Country image effect on product assessment: moderating role of consumer nationality

Costa, Camila; Carneiro, Jorge; Goldszmidt, Rafael

doi:10.7819/rbgn.v18i59.2474

Abstract

Purpose:

This study investigates whether the magnitude of the effect of country image (CoI) on quality evaluation of foreign products varies across consumers from developed vs. from developing countries

Design/methodology/approach:

French, Argentinean and Chilean consumers responded to an online survey. We employed a within-subjects design in order to examine associate differences in CoI with differences in quality assessment.

Findings:

In agreement with previous studies, we found a positive effect of CoI on quality evaluations of foreign products. However, we found a non-significant moderating effect of consumer nationality, which contrasts with Hsieh (2004), who found that CoI effects were stronger for consumers from developing markets.

Originality/value:

While several studies have investigated factors that would affect consumers’ preference for domestic vs. foreign products, we took the relatively under-researched topic of whether there would be differences across consumers from developed vs. developing markets in the impact of country image on the evaluation of foreign products.

Keywords:
Country-of-origin effect; country image effect; foreign product evaluation; nationality of the consumer; international marketing

Resumo

Objetivo:

Este estudo investigou se a magnitude do efeito da imagem do país de origem (country image, CoI) na avaliação da qualidade de produtos estrangeiros é diferente entre consumidores de países desenvolvidos e consumidores de países em desenvolvimento.

Metodologia:

Consumidores franceses, argentinos e chilenos responderam a um questionário online. Empregamos o delineamento intra-sujeitos a fim de examinar a associação entre diferenças em CoI e diferenças na avaliação da qualidade de produtos estrangeiros.

Resultados:

Em consonância com estudos anteriores, verificou-se um efeito positivo de CoI sobre a avaliação da qualidade de produtos estrangeiros. No entanto, o efeito moderador da nacionalidade do consumidor não foi estatisticamente significativo, o que contrasta com Hsieh (2004), que verificou que os efeitos de CoI eram mais fortes para consumidores de países em desenvolvimento.

Contribuições:

Embora vários estudos tenham investigado fatores que afetam a preferência de consumidores por produtos domésticos em relação a produtos estrangeiros, nosso estudo se concentrou em um tópico pouco estudado: se há diferenças entre consumidores de países desenvolvidos e de países em desenvolvimento quanto ao impacto da imagem do país de origem na avaliação da qualidade de produtos estrangeiros.

Palavras-chave:
Efeito de país de origem, efeito de imagem do país, avaliação de produtos estrangeiros; nacionalidade do consumidor; marketing internacional

Texto completo disponível apenas em PDF.

Full text available only in PDF format.

