Country of Origin Effect on Buying Behaviour

De Mooij and Hofstede (2002) define culture by eight dimensions. Asian cultures are associated with higher levels of uncertainty avoidance (UA) (see Appendix 1) compared to individualistic cultures, therefore these Asian cultures are more attracted to products with a lower risk (Moss & Vinten, 2001; Samli, 1995; Shannon, 2005). Furthermore, there is a strong belief that Asian consumers have a strong preference for NBs over PLs (Ahuvia & Wong, 1998; Brady et al., 2003; De Mooij & Hofstede, 2002). According to Batra and Sinha (2000) consumers who relate higher prices with higher quality are less attracted by PLs. According to De Mooij and Hofstede (2002) PLs are more frequent in individualistic cultures such as the Netherlands, than collectivist cultures such as in China. They presented two specific reasons for collectivist (Asian) nations to choose NBs over PLs, namely that NBs lead to more status, and the preference for long-term relationships and so for well-known NBs. Therefore, collectivistic cultures are more risk averse and tend to value brand names. They also value the perceived link between price and quality, which negatively affects the image of PLs in such countries. On the other hand, individualistic cultures are supposed

Additionally, the increasing overseas migration from Asia (Australian government 2009) will have an impact on consumer behaviour. These demographic groups have higher spending patterns and higher preference for branded products, and hence potentially increasing the market for high quality products (Australian Government 2009).

In an article called Cultural Factor Highly Influences On Consumers & Their Buying Behavior – In Indian Context, the basic characteristics of culture are described:

According to Hsieh et al. (2004), it is suggested that “consumers tend to use halo images of a country to judge quality and to generate inferential brand beliefs.” Thus it can be suggested that consumers’ positive attitudes and impressions towards a country will induce positive attitude towards the brand, and ultimately increasing their willingness to buy the products.

Our country is extremely diverse. We are reminded this every day, especially if we live in metropolitan areas. In Dallas, for instance, it is quite common to be in constant contact with individuals from all corners of the world. Marketers, even in the United States, have to understand how to navigate the different cultural, religious, and social differences when selling products. This challenge is magnified when a marketing team is asked to sell a product abroad. In this type of situation, the social, cultural, and religious challenges are magnified, and what sells well here, might not work near as well in another

The above answers indicated that consumers enhanced the importance of brand and design instead of the manufactured country. Interviewee M9 supports this by sharing “I had only used label to judge product’s country previously, but now, I will use other information to help me.”

Sometimes product localization is not enough to break into the foreign markets because their cultural differences or ethical values are so marked that the regular product would not be acceptable. A company needs to be prepared to introduce new and radical products that cater and adjust to the local culture. Conducting market research analysis before embarking in business in a new area is one way to know and understand the needs of the potential customers. A successful international business must respect the cultural, religious, and other beliefs of other countries when deciding on new product lines.

The direct relation and effect of cosmopolitanism on foreign product purchase behavior is an aspect which needs to be studied for a better insight of it in India. Thus measuring these variables and study the effects of cosmopolitanism has a scope in International marketing research.

(1993) propose capital, empathy, cost, and accountability as possible mediators in the process between consumer ethnocentrism and readiness to purchase imported products. The explanation of these variables lies in the logic that ethnocentric consumers will perceive international competition as something that is not fair to the domestic industry. This will then force consumers to buy domestic products, which increases empathy for members of the internal group, and increases readiness for further purchase of domestic products. Ethnocentric consumers will also ignore personal costs by purchasing domestic products. Another important variable is certainly the effect of the "country of origin". Han (1988) includes the country of origin as a variable that dictates the relationship between consumer patriotism and the intent of buying. Namely, consumers of expressed patriotism will moreover buy domestic products, and avoid buying products of foreign

China is a huge counties with population of 1.3 billion. The culture of the North and the South are different. Therefore, it would be unrealistic to assume that Chinese people have ( Kim, Wan, and Pan) completely homogenous attitudes or behaviors. Even Chinese subcultures have many commonalities which including the use of the same Chinese characters, worship of the same ancestral spirits, a pride in Sinocentrism, a heavy influence of Confucianism that stresses family order, respect, and relationship harmony (Fan, 2000), a willingness to accept unequal power distributions in society, high integration of groups, and a tendency to avoid uncertainty to a greater extent than other cultural groups (Hofstede, 1980).

Or as Good and Huddleston, Sharma et al (1995 cited Paswan, Shama 2004; p.144-155) said education is one of the most important factors. Higher educated consumers has increased, the preferable on being acknowledge has been risen. As well as the differences in tolerant make them become more complex and more favorable on making opinion against the imported goods. Likewise, Gühan-Canli and Maheswaran 2000b; Hong and Wyer 1989, 1990; Maheswaran 1994 (1989 cited Mahewaran, 2006; p.2) said “favorable or unfavorable evaluations of a country associated with product leads to a corresponding favorable or unfavorable evaluations of the product.”

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Fatma Aql1, Iman El-Azizy 2, Mahmoud A. Azeem 3, Gamal A. Nasser 4,Ali N. El-bahrawy5.

A cosmopolitan consumer orientation manifests when people regard the world as their market place, consciously seeking to consume products, places and experiences originating from cultures other than their own (Cannon and Yaprak, 2002; Urry, 2000).

Furthermore, It was suggested that country image and similarity are positive correlated (Nebenzahl, Jaffe, & Usunier, 2003). It has been proposed that politics, economy, culture and social environments are the most influential factors that affect a buyer’s decision to purchase foreign products regardless of the quality of the products (Ng, Lee and Soutar, 2007). Identically, culture similarity affects the frequency of trades between two countries since they share similar needs and languages (Martinez-Zarzoso, 2003; Yu & Zietlow, 1995). Contrarily, a negative country image might be created if the tourists were visiting countries that culturally distant from their countries since they might experience culture shock, which leads to dissatisfaction (Reisinger & Turner, 1998). Nevertheless, It has been indicated that culture difference could be driving force for tourists to visit a country (McKercher & Cros, 2003; O’Leary & Deegan, 2003). As previously mentioned, tourists from individualistic culture background are more inclined to visit countries that share similar culture, whereas those from collective culture background are more likely to visit culturally distant countries, which could be explained by the fact that people from individualistic culture background are more independent (Jackson, 2001). Therefore, they prefer visiting countries that provide more affiliation (Franzoi,