For Research : Interrelationship between Country of Origin and Quality of Products

Verlegh and Steenkamp (1999) found that country of origin had a greater effect on perceived quality of products than attitude toward the product or purchase intention. Furthermore, the degree of economic development of the countries of producers could influence the country of origin effects. Liefeld (1993), and Wall and Liefeld (1991) also addressed that there were positive relationships between the quality of the products and the level of developing of the countries of the products. Therefore, the levels of economic development of a country seem to the important cues that influence on consumer’s perception of product quality and purchasing behavior (Baughn & Yaprak, 1993; Crawford & Lumpkin, 1993). In general, consumers express the higher level of economic development or higher technologies countries (developed countries, for example, US and Japan) as the high country images (CI) of products and recognize their products as the high qualities. Finally consumers demonstrate their high attitudes towards the products made in there, and then make the purchase decisions.

In consistently, moderate level of economic development or technological countries of manufacturers would be rated as the moderated country images (CI) and moderated quality, and attitude toward those products. Parallel phenomenon, consumers demonstrate low country images, low products quality, and low attitudes towards the foreign products from less developed countries. Based on the above discussions, this study developed a conceptual framework to explain the interrelationship between country of origin and product quality as shown in Figure 2- 3. It is suggested that the levels of development of the product manufacturing countries will be highly correlated with consumers’ perceptions on the levels of perceived product. Chinen, et al. (2000) defined that Country of Origin (COO) effects refer to consumers' reliance on COO information in evaluating the quality of products from various countries and making their decisions on product purchases. Consumer raised their product awareness through “made in label,” which they considered as the attractive features of products from certain country (Chai, et al., 2004).