Linking Product Evaluations and Purchase Intention for Country-of-Origin Effects

Abstract

This paper reports an experimental study concerned with the observed inconsistency between evaluative and behavioral data for country-of-origin (COO) effects. This issue is addressed by specifying conceptual relationships among three criterion variables-consumer evaluations of product quality, perceived product value, and purchase intention in the context of COO effects. The results showed that COO information had a direct effect on overall product evaluation and an indirect effect (through product evaluation) on perceived product value, which in turn determined purchase intention. In addition, purchase intention was also directly affected by brand name and price factors, but not by COO. Moreover, it was also revealed that COO and brand name had a similar impact on overall product evaluation. On the whole, this study suggests that it may be premature to claim less significant importance and role of COO information in influencing purchase intentions or behaviors. Rather, the exact nature of COO effects for behavioral consequences might be much more complex than what has been assumed in most previous studies. The present investigation represents an initial effort in providing empirical evidence of how COO information may impact evaluative and behavioral variables differently in the consumer decision process. Managerial implications of this study are discussed.     

Empirical decomposition of customer responses to discount coupons in online FMCG retailing

This study considers the efficacy of ‘general’ discount coupons: i.e. those whose discounts apply storewide. We decompose purchase behavior into three effects: spending, basket size, and inter-purchase time. The effects of dollar-off vs. percentage-off coupons are examined for 3,827 customers who had redeemed both types of coupon framings in an Australian online fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) retail context. Results from Bayesian simultaneous equation modelling confirm that compared to dollar-off coupons, percentage-off general coupons induce customers to both spend more and shop more items. Moreover, by capturing consumer heterogeneity the customer base can be segmented into several clusters based on their reaction to coupons.     

Exploring purchase intention of green skincare products using the theory of planned behavior: Testing the moderating effects of country of origin and price sensitivity

Increased community awareness on various environmental problems has changed consumers’ behaviors and induced purchasing decisions on green products. Applying the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study aims to explain the effects (i.e., attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control) on purchase intention of green skincare products; it also aims to determine if country of origin (COO) and price sensitivity moderate the links between purchase intention and its antecedences. Data collected from 300 respondents in Taiwan are tested against the research model by using structural equation modelling. The results indicate that attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control have a significant impact on purchase intention of green skincare products, and that country of origin and price sensitivity can enhance the positive effects on the links between purchase intention and its antecedences. The findings of this study present important theoretical and practical implications for consumer green product purchase behaviors.     

The role of brand exposure and experience on brand recall—Product durables vis-à-vis FMCG

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of brand exposure and experience on brand recall, mediated by three affectional drivers: brand trust, brand image and self-image congruence. The study distinguishes between an individual consumer׳s brand exposure and experience, and how these impact brand recall. Using original data collected from a survey of 219 consumers, brand recall models in two product categories (Fast Moving Consumer Goods FMCG and durable goods) were tested. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was applied, resulting in models for the two types of goods, establishing notable differences between durables and FMCGs. Experience influences brand recall in durable goods while brand recall is established via exposure for fast-moving consumer goods. This suggests that consumers are better able to recall durable goods brands if they have personally used them, while consumers of FMCG are more heavily influenced by advertising. Our study also established that brand trust has a significant role in mediating both of these relationships. Ultimately, the study establishes key differences between the brand recall of product categories, as well as the mediating role of brand trust, providing a framework for future brand recall research.     

Country of origin perception and industrial purchase decision-making in New Zealand

This paper focuses on the impact of country of origin (COO) factors on New Zealand purchasing managers’ perceptions of two categories of industrial products, namely machine tools and component parts. These products are from 17 countries which are categorised in three kinds, namely developed, newly industrialised and industrialising countries. In this study a distinction is also made between country of design and country of assembly. Despite the debate that COO effects may no longer be clearly delineated because of globalisation of markets and outsourcing, this study confirms the importance of COO in industrial purchase decision-making by managers in New Zealand.     

