THE INFLUENCE OF PRODUCT-COUNTRY IMAGE ON THE PERCEIVED QUALITY: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY FROM VIETNAMESE CONSUMERS

Abstract

Although country-of-origin has been a controversial topic in literature, there has been little research effort to explain the nature linkage between country-of-origin and perceived quality from consumers in emerging markets. Drawing on the notion of country-of-origin, this study proposes the concept of product-country-image which is operationalized with the three components of cognitive, affective and conative. Structural equation modeling is employed to explore the relationship between the product-country-image and perceived quality. The findings indicate that only ‘affective components’ are positively related to ‘conative components’ among three pairs. What is more, structural equitation modeling demonstrated that the influence of product-country image on perceived quality is simultaneously regardless of the level of consumers’ familiarity with a foreign country’s product. Using data collected from 348 Vietnamese consumers, this study generates new insights for academics and practitioners.