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ISSN: 2249-7196
IJMRR/June 2017/ Volume 7/Issue 6/Article No-9/692-705
Ashutosh Chandrashekhar Zunjur et. al., / International Journal of Management Research & Review
*Corresponding Author www.ijmrr.com 692
AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON THE EFFECT OF COUNTRY OF ORIGIN ON
ELECTRONIC ITEMS’ PURCHASE IN PUNE CITY
Ashutosh Chandrashekhar Zunjur*1, Dr. Lopez Joe
2
1Asst. Prof, Dr. D. Y. Patil Institute of Technology, Pimpri, Pune, India.
2Assoc. Prof, Sadhu Vaswani Institute of Management Studies, Koregaon Park, Pune, India.
ABSTRACT
Literature review on Country of origin effect was done. Through this review gaps in existing
literature were identified. To address these gaps the research is undertaken with the purpose
to investigate whether consumers are affected by country of origin while buying mobile
phones and laptops. Also to find out the demography of consumers, for whom country of
origin is (if at all) important factor while they buy mobile phones and laptops. For collecting
responses non-probabilistic sampling technique was used. 100 of respondents from Pune,
India were contacted personally. Out of these responses 89 responses were considered
appropriate for analysis as other responses were not complete in all matters. Results showed
that general population does not get influenced by country of origin while buying Mobile
phones or Laptops. T test and ANOVA were used to investigate relationship between Gender
and Age on Country of origin effect. Results showed that youngsters are impacted by country
of origin effect. However such effect was seen only for mobile phones, for laptops no such
effect was observed. The research implications and scope for future studies are stated in the
report.
Keywords: Country of Origin, Mobile Phone, Laptop, Electronic items, ANOVA.
1. INTRODUCTION
Indian market is open to almost every category of foreign products. Recently the percentage
of Foreign Direct Investment in retail industry is raised to 100% in single brand by Indian
Govt. (Government Relaxes FDI Norms for Single Brand Retail, E-Commerce for Food
Products, 2016). This may result in availability of wide range of retail products which were
not introduced to Indian market earlier or which could made available only in select stores.
This will lead to very tough competition among the players in retail industry. Such reforms
are more likely to take place in years to come (Govt. may ease FDI norms for multi-brand
retail, 2017). Furthermore today the Indian market is one of the most promising economies
in the globe. This is because the demography of the country’s population. Large amount of
the population today in India lies in ‘working population’ category that is in the Age of 25-49
years (Wikipedia, n.d.). This signifies the high disposal income of Indian consumer. This is
the main reason that international marketers are looking at Indian market with a great hope
and making their products and services available here.
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Such events definitely will result in tough job for international and domestic marketers to
attract and retain Indian consumer since wide range of offerings are already available.
To outperform such competition marketers need to deeply dive into the buying behaviors of
Indian consumers. Once marketers catch the exact nerve of the consumer then only, they can
set effective strategies to attract new consumers at their offerings.
India is one of the biggest markets for electronic products (Consumer durable, 2016).
Furthermore new technologies are being developed at much faster pace. This makes the
electronic gadgets outdated very soon (High obsolescence rate of technologies triggers
investment in e-waste mgmt. market in India, 2014). Due to such technological advancements
youngsters keep on updating their gadgets/ products. These products are either of Indian
origin (Godrej, Intex, Micromax, Videocon, Voltas etc.) or foreign origin -Apple, Samsung,
LG, Panasonic to name a few. So it is a matter of investigation to realize what makes Indian
consumer to buy what they buy.
This research is an attempt to realize if it really does matter to consumers where the product
belongs to. The product categories chosen for this research are Mobile Phones and Laptops.
2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Nagashima (1970) defines Country of Origin as “Picture, reputation, or stereotype
consumers attach to products of a particular country.”
Nebenzahl, Jaffe and Lampert (1997) defined country of origin as: “Associated with a certain
product or brand regardless of where the product is produced.”
The Country of Origin informs people about the origin of a particular product. If the image of
the country is favourable then consumers evaluate the product which is developed or
originated in that country, positively, even though the consumers do not have any past
experience with that product category. This indicates that consumers may even end up buying
a mobile phone of a particular country even if they do not have any prior experience of using
mobile phone originating from that country. But they buy it only because they possess a
positive image of that country in mind.
