Interactive relationship of Country-of-Assembly, Consumer ...libproject.hkbu.edu.hk/trsimage/hp/09011056.pdfKong automobile consumers’ product evaluation and purchase intention

Interactive relationship of Country-of-Assembly, Consumer Product Involvement,

and Consumer Patriotism on Product Evaluation and Purchase Intention

among Hong Kong automobile owners

BY

YEUNG POU IAN

09011056

Marketing Concentration

An Honours Degree Project Submitted to the

School of Business in Partial Fulfilment

Of the Graduation Requirement for the Degree of

Bachelor of Business Administration (Honours)

Hong Kong Baptist University

Hong Kong

April 2012

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ABSTRACTS

The study aims at investigating the effect of Country-of-Assembly (COA) and its

interaction effects with consumer product involvement and consumer patriotism on Hong

Kong automobile consumers’ product evaluation and purchase intention.

Hong Kong automobile industry was chosen to be the study area. A between-subjects

design was employed and a total of 240 Hong Kong automobile owners were asked to fill

in the two sets of questionnaire in a convenient sampling in car parks and via online

questionnaire. Respondents were asked to indicate their product evaluation and purchase

intention towards one of the two preset automobile models which are assembled in China

and Germany. Information regarding the respondents’ product involvement level,

patriotism level and demographic profile were also collected.

COA was proved to have significant influence on automobile consumers’ product

evaluation and purchase intention. Two moderating factors, namely consumer product

involvement and consumer patriotism, were found to have interaction effects with COA

in affecting consumers’ product evaluation but not purchase intention. It is found that

consumers with lower product involvement level and higher patriotism level are more

responsive to the COA cue when they evaluate different automobiles.

With the trend of globalization, many companies are shifting more and more of their

operations to other countries. The study of COA effect brings significant insights to the

automobile marketers in formulating marketing strategies. They can be provided with a

better knowledge in targeting Hong Kong automobile consumers from different product

involvement and patriotism groups with different emphasis on COA cues. Further

research can be done on a multi-product approach with the investigation on the

interaction effects of COA and other moderating variables.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 4

1.1 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY .................................................................................................... 4

2. LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................................... 5

2.1 COUNTRY-OF-ORIGIN (COO) ................................................................................................ 5

2.2 COUNTRY-OF-ASSEMBLY (COA) ............................................................................................ 6

2.3 CONSUMER PRODUCT INVOLVEMENT ..................................................................................... 7

2.4 CONSUMER PATRIOTISM ....................................................................................................... 8

3. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND HYPOTHESIS............................................................................ 9

4. METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................................................... 11

4.1 DESIGN OF THE STUDY ........................................................................................................ 11

4.2 SAMPLING METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................. 11

4.3 QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN ..................................................................................................... 12

4.4 METHODS OF DATA ANALYSIS ............................................................................................. 13

5. ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS ............................................................................................................ 14

5.2 RELIABILITY TEST ............................................................................................................... 15

5.3 HYPOTHESIS TESTING ......................................................................................................... 16

6. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS ................................................................................................ 27

6.1 DISCUSSION ...................................................................................................................... 27

6.2 MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS................................................................................................ 29

6.3 ACADEMIC AND INDUSTRIAL CONTRIBUTIONS ......................................................................... 31

7. LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER RESEARCH DIRECTIONS ................................................................ 32

8. CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................................ 33

BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................ 34

APPENDIX I – QUESTIONNAIRES ......................................................................................................... 41

APPENDIX II – RELIABILITY TEST ......................................................................................................... 47

APPENDIX III – DEMOGRAPHIC STATISTICS RESULTS .............................................................................. 48

APPENDIX IV – PAIRED SAMPLE T-TEST RESULTS ................................................................................... 50

APPENDIX V – BETWEEN-SUBJECTS TWO-WAY ANOVA RESULTS ............................................................ 52

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1. INTRODUCTION

With proliferating globalization and trade liberalization, consumers have increasing

opportunities to come into contact with a variety of multi-national material goods

(Douglas et al., 2001). This is especially true in the case of Hong Kong which is an

important metropolitan hub with growing affluence and advanced telecommunication

technology. Consumers’ sensitivity to the Country-of-Origin (COO) of products thus

becomes critical to many marketers. This study aims at investigating the interactive

relationship of Country-of-Assembly (COA), consumer product involvement and

consumer patriotism in affecting Hong Kong automobile consumers’ product evaluation

and purchase intention towards two automobile models under the same brand but

assembled in two different countries – Germany and China.

1.1 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

Numerous researchers (for example, Chinen and Sun, 2011; Josiassen and Assaf, 2010;

Prendergast et al., 2010; Wang and Yang, 2008) have documented on the effects of COO

on various product categories and its interactive relationship with other moderating

factors, but the presence and strength of relationship vary in different countries. Thus,

there is a need to continuously develop new insights in this research area by studying the

variables in different combinations and in different cultural context.

In view of the growing car ownership and lack of research specifically on Hong Kong

automobile consumers’ purchase behaviour, this study aims at investigating the following

casual relationships by taking the automobile industry as the research field.

1. The effect of COA on consumers’ product evaluation and purchase intention.

2. The moderating effect of consumer product involvement on the relationship between

COA and consumers’ product evaluation and purchase intention.

3. The moderating effect of consumer patriotism on the relationship between COA and

consumers’ product evaluation and purchase intention.

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2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 COUNTRY-OF-ORIGIN (COO)

Early researches had put the emphasis of their studies on the effect of COO on consumers’

product evaluation and purchase intention and found their relationship is significantly

positively correlated (Vitale, 2011; Chinen and Sun, 2011; Tigli, Pirtii and Erdem, 2010;

Josiassen and Assaf, 2010; Wang and Yang, 2008; Kim, 2006; Lin and Chen, 2006;

Ahmed et al., 2004; Beverland and Lindgreen, 2002).

Roth and Romeo (1992) clearly defined COO image as the consumers’ perception of a

country based on their previous experience with the strengths and weaknesses of products

from that country. Consumers have a tendency to perceive a country’s products with

reference to the country’s image1 (Chinen and Sun, 2011; Jaffe and Nebenzahl, 2006;

Papadopoulos and Heslop, 1993). Some countries have a favourable reputation in certain

product categories while others have a less favourable reputation in certain products. For

example, people have a good impression on automobiles assembled in Germany and

electronics in Japan (Knight and Calantone, 2000). Many researches also discovered that

consumers generally view products made in developing countries as less favourable (Chu

et al., 2010). This could be due to consumers’ halo effect2 where a feeling towards a

country is transferred to the country’s products (Kim, 2006).

When consumers evaluate products, they use both intrinsic cues, such as style and image,

as well as extrinsic cues, such as brand name and price to evaluate the product quality

(Zafer and Cevahir, 2010; Huddleston et al., 2001; Schweiger et al., 1997). COO is

perceived as a “Made-in..” cue and one of the extrinsic cues influencing consumers’

purchase decisions (Tigli et al,, 2010; Insch, 2003; Watson and Wright, 2000; Tan and

1 Country image is defined as “the total of all descriptive, inferential and informational beliefs

one has about a particular country” (Martin and Eroglu, 1993: pp. 191). 2 “Halo effect” is defined as “the tendency to rate individuals or institutions either too high or

too low on the basis on one outstanding trait (Chaplin, 1973)

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Leong, 1999). Means-end-model suggested by Zeithaml (1988) illustrated the direct

effect of extrinsic cues on products’ perceived quality. However, although COO has been

found to be a critical cue affecting consumers’ purchase intention, studies indicated that

the COO effect can change over time (Verlegh and Steenkamp, 1999), so continuous

study is needed in this research area.