Referências

Amine, L. & Shin, S.-H. (2002). A comparison of consumer nationality as a determinant of COO preferences. Multinational Business Review, 10(1), 45-53.
Batra, R. (1997). Marketing issues and challenges in transitional economies. Journal of International Marketing, 5(4), 95-114.
Batra, R., Ramaswamy, V., Alden, D. L., Steenkamp, J.-E., & Ramachander, S. (2000). Effects of brand local and nonlocal origin on consumer attitudes in developing countries. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 9(2), 83-5.
Bilkey, W., & Nes, E. (1982). Country-of-origin effects on product evaluations. Journal International Business Studies, 8(1), 89-91.
Cassel, C., Hackl, P., & Westlund, A. (1999). Robustness of partial least-squares method for estimating latent variable quality structures. Journal of Applied Statistics, 26(4), 435-446.
Cattin, P., Jolibert, A., & Lohnes, C. (1982). A cross-cultural study of “made in” concepts. Journal of International Business Studies, 13(3), 131-141.
Chao P., & Rajendran K. N. (1993). Consumer profiles and perceptions: Country-of-origin effects. International Marketing Review, 10(2), 22-39.
Cui, G., & Liu, Q. (2001). Emerging market segments in a transitional economy: A study of urban consumers in China. Journal of International Marketing, 9(1), 84-106.
Dawar, N., & Parker, P. (1994). Marketing universals: Consumers’ evaluations use of brand name, price, physical appearance, and retailer reputation as signals of product quality. Journal of Marketing, 58, 81-95.
Eroglu, S., & Machleit, K. (1989). Effects of individual and product-specific variables on utilising country of origin as a product quality cue. International Marketing Review, 6(6), 27-41.
Ettenson, R. (1993). Brand name and country of origin effects in the emerging market economies of Russia, Poland and Hungary. International Marketing Review, 10(5), 14-36.
Good, L., & Huddleston, P. (1995). Ethnocentrism of polish and Russian consumers: are feelings and intentions related? International Marketing Review, 12(5), 35-48.
Gurhan-Canli, Z., & Maheswaran, D. (2000). Cultural variations in country of origin effects. Journal of Marketing Research, 37(3), 309-317.
Hair, J., Jr, Black, W., Babin, B., & Anderson, R. (2005). Multivariate data analysis (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Hair, J., Sarstedt, M., Ringle, C. & Mena, J. (2012). An assessment of the use of partial least squares structural equation modeling in marketing research. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 40(3), 414-433.
Han, C. (1989). Country image: halo or summary construct? Journal Marketing Research, 26(2), 222-229.
Han, C., & Terpstra, V. (1988). Country of origin effects for uni-national and bi-national products. Journal of International Business Studies, 19(2), 235-255.
Häubl, G. (1996). A cross-national investigation of the effects of country of origin and brand name on the evaluation of a new car. International Marketing Review, 13(5), 76-97.
Heslop, L., Papadopoulos, N., Dowdles, M., Wall, M., & Compeau, D. (2004). Who controls the purse strings: a study of consumers’ and retail buyers’ reactions in an America’s FTA environment. Journal Business Research, 57(10), 1177-1188.
Hsieh, M.-H. (2004). An investigation of country-of-origin effect using correspondence analysis: A cross-national context. International Journal of Market Research, 46(3), 267-295.
Hsieh, M.-H., Pan, S.-L., & Setiono, R. (2004). Product-, corporate-, and country image dimensions and purchase behavior: A multicountry analysis. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 32(3), 251-270.
Ittersum, K., Candel, M., & Meulenberg, M. (2003). The influence of the image of a product’s region of origin on product evaluation. Journal of Business Research, 56(3), 215-226.
Javalgi, R., Cutler, B., & Winans, W. (2001). At your swervice! Does country of origin research apply to services? Journal of Services Marketing, 15(7), 565582.
Javalgi R., Thomas E., & Rao S. (1992). US pleasure travellers’ perceptions of selected European destinations. European Journal of Marketing, 26(7), 45-64.
Johansson, J. (1989). Determinants and effects of the use of “made-in” labels. International Marketing Review, 6(1), 47-58.
Johansson, J., Douglas, S., & Nonaka, I. (1985). Assessing the impact of country of origin on product evaluations: a new methodological perspective. Journal of Marketing Research, 22(4), 388-96.
Joiassen, A., & Harzing, A.-W. (2008). Descending from the Ivory tower: reflections on the relevance and future of country-of-origin research. European Management Review, 5(4), 264-270.
Josiassen, A., Lukas, B., & Whitwell, G. (2008). Country-of-origin contingencies: Competing perspectives on product familiarity and product involvement. International Marketing Review, 25(4), 423-440.
Kaynak, E., & Cavusgil, S. (1983). Consumer Attitudes towards products of foreign origin: Do they vary across product classes? International Journal of Advertising, 2(2), 147-157.
Kempf, D. (1999). Attitude formation from product trial: Distinct roles of cognition and affect for hedonic and functional products. Psychology Marketing, 16(1), 35-50.
