The
impact of Country of Respondent and Familiarity on Buying Attribute Importance
of Categories of Product at Different Stages of Globalization: the Evaluation
of Domestic and Foreign Products
Emmanuel Chéron, University of Quebec at
Montreal
Hideo Hayashi, Kansai University, Osaka
ABSTRACT
This study compares the perceptions of 376 Japanese and
191 Canadian consumers concerning buying attribute importance for product
categories at various stages of globalization. The results indicate that there
was less multivariate statistical difference between the two countries for
those products at a more advanced stage of globalization (consumer electronics
and clothing vs. food). The joint effects of the degree of familiarity with the
category of product and the country of the respondent on buying attribute
importance were tested. The effect of familiarity was found to result in a
significant statistical multivariate difference on attribute importance for
clothing only. The observed statistical power of the effect for the country of
the respondent confirmed that more statistical difference was apparent for the
less globalized product. No multivariate significant statistical interaction
was found between familiarity and country of the respondent. Using a multi-attribute
model, the evaluation of the three categories of product was computed for seven
different countries. Comparison of the total scores of each country for each
product category for the Japanese and the Canadian samples confirmed that the
more globalized product showed less difference in its evaluation among
countries. A well-known strong bias favoring domestic products was, however,
observed in both samples.
Key words: Buying
attributes, globalization, product category, familiarity, imported product,
domestic product bias
INTRODUCTION
With the increasing
globalization of world trade, detailed knowledge of consumer buying attributes
and attitudes toward imported products is crucial for marketers. The study of
the influence of the degree of globalization of product and the familiarity of
the consumer with the category of product hold potential value for researchers
and marketing managers. The controversy on globalization is about whether it
decreases differences of preferences among consumers or increases the need to
locally adapt products to consumers. Testing whether buying attributes of local
consumers in different countries are influenced by the degree of globalization
of a product category makes a theoretical contribution to this issue. Practical
implications could allow manufacturers of a specific product category to better
identify the need to locally adjust their marketing strategies. The impact of
the familiarity of the consumer with the category of product on buying
attributes has also been identified in the literature as a potential indicator
of the need for the company to adapt its marketing strategy according to
different levels of familiarity among consumers. Testing the effect of
familiarity on buying attributes for different levels of product globalization
is therefore needed. From an international point of view, a multi-attribute
model can be used to compute the perceived relative standings of imported
categories of product at different level of globalization. This will allow us
to test if consumers of different countries perceive more similar standings
when the category of product is more globalized. The practical implication is
for international marketers from each country to understand their global
relative standing in addition to their strengths and weaknesses on specific
consumer buying attributes. The level of product globalization and familiarity
are potentially useful variables to explore for international marketing
strategy. This information is also valuable to direct importers, wholesalers
and retailers in both their buying and marketing decisions.
LITERATURE REVIEW AND
RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
The process of
globalization has been defined as the transformation of the world’s economy
from a set of national and regional markets into a set of markets that operate
without regards to national boundaries (Fraser and Oppenheim, 1997). This
transformation is the result of three underlying factors: 1) The growing scale,
mobility, and integration of the world’s capital markets; 2) The increasing irrelevance
of national borders as regulation is liberalized and other economic barriers
fall; 3) The expanding ability to leverage knowledge and talent worldwide
through technology. A similar definition suggested by Modelski (1998)
emphasizes four interactive dimensions of globalization: 1) Economic, 2)
Political, 3) Democratic, and 4) Formation of world opinion. He argues that
changes along one dimension elicit changes among the other dimensions. The
process is gradual with some sectors of the economy more globalized than others
and we may infer, that related to the formation of world opinion, consumers of
different countries are likely to perceive more similarity among categories of
products or services at more advanced stages of globalization. The degree of
globalization of categories of product has been formally charted on a scale of
1 (completely globalized) to 9 (not yet globalized) by Fraser and Oppenheim
(1997, Exhibit 4, p. 176.). Examples of products at level 1 are: physical
commodities such as petroleum, mineral ores and timber. Examples of services at
level 9 are: government services such as civil servants and national defense.