2.2 COUNTRY-OF-ASSEMBLY (COA)

While most of the researches put their foci on COO, some studies tried to decompose

COO effects into Country-of-Assembly (COA), Country-of-Design (COD), and

Country-of-Manufacture (COM) for hybrid products, as it is too general to use COO to

analyze the influence cleanly (Insch, 2003; Chao, 1993). COA refers to the country where

majority of the final assembly of the product took place (Insch and McBride, 1988). With

the ongoing globalization, many companies have shifted their assembly lines to other

countries such as China and Indonesia to benefit from the low-cost production. COA thus

becomes increasingly important when considering the COO effect. COA has been studied

to have positive relationship in affecting purchase intention (Insch, 2003; Chao, 1993).

Kathawala et al. (2010) also confirmed the effect of COA of automobiles on consumers’

perceived product quality in Southeast Asia. COA is especially important in studying

product evaluation and purchase intention in automobile industry because, for example,

some models of BMW, Toyota and Honda have majority of their assembly process in

developing countries, such as China to gain cost advantage. Therefore, this study will use

COA instead of COO to investigate more specifically its effects on Hong Kong

automobile consumers’ product evaluation and purchase intention.

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2.3 CONSUMER PRODUCT INVOLVEMENT

Consumer product involvement is one of the important factors moderating the COO

effects on consumers’ product evaluation and purchase intention. Consumers consider the

purchase to be very important and thus provoke extensive information processing in

high-involved purchases (Shiffman et al., 2010). Some researches discovered that COO

effect is more pronounced among less-involved consumers while COO cue does not have

differential influence on more product-involved consumers’ product evaluation (Josiassen

and Assaf, 2010; Prendergast et al., 2010; Josiassen et al., 2008; Maheswaran, 1994).

Other earlier researches also investigated on the importance consumers place on COO

cue when evaluating products by measuring their product involvement level (Pharr, 2005;

Verlegh and Steenkamp, 1999). Others called for further study on the moderating effect

of product involvement level on COO cue (Pappu et al., 2006; Phau and Suntornnond,

2006).

Automobiles are usually perceived as high-involved purchase due to its high perceived

financial risk and consumers tend to notice other information, such as price and brand

other than the COO cue only. Therefore, product involvement level determines whether

the consumer will take the central route (rely more on factual information) or the

peripheral route (rely more on images) to evaluate the product under the ELM (Petty and

Cacioppo, 1981). High-involved consumers tend to rely more of information processing

and take the central route whereas low-involved consumers tend to place their attention

more on images during product evaluation and hence take the peripheral route in reaching

the purchase decision.

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2.4 CONSUMER PATRIOTISM

Previous researches investigated the interactive relationship of COO and consumer

ethnocentrism3 on consumers’ affective perception towards imports and found that some

consumers have preference towards domestic products even they believe some foreign

products may be of higher quality (Chinen and Sun, 2011; B. Zafer and Cevahir, 2010;

Maher and Clark, 2010; Klein, 2002). Consumers do not always purchase a particular

country’s products which are perceived to be of high quality. Some of them tend to

evaluate products manufactured by their own countries more favourably than those from

foreign countries while some found that there is no significant relationship (Chen, 2009;

Chinen and Sun, 2011; Moon and Jain, 2002; Bikey and Nes, 1982). Consumers with

high patriotism perceive national values as a source of pride while sometimes even

dispelling other nations’ values. Wall and Heslop (1986) suggested some advantages of

purchasing home country products, such as maintaining national pride, boosting the local

economy and so on. Therefore, consumer patriotism may be a moderating factor

influencing the COO effect on consumers’ product evaluation and purchase intention.

3 Ethnocentrism refers to the tendency of individuals to see their cultural group as proving the

norms for acceptable behaviors and preferences. “Consumer ethnocentrism” expresses the effects

of buying intentions with regard to products from the home country and from countries that are

perceived to resemble or differ from it (Kaynak and Kara, 2002: pp. 929). “Consumer patriotism”

will be used instead to make it easier for readers to understand.

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3. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND HYPOTHESIS

Key:

Independent Variable

Dependent Variable (s)

Moderating Variable (s)

The above conceptual model was constructed to link the variables in the study with

reference to the models adopted by Chao (2001) and Chao (1993).

Many early studies had found the relationship among COO, product evaluation and

purchase intention is significantly positively correlated (Vitale, 2011; Chinen and Sun,

2011; Tigli et al., 2010; Josiassen and Assaf, 2010; Wang and Yang, 2008; Kim, 2006;

Lin and Chen, 2006; Ahmed et al., 2004; Beverland and Lindgreen, 2002). Insch (2003)

and Chao (1993) even specifically investigated the COA within the COO context and its

relationship with purchase intention is also proved to be positively correlated. However,

many researchers called for further study on the effect of COO/ COA on different product

categories in different cultural contexts. In view of the change in magnitude of COA

effect over time, and the lack of study in Hong Kong automobile industry in this area, the

following hypotheses were formulated to investigate on the relationship.

H1a: COA and product evaluation are significantly related.

H1b: COA and product intention are significantly related.

Studies such as Josiassen and Assaf (2010) have found that consumers are more likely to

process more information when they are more highly involved with the purchase. Hence,

Country-of-Assembly

(COA)

Product Evaluation

Consumer Product

Involvement

Consumer

Patriotism

H1

H2 H3

Purchase Intention

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COO effect would be lessened as COO would only be used as one of the cues in their

purchase evaluation. It was found that the relationship between COO and consumers’

product evaluation and purchase intention would be influenced in a greater extent when

consumers are of low product involvement (Josiassen and Assaf, 2010; Prendergast et al.,

2010; Josiassen et al., 2008; Pharr, 2005; Verlegh and Steenkamp, 1999; Maheswaran,

1994). As there has not been any research investigating the moderating effect of Hong

Kong automobile consumers’ product involvement level on their purchase evaluation and

intention, this leads to the development of the second set of hypotheses.

H2a: COA affects product evaluation of consumers with low product involvement

more than consumers with high product involvement.

H2b: COA affects purchase intention of consumers with low product involvement


There has been studies pointing out a significant influence of consumer patriotism in

moderating the relationship between COA and consumers’ purchase evaluation and

intention (Chinen and Sun, 2011; B. Zafer and Cevahir, 2010; Maher and Clark, 2010;

Klein, 2002). Consumers with high level of patriotism were found to perceive home

country’s products more favourably than those with low level of patriotism, and they are

inclined to purchase products from their own countries (Zafer, 2010; Samiee, 1994).

Patriotism among Hong Kong people has raised some heated debates these years.

However, the influence of their patriotism level on purchase evaluation and intention

when people behave as a consumer is a totally new topic in Hong Kong consumer

behaviour research. These lead to the third set of hypotheses.

H3a: COA affects product evaluation of consumers with high patriotism more than

consumers with low patriotism.

H3b: COA affects purchase intention of consumers with high patriotism more than

consumers with low patriotism.

