Public ethnocentrism. A cognitive orientation and preventive measures

Abstract

The concept of sustainability requires a reduction in the scale of different economic and organisational obstacles, which destabilise domestic economies. The preliminary study showed that there is a specific motivation influencing public decision-making behaviour in the course of public purchases of goods and services, namely public ethnocentrism. Despite several studies, this phenomenon remains mostly unexplored, especially in the field of preventing ethnocentric behaviours that may lead to epistemic injustice. This study was aimed at initiating an effort to fill the research gap by creating a generally accepted approach to evaluating ethnocentric attitudes in the public sector. Based on the literature review, which includes the well-known Norton-Kaplan Balanced Scorecard, we formulate the original four-element model of preventing public ethnocentrism in the public sector supplemented by nine variables of effectiveness in preventing public ethnocentrism. We offer a new, additional worldwide tool for measuring economic freedom. This research provides the basis for elimination of public constraints in achieving sustainability.