Decomposition of country of origin effects in education services: a conjoint analysis approach

Abstract

Research in the area of international marketing has shown that consumers’ assessments of product quality may change (positively/negatively) according to country of manufacture, country of design and/or country of parts of the products. While this notion has been established in the product context, no research has attempted to isolate similar effects of the country of origin construct in relation to service offerings. This research deconstructs the country of origin (COO) construct for international services along country of origin of the brand (COB), country of origin of where the service is delivered (COSD), and country of origin of the person providing the service (CPI). A total of 143 respondents participated in the online survey undertaken in Australia. The service to be evaluated in the experiment was education service. Results of conjoint analysis in education service confirmed the effects and the importance of the proposed COO dimensions on consumers’ expectations of service quality. More specifically, the experiment revealed that CPI is more important than COB and COSD on consumers’ expectation of service quality.