Impact of Country-of-Origin Cues on Consumer Judgments in Multi-Cue Situations: a Covariance Analysis

Abstract

The effect of country-of-origin labelling on consumers' as sessments of product quality, risk to purchase, perceived value and likelihood of purchasing was tested experimen tally in a multi-product, multi-cue setting. Country-of- origin information was found to be more important in affect ing product quality assessments than were price and brand information. Price was important in value assessment while brand was significant in a few product specific cases. Age, education, sex, and perceptions of ability to judge products were variously related to consumers' ratings of quality, risk, value and likelihood of purchase especially when the prod uct was more complex and difficult to judge. However, much of the variation in consumer judgments was not ac counted for by the variables employed in this study, suggest ing that future research should include more detailed studies of information processing whereby intrinsic and extrinsic product cues and a wide range of consumer characteristics are taken into consideration.