Impact of Customer Perception Of Country of Origin On Customer Satisfaction In Apparels

Submitted to : Dr.Purva Kansal

Submitted By: Amit Pandey Ankit Paul Pulkit Sood

CONTENTS I. Introduction 3

II. Need and Significance

3-4

III. Literature Review

4-5

IV. Research Methodology

6-8

1.Nature of study

2. Methods of Data Collection

6-7

3.Sampling Plan

V. Data Analysis

References

INTRODUCTION
Among the many factors believed to influence consumer buying behaviour in an age of international competition, country of origin (COO) effects remain the most researched (AlSulaiti and Baker,1998) and is considered by many to make up the largest body of research in international buyer behaviour (Tan and Farley ,1987;Heslop et al.,1998;Martin and Romeo,1992;Lee and Brinberg,1995;Verlegh and Steenkamp,1999). The COO of a product has been found to influence consumer evaluation of a product on two dimensions: perceptions on quality (Khachaturian and Morganosky,1990) and perceptions of purchase value (Ahmed and dAstou,1993).More importantly, Paadopoulos et al(1991) also found COO effects to lead to consumer preferences for products from one country over another. Customer Satisfaction is the extent to which a products perceived performance matches a buyers expectations (Kotler et al.,2011).This satisfaction is influenced by many factors such as: Price of Product Attractiveness Easy Availability

NEED AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this study was to determine North Indian consumers beliefs about and preferences for apparel products made in Indian and those made in China and to determine the importance of the country-of-origin attribute relative to other product attributes in consumers purchase decision. As the manufacture of products and the quest for consumers become increasingly global activities, international marketing research takes on greater importance. One such area, the study of country-of-origin effects (COO), seeks to understand how consumers perceive products emanating from a particular country. The COO phenomenon mirrors the global marketplace's increasing complexity. Attention has been given in the marketing literature as to why COO influences purchase decisions. Several explanations have been offered including product category involvement, knowledge of a particular country, and patriotism. The purpose of this research is to offer a new perspective on country-of- origin effects. Here, COO is examined in terms of the fit between countries and product categories. By relating country images to product category
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characteristics, decision makers can better understand preference formations for their products. This information provides insight into what under lies consumers attitudes toward products manufactured in particular countries. Managers can benefit by having a better understanding of when promoting a product's COO is beneficial and when it is not, as well as identifying the dimensions along which country image should be improved. An understanding of the role of COO images for imported products as against domestic ones would aid in the formulation of better marketing plans, strategies and policies by companies of both domestic and international origin. A framework is suggested which matches the importance of product category dimensions with the perceived image of the country-of-origin along the same dimensions. Such matches (or mismatches) can be either favorable or unfavorable. Managers can use product-country match information to assess consumers' purchase intentions, and assist them in managing their product's COO.