnaire using
1KA online software (Univeristy of Ljubljana, Faculty of social sciences) with convenience sampling, strictly
following equal distribution by age, gender and place of residence. There were four inclusion questions in the
beginning of the questionaire: respondents had to be born and resident in one of the two studied wine regions,
had to be above 18 years of age, had to drink wine at least once per month and had to buy wine at least twice per
year. Proffesional winemakers and sommeliers were excluded with one exclusion question that followed
inclusion questions part. After initial set of above mentioned inclusion and exclusion questions, the questionnaire
was divided into 4 sections: wine purchasing and consumption habits, wine-specific regional image, consumer
regiocentrism and regional identity measures and socio-economic part. Response rate of contacted respondents
was 48 %.

Variable measurement
Closed questions with one possible answer were used to assess wine purchasing, consumption habits and socio-
demographics. Focus groups were valuable instrument for the formulation of wine purchasing and consumption
habits questions. For the assessment of socio-demographics we used standard questions.
To measure wine-specific regional image a list of eight wine-specific image attributes was used, where
respondents needed to choose one wine region (from the two studied) for which each of the listed attributes is
more typical. We tested observed frequencies from respondents of two wine regions above the expected 50:50
percent ratio to see how the frequencies accross wine regions differ from the neutral perception. To evaluate
wine-specific regional image from the perspective of regional consumers we checked if proportion of answers
for one or another wine region is statistically significant which was performed with one-way chi-square test. We
analysed differences in perception from consumers from the two wine regions and compared it to likelihood ratio
between place of residence and region of most commonly purchased wine.
Of particular interest in our study was to understand the relevance of consumer regioncentrism and regional
identity in wine purchasing decisions. Seven point Likert scale was used to measure intensity of both constructs.
To measure consumer regiocentrism a shortened version of CETSCALE was used, which was previously used in
a regional context by Fernandez-Ferrin and Bande-Vilela (2013) as a five-item scale, adapted from Klein et al.
(2006), where it was used and validated as a six-item scale in a national setting. Regional identity was initially
measured in a sub-national context with a four-item version by Lantz and Loeb (1998). They named it
community or local identity and derived and adapted the measurement instument from Luthanen and Crocker’s
collective self-esteem scale (1992) and Hawes and Lumpkin (1984) paper on consumers shopping outside of
their place of residence (outshoppers) purchasing behavior. Regional identity scale was adapted to 4-item scale
by Fernandez-Ferrin and Bande-Vilela (2013) and this was the scale we used in our study. Pearson correlation
coefficient was used as a tool to evaluate the connection between consumer regiocentrism and regional identity
scores and proportion of wine bought from different wine regions in the last year.

Results and Discussion

Descriptive analysis
Total sample consisted of 53.4 % male and 46.6 % female respondents. Average age of the respondent was 40.6
years, with most of them having at least secondary school education. 78.9 % of respondents were coming from
small town or village. 21.1 % had below, 17 % above and the rest average monthly income relative to the
national average. 24,4 % of respondents drank wine two to three times per month, one third once per week and
one third more than once per week. Majority of respondents (81,5 %) purchased wine two to three times per
month or more often. More than half of repondents (52,9 %) usually drank white wine, 44,3 % red and a small
percentage sparkling or rose wine. 47,7 % of respondents most commonly purchased wine at the supermarket
store and 35 % at winemakers. Usual price of purchased wine was eight euros or below, highest number of
respondents (35,3 %) usually bought wine for the price between three and five euros. A comparison of socio-
demographic characteristics of the repondents from the two wine regions indicates that samples were similar in
relation to gender distribution, employment status and level of education. Some socio-demographic differences
occured due to demographic differences between the compared wine regions (table 1).

