COO Effect Case Study

2.4 The Main Influence Factors of COO Effects
COO effects can be influenced by many factors. The main factors can be classified to three aspects: country of origin, product, and consumer.

2.4.1 Country of Origin
1) Level of economic and technical development of the COO
Martin and Eroglu (1993) find that the political, economic and technological factors of country have an effect on COO-based product evaluations. Consumers have a preference for products form developed countries (e.g. USA, Germany, Japan and so on), whereas products from developing countries such as China, Malaysia and Mexico are less favorable (Wang and Chen, 2004; Ahmed and d’Astous, 2007; Wang and Lamb, 1983, Kalicharan, 2014, Dinnie, 2010). Why do consumers hold positive

The higher level of the consumer’s consideration of the product is called high involvement and the lower level is called low involvement.

b. The influence of product involvement on COO effect
Gurhan-Canli and Maheswaran (2000b) assert that the extent to which a product’s country of origin cue is utilized depends on the level of consumer’s involvement in the purchase. The fewer motives that the consumer has to engage actively in the buying process, the greater the probability to utilize the country of origin to infer quality, whereas highly motivated consumers are expected to focus on other specific product’s attributes.

3) Consumer

Individualist cultures, such as those of the United States and
Western Europe, emphasize personal needs, rights and goals, regardless of the expense of group goals. Collectivist cultures exist mainly in Asian countries such as China, Korea, and Japan and emphasize family and the goals of the collective above those of individual needs or desires (Triandis, 1995).

According to the research of Gürhan-Canli and Maheswaran (2000a), COO effects vary across cultures on the basis of the diverse cultural patterns present in different countries. Individualists evaluated the home country product more favorably only in the case that it was superior to the competition. When a homemade product’s quality is worse than the foreign-made products, they choose foreign products unhesitatingly. In contrast, collectivists evaluated the home country product more favorably regardless of a foreign-made products’ superiority based on the collective