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4. METHODOLOGY

4.1 DESIGN OF THE STUDY

Automobile was selected as the product category for study due to the increasing

importance of automobile industry and private car ownership in Hong Kong4.

Germany was chosen to be one of the study countries as there is a general stereotype that

Germans are industrious while cars manufactured in Germany are stereotyped as superior

and of good quality (Vitale, 2011; Tse et al., 1996; Milbank, 1994). On the other hand,

China was selected to be another country as it has an image of being a low cost

manufacturer (Chinen and Sun, 2011) and products “made in China” are generally

perceived to be of lower quality than other countries due to pervious scandals of its

manufactured products. Consumers are also believed to be more receptive to products

manufactured in more advanced countries such as Germany, than those from less

advanced countries such as China (Chinen and Sun, 2011). Two sets of questionnaires

were designed to discover the interactive relationship among COA, consumer product

involvement, consumer patriotism, product evaluation and purchase intention.

4.2 SAMPLING METHODOLOGY

Hong Kong automobile owners above the age of 18 were selected as the unit-of-analysis

of the study. A pretest questionnaire was conducted with 15 respondents by personal

interview before the distribution of final questionnaire to identify and eliminate potential

problems. Question content, wording, sequence of questions of the questionnaire were

tested with the hope of making improvements on any potential problems. A total of 240

questionnaires were collected from online survey system and by convenient sampling in

car parks through face-to-face interviews with respondents.

4 According to 2011 figures of Transport Department, HKSAR, the number of private cars per 1000

population in Hong Kong has been rising steadily from 50.6 in 2001 to58.4 in 2010.

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4.3 QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN

The research adopted the survey instrument suggested by Zafar et al. (2002). Two sets of

nearly identical questionnaires were designed. Respondents were asked to complete one

set of questionnaire which consists of six parts.

Part 1 of the questionnaires was consisted of two screening questions asking the

respondents their car ownership situation and familiarity with automobiles (Wang and

Yang, 2008) in five-point semantic differential scale.

In Part 2, respondents were shown to one automobile (Questionnaire Set 1 featuring an

automobile assembled in CHINA while Set 2 featuring an automobile assembled in

GERMANY). All product specifications of the two models were held constant except

their Country-of-Assembly in order to test the COA effect on their product evaluation and

purchase intention. Four items which are applicable to the automobile evaluation in this

study were selected to measure the respondents’ product evaluation with reference to

Roth and Romeo (1992)’s nine-item measurement and Han (1990)’s five-item

measurement.

Part 3 measured the purchase intention in a five-point scale by asking the respondents

their overall purchase intention towards the stated automobile (Han, 1990; Erickson et al.,

1984) and the influence of COA in affecting their decision.

In Part 4, the product involvement level of respondents was measured by a ten-item

measurement (Zaichkowsky, 1994) with five-point semantic differential scale. In Part 5, a

four-item five-point semantic differential scale (Consumer Ethnocentrism Scale:

CETSCALE) was used to measure the consumer patriotism level of respondents

(Luque-Martinez et al., 2000; Han, 1989).

13

In Part 6 which was the last part, four questions were designed to collect some

demographic information, including gender, age, education level and personal monthly

income from respondents.

4.4 METHODS OF DATA ANALYSIS

Analysis with the aid of PASW 18 was conducted after data collection from the sampling

Hong Kong automobile owners.

The test of reliability was conducted first, followed by the analysis of demographic data

of respondents.

Two paired sample t-tests were employed to measure the strength and direction of

relationship between COA and product evaluation and purchase intention.

The interactive relationship between COA and consumer product involvement on product

evaluation and purchase intention, as well as the relationship between COA and consumer

patriotism on product evaluation and purchase intention were analyzed with the use of

between-subjects two-way ANOVA analysis.

Respondents’ demographic variables, and other descriptive data of the variables adopted

in the study were analyzed by finding their frequencies.

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5. ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

5.1 DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF RESPONDENTS

Two versions of questionnaires with 120 valid respondents for each set counted to a total

of 240 valid questionnaires were received (descriptive statistics of respondents’

demographic profile are shown in table 1).

All the respondents are Hong Kong automobile owners consisting of 130 males (54.2%)

and 110 females (45.8%).

Regarding the age range, most respondents fall within the range of 35-44 years old

(37.5%) and 35-54 years old (35.8%). 42 respondents aged 26-34 (17.5%), followed by

12 respondents aged 55 or above (5%) and 10 aged 18-25 (4.2%).

In terms of education level, 132 respondents are above tertiary level (55%), followed by

16 respondents possessing tertiary education level, and 16 of them possessing secondary

level (6.7%).

For personal monthly income, 74 respondents fall within the range of $40,000 or above

(30.8%), followed tightly by 68 respondents falling within the range of $30,000-39,999

(28.3%). 40 of them earned $25,000-29,999 per month (16.7%), followed by 34

respondents earning $20,000-24,999 monthly (14.2%). 8 respondents are within the range

of $10,000-14,999 (3.3%), 8 are in the range of $15,000-19,999 (3.3%), and 8

respondents refused to reveal their monthly income (3.3%).

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Table 1

Respondents’ Demographic Profile of Valid Samples

Variables Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

Gender Male

Female

Total

130

110

240

54.2

45.8

100.0

54.2

100.0

Age 18-25

26-34

35-44

45-54

55 or above

Total

10

42

90

86

12

240

4.2

17.5

37.5

35.8

5.0

100.0

4.2

21.7

59.2

95.0

100.0

Education

Level

Primary level or above

Secondary level

Tertiary level

Above tertiary level

Total

0

16

92

132

240

0

6.7

38.3

55.0

100.0

0

6.7

45.0

100.0

Personal

Monthly

Income

(HKD)

<$10,000

$10,000-14,999

$15,000-19,999

$20,000-24,999

$25,000-29,999

$30,000-39,999

$40,000+

Total

Missing

0

8

8

34

40

68

74

232

8

0

3.3

3.3

14.2

16.7

28.3

30.8

96.7

3.3

0

3.3

6.9

21.6

38.8

68.1

100.0

5.2 RELIABILITY TEST

Reliability tests were conducted for the 4 product evaluation questions, 10 consumer

product evaluation questions and 4 consumer patriotism questions. The results of

Cronbach’s Alpha of all the reliability tests are greater than 0.7 which means the

reliability tests are all acceptable.

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5.3 HYPOTHESIS TESTING

H1a: COA and product evaluation are significantly related.

Respondents were asked to evaluate two automobile models with the only difference in

their Country-of-Assembly (one was assembled in CHINA, another was assembled in

GERMANY). Respondents’ product evaluation towards the automobile assembled in

China has a mean of 2.50 (S.D.=0.632) whereas the product evaluation towards the

automobile assembled in Germany has a mean of 4.34 (S.D.=0.558) which is much

higher than that of the Chinese automobile model.

A paired sample t-test (Table 2-3) was conducted to test whether the means of product

evaluations toward the two automobile models are significantly different. The result

reveal that respondents’ product evaluation regarding the automobiles assembled in China

and Germany are significantly different (t(119)=-23.60, p<0.05). Respondents have more

favourable product evaluation towards the German automobile than the Chinese one.

Therefore, H1a is accepted.

