Do product components and their country-of-origin influence product evaluations?

Abstract

The country of origin literature suggests that consumers attach pre-conceived notions about countries and their products during pre-purchase evaluations. The present research shows that when consumers are presented with information about the country of origin of motor vehicle components, they are able to differentiate between these and rely on country stereotypes in this evaluation. Based on a judgmental sample of 159 respondents, the findings suggest that consumers are able to discriminate between vehicle component systems from different countries and shows that there is a hierarchy of effects where consumers rank, in order of decreasing quality: German > Japanese > Australian component systems. The results also suggest that summary effects explain consumers' judgements about Australian, Japanese and German components, and halo effects appear to have a weak influence on their assessment of German components. © 2004 by The Haworth Press, Inc.