Table 1: Socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents:

Wine region of residence
Primorska (n=109) Podravje (n=112) Total (n=221)

Column Column Column

Count N% Count N% Count N%
Gender male 62 56.9 56 50.0 118 53.4
female 47 43.1 56 50.0 103 46.6
Employment status student 8 7.3 13 11.6 21 9.5
unemployed 8 7.3 11 9.8 19 8.6
employed 81 74.3 78 69.6 159 71.9
retired 12 11.0 10 8.9 22 10.0
Partnership status single 17 15.6 13 11.6 30 13.6
with partner or relatives* 32 29.4 52 46.4 84 38.0
alone with child/ren 4 3.7 8 7.1 12 5.4
with partner and child/ren* 56 51.4 39 34.8 95 43.0
Size of place of residence town (>100.000 inhabitants)* 9 8.4 37 33.3 46 21.1
small town (10.000-100.000
inhabitants)* 34 31.8 20 18.0 54 24.8

village (< 10.000) 64 59.8 54 48.6 118 54.1

Education High school and below 41 37.6 48 42.9 89 40.3
Graduate degree 30 27.5 26 23.2 56 25.3
Post-graduate degree 38 34.9 38 33.9 76 34.4
Income relative to national below average* 14 13.1 32 28.8 46 21.1
average
average 73 68.2 62 55.9 135 61.9
 above average 20 18.7 17 15.3 37 17.0
Note: *= significantly different at p< .05 in the two-sided test of equality for column proportions. Tests assume equal variances.1
1. Tests are adjusted for all pairwise comparisons within a row of each innermost subtable using the Bonferroni correction.

Validity and reliability of consumer regiocentrism and regional identity scales

Validity and reliability of both scales was confirmed with factor analysis. Reliability of the two constructs was
assesed using cronbach´s alpha and composite reliability measures. The recommended threshold for a sufficient
composite reliability (CR) is 0.7 or above (Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994). Cronbach alpha and CR values on
both factors were well above 0.7 (Table 2). After establishing construct reliability, convergent validity and
discriminant validity were assessed to test the relationship between the constructs (Vida and Reardon, 2008). Chi
square was significant, but since it is sensitive to sample size, we also checked other model fit indices: RMSEA
and SRMR, which should be below 0.08 cut off; and NFI, NNFI, CFI, IFI indices which should be above 0.90
limit. The measurement did not fit the model well so we had to modify it by removing two indicators: »I am
proud to be a member of my region« and »Consumers from our region that purchase products made in other
regions are responsible for the losses of jobs of our regional fellows« and add one error covariance between two
similar worded indicators. Then the model conformed well to the data (χ2 (12) =23.53; p<0.024; RMSEA=0.07;
NFI=0.98; NNFI=0.98; CFI=0.99; IFI=0.99; SRMR=0.05). Convergent validity was assesed through average
variance extracted (AVE) which should be above 0.5 treshold (Fornell and Larcker, 1981) and was satisfactory
in our study. Discriminant validity was demonstrated by correlations between factors, which should according to
Ping (2004) not exceed 0.7. The average value of indicators that measure the same factor was calculated and
these two variables were used for futher analysis. The measured items and their means with standard deviation,
Crombach´s alpha, CR and percent of total variance are shown in table 2. Standardized path coefficients and
AVE are presented in Table 3. Confirmatory factor analysis was done in AMOS IBM program by robust
maximum likelihood method.

Table 2: Measurement scale characteristics of constructs (n=221)

Percent
of total
Construct and items Overal mean SD Cronbach´s α CR
variance
explained
Regional identity 0,95 0,97 38,3
I am happy to form a part of my region. 6,02 1,40
I strongly identify with my region. 5,71 1,54
I am very commited to my region. 5,68 1,53
I am proud to be a member of my region. 6,13 1,32
Regiocentrism 0,86 0,90 31,4
Products from outside our region should only be bought when regional
3,16 1,85
equivalents are not available
4,97 1,80
Our regional products come first and foremost
4,01 1,95
A true member of our region should always buy products made in our region

Member of our region should not buy products from outside the region since 3,46 1,95
it harms our companies and causes unemployment

Consumers from our region that purchase products made in other regions are 2,62 1,76
responsible for the losses of jobs of our regional fellows
SD = standard deviation; CR = composite reliability

Table 3: Scale items with standardized path coefficients and AVE (n=221)
Standardized
Constructs and items path AVE
coefficients
Regional identity 0,91
I strongly identify with my region. 0,92
I am very commited to my region. 0,95
I am proud to be a member of my region. 0,87
Regiocentrism 0,70
Products from outside our region should only be bought when regional equivalents are not available. 0,65
Our regional products come first and foremost. 0,72
A true member of our region should always buy products made in our region. 0,95
Member of our region should not buy products from outside the region since it harms our companies and
0,69
causes unemployment.
AVE=Average variance extracted