我国快速消费品行业营销渠道研究

快速消费品是指使用周期短,重复购买频率高的消费品。我国是人口大国,随着人民生活水平的提高与物质需求的增长,快速消费品已成为支撑我国经济发展的重要行业,同时行业竞争也愈加激烈。虽然我国快速消费品行业发展形势良好,但其中存在的问题不可忽视,营销渠道作为企业与消费者之间的纽带和桥梁,逐渐成为快速消费品行业中管理问题的核心。针对我国快速消费品营销渠道中产生的冲突、渠道窜货、终端销售的管理不善等问题,企业应立足自身情况,强化对渠道的控制与管理,统筹协调好与经销商的合作关系,减少渠道冲突的产生,提高终端销售的服务质量,保证快速消费品行业的可持续发展。     

Factors Influencing Successful Brand Extensions

Organisations frequently follow brand extension strategies. This paper investigates the impact of category similarity, brand reputation, perceived risk and consumer innovativeness on the success of brand extensions in FMCG, durable goods and services sectors. A set of hypotheses were developed and tested in a study amongst 701 consumers. The findings show that extensions into categories more similar to the original brand tend to be more readily accepted. Likewise, the reputation of the original brand is an important factor influencing the success of the extension. These findings are consistent across FMCG, durable goods and services brands. However, perceived risk about the extension category was only found to enhance acceptability of extensions for durable goods and services brands. Innovative consumers are more positively disposed towards service brand extensions than FMCG and durable goods brand extensions.     

Consumer decision‐making styles and post purchase behaviour of poor for Fast Moving Consumer Goods

More than half of the world's population is poor. Certainly, their purchasing power cannot be compared with that of the riches, but it is their collective purchase potential which makes them a substantial market. The fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs), on the other hand, are the fourth largest industry in the world. FMCGs are relatively low cost products and the poor, by necessity, spend a significant amount of their income on FMCGs. So, by virtue of being a large consumer base for FMCGs, the poor are a promising market for the FMCG marketers. But little is known about their buying behaviour for FMCGs as only a few studies have been conducted on them in this regard. This study aims to explore their shopping orientations towards price, quality and brand for FMCGs in the context of one of the largest developing countries like India by exploring their consumer decision‐making styles (CDMSs), especially their price consciousness, quality consciousness, brand consciousness and brand loyalty. Besides it, it also explores their post purchase behaviour and testifies its mechanism with the above mentioned CDMSs in the present context through structured equation modelling.     

Make product placement work for you: Get less exposure

Expenditure on product placement has grown faster (170%) than on advertising (15%) over the past 10 years, but some evidence suggests that the return on investment has been declining. For the well-known, fast-moving consumer goods/consumer-packaged goods (FMCG/CPG) food brands typically placed in local TV programming—the context of this article—the management problem of overfocusing on brand exposure hinders gaining brand choice, the ultimate strategic goal of marketing. Managers’ preconditioning, ease of measuring, and assumptions about the value of exposure contribute to their subtle placements becoming blatant or in other problems, as when other promotional devices, like a television commercial or program sponsorships billboard, get bundled into the same TV episode as the company’s own product placement. The higher brand exposure gained can evoke negative mental outcomes in consumers, weakening influences on brand choice. An experiment with a large sample of grocery shoppers supports such an outcome. More strategic value can also be gained from product placements in general by their use longitudinally, in-between campaigns of TV commercials, as an instructive tool and through normalizing a brand’s role in a consumer’s life. We provide eight checkpoints for marketers to consider when planning to use product placement to gain value for their brands.     

The Devil might wear Prada,but Narcissus wears counterfeit Gucci! How social adjustive functions influence counterfeit luxury purchases

People buy counterfeit luxury goods for a range of reasons, including status and belonging. Previous research has shown these stem from an individual's value-expressive or social-adjustive attitudes. However, there appears to be limited research identifying a clear causal relationship between these and intention to purchase counterfeit goods, or how these attitude functions might be used to inhibit purchase of counterfeit luxury products. Using a mixed (survey/experiment) design, in two studies this research demonstrates an individual's social adjustive function has a positive influence on purchase intent for counterfeit luxury goods. However, the use of value expressive ad appeals can limit this effect on consumer decision making. The findings also demonstrate the existence of contingent effects across different levels of product involvement and product knowledge. The contingent effects help better understand the inconsistent findings in the literature regarding the influence of value-expressive and social-adjustive functions on counterfeit purchase intention, and shed light on the interplay among these variables.     