Table 2: Descriptive Statistics of Paired Sample t-test of Product Evaluation

Paired Samples Statistics

Mean N Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean

Pair 1 CNevaluation 2.50 120 .632 .058

GERevaluation 4.34 120 .558 .051

Table 3: Results of Paired Sample t-test for Significant Difference in Product Evaluation

Paired Samples Test

Paired Differences

t df

Sig.

(2-tailed) Mean

Std.

Deviation

Std. Error

Mean

95% Confidence Interval

of the Difference

Lower Upper

Pair

1

CNevaluation -

GERevaluation

-1.842 .855 .078 -1.996 -1.687 -23.596 119 .000

17

H1b: COA and product intention are significantly related.

In addition to the product evaluation, respondents were also asked to indicate their

purchase intention towards the two automobile models. Respondents’ purchase intention

towards the Chinese automobile model has a mean of 1.94 (S.D.=0.781). On the other

hand, respondents have a much higher purchase intention towards the German

automobile model with a mean of 4.01 (S.D.=0.930)

A paired sample t-test (Table 4-5) is again conducted to compare the respondents’

purchase intentions toward the two automobile models. The results show that there is a

significant difference between the purchase intention of the two automobiles

(t(119)=-19.56, p<0.05). Again, respondents show a higher purchase intention towards the

German automobile than the Chinese automobile.

Therefore, H1b is accepted.

Table 4: Descriptive Statistics of Paired Sample t-test of Purchase Intention



Pair 1 CNIntention 1.94 120 .781 .071

GERIntention 4.01 120 .930 .085

Table 5: Results of Paired Sample t-test for Significant Difference in Purchase Intention

Paired Samples Test

Paired Differences

t df

Sig.

(2-tailed) Mean

Std.

Deviation

Std. Error

Mean


of the Difference

Lower Upper

Pair 1 CNIntention -

GERIntention

-2.067 1.158 .106 -2.276 -1.857 -19.557 119 .000

18

H2a: COA affects product evaluation of consumers with low product involvement


According to the descriptive analysis of respondent’s product involvement, there are 118

respondents belong to the group of high product involvement (49.2%) while 122

respondents belong to low product involvement group (50.8%) (APPENDIX V).

A between-subjects two-way ANOVA was conducted to determine the interaction effects

of Country-of-Assembly (COA) and consumer product involvement on respondents’

product evaluation towards the two automobile models. Both COA and consumer product

involvement are between-subjects variables with product evaluation being the dependent

variable. Descriptive statistics (Table 6) show that product evaluation of automobile

assembled in China has a mean of 2.82 (S.D.=0.407) while the one assembled in

Germany has a higher mean of 4.35 (S.D.=0.602) in the high product involvement group.

For the low product involvement group, the evaluation of Chinese automobile model has

a mean of 2.19 (S.D.=0.660) whereas that of the German model has a higher mean of

4.34 (S.D.=0.516). These figures indicate that both high and low product involvement

groups tend to have a higher evaluation towards the automobile assembled in Germany

than in China.

Table 6: Descriptive Statistics of Two-way Between-Subjects ANOVA Analysis

(Dependent variable: product evaluation)

COA Product Involvement Mean Std. Deviation N

China

dimension2

High involvement 2.82 .407 59

Low involvement 2.19 .660 61

Total 2.50 .632 120

Germany

dimension2



Total 4.34 .558 120

19

The two-way analysis result (Table 7 and Figure 1) shows that there is a significant

interaction effect of COA and consumer product involvement on consumers’ product

evaluation (F=18.32, p<0.05). The mean difference of product evaluation towards

Chinese and German automobiles among the high product involvement consumers is

(4.35-2.82) 1.53 comparing with the mean difference among the consumers with low

product involvement is (4.34-2.19) 2.15. Based on the mean difference of the respondents’

product evaluation towards the two automobile models without taking product

involvement into consideration (4.34-2.5=1.84), it can be concluded that product

involvement level has a higher effect on low-involved consumers than highly-involved

consumers, since the former group of consumers take more consideration of the COA

effect when evaluating the two automobiles, while the latter group is less influenced by

the COA cue.


Table 7: Results of Two-way Between-Subjects ANOVA Analysis


Source Type III Sum of

Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

Partial Eta

Squared

COO 202.319 1 202.319 656.178 .000 .735

COO * Product Involvement 5.649 1 5.649 18.322 .000 .072

Error 72.766 236 .308

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Figure 1: Results of Two-way ANOVA Analysis of Consumer Product Involvement and

COA on Product Evaluation

H2b: COA affects purchase intention of consumers with low product involvement


Another between-subjects two-way ANOVA was conducted to test the interaction effects

of COA and consumer product involvement on respondents’ purchase intention towards

the two automobile models. COA and consumer product involvement are

between-subjects variables while purchase intention is the dependent variable. The

descriptive statistics (Table 8) show the purchase intention towards the automobile

assembled in China has a mean of 1.98 (S.D.=0.754) whereas the automobile assembled

in Germany has a mean of 4.08 (S.D.=0.816) among high-involved consumers. On the

other hand, the purchase intention of low-involved consumers towards the Chinese

automobile model accounts for a mean of 1.90 (S.D.=0.810) while that of the German

model is 3.93 (S.D.= 1.031). It shows both high and low product involved consumers

have a higher purchase intention towards the German model than the Chinese model.

Key:

1: High Product Involvement

2: Low Product Involvement

21


(Dependent variable: purchase intention)

The two-way analysis result (Table 9 and Figure 2) reveals that there is no significant

interaction relationship of COA and consumer product involvement on consumers’

purchase intention (F=0.10, p>0.05). Although there is a significant COA effect on the

respondents’ purchase intention (t(119)=-19.56, p<0.05), the effect of COA does not have a

significant difference between the consumers with high and low product involvement

levels.

Therefore, H2b is rejected.



COO Product Involvement Mean Std. Deviation N

China

dimension2

High Involvement 1.98 .754 59

Low Involvement 1.90 .810 61

Total 1.94 .781 120

Germany

dimension2

High Involvement 4.08 .816 59

Low Involvement 3.93 1.031 61

Total 4.01 .930 120



Partial Eta

Squared

COO 256.338 1 256.338 346.270 .000 .595

COO * Product Involvement .071 1 .071 .096 .757 .000

Error 174.707 236 .740

22

Figure 2: Results of Two-way ANOVA Analysis of Consumer Product Involvement and

COA on Purchase Intention

H3a: COA affects product evaluation of consumers with high patriotism more than

consumers with high patriotism.

The descriptive analysis of respondent’s patriotism level reveals that 106 respondents

belong to the high patriotism group (44.2%) whereas 134 respondents are classified as

possessing low patriotism (55.8%) (APPENDIX V).

A between-subjects two-way ANOVA was conducted to find the interaction effects of

COA and consumer patriotism on respondents’ product evaluation towards the two

automobile models. COA and consumer product involvement are between-subjects

variables with product evaluation being the dependent variable. Descriptive statistics

(Table 10) reveal that product evaluation of automobile assembled in China has a mean

of 2.92 (S.D.=0.404) while the one assembled in Germany has a higher mean of 4.38

(S.D.=0.590) among the high patriotism consumers. On the other hand, regarding the low

Key:



23

patriotism consumer group, the evaluation of Chinese automobile model has a mean of

2.17 (S.D.=0.581) whereas that of the German model has a higher mean of 4.31

(S.D.=0.533). Figures show that both high and low consumer patriotism groups have a

higher evaluation towards the automobile assembled in Germany than in China.