The country of origin effect is being investigated for almost last fifty years. Because of
globalisation and liberalisation many brands have gone global. For such global brands
country of origin effect plays vital role. Country of origin effect is a major factor for driving
consumers’ perceptions and intention to buy. Because of this, country of origin effect has
attracted attention of many practitioners and researchers. Every country has positive image
for producing particular category of products, due to technological superiority, product
quality, availability of good quality of raw materials, product design and so on…Therefore
consumers prefer a particular product originating from a particular region. Sometimes this
positive country image is not restricted to that particular product category. Consumers may
even give the same image to wide range of products. This is stereotyping and it may take
place because of attitudes towards a particular country; familiarity with the country,
demographic and cultural characteristics of the consumers.
The country image may be transposed to products and if the country image is positive then
consumers evaluate product from that country positively. It may also be possible that
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Copyright © 2017 Published by IJMRR. All rights reserved 694
consumers perceive country image from the products they are familiar with from that
particular country.
Many research studies have been conducted in the area of country of origin. Most of them
researchers opine that country of origin effect is still relevant area of research even today.
Framework of this study is shown in figure no.1.
Fig. 1: Framework of the study
It is hypothesized that male youngsters consider country of origin of Mobile Phones and
Laptops before they buy them.
3. LITERATURE REVIEW
Peterson and Jolibert (1995) suggest that the effect of country of origin gets magnified when
researchers consider country of origin as the only cue, whereas studies which focused on
multiple cues reported that effect of country of origin and purchase intention are not
significantly related. Also authors criticize that many past studies verbally described products
to respondents which resulted in significant effect of country of origin. However if actual
products would have been used then results would also have been differed. Authors suggest
that future studies should take into account of moderating variables along with the effect of
country of origin on quality, reliability, and purchase intention.
Cheron and Propek (1997) reviewed the researches already conducted on Country of Origin
construct. They found that country of origin effect has significant influence on product
evaluation. Authors also suggest that country of origin may not be considered by consumers
at the time of buying. In real life scene consumers’ buying decision may also be affected by
Prestige of the Brand, Image of retail store, price of the product, after sale service, product
familiarity etc.
Agrawal and Kamakura (1999), investigated the differences in objective quality at country of
origin level, and whether marketers take benefit of positive product-country image and
charge Premium/Discounts on their products. 122 brands from 10 different countries were
included in the study. The result indicated that objective quality of the products varies as per
country of origin. Consumers rated Japanese products of high quality compared to other
countries in the study. Another important investigation of the research is that, consumers do
not seem to pay premium price just because they hold good perception of the country from
which the good is originated. In addition to this it was also supported that people do not pay
less for the products originating from the country for which they hold negative image.
Authors further point that there is no major attempt to quantify the influence of country of
origin effect on actual market. They opine that effect in real market has to be measured as the
Male (+ve)
Female (-ve)
Age
Effect of Country of
Origin
Gender
(-ve)
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Copyright © 2017 Published by IJMRR. All rights reserved 695
result obtained from controlled experiment may differ in real market scene. Authors support
that the country of origin is valid cue from which consumers observe objective quality of the
product.
Beverland and Lindgreen (2002) examined six agribusinesses in New Zealand who use
country of origin in their strategy with varying degrees. They found that the influence of
Country of Origin is dynamic. They suggest that effect of country of origin depends upon
origin and its product category history. Therefore marketers should assess if country of origin
and product category history are positively associated or not. If they are negatively associated
then country of origin must not be considered while designing a promotional strategy. In
some instances even if such association is positive supply of products may restrict to seasonal
availability of the products. In such cases also one should not embark on country of origin in
their marketing programme. Authors proclaim that country of origin is not so important to
consumers when they are more familiar with the product they are buying. Therefore they
suggest that not to use country of origin construct in marketing strategies when product
reaches maturity phase of its life cycle. Authors support that country of origin construct is
complex in nature and its effect is neither universal nor uniform. This finding suggests that
future studies should be conducted in different regions with different product categories.
