impact of country of origin

7/29/2019 Impact of Country of Origin

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Impact of Customer Perception

Of

Country of Origin

On

Customer Satisfaction

In Apparels

Submitted to : Submitted By:

Dr.Purva Kansal Amit Pandey

Ankit Paul

Pulkit Sood


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CONTENTS

I. Introduction 3

II. Need and Significance 3-4

III. Literature Review 4-5

IV. Research Methodology 6-8

1.Nature of study 6

2. Methods of Data Collection 6-7

3.Sampling Plan 7

V. Data Analysis 8

References 9


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INTRODUCTION

Among the many factors believed to influence consumer buying behaviour in an age ofinternational competition, country of origin (COO) effects remain the most researched (Al-

Sulaiti and Baker,1998) and is considered by many to make up the largest body of research in

international buyer behaviour (Tan and Farley ,1987;Heslop et al.,1998;Martin and

Romeo,1992;Lee and Brinberg,1995;Verlegh and Steenkamp,1999).

The COO of a product has been found to influence consumer evaluation of a product on two

dimensions: perceptions on quality (Khachaturian and Morganosky,1990) and perceptions of

purchase value (Ahmed and dAstou,1993).More importantly, Paadopoulos et al(1991) also

found COO effects to lead to consumer preferences for products from one country over

another.

Customer Satisfaction is the extent to which a products perceived performance matches a

buyers expectations (Kotler et al.,2011).This satisfaction is influenced by many factors such as:

Price of Product Attractiveness Easy Availability

NEED AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this study was to determine North Indian consumers beliefs about and

preferences for apparel products made in Indian and those made in China and to determine the

importance of the country-of-origin attribute relative to other product attributes in consumers

purchase decision. As the manufacture of products and the quest for consumers become

increasingly global activities, international marketing research takes on greater importance.

One such area, the study of country-of-origin effects (COO), seeks to understand how

consumers perceive products emanating from a particular country. The COO phenomenon

mirrors the global marketplace's increasing complexity.

Attention has been given in the marketing literature as to why COO influences purchase

decisions. Several explanations have been offered including product category involvement,

knowledge of a particular country, and patriotism. The purpose of this research is to offer a

new perspective on country-of- origin effects. Here, COO is examined in terms of the fit

between countries and product categories. By relating country images to product category


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characteristics, decision makers can better understand preference formations for their

products. This information provides insight into what under lies consumers attitudes toward

products manufactured in particular countries. Managers can benefit by having a better

understanding of when promoting a product's COO is beneficial and when it is not, as well as

identifying the dimensions along which country image should be improved.

An understanding of the role of COO images for imported products as against domestic ones

would aid in the formulation of better marketing plans, strategies and policies by companies of

both domestic and international origin.

A framework is suggested which matches the importance of product category dimensions with

the perceived image of the country-of-origin along the same dimensions. Such matches (or

mismatches) can be either favorable or unfavorable. Managers can use product-country match

information to assess consumers' purchase intentions, and assist them in managing their

product's COO.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Various articles and published researches were searched for and studied. The sources chosen

included JSTOR, Science Direct, American Marketing Association, Emerald etc.

According to Martin S. Roth and Jean B. Romeo (1992) -Country image plays a significant role in

consumers perceptions of products. Thus, understanding the dimensions of country image and

how it can be operationalized is important for managers whose products and those of their

competitors are manufactured around the world. This section reviews how country image has

been defined and operationalized in past research.

One of the first studies to look at country image perceptions was Nagashima's [1970] survey of

U.S. and Japanese businesspeople. Nagashima defined country image as: the picture, the

reputation, the stereotype that businessmen and consumers attach to products of a specific

country. This image is created by such variables as representative products, national

characteristics, economic and political background, history, and traditions. [Nagashima 1970, p.

68]

Narayana's [1981] definition of country image is quite similar-' "the aggregate image for any

particular country's product refers to the entire connotative field associated with that country's

product offerings, as perceived by consumers" (p. 32).