Industrial products tend to be more globalized and are found in the range of 1
to 3 on the scale labor-skill and productivity-driven. Consumer goods and
services appear at level 4 with, for example, consumer electronics, personal
computers, and automobiles. Brandable and largely deregulated consumer goods
follow at level 5 with, for example, shoes and luxury goods. More regulated and
less easily globally brandable consumer goods and services appear respectively
at levels 7 and 8. For example: food and personal financial services are
located at level 7. Keegan and Green (2000, p. 153) recognize that the degree
of product adaptation is related to cultural environment sensitivity. They
suggest a similar continuum of category of products, with industrial products,
such as integrated circuits, being the less sensitive, computers being in the
middle of the continuum and food being the most sensitive to culture and
requiring the most adaptation to the specific needs of different national
markets. More globalized product categories are thus likely to require less
local adaptation and to be marketed in a more similar manner across different
countries.
Therefore, we suggest that the
more globalized the category of product, the less the difference in the
importance of buying attributes of consumers among countries (Hypothesis
1).
The degree of familiarity of consumers with the product or service has
been identified in the research literature as a strong source of differences in
buying attribute (Mittal, Katrichis, Forkin and Konkel, 1993; Mittal, Kumar and
Tsiros, 1999; Mittal and Katrichis, 2000). For example, studies on the
automobile industry have shown that the importance of the experience of the
vehicle is greater than that of the service at the dealership for newly
acquired customers (after two months). However, for loyal customers (after two
years), service at the dealership is dominant. The level of familiarity has
therefore a powerful influence on the importance of buying attributes. Product
familiarity has been measured in previous research by degree of knowledge and
usage (Raju, 1977). Therefore, in the present study, the level of familiarity
of the respondent is obtained using a composite measure of the cognitive and
behavioral experience with the category of product. Two groups of respondents
are formed according to a degree of product familiarity above or below the
average. With respect to the influence of the degree of globalization of
products, we anticipate that a category of product that is more globalized is
likely to be more familiar to consumers. Therefore, in the case of more
globalized products we expect that the effect of familiarity on the importance
of buying attributes across countries will be lower than for less globalized
products.
We suggest that the higher the
familiarity with the category of product, the lower the difference in the
importance of buying attributes across countries for more globalized categories
of product (Hypothesis 2).
The joint effects of familiarity and country of the respondent will be
explored without any specific hypothesis as to the relative influence of each
separate effect. However, according to the classification of categories of
product by Fraser and Oppenheim (1997) and Keegan and Green (2000), we
anticipate that the overall effect should be lower for more globalized than for
less globalized product categories.
Hence, familiarity and the country
of the respondent will have a lower overall effect on the importance of buying
attributes for more globalized than for less globalized categories of products (Hypothesis
3).
Beyond the relative importance of buying attributes, the examination of
the overall evaluations of imported product categories at different levels of
globalization is an interesting extension of the impact of globalization. Using
a multi-attribute model, we suggest that respondents from different countries
will tend to have more similar evaluations for more globalized categories of
products than for less globalized categories of products.
Therefore, the multi-attribute
evaluations of Canadian respondents will be more similar to that of Japanese
respondents for more globalized categories of product than for less globalized
categories of product imported from different countries (Hypothesis 4).
Choice of Buying Attributes of Categories of Products and Countries of
Imported Products
Products have been defined in terms of tangible, physical and economic
attributes and intangible attributes such as images, status etc. (Keegan and
Green, 2000). In international consumer buying research, product quality and
price (or price for value) have been consistently used as tangible attributes
and prestige, reputation and design as intangible attributes (Nagashima, 1970,
1977; Han and Terpstra, 1988; Roth and Romeo, 1992 and Papadopoulos and Heslop,
1993). In our study, these attributes were characterized as: quality, price and
brand name. The importance of “word of mouth” as a form of either positive or
negative popularity of a product was also proposed by Rogers (1962) in relation
to the adoption process of consumers. The attribute of popularity was therefore
added to our list of attributes. The effect of the country of origin on the
evaluation of products in international marketing has been documented in
numerous research studies over the last thirty-five years. Peterson and
Jolibert (1995) confirmed in a meta-analysis that the effect of the country of
origin on product evaluation was statistically significant. Hence, the country
of manufacture was the fifth attribute included in our research questionnaire.
