The Relationship between National Self-esteem and Foreign Goods' Consumption among Iranian Citizens

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between national self-esteem and foreign goods' consumption. The research method is survey and statistical population of the study were all citizens in Tehran, Shiraz and Kerman cities in which 1200 of them were selected by multistage random sampling method. The research tool for measuring national self-esteem is the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and a researcher-made questionnaire was used based on five dimensions of electrical goods, stationery, clothing, home appliances and cosmetics to measure foreign good's consumption. To determine the validity of the research tools, content validity was used and to determine the reliability, the coefficients of Alpha Cronbach and Kuder- Richardson were used. According to the research findings, firstly, the consumption of foreign goods among Iranian citizens is beyond average. Secondly, there is a negative and significant relationship between national self-esteem and foreign goods' consumption and this variable is capable of explaining the changes in the consumption of foreign goods by a factor of 0.1. The conclusion of this study is that by educating the national self-esteem and strengthening it among the citizens, it can reduce the consumption of foreign goods and thereby contribute to one of the acute social problems of the Iranian urban community.