The effects of consumer perceptions of the salesperson,product and dealer on purchase intentions

This study examines effects of consumer attitudes toward a salesperson, a product, and a retailer on purchase intentions for a major purchase. A structural equations model is tested that allows a comparison of the size of effects attributable to these three attitudinal sources. The results suggest a significant direct influence of attitude toward the product on purchase intentions whereas the effect of attitude toward the salesperson is mediated by attitude toward the retailer. These findings suggest that from a retailer’s perspective, appropriate salesperson behavior can be a critical success factor since consumer attitudes toward the product appear to work independently. Other results and implications are also discussed.     

Antecedents of Taiwan Chinese Consumers’ Purchase Intentions Toward U.S.- and Japanese-Made Household Appliances

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to understand the factors influencing Taiwan's Chinese consumers’ purchase intentions toward U.S. and Japanese household appliances. The authors attempt to develop and test a comprehensive model linking such purchase intentions to several constructs including Taiwan Chinese consumers’ openness to foreign cultures, consumer nationalism, product familiarity, traditional cultural values orientation, and product-country image. The result of analysis using structural equation modeling shows that consumer nationalism has a strong indirect effect on purchase intention via the product-country image construct. Taiwan Chinese consumers’ traditional cultural values orientation and openness to foreign cultures have direct effects on consumer nationalism and, hence, are important antecedents in explaining the purchase intentions toward foreign-made goods by Taiwan Chinese consumers. With the growing importance of the Chinese domestic market, this study provides international marketing managers with practical implications in important areas such as market segmentation, branding strategy, and market research and practices in the Chinese consumer market.     

Short brand stories on packaging: An examination of consumer responses

The persuasiveness of stories and their influence on consumers have been acknowledged in marketing, particularly within the advertising field. In marketing practice, brand stories are increasingly also appearing on product packages. However, packages differ from ads in significant ways as communication channels; for example, the space for messages on a package is limited by the size of the package. This study reports findings from two experiments comparing consumer responses to fast‐moving consumer good (FMCG) packages with and without short brand stories. The findings show that even a short brand story included on FMCG packaging has a positive impact on consumers’ affective, attitudinal, product value, and behavioral intention responses to the brand.     

电子商务平台出口影响因素及其溢出效应——基于消费者关键词搜索视角的研究

跨境电子商务平台上汇集了消费者对商品的"碎片化"需求,具体表现为消费者搜索大量表述各异的关键词。搜索同一个关键词的消费者具有相同的需求从而形成了特定的细分市场,因此本文从依据关键词划分的细分市场角度出发,在价格和评分的基础上引入搜索排名作为电商平台出口影响因素,由于跨境电子商务平台上广泛存在着交叉销售行为,本文还分析了上述影响因素对企业其他商品出口的溢出效应。研究结果表明:商品的排名提升、价格下降和评分提高不仅能增加其细分市场出口量,还能增加企业其他商品的出口量;其中商品排名提升的影响是通过增加商品点击量和提高消费者购买意愿来实现的;在消费者有品牌偏好或明确购买目标的细分市场中,商品排名的作用会有不同程度的减弱;当商品和消费者需求越匹配时,商品排名提升对促进出口的作用越大。     

Consumer values,motivation and purchase intention for luxury goods

There is considerable ambivalence in how different societies and cultures relate to the consumption of luxury goods. Thinly focused in the literature are Islamic societies (with rapidly emerging ‘super-rich’ consumer segments) where the concept of luxury may be in tension with religious values. Set against this background, this paper investigates how consumer values and motivation influence purchase intentions towards luxury goods. Based on a sample of 400 respondents drawn from Morocco and applying logistic regression models, the paper finds correlations between the intention to buy luxury goods, motivation and personal values. Paradoxically, the influence of religion appears to diminish as consumer affordability of luxury goods increase. Partly due to globalization of markets and impacts on consumer values, Moslems are not fundamentally different from western consumers with regard to predispositions towards luxury consumption. Potential impacts of religion on luxury consumption attitudes and personal values appear to be moderated by the global consumer culture. The results also show an important gender underpinning especially when considered alongside perceived gender biases in consumption decision-making in many Islamic countries. Regarding the nature of purchase behavior women were found to be more positively disposed to impulse purchasing of luxury goods compared to men while more educated people, generally, indicated a greater tendency towards rational than impulse buying decisions.     

