The Importance of Product Country of Origin:

Abstract

Uses conjoint analysis to investigate the relative importance of the country of origin of a product to consumers in the United States, Canada, Germany and The Netherlands. It was found that the country of origin of a product was one of the two or three most important attributes in preference evaluation. Across the four countries and the two product categories studied, the importance weight assigned to the country‐of‐origin factor ranged from 18 to 29 per cent, a level of importance that was often equal to or greater than that assigned to the brand name, price and other intrinsic and extrinsic attributes. Respondents in each country preferred domestically‐made products foremost, followed by products made in other developed countries and, lastly, products made in developing countries.