Neurophysiological evidence for the country-of-origin effect

Abstract

Consumers often rely on observable cues that hint at the hidden quality of a product. The aim of this study was to investigate brain activities associated with the country-of-origin (COO) effect and consumer evaluation of a product design. Electroencephalogram recordings were used to observe event-related brain potentials associated with the COO effect and design evaluation. We found that the frontocentral N90 and parieto-occipital P220 amplitudes are involved in forming preference to design, whereas the COO effect is processed in the centroparietal P500 amplitude. We also found a significant interaction effect between COO and design preference with regard to reaction times. Specifically, participants tended to spend more time making a preference decision when they did not like the product design made in a country with a favorable COO. These results imply that the two cognitive processes, evaluation of COO and formation of design preference, are activated independently at an early stage. It also suggests that these two processes interact with each other toward the end of the decision phase. Together, the results of this study provide neuropsychological evidence supporting a significant role of COO in the formation of design preference. Future studies are required to further delve into other neurophysiological activities associated with the COO effect.

“Worse but Ours,” or “Better but Theirs?” – The Role of Implicit Consumer Ethnocentrism (ICE) in Product Preference

“…The COE effect is defined as the positive or negative influence of the country of origin (country of production) of the product or brand in terms of attitude toward it and probability of buying it (Obermiller and Spangenberg, 1989; Elliott and Cameron, 1994; Verlegh and Steenkamp, 1999). Many researches on the country-of-origin effect have shown that providing consumers with information about the origin of the product or brand influences information processing (Hong and Wyer, 1989; Maheswaran, 1994).…”

Explicit Versus Implicit “Halal” Information: Influence of the Halal Label and the Country-of-Origin Information on Product Perceptions in Indonesia

“…In our study, we focus on the last of the aforementioned factors. Research on the influence of COO information on product perception shows that it can have both a positive or negative character ( Hong and Wyer, 1989 ; Obermiller and Spangenberg, 1989 ; Liefeld, 1993 ; Elliott and Cameron, 1994 ; Maheswaran, 1994 ; Verlegh and Steenkamp, 1999 ; Hamin and Elliott, 2006 ; Bolliger and Réviron, 2008 ; Koschate-Fischer et al, 2012 ; Rios et al, 2014 ). According to the “made-in” phenomenon, COO information may result in positive (vs. negative) product perceptions when the consumer believes (vs. does not believe) that the country which produced the particular product specializes in manufacturing these types of goods ( Verlegh and Steenkamp, 1999 ).…”

Relationship between time pressure and consumers' impulsive buying—Role of perceived value and emotions

“…According to the Functional Emotion Theory, emotions accelerate people’s decision-making and evoke responses [ 45 ]. When presented with stimuli related to a product or brand, the consumer’s brain is highly responsive [ 46 , 47 ]. It captures visual information from the advertisement or product instantly while also retrieving relevant stored memory information for advanced cognitive processing [ 48 ].…”