Considerable portions of country of origin studies have so far focused on the consumer behavior of people in developed countries. Statistical analysis of the results showed that South African consumers do attach importance to country of origin information and that their evaluation of products is.
HAPTER O~E: I
Country-ot-origin, Brand and Price
This study used conjunction analysis to examine the relative importance of the country of origin of a product to consumers in the United States, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands. The results showed that the country of origin for television sets was the most important attribute for American respondents; brand name and image quality were most important to Canadian and German respondents; and brand name were most important to Dutch respondents. For car radio/cassette players, country of origin was significantly more important than price in each country.
Country of origin was also significantly more important than receiver quality and about as important as brand name and cassette player quality for Gennan respondents. Compared to Ettenson, Wagner and Gaeth's 1988 study, this study found that the level of importance of country of origin was significant. In addition, the brand name was a more important piece of information than the country of origin for Belgian consumers, but not for Canadian consumers.
Perceived Risk and Country-ot-Origin Bias
Therefore, a low-risk product manufactured in the United States may be perceived as a high-risk product when manufactured in a high-risk country. Nes (1981) examined the country of manufacture as a cue to perceived product risk and perceived product quality. This research examined hypotheses that product-specific preferences are more important when products are from industrialized countries than when they are from less developed countries.
Thus, a manufacturer of high-performance risk products may want to be more cautious about expanding production to less developed countries. Alternatively, the manufacturer may produce low-risk products in less developed countries and higher-risk products in industrialized countries. Or, finally, it can produce components at low cost in less developed countries, but finalize the production in industrialized countries whose origin will appear on the product.
Level ot Motivation and Country-ot-Origin Effects
Of particular interest was the consistency of consumer perceptions within country, class, and the moderating effects of other external characteristics in the country of origin. Thus, under low motivation, subjects may try to form their judgments with minimal effort, and place of origin provides a basis for doing so (Maheswaran 1994). Country of origin information can be processed and considered, but more as one of the product attributes rather than a general basis for judgments (Gurhan-Canli and Maheswaran, 2000:96).
Gurhan-Canli and Maheswaran (p.97) interpreted this result as follows: when consumers with high motivation are provided with both country of origin and attribute information, they are less likely to process attribute information related to country of origin. However, when motivation is low, consumers are likely to focus their attention on the country of origin. In general, cognitive responses showed that evaluations of the country of origin are likely to be more favorable when consumers focus on the country of origin and when the information is spread across different products of the country (Gurhan-Canli and Maheswaran).
Cultural Orientation and Country-of-Origin Effects
Their findings also suggested that country-of-origin strategies should be adapted across cultures. In collectivist cultures, household products are likely to benefit from displaying the country of origin in advertising. A large body of research has documented the effects of country of origin information on consumer product evaluations.
To identify whether the importance of country-of-origin dimension scores varies along demographic lines. The effect of country-of-origin labeling on consumers' judgments of product quality, risk of purchase, perceived value,. To identify the relative importance of country of origin information in relation to price and brand for South African consumers.
Data Collection
Sample
As the main objective of this study is to identify whether consumer purchasing behavior towards cars, electronic items and clothing was influenced by origin landmarks and information cues, it was important for the respondents to be income earners. Finally, it was important to maintain a certain ratio between male and female respondents so that the results were not influenced by one gender or the other. Due to the limitations of the three criteria, the researcher adapted a non-probability sampling method.
The choice of these particular organizations was due to convenience and since these organizations use education as one of the criteria in hiring employees, the researcher believes that the respondents represented an appropriate sample for this research. One hundred and seventy-six questionnaires were distributed and of these, one hundred and thirty-three questionnaires were returned, representing a response rate of seventy-six percent. However, the sample size was only one hundred and twenty-six, as seven of the returned questionnaires were deemed unusable.
Measurement questions and Instruments
Part A of the questionnaire consisted of thirteen country of origin statements, drawn from Zain and Yasin's (1997) research, and attempted to gauge South Africans' views on country of origin information for products. This factor accounted for 61.88 percent of the variance in the data and was labeled as ethnocentric tendency. All respondents' answers to the questions are categorized based on their similarity.
The average mean scores were calculated for opinions rated on a scale of 1 to 5 on each of the country-of-origin information statements; consumer perception of quality; relative importance of country of origin to price and brand. The principal component extraction* was used to determine the minimum number of factors needed to account for the maximum portion of the variance represented in the original set of variables. Of the one hundred and seventy-six questionnaires distributed, one hundred and twenty-six were returned, representing a response rate of seventy-six percent.
