Cognitive influences on product components and country of origin

Abstract

Although the country of origin literature has reported the purchasing decision making of consumers based on the origin of whole products, the notion of country of origin has become much more complex as firms source products and components from multiple locations. Car manufacturers in particular use global component sourcing to gain scale efficiencies. There is little country-of-origin (COO) research that delves into the origin of components used in the manufacture of complex products. This paper reports the initial findings of a choice-based conjoint analysis study using interviews from 445 visitors to a motor vehicle show over a three day period. The results show that some types of respondents exhibit a greater tendency to use components COO in the way they form an overall image of a motor vehicle whose components and brands originated from Australia, Japan or Germany. Furthermore, our results suggest that consumer attitudes were explained not only by individual levels of involvement but also by respondents’ need for cognition. Consumers exhibiting high levels of need for cognition were also more engaged in more complex assessment of the COO cue in their product evaluation than those who have less need for cognition. Implications for manufacturers are discussed.