Studies
measuring the perception of imported products have been criticized if no specific
categories of product were involved. To meet this requirement and to cover the
continuum of low, middle and high degree of globalization for consumer products
as suggested by Fraser and Oppenheim (1997) and Keegan and Green (2000) we
selected respectively food, clothing and consumer electronics. Finally, the
countries of manufacture of the three categories of products were selected with
the constraint that they would be reasonably available to respondents in Japan
and in Canada.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF THE
RESEARCH
The first objective
of this study is to compare the effect of the degree of globalization and
familiarity of categories of product on the importance of buying attributes
across consumers of different countries. The second objective is to compute the
multi-attribute evaluations of those same categories of product according to
whether they are domestic or imported from different countries, and then to
examine the degree of similarity of evaluation across the two countries of the
respondents for each of the three categories. More specifically, the first
objective compares Japanese and Canadian consumers in terms of the impact of
the degree of globalization and familiarity with three product categories
(food, clothing and consumer electronics) on the relative importance of five
buying attributes (country of manufacture, price, quality, popularity and brand
name). The second objective computes the specific multi-attribute evaluations
of imported and domestic products from China, France, Canada, Japan, USA, South
Korea, and Germany, in the same three categories, and compares the degree of
association between Japanese and Canadian respondents for each category of
product.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Development of the Research Instrument
A structured self-administered
questionnaire was used, developed in English and translated in Japanese with
extensive discussions using a parallel approach (Campbell and Werner 1970). The
final English questionnaire was then translated and back-translated in French
for data collection in the mostly French-speaking city of Montreal in the
province of Quebec to ensure equivalence (Brisles 1970).
Research Instrument
The questionnaire contained an
introductory statement presenting the topic of the survey and stating that the
answers would be treated in the strictest confidentiality. Then, the following
sections appeared in sequential order:
1.
Degree of
agreement (on a seven point-scale) with four statements pertaining to the
extent of consideration of the following elements in buying decisions: country
of manufacture, quality, popularity and brand name.
2.
Degree of
familiarity of the three categories of product (clothing, food and consumer
electronics) as measured on a seven point-scale with two statements (“I know a
lot about …” and “I buy a lot of …”). Each statement was sequentially
associated with a different category of product.
3.
Degree of
importance (“least important” to “most
important” on a five-point scale) for country of manufacture, price, quality,
popularity and brand name of each of the three categories of product (clothing,
consumer electronics and food).
4.
Degree of
perceived buying-value (“worst buy” to “best buy” on a seven-point scale) for
price, quality and popularity of each of the three categories of product when
sourced domestically or imported from six countries.
5.
Respondent profile:
gender, age group, occupation, annual income, number of people in household and
whether the respondent had ever visited or lived in any one of the foreign
countries included in the survey. Other measurement items were also included in
the questionnaire, but are not presented here.
Data Collection
The fieldwork in
Japan was done by the Kansai Branch office of Video Research Ltd using a
"drop off and pick up" procedure. The sample for the research was
selected from a representative master sample constructed by Video Research in
1997 and accounting for 5204 households representing a total of 12500
individuals in the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe metropolitan areas in Japan. The initial
sample size of 747 yielded a total of 376 completed questionnaires. The
distribution of age groups of the final sample was very close to the census
distribution. The Canadian sample was collected using a snowballing approach,
originating from employees and evening students of a French speaking university
in the city of Montreal, PQ. Gender and age quotas guidelines were used to
improve sampling equivalence. Out of a total of 300 questionnaires distributed
in Canada, 191 were completed. The percentage of male respondents was 47.3% in
Japan and 49.2% in Canada.
