An Empirical Investigation into the Effects of Country of Origin on Consumer Product Preference in India

With increasing cross-border trade and globalization of markets, country of origin effect is assuming importance in the domain of cross-national consumer behaviour. Country of origin effect refers to consumers general perceptions of quality for products having brand names associated with a particular country. The objective of this paper is to understand the effect of country of origin on consumers in India in their preference for products. The paper looks at two distinct effects of country of origin – foreign brands made in their respective countries and foreign brands made in India. This study is in the context of a typical developing country like India on the throes of economic liberalization. Methodologically, this research involved multiple-cue study, i.e., product descriptions ofrered to respondents involved not only country of origin, but other cues as well. The research design involved a two-stage procedure, and ordinal data was fed into conjoint analysis to determine the effect of country of origin. The findings show that country of origin effect on consumer product evaluation in India is product-specitic. The effect was found to be stronger for television than for wrist watch or car. Also, between the three countries, Japan is preferred for television, while Indian products are preferred for car and wrist watch. Possible reasons have been explored along with implications for researchers, marketing practitioners, and public policy makers in developing countries.