Evaluating the Effects of Country-of-Origin and Consumer Ethnocentrism

Abstract

This study examines the role of consumer ethnocentrism vis-à-vis country-of-origin effects in consumers' purchase decisions in the case of a high-image transplant product. It was hypothesized that consumer ethnocentrism would have a significant effect on attitude toward the product, quality perception, and purchase intention beyond the effect of brand image only when the COO is a less-developed/liked country. It was also hypothesized that consumer ethnocentrism would have a significant effect on attitude toward the product, purchase intention, and quality perception beyond the effect of COO only when the COO is a less-developed/liked country. A total number of 233 student subjects responded to questionnaires after viewing a mock ad that included COO and product information. The first regression analysis revealed that brand image had greater significant effect on dependent variables than consumer ethnocentrism. Consumer ethnocentrism was a significant predictor of dependent variables only when the COO was less-developed/liked. Thus, the first hypothesis was supported. The second regression analysis revealed that both COO and consumer eth-nocentrism were significant predictors of dependent variables only in the less-developed/liked country condition. However, only COO had a significant effect when the transplant product was manufactured in a developed/liked country. Overall, the second hypothesis was partially supported. These findings show that brand image is relatively a more important variable than consumer ethnocentrism in predicting consumers' perceptions and attitudes. Especially, a high-image brand is a precious asset for companies to build and maintain. Also, COO seems to predict consumers' perceptions and attitudes better than consumer ethnocentrism. Consumer ethnocentrism plays a significant role in predicting consumers' perceptions and attitudes towards transplant products manufactured in less-developed/liked countries.