RESULTS
Degree of Globalization and Buying Attributes Differences
Mean results in
Tables 1, 2 and 3 indicate that both Japanese and Canadian consumers consider
the attribute of quality most important when making a buying decision. However,
quality was valued more by Japanese as compared to Canadian consumers for
clothing, although there was no significant differences for consumer
electronics and for food. In comparison to Japan, the relative ranking of
country of manufacture tended to be higher for Japan and the relative ranking
of brand name tended to be higher for Canada. Popularity appears more important
for Japanese respondents for food and consumer electronics; this may be due to
a stronger need for affiliation in Japan than in Canada. At the level of
"social needs" in Maslow's hierarchy of motivations (1954), Schütte
(1998) suggests the substitution of the concept of "conformity to group
norms" as an Asian equivalent. This may also result from a lower index of
individualism in the Japanese culture as shown by Hofstede and Bond (1988).
Multivariate tests
of the difference between the two countries for all five attributes and for
each category of product were computed using a two-group discriminant analysis.
Results of these analyses are shown below each table. All three multivariate
statistical differences were significant, however, the magnitude of the
statistical difference as indicated by the Wilks lambda statistics and its
associated c2 is increasing in the
following order: clothing, consumer electronics and food. The predictive
correct classification ratio is also in the same order1. Hypothesis
one is thus partially confirmed with a greater multivariate difference for
food, the less globalized category of product. However, clothing was expected
to show more multivariate difference than consumer electronics.
Table 1 Mean importance of buying attributes
for clothing
|
CLOTHING |
||
|
Mean, (Std deviation), (Rank) |
|
|
|
Japan (n=376) |
Canada (n=191) |
Univariate F |
Quality: |
4.54 (0.78) (1) |
4.38 (0.82) (1) |
5.40* |
Price: |
3.95 (0.84) (2) |
3.90 (0.93) (2) |
0.23NS |
Country of
manufacture: |
2.28 (1.09) (3) |
2.12 (1.13) (4) |
3.21NS |
Brand name: |
2.18 (1.10) (4) |
2.57 (1.01) (3) |
16.85** |
Popularity: |
2.05 (0.93) (5) |
2.05 (0.96) (5) |
0.00NS |
* Significant at level 0.05, **Significant at level 0.01, NS Non
significant
Wilks lambda = 0.971; c2 = 16.59; p = 0.00
Cross-validated classification ratio = 65.6% vs. 66% for the maximum chance
criterion
Table 2 Mean importance of buying attributes
for consumer electronics
|
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS |
||
|
Mean, (Std deviation), (Rank) |
|
|
|
Japan (n=376) |
Canada (n=191) |
Univariate F |
Quality: |
4.37 (0.92) (1) |
4.25 (0.86) (1) |
2.78NS |
Price: |
3.47 (1.06) (2) |
3.73 (1.00) (2) |
8.66** |
Country of
manufacture: |
2.59 (1.39) (3) |
2.27 (1.25) (4) |
7.98** |
Brand name: |
2.36 (1.11) (4) |
3.01 (0.97) (3) |
59.28** |
Popularity: |
2.21 (1.24) (5) |
1.89 (1.00) (5) |
25.86** |
* Significant at level 0.05, **Significant at level 0.01, NS Non
significant
Wilks lambda = 0.857; c2 = 86.31; p = 0.00
Cross-validated classification ratio = 69.3% vs. 66% for the maximum chance
criterion
Table 3 Mean importance of buying attributes
for food
|
FOOD |
||
|
Mean, (Std deviation), (Rank) |
|
|
|
Japan (n=376) |
Canada (n=191) |
Univariate F |
Quality: |
4.54 (0.79) (1) |
4.52 (0.77) (1) |
0.00NS |
Price: |
3.36 (0.97) (2) |
3.54 (0.98) (2) |
4.47* |
Country of
manufacture: |
3.31 (1.24) (3) |
2.60 (1.15) (4) |
44.38** |
Popularity: |
2.18 (0.93) (4) |
1.85 (1.05) (5) |
15.49** |
Brand name: |
1.62 (0.91) (5) |
2.60 (1.04) (4) |
130.51** |
* Significant at level 0.05, **Significant at level 0.01, NS Non
significant
Wilks lambda = 0.768; c2 = 146.85; p = 0.00
Cross-validated classification ratio = 75.7% vs. 66% for the maximum chance
criterion
Product familiarity
Product familiarity
was measured using a seven-point Likert scale of perceived knowledge and buying
experience of the category of product. Scale reliabilities, measured by the
Cronbach alpha coefficient were respectively 0.68, 0.70 and 0.69 for clothing,
consumer electronics and food for Japanese respondents and 0.70, 074 and 0.65
for Canadian respondents. An index of familiarity was then computed using a
linear unweighted average of the two items.