Wine-specific regional image

Independently of region of residence, in minds of Slovenian wine consumers from both wine regions (total
sample) all attributes to measure wine-specific regional image, except for »In this wine region wine is present
everywhere« (where there was no difference between the two regions) were related more to Primorska wine
region with statistical significance. According to listed statements we can say that wine region Primorska has a
much higher overall wine-specific regional image than Podravje. Looking at each of the samples independently,
more than 75 % of Primorska respondents perceived all the wine-specific image indicators were more typical for
their home wine region (figure 1). On the other hand Podravje respondents did not perceive that there are any
differences in five out of eight wine-specific regional image descriptors between the two wine regions. At the
same time they perceived that two wine-specific image attributes are significantly more related to the other
(Primorska) wine region (“in this wine region wine is closely connected with tourism” and “in this wine region
there are many well known and recongized winemakers”) and the only image descriptor they believed was
significantly more related to their home wine region was “in this wine region you feel that winemakers cooperate
well” (figure 2). With H1 we proposed that in the perception of Slovenian wine consumers their home wine
region has significantly higher wine-specific regional image than the other studied wine region, which can be
partly accepted as it was confirmed only for one (Primorska), but not for the other wine region (Podravje).

Figure 1: Wine-specific regional image from the perspective of Primorska respondents

Figure 2: Wine-specific regional image from the perspective of Podravje respondents

With H2 we proposed that wine-specific regional image significantly affects wine purchasing behavior. Looking
at the likelihood ratio between region of residence and wine region from which consumers most often purchased
wines, we saw that in the last year Primorska respondents bought 92.7 % of all wine from their home wine
region and less than 5 % from region Podravje. Podravje respondents bought 61.6 % of wine from their home
wine region, 33 % from Primorska and less than 5 % from elsewhere. Association is statistically significant (p <
0.001), meaning that consumers from both wine regions prefer to buy wine from their home wine region, despite
the fact that wine-specific regional image is higher for Primorska for both samples (table 4). H2 can be only
partly accepted (only for respondents from wine region Primorska).

Table 4: Association between region of residence and wine region from where majority of wine was bought
REGION OF RESIDENCE
Primorska Podravje LR Df P - value
Primorska f 101 37
f% 92,7% 33,0%
Podravje f 5 69
Wine region from which f% 4,6% 61,6%
majority of wine was 98,72 3 < 0,001
Posavje f 2 2
purchased in the last year
f% 1,8% 1,8%
Foreign wine f 1 4
f% 0,9% 3,6%
* f = freqvency; f% = percentage; LR = testn statistics, likelihood ratio; Df = degrees of freedom

Consumer regiocentrism and regional identity scores

In the total sample in our study the average score for consumer regiocentrism was 3,9 and average regional
identity score was 5,8 on a seven point Likert scale. The first study measuring consumer regiocentrism and
regional identity on a sample of Canadian students from 1998 (Lantz and Loeb) demonstrated average consumer
regiocentrism score 5.2 and average regional identity score 4. In study by Barnabeu et al. (2013) average scores
for consumer regiocentrism were 2.3 for Madrid and 2.6 for Barcelona samples on a seven point Likert scale.
There are two studies published from Slovenia on a national level where they measured consumer ethnocentrism.
Average score in the first study was 2.8 on a five point Likert scale (Vida and Maher Pirc, 2006) and 3.5 on a
seven point Likert scale in the second study (Zeugner-Roth et al., 2015). In the latter study they also measured
national identity and average score was 6.1. Interestingly, average national identity score is higher than the one
we measured for regional identity, which could be due to sample differences, where in the first study 58 % of
people were from urban environment and only 21 % in our study. This is somehow unexpected result
considering abovementioned theory on the subject, and also according to Kucan (1996) who wrote that each
Slovene person is more or less attached to their specific region, which they like more than any other region and
which is a part of their personal identity. Furthermore, Slovenian regions are continuously present in people´s
minds, on a cognitive level as well as on a symbolic identity level (Polic et al., 2005). Siemieniako et al. (2011)
found high importance of regional versus national identity as image of Polish brand was heavily relying on
respondents´ regional connections and associations, however quantitative research was not performed.
Comparing average scores for consumer regiocentrism and regional identity between the respondents of two
Slovenian wine regions it was found that average scores for regional identity are higher than those for consumer
regiocentrism. Both constructs had higher scores in Primorska region, but not significantly different between the
two studied samples (table 5). National identity is primarily measuring the predictive power of one pro-in-group
while consumer ethnocentrism is also looking at one anti-out-group (Zeugner-Roth et al., 2015). Same principal
can be applied to a regional level and by our results we could imply that Slovene people are more attached to
their own region as they are positioned against other regions, which was an expected outcome.

