An investigation of country-of-origin effect using correspondence analysis: a cross-national context.

Although there are numerous studies related to country-of-origin (COO) effects, empirical findings are dispersed because of the limited coverage of the origins, brands and countries used for investigation. This paper uses an existing data set that consists of a survey conducted across 20 nations to evaluate 11 automobile origins with 53 brands. This data set facilitates the verification of COO effects previously addressed in the literature from a holistic viewpoint. It also provides insight into the circumstances under which, and the extent to which, the COO effects could differ. The results derived from correspondence analysis (CA) suggest there are brand and national variations in the magnitude of COO effects. At brand level, COO effects appear to be more influential on the purchase behaviour of consumers who have a positive attitude towards the brand being investigated or perceive it to be of high quality. At the national level, COO effects seem to be more significant among nations where the availability of international automobile brands is lower. Furthermore, the findings not only support the notion that consumers tend to have a stronger preference for products that originate from their own countries, but also concur with the proposition that consumers also tend to have a stronger preference for products from countries in the same geographic region.

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Introduction

Since the mid-1960s, country-of-origin (COO) effects have been the subject of many studies. While it is widely acknowledged that COO has an impact on product evaluations, there have been divergent empirical findings concerning the magnitude of the COO effect when different brands are used (Erickson & Johansson 1992; Tse & Gorn 1992; Ettenson 1993; Hulland 1999) for consumers from different nations (Sharma et al. 1995; Gurhan-Canli & Maheswaran 2000; Amine & Shin 2002) to evaluate products of different origins (Papadopoulos et al. 1990a, b). It is therefore desirable to conduct further empirical investigation to validate research findings in a multi-brand, multi-origin and multi-nation context. The objective of this research is to address these issues by employing empirical data from the international automobile industry. In particular, it attempts to:

1. verify the notion that COO has a positive impact on consumers' purchase behaviour across a wide range of nationalities, brands and origins;

2. explore COO effects in relation to brand associations;

3. explore COO effects in relation to market conditions;