Country of Origin Ethnocentrism & Hyrbrid Product - Essay Example

Therefore, the country variable in country of origin studies should be treated as a multidimensional concept that can indicate the different dimensions of country of origin. This will better reflect the market environment as well as the ethnocentric consumers' evaluations. The customers attitudes towards the different dimensions should also be examined (Brodowsky, 1998; Acharaya and Elliot, 2003; Brodowsky, Tan and Meilich, 2004). Severalstudies have investigated and looked into ethnocentric consumers' attitudes.

They have put their attitudes and evaluative beliefs to a multi-dimensional formulation of country of origin (COO), including country of design (COD), and country of assembly (COA) (Brodowsky, 1998; Acharaya and Elliot, 2003; Brodowsky, Tan and Meilich, 2004). Brodowsky (1998) also examined how the country where the product was assembled and the country where it was designed effects the evaluative beliefs and attitudes towards buying automotive products between people with high and low ethnocentric qualities.

The results of the study proved that consumers with high ethnocentric ideals had more positive beliefs and attitudes towards buying domestically designed automobiles than foreign designed and domestically assembled automobiles than foreign assembled. . On the other hand, not only did people with low ethnocentric ideals not have positive evaluative beliefs and attitudes towards domestically designed or assembled automobiles, but expressed more positive evaluative beliefs and attitudes towards buying foreign designed than domestically designed automobiles.

, and foreign assembled than domestically assembled automobiles. This is also not surprising given the other study about people with high ethnocentric qualities. Brodowsky (1998) also stated that the positive ideals of low ethnocentric consumers towards foreign assembled and foreign made automobiles may have been based on their evaluations of the foreign product, which often times can be superior to the home made product. In a seperate study, Acharya and Elliot (2003) also researched the patters of high and low ethnocentric consumers' evaluations and intentions to purchase domestically assembled than foreign assembled products, and domestically designed than foreign designed products.

This was tested for three different product categories all differencing in their mixed levels of involvement. The results revealed that high ethnocentric consumers expressed positive evaluations and attitudes towards buying domestically assembled than foreign assembled products for the three product categories examined. Results also showed that high ethnocentric consumers expressed more positive attitudes towards buying domestically designed than foreign designed products. However, contrary to their hypothesis, high ethnocentric consumers expressed more positive evaluations for foreign designed than domestically designed products.

This was the case for two of the three products examined. Further, Brodowsky (1998) highlighted that high ethnocentric consumers ascribed put a bigger