Laroche, M., Papadopoulos, N., Heslop, L., & Bergeron, J. (2003). Effects of subcultural differences on country and product evaluations. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 2(3), 232-247.
Lawrence, C., Marr, N., & Prendergast, G. (1992). A country-of-origin stereotyping: a case study in the New Zealand motor vehicle industry. European Journal of Marketing, 26(3), 37-51.
Little, R., & Rubin, D. (1987). Statistical analysis with missing data New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Maheswaran, D. (1994). Country of origin as a stereotype: Effects of consumer expertise and attribute strength on prodcut evaluations. Journal of Consumer Reserch, 21(2), 354-365.
Manrai, L., Lascu, D.-N., & Manrai, A. (1998). Interactive effects of country of origin and product category on product evaluations. International Business Review, 7(6), 591-615.
Nassif, H., Woods, R., Burnside, E., Ayvaci, M., Shavlik, J., & Page, D. (2009). Information extraction for clinical data mining: A mammography case study. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Data Mining Workshops (pp. 37-42). IEEE Computer Society, Washington.
Okechuku, C., & Onyemah, V. (1999). Nigerian consumer attitudes toward foreign and domestic products. Journal of International Business Studies, 30(3), 611-622.
Papadopoulos, N., Heslop, L., & Bamossy, G. (1994). An international comparative analysis of consumer attitudes of consumer attitudes toward Canada and Canadian products, Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, 11(3), 224-239.
Parameswaran R., & Yaprak A. (1987). A cross-national comparison of consumer research measures. Journal of International Business Studies, 18(1), 35-49.
Peterson, R., & Jolibert, J. (1995). Meta-analysis of country-of-origin effects. Journal of International Business Studies, 26(4), 883-900.
Podsakoff, P., MacKenzie, S., Lee, J., & Podsakoff, N. (2003). Common method biases in behavioural research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879-903.
Rao, A., & Monroe, K. (1989). The effect of price, brand name, and store name on buyers on perceptions of product quality: An integrative review. Journal of Marketing Research, 26(3), 351-357.
Reardon, J., Miller, C., Vida, I., & Kim, I. (2005). The effects of ethnocentrism and economic development on the formation of brand and ad attitudes in transitional economies. European Journal of Marketing, 39(7), 737-754.
Ronen, S., & Shenkar, O. (1985). Clustering countries on attitudinal dimensions: A review and synthesis. Academy of Management Review, 10(3), 435-454.
Roth, K., & Diamantopoulos, A. (2009). Advancing the country image construct. Journal of Business Research, 62(7), 726-740.
Sharma, P. (2011). Country of origin effects in developed and emerging markets: Exploring the contrasting roles of materialism and value consciousness. Journal of International Business Studies, 42(2), 285-306.
Sharma, S., Shimp, T., & Shin, J. (1995). Consumer ethnocentrism: A test of antecedents and moderators. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 23(1), 26-37.
Shipley, B. (2000). Cause and correlation in biology: A user’s guide to path analysis, structural equations and causal inference New York: Cambridge University Press.
Siemsen, E., Roth, A., & Oliveira, Pedro. (2010). Common method bias in regression models with linear, quadratic, and interaction effects. Organizational research methods 13(3), 456-476.
Steenkamp, J.-E. (1990). Conceptual model of the quality perception process. Journal of Business Research, 21(4), 309-333.
Sternthal, B., Tybout, A., & Calder, B. (1994). Experimental design: Generalisation and theoretical explanation. In R. Bagozzi (Ed.), Principles of marketing research (Chap. 6, pp. 195-223). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Usunier, J. (2006). Relevance in business research: The case of country-of-origin research in marketing. European Management Review, 3(1), 60-73.
Verlegh P. (2001). Country-of-origin effects on consumer product evaluations (Phd Dissertation). Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Verlegh, P., & Steenkamp, J. (1999). A review and meta-analysis of country-of-origin research. Journal of Economic Psychology, 20(5), 521-546.
Wang, C., & Chen, Z. (2004). Consumer ethnocentrism and willingness to buy domestic products in a developing country setting: Testing moderating effect. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 21(6), 391-400.
Wang, C. L., Li, D., Barnes, B. R., & Ahn, J. (2012). Country image, product image and consumer purchase intention: Evidence from an emerging economy. International Business Review, 21(6), 1041-1051.
Wang, X., & Yang, Z. (2008). Does Country-of-origin matter in the relationship between brand personality and purchase intention in emerging economies? Evidence from China’s auto industry. International Marketing Review, 24(4), 458-474.
Watson, J., & Wright, K. (2000). Consumer ethnocentrism and attitudes towards domestic and foreign products. European Journal of Marketing, 34(9/10), 1149-1166
Witt, J., & Rao, C. (1992) The impact of global sourcing on consumers: Country-of-origin effects on perceived risk. Journal of Global Marketing, 6(3), 105-128.