Shimp and Sharma (1987) developed the consumer ethnocentrism construct, which reflects the

desire of consumers to protect domestic economy. Ethno-centric consumers view purchasing

imported products as wrong, because they think it hurts the domestic economy. To measure

individual level differences in consumer ethnocentrism, Shimp and Sharma (1987) developed


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the CETSCALE, which contains items such as '[American] people should not buy foreign

products, because this hurts US business and causes unemployment'. In line with the economic

stance of the construct, consumer ethnocentrism is stronger in regions and industries where

employment is threatened by foreign competition (Shimp and Sharma, 1987).

Pappu, Quester & Cooksey, (2006) during their study they find that Multivariate analysis of

variance of the data indicated that consumer based brand equity varied according to the

country of origin of the brand and product category. This impact of country of origin on brand

equity occurred where consumers perceived substantive differences between the countries in

terms of their product category country associations. They suggest that Marketing managers

operating in the international context must identify the sources of brand equity, and

understand the importance of incorporating country of origin into their brand equity

measurement

Kwo & Huang(2006) found in their study that Chinese consumers generally say they prefer tobuy local Chinese grocery brands. Second, Chinese consumers believe it is important to buy

local brands for a range of Chinese-style and Western-style product categories. Third, however,

the stated preference for Chinese brands was generally not reflected in actual purchase

behaviour. They suggested that in order to capitalize on the preference for local brands, and to

address consumers imperfect knowledge of which brands are local or foreign , managers may

benefit by promoting the Chinese origin of their brands and by positioning their brands as being

local.

Lee, Kim, Pelton, Knight & Forney (2008), found that Mexican college students normative

interpersonal influence positively affected brand consciousness. Brand consciousness is

positively related to emotional value, but not to perceived quality of a US brand. Emotional

value positively influences purchase intention toward a US brand, while perceived quality

negatively influences purchase intention. They suggest that those US retailers who plan to

enter the Mexican market should focus on the emotional aspects of US brands in order to

appeal to Mexican college students, especially those who are brand conscious.

Raty (2009), their study uncovered three strong factors durability, creativity of design and

patriotismthat affect consumers perceptions of a product and its brand image. These three

factors are linked to country of manufacture, country of design and consumer values. Males

seemed showed less concern for country of origin than females and interestingly the youngest

age group showed the most negative attitudes towards products made in Asia. Overall attitudestowards goods made in Asia were less positive than for goods made in Western countries, but

the difference in attitude was not significant. However, attitudes towards goods designed in

Asia were more negative. Thus moving production to low labour cost countries should not

affect brand image negatively, but design should not be outsourced to Asia.


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OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the research are:

1.) To study the effect of country of origin on consumers evaluation of apparel product

attributes relating to quality.

2.) To study the effect of Consumers socio-demographic characteristics on consumers

evaluations of apparel product attributes related to quality.

3.) To study the behaviour of Ethnocentric consumers towards domestic manufactured apparels

as compared to foreign manufactured apparels.

HYPOTHESES

H1: There is significant relationship between country of origin and customer satisfaction inapparels.

H1a: Customer Satisfaction is positively related to general country attitudes.

H1b: Customer Satisfaction is positively related to general product attitudes.

H2: Customer perception varies across socio-demographic variables.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

NATURE OF THE STUDY

The current research is an attempt to investigate the key determinants that has an impact on

consumer buying behavior.

The study is descriptive in nature. Descriptive research is designed to describe characteristics of

a population or a phenomenon.

METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION

Both Primary and secondary data will be used in this study.

Primary Data:Primary data is the data collected and assembled specifically for the research project at

hand.

In order to collect the required information to address the overall research questions and

hypothesis, self administered questionnaire will be preferred as a survey instrument.


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Secondary Data:Secondary data is the data that have been previously collected for some purpose other than

the one at hand. Secondary data used in this research shall be collected from journals,

magazines, web-sites, newspapers, books etc.

SAMPLING PLAN

Considering the cost, degree of use, advantages and time constraints, the sampling technique

followed will be Convenience sampling: It refers to the collection of information from members

of population who are conveniently available to provide it.

Data will be collected from four departments of Panjab University namely, UBS, UIAMS,

Pharmacy and law by using the convenience sampling technique.