Using this index as
an independent variable, the level of familiarity was split above and below the
mean for each category of product and for each sample to form a low and high
familiarity group. The effect of familiarity was then jointly tested with the
effect of the country of the respondent on the importance of the five buying
attributes using a multivariate analysis of variance MANOVA. Table 4 presents
the multivariate statistical results. Interpretation of the single effects is
simpler since no statistically significant interaction effect was found between
the country of the respondent and familiarity. Hence, the effect of familiarity
was found to be statistically significant for clothing only and the effect of
the country of the respondent was significant for all three categories of
product. Further, the degree of observed statistical power as measured by the
Eta squared index was found respectively in the following decreasing order:
food (0.234), consumer electronics (0.154) and clothing (0.035). The degree of
statistical difference found previously with the multivariate Wilks lambda and
the associated c2 was also in the same following decreasing order: food (146.85), consumer
electronics (86.31) and clothing (16.59). Since the effect of familiarity was
found to be very weak, this similar degree of multivariate difference is not
surprising.
Thus Hypothesis 3 is only partially confirmed for the effect of country,
since the effect of familiarity was statistically non significant for two of
the three categories of product.
Table 4 Multivariate analysis of variance of
the effects of country and familiarity on buying attribute importance
Multivariate statistics |
CLOTHING |
||
|
Country |
Familiarity |
Country x Familiarity |
Wilks lambda |
0.965 |
0.953 |
0.993 |
F value |
3.99 |
5.49 |
0.80 |
Significance |
0.00 |
0.00 |
0.55 |
(Eta)2 |
0.035 |
0.047 |
.007 |
|
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS |
||
Wilks lambda |
0.846 |
0.985 |
0.988 |
F value |
20.02 |
1.68 |
1.36 |
Significance |
0.00 |
0.14 |
0.24 |
(Eta)2 |
0.154 |
0.015 |
0.012 |
|
FOOD |
||
Wilks lambda |
0.766 |
0.984 |
0.993 |
F value |
33.57 |
1.84 |
0.753 |
Significance |
0.00 |
0.104 |
0.58 |
(Eta)2 |
0.234 |
0.016 |
0.007 |
The univariate effect of familiarity for clothing is presented in Table
5. It appears that Japanese respondents who are less familiar with clothing put
more emphasis on price information and less emphasis on brand name than more
familiar respondents, while relatively less familiar Canadian respondents put
less emphasis on brand name. This is consistent with previous research results
confirming that less knowledgeable consumers tend to rely more on price
information than on technical or intangible attributes (Jones, 1974; Raju,
1977).