Authors also suggest that future studies should develop a contingency model for country of
origin effect.
Cai Y., Cude B., and Swagler R. (2004), conducted an experiment to investigate the country
of origin effect on purchase intention. Tangible goods were used during experiment in the
study and participants were given different level of information. Price manipulations were
done to realize the magnitude of country of origin effect. Results supported that respondents
do consider the degree of economic development of the sourcing country even when other
information is available while making a purchase decision. However results also showed that
when prices of products of economically less developed country fall consumers’ willingness
to buy those products increases. But this is true only in case of nondurable products. When
prices of durable products are lowered consumers still prefer durables from developed
country to buy. Authors report that most of the researches in late 1990s support that as
globalization is increasing products are becoming hybrid i.e. components arrive from several
countries and get fit together in another country, the relevance of country of origin will also
decrease. However authors, criticize this by giving examples of Ford, Coca cola, and General
Electric which still have impression as ‘American Products’ on consumers’ mind worldwide.
And therefore brand themselves shed country of origin effect on consumers’ demand.
Authors also argue that hybrid products can impart greater opportunities to marketers by
designing proper promotional origin campaigns.
Chowdhury and Abe (2006) in their research note that providing country of origin
information may be very strong strategic tool in the hands for the products which come from
the countries which have positive image in consumers’ minds. Further they also note that
when consumer retrieve information from memory related to country, and if consumer
retrieves good image of the country then it will lead to positive perception about the quality
of the products coming from that country. Authors give reference of Lee 1999, and note that
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if consumers perceive the product to be from a country which has good image then
consumers feel that risk in buying that product is also less. The findings showed that
consumers will use extrinsic cues (Country of Origin for instance) to draw conclusion when
some other attributes are missing. Thus marketers can develop these important cues and
provide information about such cues which consumers may not possess. Authors support
findings of past researches and note that price does not affect consumers’ quality perception
when other quality cues like country of origin and corporate image are available to
consumers. The result also indicates that country of origin has significant impact on both
perception of quality and perception of risk.
Jean-Claude Usunier (2006) suggest that country of origin is less important construct when it
comes to marketing practices as both consumers and marketers are not fully aware about the
academic research conducted on country of origin effect. The author further argues that
consumer doesn’t consider the country where a product is produced. For more than 40 years
country of origin area is being researched, however the researches face friction. Authors also
give evidences from other researches which support that no research is successful in
designing a practicable framework for use of country of origin construct.
Josiassen and Harzing (2008) in their research work argue that country of origin is still
relevant concept for the research, but it has to address several critical challenges. Authors
critically comment of the research of Usunier (2006) and bring it to notice that the magnitude
of importance of the country where a product is manufactured changes with the category of
the product. It was noticed that significant number of consumer consider country of origin
while buying a car. Authors further ad that companies are actively and successfully
manipulating perceptions about country of origin for the benefit of the brand. This may not be
the evidence for irrelevancy of country of origin research. Authors further indicate that it is
rather boosting the need for studying country of origin area with different dimension. They
also suggest that high quality research on country of origin should consider only product
category which is relevant to consumers (respondents) and for which consumers
(respondents) have knowledge. This research summarise that the impact of Country of Origin
is still uncertain and not fully discovered. They refer to earlier research (Usunier 2006) which
found that Country of origin is influential when product is not familiar to buyer. However
they also give reference of Johansson, 1989 who found that more the familiarity with the
product higher will be the use of country of origin cue to make purchase decision.
Tamas (2015) in his review of literature concluded that country of origin effect is very
complex in nature. He found that effect of country of origin on consumers’ buying behaviour
changes over a period of time. The author further ads that same research if conducted with
same methods, same samples, but keeping a time gap between two studies, will not result in
same results. The author also strongly feels that even after 50 years of research no research
could completely describe the country of origin phenomenon. However the researcher also
support that country of origin effect is found in most of the researches regardless of different
settings, different scales, and different methodology used. Author makes very interesting
comment based on his findings, which says, if one studies country of origin effect from
product quality perspective, he may find country of origin effect from different angle, if
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Copyright © 2017 Published by IJMRR. All rights reserved 697
someone studies it from the willingness to buy perspective may explore different dimension.