Considering all the constraints and requirements i.e. cost of data collection, time, availability

and other factors sample size of about 120-150 will be taken for the research

5. Data Collection Methodology:

(a) Instruments

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN scale (Pisharodi and Parameswaran, 1992) would be used as a standard

for questionnaire for determining customer satisfaction in apparels.

(b) Scales

Likert Scale will be used to get the questionnaires filled. It is a psychometric scale. When

responding to a Likert questionnaire item, respondents specify their level of agreement or

disagreement on a symmetric agree-disagree scale for a series of statements .The Likert scale is

the sum of responses on several Likert items. The format of a typical five-level Likert item:

1. Strongly disagree2. Disagree3. Neither agree nor disagree4. Agree5. Strongly agree


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Data Analysis

The data collected will be entered into and analyzed by using the statistical software for social

sciences.(SPSS) which is a computer program used for survey authoring and deployment, data

mining, text analytics, and collaboration and deployment.

The Tests that will be applied for analysis are:

1. Correlation test and Regressionanalysis shall be used to evaluate H1.

2. Chi-Square Test shall be used to evaluate H2.

REFERENCES

http://www.jstor.org/stable/155093

Bilkey, W.J. and Nes, E. 1982., Country of Origin Effects on Product Evaluations,

Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 13 Nol. 1, pp. 88-97

Bannister, J.P. & Saunders, J.A. (1978). UK consumers' attitudes towards imports: the

measurement of national stereotype image. European Journal of Marketing, 12 (8), 562-70.

Shimp, T.A. and Sharma, S. (1987) 'Consumer ethnocentrism: construction and validation of the

CETSCALE', Journal of Marketing Research 24(3): 280-289.

Dickerson K. G. (1982). Imported versus U.S. produced apparel: Consumer views and buying

patterns. Home Economic Research Journal, 10, 241-252.

Erdener Kaynak, Orsay Kucukemiroglu, Akmal S. Hyder, (2000),"Consumers' country-of-origin

(COO) perceptions of imported products in a homogenous less-developed country", European

Journal of Marketing, Vol. 34 Iss: 9 pp. 1221 1241.

Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 23, No. 3 (3rd Qtr., 1992), pp. 477-497

Kenny Lim, Aron O'Cass, (2001),"Consumer brand classifications: an assessment of culture-of-

origin versus country-of-origin", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 10 Iss: 2 pp. 120

136

Kenny Lim, Aron O'Cass, (2001),"Consumer brand classifications: an assessment of culture-of-origin versus country-of-origin", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 10 Iss: 2 pp.

120 136

Martin and Jean B. Romeo
http://www.jstor.org/stable/155093http://www.jstor.org/stable/155093http://www.jstor.org/stable/155093


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Matching Product Catgeory and Country Image Perceptions: A Framework for

ManagingCountry-Of-Origin Effects [corrected title: Matching Product Category and Country

Image Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 23, No. 3 (3rd Qtr., 1992), pp. 477-497

Min-Young Lee, Youn-Kyung Kim, Lou Pelton, Dee Knight, Judith Forney, (2008),"Factors

affecting Mexican college students' purchase intention toward a US apparel brand", Journal of

Fashion Marketing and Management, Vol. 12 Iss: 3 pp. 294 307

Ravi Pappu, Pascale G. Quester, Ray W. Cooksey, (2006),"Consumer-based brand equity and

country-of-origin relationships: Some empirical evidence", European Journal of Marketing, Vol.

40 Iss: 5 pp. 696 717

Roth, Martin S. and Romeo, Jean B. (1992), Matching Product Category and Country

Image Perceptions: a Framework for Managing Country of origin Effects.Journal

of International Business Studies, Vol. 23, Issue 3, pp. 477497.

Simon Kwok, Mark Uncles, Yimin Huang, (2006),"Brand preferences and brand choice among

urban Chinese consumers: An investigation of country-of-origin effects", Asia Pacific Journal of

Marketing and Logistics, Vol. 18 Iss: 3 pp. 163 172.

Shih-Chieh Chuang and HsiuJu Rebecca Yen

The Impact of a Product's Country-of-Origin on Compromise and Attraction Effects Marketing

Letters, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Dec., 2007), pp. 279-291

impact of country of origin

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