Consumer reactions to the availability of organic food in discount supermarkets

The market for organic food products in industrial countries has changed significantly. Conventional grocery stores have entered this market in recent years and now present an alternative point of purchase to farmers’ markets and specialized health food shops. In Germany, the main newcomers in this field are the discount supermarkets. The question is whether the increased supply of organic food products leads to sustained effects on consumer behaviour. In other words, can a first‐time purchase of organic products at a discounter act as an ‘icebreaker’ and induce further purchases? This question is addressed here. A consumer survey (n = 231) indicates that an initial purchase of organic food in a discount store is indeed very likely to lead to follow‐up purchases. The link shown is statistically significant. Furthermore, customers are very interested in the availability of locally grown products, reliable information and easy comparison with non‐organic products. Important recommendations concerning organic product range, display and information, especially for retailers, can be deducted.     

The asymmetric dominance of cognitive versus affective country image in driving purchase: Conditioning roles of cognition-affect intra-valence nature and product type

Despite the vast amount of research on country image, extant country-of-origin (COO) literature remains ambiguous about which of the country image dimensions, cognitive country image (CCI) or affective country image (ACI), is more important in driving purchase. Drawing on the primacy of affect theory, this research develops a nomological framework that clarifies this ambiguity and explains whether, when, and why ACI/CCI takes precedence in determining purchase decision. With a large-scale study on Chinese consumers responding to two types of products from four countries, the findings unveil the asymmetric dominance of CCI and ACI in influencing purchase intention via consumer cognitive product judgment and affective product evaluation, which is conditioned by the dyadic effects of country cognition-affect intra-valence nature and product type. This research contributes through illuminating the differential roles of CCI and ACI in influencing consumer reactions to foreign products, the boundary conditions and underlying mechanism of the differences.     

Pricing practices: A critical review of their effects on consumer perceptions and behaviour

With the present challenge to compete on price or product assortment, retailers and manufacturers are increasingly focusing on state-of-the-art pricing strategies which have their roots in behavioural economics and psychology. The current review is an empirical investigation on the relative effectiveness of various pricing practices on consumer perceptions and behaviour. Six pricing strategies were reviewed; drip pricing, reference pricing, the use of the word ‘free’, bait pricing, bundling and time-limited offers. The review shows that the former three have received a significant amount of attention and have a robust impact on consumer perceptions and behaviour. There is less research on the latter three; however, the available evidence does suggest that they, too, may be capable of influencing consumers’ choices. Finally, it is also clear that the effects of pricing practices can be moderated by a variety of factors. Overall, the current review indicates that sellers are able to influence perceptions and purchase decisions of consumers based on the manner in which prices are displayed. The implications of these findings for retailers, policy makers and researchers are discussed.     

Determinants of purchase luxury counterfeit products in social commerce: The mediating role of compulsive internet use

Research on counterfeit purchase intention has attracted enough attention, and a number of studies have investigated various determinants of luxury counterfeit purchase intention in the offline context. However, less attention has focused on the underlying mechanism of the attitude toward luxury counterfeit purchase intention in the social commerce context. Moreover, extant literature has focused on the influence of compulsive internet use (CIU) on psychological well-being. Based on flow theory, this study examines the mediating role of CIU in the relationship between influencing factors (such as materialism, novelty-seeking behavior, and hedonic benefits) and consumers’ attitudes toward luxury counterfeit products. Additionally, the moderating role of product conspicuousness and positive online reviews also examined the direct effects. Data were collected from active online users of Taobao.com. Results show that materialism and novelty-seeking behavior are significantly related to CIU and subsequently influence the attitude toward luxury counterfeit goods. Furthermore, product conspicuousness and positive online reviews have moderated the direct effect of the conceptual framework. Therefore, the current research contributes to the existing literature by addressing the mediating CIU and moderating (product conspicuousness and positive online reviews) factors that played a significant role in promoting counterfeit purchase intention, comparing the direct effect to promote the counterfeit purchase intention. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in detail.