Table 5: RI and CR scores in two studied wine region samples (n=221).

n M SD t df P-value
Regional identity Primorska 109 5.9 1.3 0.8 219 0.4
Podravje 112 5.8 1.4
Consumer regiocentrism Primorska 109 4.0 1.5 1.0 219 0.3
Podravje 112 3.8 1.6

M = median; SD = standard deviation; n = number of respondents; df = degrees of freedom

Further we analysed how rates of regional identity and consumer regiocentrism affect wine purchasing behavior.
Pearson´s correlation coefficient was used as a tool to evaluate the connection between consumer regiocentrism
and regional identity scores and proportion of wine bought in the last year from different wine regions. Very
interestingly we observed no statistically significant correlation between regional identity and consumer
regiocentrism and proportion of purchased wine with respondents from Primorska wine region. With
respondents from Podravje wine region we observed weak positive statistically significant correlation between
regional identity, consumer regiocentrism and proportion of wine purchased from their home wine region (table
6). This means that consumers from Podravje, who are more regiocentric and more attached to their region, buy
more wine from their own wine region. With H3 we anticipated that more regiocentric consumers buy
statistically significant more wine from their home wine region and with H4 we proposed that consumers with
higher degree of regional identity will buy significantly more wine from their wine region. Both hypotheses are
only partly accepted as they are only confirmed for sample from wine region Podravje and not for the sample
from wine region Primorska. At the same time, we observed that people from Podravje region who have higher
scores of regional identity (but not consumer regiocentrism) buy significantly less wine from wine region
Posavje (r = -0.19; p = 0.045), which implies that regional identity might be a better predictor of purchasing
behavior than consumer regiocentrism, therefore H5 can be accepted. No effect of consumer regiocentrism and
regional identity on wine purchasing decisions in the sample from wine region Primorska is an interesting
finding, as in most before mentioned studies measuring consumer ethno- or regiocentrism it was demonstrated
that higher rates relate to preference/willingness to buy domestic vs. foreign (regional vs. non-regional) products.
People from Primorska wine region in the last year purchased 92.7 % of wine from their region independently of
lelevs of consumer regiocentrism and regional identity, but most probably due to the fact, that wine-specific
regional image of their home wine region is so positive.

Table 6: Pearsons correlation coefficient between percentage of purchased wine and RI and CR scores (n=221).
Living in Primorska wine Living in Podravje wine
region region
Region of origin of purchased wine RI CR RI CR
r 0.03 -0.04 -0.04 -0.12
P-
Primorska wine region 0.740 0.689 0.651 0.212
value
n 109 109 112 112
r 0.02 -0.14 0.19 0.23
P-
Podravje wine region 0.842 0.165 0.041* 0.014*
value
n 96 96 112 112
Posavje wine region r -0.04 0.04 -0.19 -0.06
 P-
0.673 0.723 0.045* 0.520
value
n 94 94 108 108
r -0.05 0.05 -0.13 -0.16
P-
Foreign wine 0.649 0.599 0.188 0.091
value
n 96 96 107 107
Note: *= significantly different at p< .05 r = Pearsons correlation coefficient; n = number of respondents,
RI=regional identity, CR=consumer regiocentrism

