Leonidou et al. 2006 EJM.pdf

perceived and interpreted differently by individuals within a specific country. In fact,these cues tend to be evaluated by consumers in a different way for each foreigncountry, this being the outcome of contacts, associations with, or previous experiencesof the country, its people, and its products (Eroglu and Machleit, 1989; Hanne, 1996).Country-of-origin evaluations consist of positive evaluations for certain cues andnegative evaluations for others, the combined effect of which conveys the image of aspecific product. Moreover, the significance of each product cue for the consumer tendsto change over time, due to increased exposure to a foreign country, informationreceived from various sources, or an actual improvement/deterioration in goods in thesource country (Nagashima, 1970, 1977). Furthermore, consumer attitudes towardcountry-of-origin tend to be influenced by various marketing tools, such as aggressivepromotion, attractive store presentation, and price concessions (Chao, 1998). Firmsoriginating from more-developed economies, like the US, are in a better position toprovide adequate marketing support for their products abroad, as opposed to theircounterparts from less-developed countries, like China, which lack proper managementand marketing skills (Zhang, 2002; Dollan and Hardy, 2002). However, as opposed toUS-made goods, Chinese products have the advantage of being sold at a lower price,due to the cheap labor force, abundance of raw materials, and government subsidies(Zhang, 2002). The different emphasis attached by consumers to each cue is expected toprevail at different levels of analysis (i.e. country, industry, product, brand, and model),irrespective of country. The previous discussion leads to the following propositions:H2a. There are significant differences among the evaluations of British consumersof the various cues of goods made in the US at the country, industry, product,brand, or model levels.H2b. There are significant differences among the evaluations of British consumersof the various cues of goods made in China at the country, industry, product,brand, or model levels.US versusChinese goods799Country-of-origin and environmental similarityCountry-of-origin evaluations seem to be affected by the similarity perceived byconsumers with their home countries in terms of economic, socio-cultural,political-legal, and other environmental aspects (Papadopoulos et al. 1990a, b).Moreover, empirical evidence have shown that there is a positive relationship betweenproduct evaluations and degree of economic development, with products made inless-developed countries usually rated by consumers as inferior to those manufacturedin more-developed countries (Schooler, 1971; Hampton, 1977; Wang and Lamb, 1983;Bannister and Saunders, 1978). This is more likely to be the case of products with alarge technological content, as well as those requiring a high level of consumerinvolvement. Even “new manufacturing countries”, like China, often have a reputationfor lower quality, despite efforts to imitate the products of more-developed countries,like the US, which have a long-established and a widely-proliferated manufacturingsector (Zhang, 2002; Dollan and Hardy, 2002). This can be attributed to the fact thatindustrialized countries have long histories in the manufacture of quality products, arethe source of most innovations, and have expertise in producing a wide variety oftechnologically advanced goods (Nagashima, 1970; Gaedeke, 1973; Etzel and Walker,1974). Socio-cultural similarity between a purchasing country and a selling country