Country of origin image and consumer knowledge effects on product evaluation and purchase intention

Introduction Consumers daily face lots of purchase decisions when they are buying products and services (Bas et al., 2016). They rely on some certain elements of the products to make the right decision about which product to buy. Some rely on extrinsic cues such as brand, country of origin (COO), store name, and price, while others take into account intrinsic cues of the intended product such as taste, smell, design, and durability (Wall et al., 1991; Chao, 1998). Consumers are inclined to make inferences regarding a given product depending on the information and experience level that they have with it (Johansson et al., 1985; Han, 1989, 1990). There is a well-known positive relationship between price and the quality (Zeithaml, 1988). COO information also provides consumers with some insight about the quality of the product (Li and Wyer, 1994) as such consumers attribute some certain features to certain countries (Ahmed and d’Astous, 1993; Verlegh and Steenkamp, 1999). Consumers develop stereotypes concerning “made in” labels of the products (Han, 1990; Ahmed et al., 2004). For instance, Germany is famous for its high-quality and high-durability automobiles; Japan is a well-known country in terms of its high-technology products especially in electronics; Italy and France are good at design and fashion and so on. There is also a negative association between some countries and consumer’s perception. For example, Chinese products are perceived negatively in terms of quality (Verlegh and Steenkamp, 1999; Kinra, 2006; Kerboucheet al., 2012). As a consequence,….