Researcher further explains that the country of origin effect studies would not focus only on
theoretical frameworks, but would do on practical implications.
Research Gap in Existing Literature
Current literature suggests that research work on country of origin effect should consider
product category which is relevant to consumers and for which consumers have enough
knowledge. In addition to this existing literature has mixed findings on product familiarity
and country of origin effect. Some say higher the familiarity higher will be the effect of
country of origin while other say otherwise.
One research review sums up that if one studies country of origin effect from product quality
perspective, he may find country of origin effect from different angle, if someone studies it
from the willingness to buy perspective may explore different dimension.
Literature on country of origin suggests that Country of Origin is complex construct and so
far no theoretical framework could explain it completely. Therefore this research work will
consider all these gaps in existing literature and will try to address them.
4. OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH
To address gap in research identified product category selected in electronic items. Electronic
items are familiar to almost every consumer. Moreover this research focuses only on Mobile
Phones and Laptops. These two products are very well known to consumers. Therefore it will
help to address the gap in the research which has mixed findings on familiarity of the product
and effect of origin. This research study is undertaken with the aim of studying effect of
country of origin on electronic items’ evaluation. The research also aims at investigating
relationship among age and gender on effect of country of origin. In this study the effect of
country of origin will be studied to find its effect on willingness to buy.
5. RATIONALE OF THE STUDY
Very few research works have been conducted for electronic items and particularly for
Mobile phones and laptops. The effect of country of origin is dynamic and not static therefore
its effect may change over period of time as economy and demography of the region goes on
changing. This makes it necessary to investigate effect of Country of Origin repeatedly after a
certain period. Studies conducted in same region with same samples may give different
results if conducted with time gap between them. Also till date no concrete theoretical
framework is developed for country of origin effect. This paper is an attempt to find
relationship between some demographic characteristics and country of origin effect. This
research will help Marketers of Mobile Phones and laptops to understand effect of country of
origin. Such knowledge may be utilized to frame marketing strategies.
6. RESEARCH METHOD
6.1 Instrument
Scale for measuring effect of COO was adapted from the research work of Lascu and Babbs
(1995). The original scale has 13 items. However, for this study only 11 items were used
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Copyright © 2017 Published by IJMRR. All rights reserved 698
from original scale. The responses are measured on 5 point Likert’s Scale where 1 represents
“Strongly Disagree’ and 5 represents ‘Strongly Agree’. The words from these scales are
modified to fit the context of this research. Two sets of questionnaire were administered out
of which one was for Mobile Phones and other was for Laptops. In addition to these
questions two more questions were used to study if consumers’ perception of quality of
Mobile Phones/ Laptops changed in cases where consumers realized that the actual country
of origin of the product is different than what they had perceived so far. In this way there
were total 24 questions in the questionnaire. To collect demographic information of
respondents (Age and Gender) two questions were used in the last section of the
questionnaire.
6.2 Data collection
Any consumer who bought Mobile Phones and Laptops was sample unit for this research.
Non-probabilistic convenient sampling technique was used to collect data from respondents.
100 samples from Pune city in India were contacted personally based on convenience and
were asked to rate their opinions for every statement in the questionnaire. Out of 100
responses so collected, only 89 responses were considered appropriate for analysis. Other
responses were incomplete in one or the other matter therefore could not be considered.
7. ANALYSIS
Table 1: Demographic Characteristics of respondents
Characteristic Frequency (in Percentage)
Age (in Years)
16-25 76.4
26-35 22.5
36-45 0
46 and above 1.1
Total 100
Gender
Male 77.5
Female 22.5
Total 100
7.1 Scale Reliability
The scale showed strong internal consistency with Cronbach’s Alpha of 0.953. The reliability
statistics is shown in Table no. 2
Table 2: Reliability Statistics
Cronbach’s Alpha N of Items
.953 28
7.2 Variables
Table 3: Dependent/ Independent Variables
Variable Definition Dependent/ Independent
Country of Origin effect Nagashima (1970) defines it as
“Picture, reputation, or stereotype
consumers attach to products of a
particular country.”