COO Consumer Patriotism Mean Std. Deviation N

China

dimension2

High patriotism 2.92 .404 53

Low patriotism 2.17 .581 67

Total 2.50 .632 120

Germany

dimension2



Total 4.34 .558 120

The two-way analysis result (Table 11 and Figure 3) shows that there is a significant

interaction effect of COA and consumer patriotism on consumers’ product evaluation

(F=23.85, p<0.05). According to table 10, with the similar product evaluation towards the

German automobile model among two groups of consumers, consumers with high

patriotism have a much higher evaluation towards the Chinese automobile model than the

low patriotism consumers. It reveals that consumers with higher patriotism have a more

favourable impression towards the COA cue of the automobile assembled in China. Thus,

they evaluated the Chinese model with relatively high points than the low patriotism

consumers. In other words, consumers with high patriotism are more affected by the

COA cue than those of low patriotism when evaluating the two automobile models.


24



Figure 3: Results of Two-way ANOVA Analysis of Consumer Patriotism and COA on

Product Evaluation



Partial Eta

Squared

COO 192.186 1 192.186 670.878 .000 .740

COO * Consumer Patriotism 6.832 1 6.832 23.849 .000 .092

Error 67.607 236 .286

Key:

1: High Consumer Patriotism

2: Low Consumer Patriotism

25

H3b: COA affects purchase intention of consumers with high patriotism more than

consumers with high patriotism.

Another between-subjects two-way ANOVA was conducted to determine whether there is

an interaction effect between COA and consumer patriotism on respondents’ purchase

intention towards the two automobiles. COA and consumer patriotism are

between-subjects variables while purchase intention is the dependent variable. The

descriptive statistics (Table 12) show the purchase intention towards the automobile

assembled in China has a mean of 2.08 (S.D.=0.781) whereas the automobile assembled

in Germany has a mean of 4.13 (S.D.=0.900) among high patriotism consumers. On the

other hand, the purchase intention of consumers with low patriotism towards the Chinese

automobile model accounts for a mean of 1.84 (S.D.=0.771) while that of the German

model is 3.91 (S.D.= 0.949). It reveals both consumers of high and low patriotism level

have a higher purchase intention towards the German model than the Chinese model.



COO Consumer Patriotism Mean Std. Deviation N

China

dimension2



Total 1.94 .781 120

Germany

dimension2



Total 4.01 .930 120

The two-way analysis result (Table 13 and Figure 4) reveals that there is no significant

interaction effect of COA and consumer patriotism on consumers’ purchase intention

(F=0.01, p>0.05). Although there is a significant COA effect on the respondents’

purchase intention (t(119)=-19.56, p<0.05), the effect of COA does not have a significant

difference between the consumers of high and low patriotism levels.

Therefore, H3b is rejected.

26





Partial Eta

Squared

COO 252.521 1 252.521 345.618 .000 .594

COO * Consumer Patriotism .005 1 .005 .007 .935 .000

Error 172.430 236 .731

Figure 4: Results of Two-way ANOVA Analysis of Consumer Patriotism and COA on

Purchase Intention

Key:



27

6. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

6.1 DISCUSSION

Bilkey and Nes (1982) analyzed 25 Country-of-Origin studies and concluded that COO

would influence consumers’ perception of products in a quantitative approach. Results of

the study reveal that COA cue is an important construct in consumers’ mind in their

product evaluation and purchase decision processes. The findings are consistent with the

observation of early researchers such as Kathawala et al.(2010), Insch (2003), Chao

(2001), Ahmed and d’Astous (1996) and Chao (1993) on the study of the effect of COO

or COA cue in making evaluation and purchase decisions. This proves that Hong Kong

automobile owners are very likely to be influenced by the COA information when

evaluating and purchasing automobiles. They tend to view automobiles assembled in

more developed countries such as Germany more favourably than those assembled in

developing countries such as China, as they perceive automobiles from Germany would

be of higher quality and reputation than those from China (Kathawala et al., 2010).

Regarding the interaction effect of product involvement level on consumers’ product

evaluation and purchase intention, study results do not completely agree with literatures

such as Joiassen and Assaf (2010) and Chao (2001). Consumers’ product evaluation is

different from their purchase intention. Product evaluation is concerned more with the

attitudinal side which is directly affected by product perceived value, while purchase

intention is more about the behavioural side of consumers’ purchase decision (Dodds et

al., 1991). Many early researches did not clearly separate the analysis of the COO effect

on consumers’ product evaluation and purchase intention. Most research which clearly

put emphasis to test on both the product evaluation and purchase intention in the COO

topic tends to have a consistent result. For example, a significant interaction relationship

on both product evaluation and purchase intention was found in Lin and Chen (2006) and

28

Chao (2001)’s studies whereas Joiassen and Assaf (2010) found there was an

insignificant relationship. Wu and Fu (2007) suggested that the traditional COO studies

tend to put the focus on product evaluation but little study was conducted on consumers’

purchase intention. He even found that COO cue significantly affect consumers’ product

evaluation but not their ultimate purchase intention.

This study also shows an interesting result as Wu and Fu (2007)’s study. Consumer

product involvement and COA have a significant interaction effect on consumers’ product

evaluation but not on their purchase intention. Consistent with former literatures, placing

more attention on the image of the product when doing evaluation, low-involved

consumers are more sensitive to the COA cue and tend to view automobiles assembled in

China much less favourably than the high-involved consumers. However, results show

that the two groups of consumers do not differ significantly when it comes to the

purchase decision-making stage. In other words, the interaction effect of COA and

product involvement diminishes from the evaluation stage to the decision-making stage.

Another moderating variable being studied is consumer patriotism. It is again shown that

there is also a significant interaction effect of COA and consumer patriotism on product

evaluation but not purchase intention. Consumers with higher patriotism level are

expected to evaluate the COA cue of China more favourably than those of lower

patriotism level, as they tend to have a greater support to their own country’s products

(Chinen and Sun, 2011). Nevertheless, when it comes to their purchase intention, two

consumer groups do not have significant difference in making their purchase decisions.

It can be concluded that in automobile industry, COA has a significant effect on

consumers’ product evaluation and purchase intention. When consumers’ product

involvement level and patriotism level are also taken into consideration, the COA cue

only has significantly different effects on product evaluation of different groups of

29

consumers, but not their purchase intention. Consumers with lower product involvement

level and higher patriotism level are more likely to evaluate automobiles based more on

the COA cues. Both the interaction effects of COA with product involvement and

patriotism level diminish from the evaluation to the purchase decision stage, which agrees

with former studies (Ahmed, 1999). The results also indicate that COO effect on product

evaluation may be not necessarily transferred to their purchase intention. The relationship

may be affected by factors such as countries, consumers’ preference. However, as the

relationship between product evaluation and purchase intention is not the key focus of

this study, detailed explanation on that needed to b discussed in further studies.

6.2 MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS

In today’s vibrant business environment, globalization and trade liberalization are

inevitable trends. It is expected that many corporations will continue to have operations

in different countries in order to achieve purposes such as minimizing operating costs,

opening up new markets and so on. Automobile industry is certainly one of these business

fields to which its assembly lines are likely to be continuously spreading worldwide to

gain cost advantage in the upcoming future.