Gender
This will be followed by a presentation and discussion of the results in relation to the objectives and hypotheses of the study, as set out in Chapter Three.
Ethnic Group
Martial Status
Education
Income
Thus, country of origin information for a complex product such as a car should be given importance (Chao and Gupt, 1995). A person should always look for country of origin information when purchasing a product that has a high risk of malfunction, e.g. I think it's important to look for country of origin information when deciding which product to buy.
Searching for country of origin information is less important for cheap goods than for expensive goods. A person should seek country of origin information when purchasing a product with a fairly low risk of malfunction, e.g. Kaynak and Cavusgil (1983) and Wall and Lamb's (1983) findings that country of origin effects tend to increase with product technological complexity.
Demographic Characteristic and Country-of-Origin Information Importance
South African consumers perceived Chinese cars as neither high nor low quality with a mean of 2.9424, and Indian cars as somewhat low quality with a mean of 2.1404. The results for the footwear product category showed that consumers perceived United Kingdom, United States and South African footwear as somewhat high quality. UK and South African television were rated as neither high nor low to somewhat high quality with an average score of 3.6017 and 3.4508 respectively.
The result for radios was the same as the result for refrigerators, except that South African radios were rated neither as high nor low quality. Japanese and American refrigerators were rated as somewhat high quality, British and South African refrigerators were rated as neither high nor low quality to somewhat high quality, and Chinese refrigerators as neither high nor low quality. Apparel and footwear products from the United States, United Kingdom and Southern Mrica were rated as the top quality choices of South African consumers.
Managerial Implications
For cars, the mean value of the product attribute of price was the highest at 4.3873, followed by the country of origin cue with a mean mean of 4.2460. Televisions: The result for televisions shows that price was rated as the most important external signal, followed by country of origin and brand. There is clearly a factor of product category which, together with other non-suggestive factors, determines the value of the country of origin suggestion.
Source: and Cavusgil (1983) and Wall and Heslop (1986) found that country of origin effects tend to increase with product technological complexity. Country of origin was ranked second by price in these categories with no statistically significant difference. In contrast, however, this research found that South African consumers place more weight on country of origin than brand in evaluating high-risk products.
Demographic Characteristics and Consumer Ethnocentrism
While it is premature to say that the campaign is working effectively as it is still relatively new, a 2002 survey found that 92% of South African consumers were willing to endorse a product or service from the South African brand, namely 77%. Taking this into account, you could say that the 'Proud South Africa' campaign had an impact on the results of this research. According to Triends et al (1988), these people show strong ethnocentric consumer tendencies, as they tend to consider the effect of their behavior on society, feel responsible for others and are more sensitive to social influences against imports. this study would be influenced by the cultural orientation of the respondents.
The third possible explanation is that the measurement of consumer ethnocentric tendencies in this research relies on a self-report methodology. The mean scores of the first age groups (20-29 and 30-39) were not statistically significantly different from each other. This finding contradicts Good and Huddleston's, 1995; Sharma, Shimp and Shin's, 1995; and the results of Bailey and Pineres, 1997, which found that the higher the income, the less likely the consumer is to buy local products.
Managerial Implications
Competitive context and price as moderators of country of origin preference', Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. Image variables in multi-attitude product evaluations: Country-of-origin effects', Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. Negative country-of-origin effects: the case of the new Russia', Journal of International Business Studies, Vol.
Taiwanese consumers' perceptions of product information: Country of origin and store prestige', European Journal of Marketing, Vol. Country of origin as stereotype: Effects of consumer expertise and attitude strength on product evaluations', Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. Impact of country of origin cues on consumer judgments in multi-cue situations: A covariance analysis', Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol.
Mean scores comparison between 20-29 age groups and 30-39 age groups
Mean scores comparison between 20-29 age groups and 40-49 age groups
Mean scores comparison between 20·29 age groups and 50·59 age groups
Mean scores comparison between 30·39 age groups and 40·49 age groups
Mean scores comparison between 30·39 age groups and 50·59 age groups
Mean scores comparison between 40-49 age groups and 50-59 age groups
Dear respondent,
Please don't fill it if you are not a South African
TV, watch or camera I always inquire in which country the product was made. Product or brand, I look in which country the product was made. I think it's important to look for country 1 2 3 4 5 of origin information when deciding which one. dresses/shirts/shoes) before you decide to make a purchase. I would like to know how important the price of the product, the country of origin of the product and the brand of the product are to you.
For example, if you feel the price of the product is very important, then circle 5. On the other hand, if you feel the price of the product is not very important, then circle 1. In this section your attitude towards purchasing products surveillance made against South African manufactured products is investigated.
SECTION E: DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