Dependent
Age (Demographic characteristic) Independent
Gender (Demographic characteristic) Independent
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7.3 Measurement of Effect of Country of Origin
Table 4: Country of Origin Effect for Mobile Phones: Means and Standards Deviation
Item Mean Std. Dev.
1. When buying expensive Mobile Phone I always seek what country it is made in 3.49 1.13
2. To make sure that I buy highest quality of Mobile Phone I look what country
the product made in.
3.70 1.25
3. I feel it is important to see country of origin of Mobile Phone while deciding to
buy
3.49 1.27
4. I look for the "Made in...." labels from Mobile Phones 3.87 1.28
5. Seeking country of origin is less important for inexpensive Mobile Phones than
expensive ones
3.10 1.03
6. I look for country of origin information to choose the best Mobile Phone
available in the product class
3.51 1.39
7. I find out country of origin of Mobile Phone to determine the quality of that
product
3.66 1.47
8. When I am buying a new Mobile Phone the country of origin is the first piece
of information that I consider
3.18 1.40
9. To buy a product that is acceptable to my friends and my family, I look for
Mobile Phone’s country of origin
3.30 1.57
10. If I have little experience with the Mobile Phone, I search for country of origin
information of the product to help me make more informed decision.
3.47 1.43
11. When buying an Mobile Phone which is less expensive, it is less important to
look for country of origin
3.55 1.19
Mean Score 3.48
The scale to measure country of origin consisted 11 items. Responses were recorded on 5
Point Liker scale where 1 represents ‘Strongly Disagree’ and 5 means ‘Strongly Agree’. The
mean score of all 11 items for mobile phone is 3.48. This suggests that the effect of Country
of Origin is not significant on Mobile Phone’s purchase decision. The highest rating is for the
statement-‘I look for the "Made in...." labels from Mobile Phones’, while the lowest is for the
statement-‘ Seeking country of origin is less important for inexpensive Mobile Phones than
expensive ones’. The standard deviations for all the statements are above 1 which suggests
that the opinions are widely spread.
Table 5: Country of Origin Effect for Laptops: Means and Standards Deviation
Item Mean Std. Dev.
14. When buying expensive Laptop I always seek what country it is made in. 3.45 1.43
15. To make sure that I buy highest quality of Laptop I look what country the product
made in.
3.31 1.27
16. I feel it is important to see country of origin of Laptop while deciding to buy 3.57 1.39
17. I look for the "Made in...." labels from Laptops 3.70 1.39
18. Seeking country of origin is less important for inexpensive electronic items than
expensive ones
3.33 1.15
19. I look for country of origin information to choose the best Laptop available in the
product class
3.16 1.24
20. I find out country of origin of Laptop to determine the quality of that product 3.60 1.30
21. When I am buying a new Laptop the country of origin is the first piece of
information that I consider
3.16 1.26
22. To buy a laptop that is acceptable to my friends and my family, I look for
Laptop’s country of origin
3.27 1.41
23. If I have little experience with the Laptop, I search for country of origin
information of the product to help me make more informed decision.
3.33 1.40
24. When buying an Laptop which is less expensive, it is less important to look for
country of origin
3.19 1.19
Mean Score 3.37
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Copyright © 2017 Published by IJMRR. All rights reserved 700
The scale used to investigate effect of country of origin for laptops was also consisted same
items. The same statement ‘I look for the "Made in...." labels from Laptops’ received highest
rating(3.70). The lowest rating (3.16) was received for ‘When I am buying a new Laptop the
country of origin is the first piece of information that I consider’ statement. Mean Score of
all the items is 3.37 that indicate the effect of Country of Origin is not significant on Laptop’s
purchase decision. Here also standard deviations for all statements are more than 1 showing
that views are widely spread.