8
Evaluation process: Double Blind Review

Supporting Agencies: The second author acknowledges the support received from FAPERJ (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, “Jovem Cientista do Nosso Estado - 2012” Project, grant nr. E-26/103.004/2012)

Contribution of each Authors:

Publication Dates

Publication in this collection
Jan-Mar 2016

History

Received
26 Apr 2015
Accepted
04 Apr 2016

Este é um artigo publicado em acesso aberto sob uma licença Creative Commons

[1] Amine, L. & Shin, S.-H. (2002). A comparison of consumer nationality as a determinant of COO preferences. Multinational Business Review, 10(1), 45-53.

[2] Batra, R. (1997). Marketing issues and challenges in transitional economies. Journal of International Marketing, 5(4), 95-114.

[3] Batra, R., Ramaswamy, V., Alden, D. L., Steenkamp, J.-E., & Ramachander, S. (2000). Effects of brand local and nonlocal origin on consumer attitudes in developing countries. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 9(2), 83-5.

[4] Bilkey, W., & Nes, E. (1982). Country-of-origin effects on product evaluations. Journal International Business Studies, 8(1), 89-91.

[5] Cassel, C., Hackl, P., & Westlund, A. (1999). Robustness of partial least-squares method for estimating latent variable quality structures. Journal of Applied Statistics, 26(4), 435-446.

[6] Cattin, P., Jolibert, A., & Lohnes, C. (1982). A cross-cultural study of “made in” concepts. Journal of International Business Studies, 13(3), 131-141.

[7] Chao P., & Rajendran K. N. (1993). Consumer profiles and perceptions: Country-of-origin effects. International Marketing Review, 10(2), 22-39.

[8] Cui, G., & Liu, Q. (2001). Emerging market segments in a transitional economy: A study of urban consumers in China. Journal of International Marketing, 9(1), 84-106.

[9] Dawar, N., & Parker, P. (1994). Marketing universals: Consumers’ evaluations use of brand name, price, physical appearance, and retailer reputation as signals of product quality. Journal of Marketing, 58, 81-95.

[10] Eroglu, S., & Machleit, K. (1989). Effects of individual and product-specific variables on utilising country of origin as a product quality cue. International Marketing Review, 6(6), 27-41.

[11] Ettenson, R. (1993). Brand name and country of origin effects in the emerging market economies of Russia, Poland and Hungary. International Marketing Review, 10(5), 14-36.

[12] Good, L., & Huddleston, P. (1995). Ethnocentrism of polish and Russian consumers: are feelings and intentions related? International Marketing Review, 12(5), 35-48.

[13] Gurhan-Canli, Z., & Maheswaran, D. (2000). Cultural variations in country of origin effects. Journal of Marketing Research, 37(3), 309-317.

[14] Hair, J., Jr, Black, W., Babin, B., & Anderson, R. (2005). Multivariate data analysis (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

[15] Hair, J., Sarstedt, M., Ringle, C. & Mena, J. (2012). An assessment of the use of partial least squares structural equation modeling in marketing research. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 40(3), 414-433.

