Assessing the Impact of Country of Origin on Product Evaluations: A New Methodological Perspective

Abstract

A new methodological approach for examining the impact of country of origin on product evaluations is proposed. It takes the form of a multiattribute attitudinal model analyzed by means of a system of simultaneous equations. This approach makes possible examination of the impact of other attributes as well as country of origin on evaluations, and takes into consideration the effect of familiarity and knowledge about the product class. Differences between respondents of two different national origins are also investigated because previous research indicates differences in country stereotyping by nationality.

Country-of-origin effects in consumer processing of advertising claims

“…We propose that country of origin does not only act as an informational cue, but also affects consumers' interpretation of advertising claims. This view extends the research of Johansson and colleagues (Erickson et al, 1984;Johansson et al, 1985), who showed that country of origin biases perceptions of product attributes. We use the term bsource effectQ to refer to the proposed moderating influence (cf., Goldberg & Hartwick, 1990).…”

“…They found for example that perceptions of cars' economy were biased upward for Japanese cars, while perceptions of the quality of the cars were biased upward for German cars. Johansson, Douglas and Nonaka (1985) build on this study and confirm that country of origin affects consumers' product attitudes by biasing their perceptions of particular attributes like gas mileage or driving comfort. The authors also find that this bias is stronger when product knowledge is low.…”

“…Earlier studies (Erickson et al, 1984;Johansson et al, 1985) show that country of origin affects consumers' perceptions of product attributes. We extend this finding by showing that country of origin may act as a source variable that moderates the effect of ad claims on product evaluations.…”

The regional and global competitiveness of multinational firms

“…The marketing literature also highlighted the role of national culture, more specifically, cultural distance or similarity between the host country and home country (i.e., country of origin effects). The main finding is that consumers prefer products from the countries with a relatively similar culture (e.g., Johansson et al 1985;Heslop et al 1998;Wang and Lamb 1983).…”

Importance of the country of origin in food consumption in a developing country

“…The country-of-origin affects consumers' perceptions of product attributes (Erickson, Johansson, & Chao, 1984;Johansson, Douglas, & Nonaka, 1985). Consumers differentiate between products from different countries (Agrawald & Kamakura, 1999;Orth & Firbasová, 2003;Papadopoulos, Heslop, Graby, & Avlonitis, 1986;Verlegh & Steenkamp, 1999), a phenomenon known as the countryof-origin effect (Agrawald & Kamakura, 1999;Verlegh, Steenkamp, & Meulenberg, 2005).…”