Both literatures such as Chao (2001) and the study proved that COA is an important cue

in influencing consumers’ purchase evaluation and decision. Understanding the effect of

COA cue on product evaluation and purchase intention in consumers’ mind could better

help the automobile industry, especially the practitioners, formulate appropriate

marketing strategies in promoting the product, or even the decision in choosing suitable

places to assemble the products. However, early researchers found that consumers’

perceived quality evaluation of products may change over time (Verlegh and Steenkamp,

1999). Therefore, marketers should pay special attention on consumers’ rapidly changing

needs and perception. Automobile consumers usually evaluate the car choices based on

30

the COA cues which are believed to be an indication of quality and reputation (Kathawala

et al.,2010). A favourable COA cue should be clearly indicated and emphasized in

marketing campaigns while a less favourable COA cue should be marketed with more

focus on other favourable product attributes to avoid negative product evaluation.

Besides the COA effect alone, it is also essential to understand the interaction effects of

COA and consumer involvement as well as consumer patriotism in determining

consumers’ product evaluation and purchase intention. By identifying these information,

industry players would know how to target different consumer segments. A positive COA

cue can be especially emphasized when targeting to the low-involved consumers while

marketers should avoid targeting these consumers with less favourable COA cues, since

they are very cautious about the COA cue when evaluating the product. On the other hand,

other positive product attributes should also be conveyed to the high-involved consumers

as they tend to evaluate different product attributes but not the COA cue only (Petty and

Cacioppo, 1981).

Regarding consumer patriotism, consumers with high patriotism level should be targeted

if the COA cues are their country-of-origins. For instance, in Hong Kong, automobiles

assembled in China should be especially targeted to consumers with high patriotism level

who tend to be more supportive to Chinese products.

Although the study revealed no significant difference among different segments of

consumers in their purchase intention, a more favourable evaluation among consumers

should still be pursued to trigger greater customer satisfaction. This implies the

automobile industry should make good use of the COA cue to give a more favourable

impression of its products in consumers’ mind, and may especially target to a certain

consumer group to achieve a higher evaluation of its products.

31

6.3 ACADEMIC AND INDUSTRIAL CONTRIBUTIONS

The study further Chao (2001, 1993)’s studies on COA effect by investigating the COA

effect on consumers’ purchase decision in Hong Kong automobile industry for the first

time. Although many former studies on COO effect like Tigli et al. (2010) can be found,

the combination of the COA effect, consumer product involvement and consumer

patriotism in studying this industry and the Hong Kong market is still new in this study

area. As consumers’ preferences and perception change rapidly over time (Verlegh and

Steenkamp, 1999), it is very important to have this research to further the former studies.

The unexpected result of the interaction effect of the variables on consumers’ product

evaluation and purchase intention evokes an urgent need for the study of COO effect

together with the study on the relationship between product evaluation and purchase

intention. Although this observation is not supported with imperial data in this study, this

study still serves as a basis for further investigation on the relationship as their linkage

may also have effect on COO’s studies and marketer’s success.

The results of the study especially help automobile marketers determine the marketing

strategies which can be adopted when launching a new promotional campaign to induce

consumers’ adoption or trial of automobiles assembled in different countries, especially in

the Hong Kong market. Marketers generally believe it is difficult for automobiles

assembled in developing countries which have a less favourable country image to have a

good sales volume. However, results indicate that marketers can look into the opportunity

of identifying different customer segments and targeting them with different cues in

different strength to improve the sales. In this highly competitive and affluent market,

understanding how the consumers make their purchase decision and provide them with

the value they want may determine whether the company can gain the competitive

advantage and eventually succeed in the marketplace.

32

7. LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

Undoubtedly, this study has contributed some valuable insights to the understanding of

Hong Kong automobile consumers by finding the interaction effects of COA, consumer

product involvement and patriotism level on consumers’ product evaluation and purchase

intention. Nevertheless, caution should be exercised in the interpretation of results.

First, automobile which is a highly-involved single product category was used in the

study in order to maintain internal validity and limit the affect of extraneous variables,

but external validity is in turn limited. Further research can be done on a multi-product

approach in order to study the interaction effects of COA and various factors on different

product categories.

Second, only two countries (one developed country in Europe and one developing

country in Asia) were selected in the study. The results may be skewed since most people,

even they are not in a good knowledge of automobile, view products from Europe more

favourably than those from Asia. Further studies can try to set more countries or set some

countries within the same continents to test whether specific country would have a

significant determining effect on consumers’ product evaluation and purchase intention.

Third, there is an interesting result revealing that there is a significant difference in the

interaction effects of COA and consumer product involvement and patriotism on product

evaluation but not on purchase intention. This may be a sign implying that consumers

would try to take a more serious consideration of other factors such as price range and

brand when making the final purchase decision. It is hoped that the research can spur

more efforts on this under-researched area to explain the relationship between product

evaluation and purchase intention to gain more comprehensive understanding on

consumers’ buying behaviour.

33

Forth, respondents of the study are limited to Hong Kong automobile owners. However,

opinions from the potential automobile buyers who are not currently an automobile

owner might also be of value to the marketers, although they may be difficult to reach.

Further studies can try to target this group of people to allow automobile dealers to better

understand these prospects.

8. CONCLUSIONS

The trend of globalization leads to the need for a continuous study on the effect of

Country-of-Origin (COO). With the focus putting on the Hong Kong automobile industry,

the study extended the former work of Chao (2001, 1993) on the study of the effect of

Country-of-Assembly (COA) and its interaction effects with consumer product

involvement level and patriotism on product evaluation and purchase intention. Out of the

6 hypotheses, 4 of them are supported in the study. The research confirmed that COA, as

an extrinsic cue, has a significant effect in influencing Hong Kong automobile consumers’

product evaluation and purchase intention. Two factors, namely consumer product

involvement and patriotism, were found to have moderating effects on the relationship of

COA and consumers’ product evaluation but not on purchase intention. It should also be

noticed that the moderating effects of these two factors diminish from consumers’ product

evaluation stage to the purchase decision-making stage, which proved the relationship

between product evaluation and purchase intention is not necessarily positive.

Although findings of the study provides additional insights to the field of COA effect as

well as its interaction effects on two moderating variables, research on COA effect should

be a continuous work as consumers’ preferences are rapidly changing. However, it is

believed that this study would provide the automobile marketers with more knowledge in

formulating marketing strategies on how the Hong Kong automobile consumers evaluate

and make the purchase decision on a variety of imported cars from different countries.

34

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APPENDIX I – QUESTIONNAIRES

[SET 1] Automobile Buying Behavior among Hong Kong private car owners

I am a Year 3 student majoring in Marketing from Hong Kong Baptist University. I am

conducting a study on automobile buying behavior among Hong Kong private car

owners. Thank you very much for your participation. Your comments are definitely

valuable. Your information provided will only be used for the purpose of this research and

will be kept confidential. Thank you!

