The behaviors of generation Z consumers living in Azerbaijan against "Made in Turkey" labeled products: A research in Baku

In the modern and competitive era, where global markets are developing day by day, consumers' perceptions of the country/origin of the product are also changing. In recent years, consumers around the world can easily access different products and services from other countries. Internal and external factors are effective in purchasing decisions of consumers for products and services. These factors can be socio-cultural, psychological and economic, as well as factors such as product characteristics, quality, xenocentric tendencies or the country of origin of the product. The country of origin (COO) is seen as an important factor that can affect the product purchasing and evaluation process of consumers. Consumers are influenced by the country of origin and make different preferences for domestic and foreign products in different product groups. Besides the country of origin, consumer xenocentrism is another important factor in foreign product evaluation. In this context, the effect of country of origin, country image and xenocentrism on the purchasing intentions of Azerbaijan Z generation consumers were investigated in this study. The beginning date of Generation Z in the literature covers different years in different sources. This date is shown as 1995-2010 (Suderman, 2016) in some sources and as 1990-1999 (Sezgin, 2018; Tulgan, 2013) in some sources. In this context, the Z generation was examined in the study by considering the 18-24 age range. The relations between demographic characteristics (education, income, occupation and gender) and country of origin, country image and xenocentrism were investigated in the process of purchasing Turkish products by Z generation consumers living in Azerbaijan. In the study, using the quantitative research method, data were collected with the online survey technique. Data analysis was performed with SPSS. According to the research data, the effects of country of origin and xenocentrism in the decision of Z generation consumers to purchase "Made in Turkey" products were examined. In the first part of the thesis, information about generations and generation types is given, and then the Z generation and its characteristics are discussed. In the second part, purchasing behaviors and the factors affecting purchasing behavior are examined in detail, and the concepts of country of origin, product image and xenocentrism are explained. In the last part, information about the general purpose, scope and method of the research was given, and then the data obtained were tested in the SPSS program with the help of statistical analysis. The tests used in the study are difference tests (ANOVA, T test, Mann Whitney-U), Regression and Correlation tests. In order to collect data, 405 Generation Z consumers living in Baku, Azerbaijan were reached online. According to the results obtained, the perception of Zenocentrism, Country Image and Country of Origin of consumers with a lower income level, ie 2801-3500 TL, is higher. At the same time, the differences between gender, occupation and education groups and Zenocentrism, Country image, Country of origin and Purchasing intention were examined and statistically significant differences were found. On the other hand, it is among the results of the correlation analysis that as consumers' frequency of use and amount of spending increase, their intention to buy products labeled "Made in Turkey" also increases. It has been determined that the perceptions of Country Image and Zenocentrism greatly affect the purchase intention.