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Various articles and published researches were searched for and studied. The sources chosen included JSTOR, Science Direct, American Marketing Association, Emerald etc. According to Martin S. Roth and Jean B. Romeo (1992) -Country image plays a significant role in consumers perceptions of products. Thus, understanding the dimensions of country image and how it can be operationalized is important for managers whose products and those of their competitors are manufactured around the world. This section reviews how country image has been defined and operationalized in past research. One of the first studies to look at country image perceptions was Nagashima's [1970] survey of U.S. and Japanese businesspeople. Nagashima defined country image as: the picture, the reputation, the stereotype that businessmen and consumers attach to products of a specific country. This image is created by such variables as representative products, national characteristics, economic and political background, history, and traditions. [Nagashima 1970, p. 68] Narayana's [1981] definition of country image is quite similar-' "the aggregate image for any particular country's product refers to the entire connotative field associated with that country's product offerings, as perceived by consumers" (p. 32). Shimp and Sharma (1987) developed the consumer ethnocentrism construct, which reflects the desire of consumers to protect domestic economy. Ethno-centric consumers view purchasing imported products as wrong, because they think it hurts the domestic economy. To measure individual level differences in consumer ethnocentrism, Shimp and Sharma (1987) developed
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the CETSCALE, which contains items such as '[American] people should not buy foreign products, because this hurts US business and causes unemployment'. In line with the economic stance of the construct, consumer ethnocentrism is stronger in regions and industries where employment is threatened by foreign competition (Shimp and Sharma, 1987). Pappu, Quester & Cooksey, (2006) during their study they find that Multivariate analysis of variance of the data indicated that consumer based brand equity varied according to the country of origin of the brand and product category. This impact of country of origin on brand equity occurred where consumers perceived substantive differences between the countries in terms of their product category country associations. They suggest that Marketing managers operating in the international context must identify the sources of brand equity, and understand the importance of incorporating country of origin into their brand equity measurement Kwo & Huang(2006) found in their study that Chinese consumers generally say they prefer to buy local Chinese grocery brands. Second, Chinese consumers believe it is important to buy local brands for a range of Chinese-style and Western-style product categories. Third, however, the stated preference for Chinese brands was generally not reflected in actual purchase behaviour. They suggested that in order to capitalize on the preference for local brands, and to address consumers imperfect knowledge of which brands are local or foreign , managers may benefit by promoting the Chinese origin of their brands and by positioning their brands as being local. Lee, Kim, Pelton, Knight & Forney (2008), found that Mexican college students normative interpersonal influence positively affected brand consciousness. Brand consciousness is positively related to emotional value, but not to perceived quality of a US brand. Emotional value positively influences purchase intention toward a US brand, while perceived quality negatively influences purchase intention. They suggest that those US retailers who plan to enter the Mexican market should focus on the emotional aspects of US brands in order to appeal to Mexican college students, especially those who are brand conscious. Raty (2009), their study uncovered three strong factors durability, creativity of design and patriotism that affect consumers perceptions of a product and its brand image. These three factors are linked to country of manufacture, country of design and consumer values. Males seemed showed less concern for country of origin than females and interestingly the youngest age group showed the most negative attitudes towards products made in Asia. Overall attitudes towards goods made in Asia were less positive than for goods made in Western countries, but the difference in attitude was not significant. However, attitudes towards goods designed in Asia were more negative. Thus moving production to low labour cost countries should not affect brand image negatively, but design should not be outsourced to Asia.

OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the research are: 1.) To study the effect of country of origin on consumers evaluation of apparel product attributes relating to quality. 2.) To study the effect of Consumers socio-demographic characteristics on consumers evaluations of apparel product attributes related to quality. 3.) To study the behaviour of Ethnocentric consumers towards domestic manufactured apparels as compared to foreign manufactured apparels.

HYPOTHESES
H1: There is significant relationship between country of origin and customer satisfaction in apparels. H1a: Customer Satisfaction is positively related to general country attitudes. H1b: Customer Satisfaction is positively related to general product attitudes. H2: Customer perception varies across socio-demographic variables.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY NATURE OF THE STUDY

The current research is an attempt to investigate the key determinants that has an impact on consumer buying behavior. The study is descriptive in nature. Descriptive research is designed to describe characteristics of a population or a phenomenon.

METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION

Both Primary and secondary data will be used in this study. Primary Data: Primary data is the data collected and assembled specifically for the research project at hand. In order to collect the required information to address the overall research questions and hypothesis, self administered questionnaire will be preferred as a survey instrument.

Secondary Data: Secondary data is the data that have been previously collected for some purpose other than the one at hand. Secondary data used in this research shall be collected from journals, magazines, web-sites, newspapers, books etc.

SAMPLING PLAN
Considering the cost, degree of use, advantages and time constraints, the sampling technique followed will be Convenience sampling: It refers to the collection of information from members of population who are conveniently available to provide it. Data will be collected from four departments of Panjab University namely, UBS, UIAMS, Pharmacy and law by using the convenience sampling technique. Considering all the constraints and requirements i.e. cost of data collection, time, availability and other factors sample size of about 120-150 will be taken for the research 5. Data Collection Methodology: (a) Instruments COUNTRY OF ORIGIN scale (Pisharodi and Parameswaran, 1992) would be used as a standard for questionnaire for determining customer satisfaction in apparels. (b) Scales Likert Scale will be used to get the questionnaires filled. It is a psychometric scale. When responding to a Likert questionnaire item, respondents specify their level of agreement or disagreement on a symmetric agree-disagree scale for a series of statements .The Likert scale is the sum of responses on several Likert items. The format of a typical five-level Likert item: 1. Strongly disagree 2. Disagree 3. Neither agree nor disagree 4. Agree 5. Strongly agree

Data Analysis
The data collected will be entered into and analyzed by using the statistical software for social sciences.(SPSS) which is a computer program used for survey authoring and deployment, data mining, text analytics, and collaboration and deployment. The Tests that will be applied for analysis are: 1. Correlation test and Regression analysis shall be used to evaluate H1. 2. Chi-Square Test shall be used to evaluate H2.

REFERENCES
http://www.jstor.org/stable/155093 Bilkey, W.J. and Nes, E. 1982., Country of Origin Effects on Product Evaluations, Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 13 Nol. 1, pp. 88-97 Bannister, J.P. & Saunders, J.A. (1978). UK consumers' attitudes towards imports: the measurement of national stereotype image. European Journal of Marketing, 12 (8), 562-70. Shimp, T.A. and Sharma, S. (1987) 'Consumer ethnocentrism: construction and validation of the CETSCALE', Journal of Marketing Research 24(3): 280-289. Dickerson K. G. (1982). Imported versus U.S. produced apparel: Consumer views and buying patterns. Home Economic Research Journal, 10, 241-252. Erdener Kaynak, Orsay Kucukemiroglu, Akmal S. Hyder, (2000),"Consumers' country-of-origin (COO) perceptions of imported products in a homogenous less-developed country", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 34 Iss: 9 pp. 1221 1241. Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 23, No. 3 (3rd Qtr., 1992), pp. 477-497 Kenny Lim, Aron O'Cass, (2001),"Consumer brand classifications: an assessment of culture-oforigin versus country-of-origin", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 10 Iss: 2 pp. 120 136 Kenny Lim, Aron O'Cass, (2001),"Consumer brand classifications: an assessment of culture-oforigin versus country-of-origin", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 10 Iss: 2 pp. 120 136 Martin and Jean B. Romeo

Matching Product Catgeory and Country Image Perceptions: A Framework for ManagingCountry-Of-Origin Effects [corrected title: Matching Product Category and Country Image Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 23, No. 3 (3rd Qtr., 1992), pp. 477-497 Min-Young Lee, Youn-Kyung Kim, Lou Pelton, Dee Knight, Judith Forney, (2008),"Factors affecting Mexican college students' purchase intention toward a US apparel brand", Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Vol. 12 Iss: 3 pp. 294 307 Ravi Pappu, Pascale G. Quester, Ray W. Cooksey, (2006),"Consumer-based brand equity and country-of-origin relationships: Some empirical evidence", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 40 Iss: 5 pp. 696 717 Roth, Martin S. and Romeo, Jean B. (1992), Matching Product Category and Country Image Perceptions: a Framework for Managing Country of origin Effects. Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 23, Issue 3, pp. 477497. Simon Kwok, Mark Uncles, Yimin Huang, (2006),"Brand preferences and brand choice among urban Chinese consumers: An investigation of country-of-origin effects", Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Vol. 18 Iss: 3 pp. 163 172. Shih-Chieh Chuang and HsiuJu Rebecca Yen The Impact of a Product's Country-of-Origin on Compromise and Attraction Effects Marketing Letters, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Dec., 2007), pp. 279-291