[16] Han, C. (1989). Country image: halo or summary construct? Journal Marketing Research, 26(2), 222-229.

[17] Han, C., & Terpstra, V. (1988). Country of origin effects for uni-national and bi-national products. Journal of International Business Studies, 19(2), 235-255.

[18] Häubl, G. (1996). A cross-national investigation of the effects of country of origin and brand name on the evaluation of a new car. International Marketing Review, 13(5), 76-97.

[19] Heslop, L., Papadopoulos, N., Dowdles, M., Wall, M., & Compeau, D. (2004). Who controls the purse strings: a study of consumers’ and retail buyers’ reactions in an America’s FTA environment. Journal Business Research, 57(10), 1177-1188.

[20] Hsieh, M.-H. (2004). An investigation of country-of-origin effect using correspondence analysis: A cross-national context. International Journal of Market Research, 46(3), 267-295.

[21] Hsieh, M.-H., Pan, S.-L., & Setiono, R. (2004). Product-, corporate-, and country image dimensions and purchase behavior: A multicountry analysis. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 32(3), 251-270.

[22] Ittersum, K., Candel, M., & Meulenberg, M. (2003). The influence of the image of a product’s region of origin on product evaluation. Journal of Business Research, 56(3), 215-226.

[23] Javalgi, R., Cutler, B., & Winans, W. (2001). At your swervice! Does country of origin research apply to services? Journal of Services Marketing, 15(7), 565582.

[24] Javalgi R., Thomas E., & Rao S. (1992). US pleasure travellers’ perceptions of selected European destinations. European Journal of Marketing, 26(7), 45-64.

[25] Johansson, J. (1989). Determinants and effects of the use of “made-in” labels. International Marketing Review, 6(1), 47-58.

[26] Johansson, J., Douglas, S., & Nonaka, I. (1985). Assessing the impact of country of origin on product evaluations: a new methodological perspective. Journal of Marketing Research, 22(4), 388-96.

[27] Joiassen, A., & Harzing, A.-W. (2008). Descending from the Ivory tower: reflections on the relevance and future of country-of-origin research. European Management Review, 5(4), 264-270.

[28] Josiassen, A., Lukas, B., & Whitwell, G. (2008). Country-of-origin contingencies: Competing perspectives on product familiarity and product involvement. International Marketing Review, 25(4), 423-440.

[29] Kaynak, E., & Cavusgil, S. (1983). Consumer Attitudes towards products of foreign origin: Do they vary across product classes? International Journal of Advertising, 2(2), 147-157.

[30] Kempf, D. (1999). Attitude formation from product trial: Distinct roles of cognition and affect for hedonic and functional products. Psychology Marketing, 16(1), 35-50.

[31] Laroche, M., Papadopoulos, N., Heslop, L., & Bergeron, J. (2003). Effects of subcultural differences on country and product evaluations. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 2(3), 232-247.

[32] Lawrence, C., Marr, N., & Prendergast, G. (1992). A country-of-origin stereotyping: a case study in the New Zealand motor vehicle industry. European Journal of Marketing, 26(3), 37-51.

[33] Little, R., & Rubin, D. (1987). Statistical analysis with missing data New York: John Wiley & Sons.

[34] Maheswaran, D. (1994). Country of origin as a stereotype: Effects of consumer expertise and attribute strength on prodcut evaluations. Journal of Consumer Reserch, 21(2), 354-365.

[35] Manrai, L., Lascu, D.-N., & Manrai, A. (1998). Interactive effects of country of origin and product category on product evaluations. International Business Review, 7(6), 591-615.

[36] Nassif, H., Woods, R., Burnside, E., Ayvaci, M., Shavlik, J., & Page, D. (2009). Information extraction for clinical data mining: A mammography case study. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Data Mining Workshops (pp. 37-42). IEEE Computer Society, Washington.

[37] Okechuku, C., & Onyemah, V. (1999). Nigerian consumer attitudes toward foreign and domestic products. Journal of International Business Studies, 30(3), 611-622.