Conslusions and implications

The main objective of this study was to gain more insights into importance of consumer regiocentrism and
regional identity and to understand the role of wine-specific regional image in wine purchasing decisions from
the perspective of regional wine consumers. Our findings confirm strong attachment of Slovenian people to their
region, which was confirmed with high regional identity scores. Kucan (1996) is describing that each of
Slovenians is especially attached to a specific region or even smaller entity inside the region which is a part of a
person´s identity. Closely connected with regional identity, initially a sociological concept, which is
distinguishing between in-groups (the groups with which an individual identifies) and out-groups (the others),
consumer regiocentrism is a construct demontrating how strongly an individual feels morally obliged to purchase
products from his region and avoid products from other regions in order for his region to prosper. Results of our
study show that Slovenian people from two different wine regions differ in terms of how consumer
regiocentrism and regional identity affect their wine purchasing behavior. Despite similar levels of consumer
regiocentrism and regional identity in both samples, we demonstrated that only in one wine region (Podravje)
both constructs affect wine purchasing behavior; which is not the case for the other (Primorska) wine region.
Importantly we also found that regional identity is a better predictor of wine purchasing behavior than consumer
regiocentrism. Our findings are somehow in contrary to findings of Lantz and Loeb (1998), van Ittersum (2002),
Fernandez-Ferrin and Bande-Vilela (2013) and Lee et al. (2016) which were studying consumer attitudes in a
regional setting and found that greater levels of consumer regiocentrism result in tendency to express preference
for locally manufactured products. The difference could be due to the fact that we were looking specifically at
purchasing behavior and not only at preference or purchase intention. According to Feldmann and Hamm (2015)
there is an evidence of a gap between attitudes and behavior in the context of local food research. Our study
confirms their findings: while attitudes determine consumers´intentions to purchase local food, these intentions
might deviate from actual behavior, as there is a difference in consumers´stated behavior and true behavior.
Evaluating the wine-specific regional image in our study showed that it is closely linked to preference, but not
necesarilly to purchasing bahavior. Despite the fact that in the Podravje sample wine region Primorska has a very
high wine-specific regional image, they still purchase majority of the wine from their home wine region. Van
Ittersum et al. (2003) found that region-of-origin has product-specific influence on product preference and that
product preference is a function of product attribute perception. Further studies would be necessary to
demonstrate effect of consumer regiocentrism, regional identity and product-specific regional image on
consumers purchasing behavior.
From marketing perspective the studies on consumer regiocentrism and regional identity are relevant for
application of marketing strategies to consumers living inside the studied regions and therefor largely depend on
the size of the region. On the other hand product-specific regional image is more general, not related only to
residents of the region, but also to other consumers which are familiar with the specific region. According to van
Ittersum (2003) when a product and a region match, the regional image seems to influence the evaluation of the
product by consumers positively, and regional indication works similarly to a brand name. At the same time,
using a regional indication has advantages over introducing a new brand, as creation of the value of a brand
name is based on a set of associations which is a long and difficult process which might take years; while in case
of region-of-origin, these associacions do not have to be created because most of the consumers already have
some associations with the region (Aaker, 1991). Our study proposes that even in a small country like Slovenia
there are important differences between consumers of two different wine regions therefor marketing approach
should be adapted to a regional level. Only consumers from Podravje, but not Primorska wine region who are
more regiocentric and attached to their region will buy more regional wine. Importantly and independently of
wine-specific regional image and levels of consumer regiocentrism and regional identity, consumers from both
wine regions purchase majority of wine from their home wine region. This could be due to fact that residents of
both regions in general have high consumer regicentrism and regional identity scores. It should not be neglected
that consumers from Podravje purchase a substantial percentage of wine (more than one third) from Primorska
wine region which seem to be the consequence of very positive perception of wine-specific regional image of
Primorska. Considering other Slovenian population where measurements of consumer regiocentrism and
regional identity is not applicable (non-residents), building a high wine-specific regional image would be
important.
Studying connection between product-specific regional image and purchasing bahavior of other products would
give more insight into importance of product-specific regional image in the purchasing decisions, where it is
important to note that the product and the region should match (van Ittersum, 2003).
Most importantly we demonstrated that there is a clear gap between perception and actual purchasing behavior
therefore future studies should further look into effect of different constructs on actual purchasing bahavior, not
only on preference, product judgment or purchase intention.

Limitations
Limitation of the study is that it was done only in two wine regions, which was necessary to assess consumer
regiocentrism and regional identity; and therefor did not capture the view of the national population, especially
the consumers from the capitol, where socio-demographics, wine purchasing and consumption habits might be
different.
To measure wine-specific regional image respondents needed to choose one of the two studied wine regions, for
which given wine-specific image attributes were more typical, which was done due to the length of the
questionnaire. In future research, we would suggest to use Likert scale and evaluate intensity for the studied
regions which would allow more comprehensive statistical analyses. With use of structural modelling we could
also look at the relationships between consumer regiocentrism, regional identity, product-specific regional image
and other related constructs.
We would also suggest to use more indicators in the scales to measure consumer regiocentrism and regional
identity because in the process of factor analysis some of the indicators might need to be removed as in our case.

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