Part 1: Basic information

1. Are you currently an owner of at least one private car in Hong Kong?

□ Yes, please continue with the questionnaire

□ No, the questionnaire ends here

2. Please circle one of the options below to describe your familiarity with cars.

(Left-“not at all familiar”; Right-“extremely familiar”) (Wang and Yang, 2008)

Not at all familiar 1 2 3 4 5 extremely familiar

familiar

Part 2: Product evaluation

In the following you will see the information of an automobile. Please read the

information very carefully and select the most appropriate answer for each of the

questions followed based on your own perception. (Roth and Romeo, 1992)

Brand: GMW

Product Specifications:

Capacity in ccm: 1,997

Price: $500,000

Fuel Consumption:

7.0 L/100km

Assembled in CHINA

(1) The Reliability of this car would be

Very Low 1 2 3 4 5 Very High

(2) The Prestige value this car offers would be


(3) The Quality of this car would be

Very poor 1 2 3 4 5 Very Good

(4) The Technical advancement of this car would be

Very poor 1 2 3 4 5 Very advanced

42

Part 3: Purchase Intention

1. What is your overall purchase intention towards this automobile model?

Not very likely 1 2 3 4 5 Very likely

2. When I buy automobile, it is important to know the Country-of-Origin of the

automobile.

Strongly Agree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Disagree

Part 4: Consumer product Involvement

To me, automobile is..

(Please circle one of the options to indicate the degree in each of the following adjective

that automobile gives you) (Zaichkowsky, 1994)

(a) Appealing 1 2 3 4 5 Unappealing

(b) Exciting 1 2 3 4 5 Unexciting

(c) Fascinating 1 2 3 4 5 Ordinary

(d) Involving 1 2 3 4 5 Uninvolving

(e) Meaningful 1 2 3 4 5 Meaningless

(f) Necessary 1 2 3 4 5 Unnecessary

(g) Priceless 1 2 3 4 5 Worthless

(h) Important 1 2 3 4 5 Unimportant

(i) Interesting 1 2 3 4 5 Boring

(j) Relevant 1 2 3 4 5 Irrelevant

43

Part 5: Consumer Patriotism (Luque-Martinez et al., 2000; Han, 1989)

(1) Chinese people should always buy Chinese-made products instead of imports.


(2) Buy Chinese-made products. Keep China working.

(3) Strongly Agree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Disagree

(3) We should purchase products manufactured in China instead of letting other

countries get rich off us.


(4) We should buy from foreign countries only those products that we cannot obtain

within our own country.


Part 6: Personal Information

Please the appropriate box in each of the following questions. Data collected will only

be used for the purpose of this research and will be kept confidential.

1. Gender

□ Male □ Female

2. Age

□ 18-25 □ 26-34 □ 35-44 □ 45-54 □ 55 or above

3. Education level

□ Primary level or below □ Secondary level □ Tertiary level □ Above tertiary level

4. Personal monthly income

□ <$10,000 □ $10,000-14,999 □ $15,000-19,999 □ $20,000-24,999

□ $25,000-29,999 □ $30,000-39,999 □ $40,000+

~ This is the end of the questionnaire. Thank you! ~

44

[SET 2] Automobile Buying Behavior among Hong Kong private car owners

I am a Year 3 student majoring in Marketing from Hong Kong Baptist University. I am

conducting a study on automobile buying behavior among Hong Kong private car

owners. Thank you very much for your participation. Your comments are definitely

valuable. Your information provided will only be used for the purpose of this research and

will be kept confidential. Thank you!

Part 1: Basic information

1. Are you currently an owner of at least one private car in Hong Kong?

□ Yes, please continue with the questionnaire

□ No, the questionnaire ends here

2. Please circle one of the options below to describe your familiarity with cars.

(Left-“not at all familiar”; Right-“extremely familiar”) (Wang and Yang, 2008)

Not at all familiar 1 2 3 4 5 extremely familiar

familiar

Part 2: Product evaluation

In the following you will see the information of an automobile. Please read the

information very carefully and select the most appropriate answer for each of the

questions followed based on your own perception. (Roth and Romeo, 1992)

Brand: GMW

Product Specifications:

Capacity in ccm: 1,997

Price: $500,000

Fuel Consumption:

7.0 L/100km

Assembled in GERMANY

(5) The Reliability of this car would be


(6) The Prestige value this car offers would be


(7) The Quality of this car would be

Very poor 1 2 3 4 5 Very Good

(8) The Technical advancement of this car would be

Very poor 1 2 3 4 5 Very advanced

45

Part 3: Purchase Intention

1. What is your overall purchase intention towards this automobile model?

Not very likely 1 2 3 4 5 Very likely

2. When I buy automobile, it is important to know the Country-of-Origin of the

automobile.


Part 4: Consumer product Involvement

To me, automobile is..

(Please circle one of the options to indicate the degree in each of the following adjective

that automobile gives you) (Zaichkowsky, 1994)

(a) Appealing 1 2 3 4 5 Unappealing

(b) Exciting 1 2 3 4 5 Unexciting

(c) Fascinating 1 2 3 4 5 Ordinary

(d) Involving 1 2 3 4 5 Uninvolving

(e) Meaningful 1 2 3 4 5 Meaningless

(f) Necessary 1 2 3 4 5 Unnecessary

(g) Priceless 1 2 3 4 5 Worthless

(h) Important 1 2 3 4 5 Unimportant

(i) Interesting 1 2 3 4 5 Boring

(j) Relevant 1 2 3 4 5 Irrelevant

46

Part 5: Consumer Patriotism (Luque-Martinez et al., 2000; Han, 1989)

(5) Chinese people should always buy Chinese-made products instead of imports.


(6) Buy Chinese-made products. Keep China working.


(5) We should purchase products manufactured in China instead of letting other

countries get rich off us.


(8) We should buy from foreign countries only those products that we cannot obtain

within our own country.


Part 6: Personal Information

Please the appropriate box in each of the following questions. Data collected will only

be used for the purpose of this research and will be kept confidential.

3. Gender

□ Male □ Female

4. Age

□ 18-25 □ 26-34 □ 35-44 □ 45-54 □ 55 or above

5. Education level

□ Primary level or below □ Secondary level □ Tertiary level □ Above tertiary level

6. Personal monthly income

□ <$10,000 □ $10,000-14,999 □ $15,000-19,999 □ $20,000-24,999

□ $25,000-29,999 □ $30,000-39,999 □ $40,000+

~ This is the end of the questionnaire. Thank you! ~

47

APPENDIX II – RELIABILITY TEST

3.1 Product Evaluation

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's

Alpha

Cronbach's Alpha Based

on Standardized Items N of Items

.952 .952 4

3.2 Product Involvement


Cronbach's

Alpha



.725 .742 7

3.3 Consumer patriotism


Cronbach's

Alpha



.733 .736 4

48

APPENDIX III – DEMOGRAPHIC STATISTICS RESULTS

3.1 Gender

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

Valid Male 130 54.2 54.2 54.2

Female 110 45.8 45.8 100.0

Total 240 100.0 100.0

3.2 Age


Cumulative

Percent

Valid 18-25 10 4.2 4.2 4.2

26-34 42 17.5 17.5 21.7

35-44 90 37.5 37.5 59.2

45-54 86 35.8 35.8 95.0

55 or above 12 5.0 5.0 100.0

Total 240 100.0 100.0

3.3 Education level


Cumulative

Percent

Valid Secondary level 16 6.7 6.7 6.7

Tertiary level 92 38.3 38.3 45.0

Above tertiary level 132 55.0 55.0 100.0

Total 240 100.0 100.0

49

3.4 Personal monthly income (HKD$)


Cumulative

Percent

Valid 1 2 .8 .9 .9

$10,000-14,999 8 3.3 3.4 4.3

$15,000-19,999 6 2.5 2.6 6.9

$20,000-24,999 34 14.2 14.7 21.6

$25,000-29,999 40 16.7 17.2 38.8

$30,000-39,999 68 28.3 29.3 68.1

$40,000+ 74 30.8 31.9 100.0

Total 232 96.7 100.0

Missing System 8 3.3

Total 240 100.0

50

APPENDIX IV – PAIRED SAMPLE T-TEST RESULTS

4.1 COA and Product Evaluation



Pair 1 CNevaluation 2.50 120 .632 .058

GERevaluation 4.34 120 .558 .051

Paired Samples Correlations

N Correlation Sig.