[38] Papadopoulos, N., Heslop, L., & Bamossy, G. (1994). An international comparative analysis of consumer attitudes of consumer attitudes toward Canada and Canadian products, Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, 11(3), 224-239.

[39] Parameswaran R., & Yaprak A. (1987). A cross-national comparison of consumer research measures. Journal of International Business Studies, 18(1), 35-49.

[40] Peterson, R., & Jolibert, J. (1995). Meta-analysis of country-of-origin effects. Journal of International Business Studies, 26(4), 883-900.

[41] Podsakoff, P., MacKenzie, S., Lee, J., & Podsakoff, N. (2003). Common method biases in behavioural research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879-903.

[42] Rao, A., & Monroe, K. (1989). The effect of price, brand name, and store name on buyers on perceptions of product quality: An integrative review. Journal of Marketing Research, 26(3), 351-357.

[43] Reardon, J., Miller, C., Vida, I., & Kim, I. (2005). The effects of ethnocentrism and economic development on the formation of brand and ad attitudes in transitional economies. European Journal of Marketing, 39(7), 737-754.

[44] Ronen, S., & Shenkar, O. (1985). Clustering countries on attitudinal dimensions: A review and synthesis. Academy of Management Review, 10(3), 435-454.

[45] Roth, K., & Diamantopoulos, A. (2009). Advancing the country image construct. Journal of Business Research, 62(7), 726-740.

[46] Sharma, P. (2011). Country of origin effects in developed and emerging markets: Exploring the contrasting roles of materialism and value consciousness. Journal of International Business Studies, 42(2), 285-306.

[47] Sharma, S., Shimp, T., & Shin, J. (1995). Consumer ethnocentrism: A test of antecedents and moderators. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 23(1), 26-37.

[48] Shipley, B. (2000). Cause and correlation in biology: A user’s guide to path analysis, structural equations and causal inference New York: Cambridge University Press.

[49] Siemsen, E., Roth, A., & Oliveira, Pedro. (2010). Common method bias in regression models with linear, quadratic, and interaction effects. Organizational research methods 13(3), 456-476.

[50] Steenkamp, J.-E. (1990). Conceptual model of the quality perception process. Journal of Business Research, 21(4), 309-333.

[51] Sternthal, B., Tybout, A., & Calder, B. (1994). Experimental design: Generalisation and theoretical explanation. In R. Bagozzi (Ed.), Principles of marketing research (Chap. 6, pp. 195-223). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

[52] Usunier, J. (2006). Relevance in business research: The case of country-of-origin research in marketing. European Management Review, 3(1), 60-73.

[53] Verlegh P. (2001). Country-of-origin effects on consumer product evaluations (Phd Dissertation). Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

[54] Verlegh, P., & Steenkamp, J. (1999). A review and meta-analysis of country-of-origin research. Journal of Economic Psychology, 20(5), 521-546.

[55] Wang, C., & Chen, Z. (2004). Consumer ethnocentrism and willingness to buy domestic products in a developing country setting: Testing moderating effect. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 21(6), 391-400.

[56] Wang, C. L., Li, D., Barnes, B. R., & Ahn, J. (2012). Country image, product image and consumer purchase intention: Evidence from an emerging economy. International Business Review, 21(6), 1041-1051.

[57] Wang, X., & Yang, Z. (2008). Does Country-of-origin matter in the relationship between brand personality and purchase intention in emerging economies? Evidence from China’s auto industry. International Marketing Review, 24(4), 458-474.

[58] Watson, J., & Wright, K. (2000). Consumer ethnocentrism and attitudes towards domestic and foreign products. European Journal of Marketing, 34(9/10), 1149-1166

[59] Witt, J., & Rao, C. (1992) The impact of global sourcing on consumers: Country-of-origin effects on perceived risk. Journal of Global Marketing, 6(3), 105-128.

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