Antecedents and outcomes of country-of-origin effect

The purpose of this paper is to examine the symbolic representations of non-consumers compared to live experiences of consumers related to a luxury brand, particularly, the non-owners/owners, the non-owners and the owners of a... [ view full abstract ]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the symbolic representations of non-consumers compared to live experiences of consumers related to a luxury brand, particularly, the non-owners/owners, the non-owners and the owners of a luxury brand Mercedes-Benz (MB) together with the country-image and the country-of-origin effect. A total of 275 consumers coming from the community of higher education in Finland are investigated concerning the country-of-origin effect for both non-owners (243) and owners (32). The study reveals that the country-of-origin effect for non-owners/owners, non-owners and owners of a Mercedes-Benz has a similar impact, as the three models developed, have a good fit and they are statistically significant. Moreover, it concludes that there are statistically significant differences between owners versus non-owners and these differences relate to the constructs of country image, brand familiarity, partly purchase involvement, brand commitment, product design and product experience. Furthermore, it reveals that ‘price consciousness’ is irrelevant to a luxury brand.