The Effects of Country of Design and Country of Assembly on Evaluative Beliefs About Automobiles and Attitudes Toward Buying Them

Data were collected from 393 automobile owners through a mail survey. A between-subjects research design was used to measure respondents' evaluations of and attitudes toward buying cars carrying country-of-design and country-of-assembly cues. When combining high and low ethnocentric consumers, country effects appeared insignificant. However, splitting the sample into high, moderate and low ethnocentric groups revealed systematic country-based biases in product evaluation and attitudes toward purchase. High ethnocentric consumers favored cars both designed and assembled in the United States as expected. Among low ethnocentric respondents, these biases were reversed in favor of cars designed and assembled in Japan. The findings suggest that country-of-origin effects can only be understood with respect to consumer ethnocentrism. The findings also suggest that low ethnocentric consumers are more likely to use country cues as objective information about product quality. In contrast, highly ethnocentric consumers appear to use country cues to express patriotic sentiment through their purchase decisions.