Table 6: Crosstabs statistics for Change in perception (for Mobile Phones)
Count
13. If your answer to Q 12 is Yes, then to what extend
your perception toward that Mobile Phone or brand
changed. (If it happened with you for multiple times
you can mark more than one option from following)
Total
Extremel
y Poor
Quality
Poor
Qualit
y
My
Perceptio
n about
Quality
did not
change
Good
Quality
Extremel
y Good
Quality
12. In the past, you
bought mobile phone
assuming it to be from
a particular country,
but after a while you
got to know that
country of origin of
that phone is different
than you perceived
earlier. Did such thing
happen with you?
Yes 2 1 7 21 3 34
No 0 0 49 0 0 49
Maybe 0 0 4 2 0 6
Total 2 1 58 25 3 89
Table no 6 shows that 34 consumers out of 89 (38%) misperceived country of origin of
mobile phone they had bought. When these respondents realized the actual country of origin
of the country, 27 (79%) respondents’ perception about the overall quality of the product
changed. From these 27 respondents 24 consumers’ perception changed to ‘good quality’.
This indicates that these consumers (respondents) had drawn quality perception from country
image, although the number is not significant. Only 6.7% of respondents reported that it
doesn’t matter to them if they misperceived country of origin of mobile phones they bought.
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Copyright © 2017 Published by IJMRR. All rights reserved 701
Table 7: Crosstabs statistics for Change in perception (for Laptops)
Count
26. If your answer to Q 25 is Yes, then to what extend
your perception toward that Laptop or brand changed.
(If it happened with you for multiple times you can
mark more than one option from following)
Total
Extremely
Poor
Quality
Poor
Quality
My
Perception
about
Quality
did not
change
Good
Quality
Extremely
Good
Quality
25. In the past, you
bought Laptop
assuming it to be from
a particular country,
but after a while you
go to know that
country of origin of
that phone is different
than you perceived
earlier. Did such thing
happen with you?
Yes 1 2 16 1 3 23
No 0 0 55 0 0 55
Maybe 0 0 7 2 2 11
Total 1 2 78 3 5 89
From table no. 7 it can be observed that 23 respondents misperceived (34% of all
respondents) country of origin of laptop they had bought already. Out of these respondents 16
(almost 70%) reported that even if they misperceived country of origin their perception about
quality of Laptop remained unchanged. From this it can be inferred that consumers’
perception about quality of a Laptop may not be affected by country of origin of that laptop.
In other words country of origin effect is insignificant when it comes to buying Laptops.
Table 8: Independent Sample T test for Country of origin effect (for Mobile Phones)
and gender
Independent Samples Test
Levene's
Test for
Equality of
Variances
t-test for Equality of Means
F Sig. t df Sig. (2-
tailed)
Mean
Diff.
Std.
Error
Diff.
95% Confidence
Interval of the
Difference
Lower Upper
Mobile
AVG
Equal
variances
assumed
.987 .323 .507 87 .614 .11884 .23451 -.34727 .58495
Equal
variances
not
assumed
.518 31.938 .608 .11884 .22928 -.34823 .58591
From table no. 8 it is observed that significance value for t test is more than 0.05. That means
there is no significant difference between the means of country of origin effect and gender.
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Copyright © 2017 Published by IJMRR. All rights reserved 702
This indicates that no significant relationship between gender and country of origin effect for
mobile phones.
Table 9: ANOVA (Age and Country of origin for mobile phones)
ANOVA
Mobile AVG
Sum of
Squares
df Mean Square F Sig.
Between Groups 7.787 2 3.893 5.026 .009
Within Groups 66.618 86 .775
From table no. 9it is observed that significant value is less than 0.05. This suggests that age
and country of origin effect for mobile phones are significantly related. To confirm the
relationship between age and country of origin effect for Mobile Phones correlation test was
conducted.
Table 10: Correlations between country of origin for Mobile Phones and Age
Mobile
AVG Age
Mobile
AVG
Pearson Correlation 1 -.283(**)
Sig. (2-tailed) .007
N 89 89
Age Pearson Correlation -.283(**) 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .007
N 89 89
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
From table no. 10 it is clear that age and country of origin effect are negatively related. It can
be stated that there is significant effect of country of origin on purchase decision of
youngsters while they buy Mobile Phones (or intend to buy).