Pair 1 CNevaluation &

GERevaluation

120 .230 .026

Paired Samples Test

Paired Differences

t df

Sig.

(2-tailed) Mean

Std.

Deviation

Std. Error

Mean

95% Confidence Interval of

the Difference

Lower Upper

Pair 1 CNevaluation -

GERevaluation

-1.842 .855 .078 -1.996 -1.687 -23.596 119 .000

51

4.2 COA and Purchase Intention



Pair 1 CNIntention 1.94 120 .781 .071

GERIntention 4.01 120 .930 .085

Paired Samples Correlations

N Correlation Sig.

Pair 1 CNIntention & GERIntention 120 .343 .011

Paired Samples Test

Paired Differences

t df

Sig.

(2-tailed) Mean

Std.

Deviation

Std. Error

Mean


of the Difference

Lower Upper

Pair

1

CNIntention -

GERIntention

-2.067 1.158 .106 -2.276 -1.857 -19.557 119 .000

52

APPENDIX V – BETWEEN-SUBJECTS TWO-WAY ANOVA RESULTS

5.1 Descriptive Analysis of Respondents’ Product Involvement

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid High Involvement 118 49.2 49.2 49.2

Low Involvement 122 50.8 50.8 100.0

Total 240 100.0 100.0

5.2 COA, Product Involvement and Product Evaluation

Between-Subjects Factors

Value Label N

COA 0 China 120

1 Germany 120

Product Involvement 1 High Involvement 118

2 Low Involvement 122

Descriptive Statistics

Dependent Variable: Product Evaluation


China

dimension2



Total 2.50 .632 120

Germany

dimension2



Total 4.34 .558 120

Total

dimension2


Low involvement 3.26 1.227 122

Total 3.42 1.098 240

53

Tests of Between-Subjects Effects




Partial Eta

Squared

Corrected Model 215.230a 3 71.743 232.684 .000 .747

Intercept 2812.080 1 2812.080 9120.371 .000 .975

COA 202.319 1 202.319 656.178 .000 .735

Product Involvement 6.077 1 6.077 19.708 .000 .077

COA * Product Involvement 5.649 1 5.649 18.322 .000 .072

Error 72.766 236 .308

Total 3096.500 240

Corrected Total 287.996 239

a. R Squared = .747 (Adjusted R Squared = .744)

COO * Product Involvement

Dependent Variable:2_ave evaluation

COA Product Involvement

Mean Std. Error


Lower Bound Upper Bound

China dimension2

High involvement 2.818 .072 2.675 2.960

Low involvement 2.193 .071 2.053 2.333

Germany dimension2


Low involvement 4.336 .071 4.196 4.476

Key:



54

5.2 COA, Product Involvement and Purchase Intention


Value Label N

COA 0 China 120

1 Germany 120

Product Involvement 1 High Involvement 118

2 Low Involvement 122


Dependent Variable: Purchase Intention


China

dimension2



Total 1.94 .781 120

Germany

dimension2



Total 4.01 .930 120

Total

dimension2

High involvement 3.03 1.314 118


Total 2.97 1.344 240





Partial Eta

Squared


Intercept 2124.939 1 2124.939 2870.440 .000 .924

COO 256.338 1 256.338 346.270 .000 .595

Product Involvement .805 1 .805 1.088 .298 .005

COO * Product Involvement .071 1 .071 .096 .757 .000

Error 174.707 236 .740

Total 2556.000 240



55

COO * Product Involvement

Dependent Variable:3.1_Purchase Intention

COA 4_sum product

involvement category Mean Std. Error



China dimension2


Low involvement 1.902 .110 1.685 2.119

Germany dimension2


Low involvement 3.934 .110 3.717 4.151

Key:



56

5.3 Descriptive Analysis of Respondents’ Patriotism level

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid High Patriotism 106 44.2 44.2 44.2

Low Patriotism 134 55.8 55.8 100.0

Total 240 100.0 100.0

5.4 COA, Consumer Patriotism and Product Evaluation


Value Label N

COA 0 China 120

1 Germany 120

Consumer Patriotism 1 High Patriotism 106

2 Low Patriotism 134



COA Consumer Patriotism Mean Std. Deviation N

China

dimension2

High Patriotism 2.92 .404 53

Low Patriotism 2.17 .581 67

Total 2.50 .632 120

Germany

dimension2



Total 4.34 .558 120

Total

dimension2


Low Patriotism 3.24 1.210 134

Total 3.42 1.098 240

57

COO * Consumer Patriotism

Dependent Variable: Product evaluation

COA Consumer Patriotism

Mean Std. Error



China dimension2

High Patriotism 2.920 .074 2.775 3.065

Low Patriotism 2.168 .065 2.039 2.297

Germany dimension2

High Patriotism 4.382 .074 4.237 4.527

Low Patriotism 4.310 .065 4.181 4.439


Dependent Variable: Product evaluation



Partial Eta

Squared


Intercept 2809.353 1 2809.353 9806.803 .000 .977

COA 192.186 1 192.186 670.878 .000 .740

Consumer Patriotism 10.053 1 10.053 35.092 .000 .129

COA * Consumer Patriotism 6.832 1 6.832 23.849 .000 .092

Error 67.607 236 .286

Total 3096.500 240



Key:



58

5.4 COA, Consumer Patriotism and Purchase Intention


Value Label N

COO 0 China 120

1 Germany 120

Consumer Patriotism 1 106

2 134



COA Consumer Patriotism Mean Std. Deviation N

China

dimension2



Total 1.94 .781 120

Germany

dimension2



Total 4.01 .930 120

Total

dimension2

High Patriotism 3.10 1.330 106

Low Patriotism 2.87 1.351 134

Total 2.97 1.344 240





Partial Eta

Squared


Intercept 2114.232 1 2114.232 2893.683 .000 .925

COA 252.521 1 252.521 345.618 .000 .594

Consumer Patriotism 3.148 1 3.148 4.309 .039 .018

COA * Consumer Patriotism .005 1 .005 .007 .935 .000

Error 172.430 236 .731

Total 2556.000 240



59

COO * Consumer Patriotism


COA Consumer Patriotism

Mean Std. Error



China dimension2

High Patriotism 2.075 .117 1.844 2.307

Low Patriotism 1.836 .104 1.630 2.042

Germany dimension2

High Patriotism 4.132 .117 3.901 4.363

Low Patriotism 3.910 .104 3.705 4.116

Key:



Documents

Interactive relationship of Country-of-Assembly, Consumer ...libproject.hkbu.edu.hk/trsimage/hp/09011056.pdfKong automobile consumers’ product evaluation and purchase intention