Table 11: Independent Sample Test for country of origin (for Laptops) and gender
Independent Samples Test
Levene's Test
for Equality
of Variances
t-test for Equality of Means
F Sig. t df Sig.
(2-
tailed)
Mean
Diff.
Std.
Error
Diff.
95% Confidence
Interval of the
Difference
Lower Upper
Laptop
AVG
Equal
variances
not
assumed
2.298 .133 .879 87 .382 .23333 .26556 -.29450 .76116
Equal
variances
assumed
.965 35.934 .341 .23333 .24184 -.25717 .72384
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Copyright © 2017 Published by IJMRR. All rights reserved 703
Table no. 11 shows that significant value for t test is more than 0.05. Therefore it can be
inferred that there is no significant relationship between country of origin effect for laptops
and gender of consumers.
Table 12: ANOVA (Age and Country of Origin effect for Laptops)
ANOVA
Laptop AVG
Sum of
Squares
df Mean Square F Sig.
Between Groups 4.957 2 2.478 2.342 .102
Within Groups 91.021 86 1.058
Total 95.978 88
As significant value is not less than 0.05 (table no. 12) it can be said that o significant
relationship exists between age of consumer and country of origin effect while buying
laptops.
8. CONCLUSION
It was found from the mean score of the country of origin cue, scale that country of origin cue
is not one of the most important cues for consumers while they buy mobile phones or laptops.
8.1 Country of Origin effect and Mobile Phones
Results showed that 38% of respondents misperceived country of origin of mobile phones
they had bought. When these respondents realized the actual country of origin of the country,
79% of 38% of respondents’ perception about the overall quality of the product changed.
From these 79% of respondents, perception of most of the respondents changed to ‘good
quality’. This indicates that consumers (respondents) draw quality perception from country
image, although the number is not significant. Only 6.7% of respondents reported that it
doesn’t matter to them if they misperceived country of origin of mobile phones they bought.
Relation between Gender and Country of Origin Effect is not significant. From results it can
be observed that significant relationship exists between age and country of origin effect in
case of mobile phones. Results showed that ‘Age’ and ‘Country of Origin effect’ are
inversely related. That means youngsters consider country of origin cue to make judgment
about quality while buying or intend to buy Mobile phones while old age people least refer to
country of origin cue.
8.2 Country of Origin effect and Mobile Phones
Almost 70% of the consumers’ perceptions; who misperceived country of origin of Laptops
they had already bought; did not change even after realizing the actual country of origin. This
indicates that for Laptops users Country of Origin is of least important among factors which
influence buying decision.
Surprisingly unlike in case of mobile phones relationship between ‘Age’ and ‘Country of
Origin effect’ for Laptops is not significant. Relationship between ‘Gender’ and ‘Country of
Origin effect’ is also insignificant like in case of Mobile phones.
Ashutosh Chandrashekhar Zunjur et. al., / International Journal of Management Research & Review
Copyright © 2017 Published by IJMRR. All rights reserved 704
9. MANAGERIAL IMPLICATION
Findings show that youngsters perceive quality from country of origin while buying Mobile
phones. As youngsters are the largest consumer segment for mobile phones, companies
should focus on their strategies. The mobile Phones originated from a country which has
good image among society may use that image for benefit of their products’ sale. Otherwise
country of origin should be maintained undisclosed. But while doing so companies should
also keep it in mind that country of origin effect is dynamic and not static in behavior
(Nagashima, A., 1970, 1977). Therefore companies have to always keep on checking country
of origin effect for a particular product category after a certain time gap.
This research only takes into account if at all country of origin has its influence on buying
decision (particularly for Mobile Phones and Laptops). Future research can include several
other product categories and also may include names of some countries to investigate country
of origin effect in details.
10. LIMITATIONS AND SCOPE FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
The sample size is very small therefore findings may not be generalized for large population.
Moreover samples selected were well educated and well known to brands of mobile phones
and laptops. If samples those who are not highly educated and do not recognize many brands
were included results would have been different. Therefore it is suggested for future studies
to include such population also.
The scale used to investigate country of origin effect did not include specific countries’
names. Future studies may make use of different countries’ names based on their general
image among population.
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