Table 5 Univariate and multivariate differences
of mean buying attribute importance for low and high familiarity respondents
for clothing
|
Japan (n = 375) |
||
|
Low familiarity (n1 = 204) |
High familiarity (n2 = 171) |
Univariate F |
|
Mean, (Std deviation), (Rank) |
|
|
Quality: |
4.51 (0.78) (1) |
4.57 (0.78) (1) |
0.47NS |
Price: |
4.09 (0.79) (2) |
3.79 (0.86) (2) |
12.96** |
Country of
manufacture: |
2.37 (1.02) (3) |
2.17 (1.18) (3) |
3.12NS |
Popularity: |
2.02 (0.89) (4) |
2.08 (0.99) (5) |
0.37NS |
Brand name: |
2.00 (1.03) (5) |
2.39 (1.14) (4) |
12.20** |
|
Canada (n = 190) |
||
|
Low familiarity (n1 = 92) |
High familiarity (n2 = 98) |
Univariate F |
|
Mean, (Std deviation), (Rank) |
|
|
Quality: |
4.40 (0.79) (1) |
4.35 (0.87) (1) |
0.20NS |
Price: |
4.05 (0.80) (2) |
3.80 (1.01) (2) |
3.48NS |
Brand name: |
2.33 (0.89) (3) |
2.82 (1.06) (3) |
11.55** |
Popularity: |
2.17 (0.98) (4) |
1.94 (0.94) (5) |
2.66NS |
Country of
manufacture: |
2.07 (1.21) (5) |
2.12 (1.04) (4) |
0.09NS |
* Significant at level 0.05, **Significant at level 0.01, NS Non
significant
Japan: Wilks lambda = 0.946; c2 = 20.66; p = 0.00
Cross-validated classification ratio = 61.9% vs. 54% for the maximum chance
criterion
Canada: Wilks lambda = 0.94; c2 = 11.16; p = 0.00
Cross-validated classification ratio = 62% vs. 51% for the maximum chance
criterion
Using a standard multi-attribute model, the importance of price, quality and popularity was multiplied by the perceived buying value for price, quality and popularity of each category of product from seven countries for each respondent2. Results in Table 6 show that average scores are more similar between Japan and Canada for consumer electronics than for clothing and food. The Pearson correlation coefficient is 0.91 and significant for consumer electronics, and is not significant for both clothing and food. However, since a strong bias is observed in favor of domestic products, the correlations were also computed after removing products from Japan and Canada. The revised correlations still show more similarity of evaluation for consumer electronics with a significant coefficient of 0.90. Although not significant, the coefficients for clothing and food indicate more similarity for clothing (0.54) than for food (0.42).
Table 6 Multi-attribute evaluations of the
three categories of products from seven countries and correlations between
Japanese and Canadian respondents
|
|
CLOTHING |
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS |
FOOD |
|||
|
Mean total score (Rank) |
Mean total score (Rank) |
Mean total score (Rank) |
||||
|
Japan |
Canada |
Japan |
Canada |
Japan |
Canada |
|
China |
36.08 (4) |
34.72 (6) |
30.92 (7) |
34.43 (5) |
37.88 (3) |
30.14 (6) |
|
France |
47.02 (2) |
48.99 (2) |
34.67 (5) |
30.38 (7) |
36.58 (4) |
52.16 (2) |
|
Canada |
34.19 (7) |
51.67 (1) |
31.47 (6) |
39.32 (3) |
34.49 (6) |
56.86 (1) |
|
Japan |
61.91 (1) |
37.33 (5) |
61.46 (1) |
54.51 (1) |
59.67 (1) |
34.43 (5) |
|
USA |
46.39 (3) |
48.44 (3) |
52.57 (2) |
47.34 (2) |
47.99 (2) |
46.17 (3) |
|
South Korea |
34.45 (6) |
31.15 (7) |
35.01 (4) |
32.81 (6) |
35.19 (5) |
24.89 (7) |
|
Germany |
35.18 (5) |
40.03 (4) |
37.89 (3) |
39.19 (4) |
30.24 (7) |
34.68 (4) |
|
Correlation |
0.07NS |
0.91** |
-0.07NS |
||||
Correlation without
Japan and Canada |
0.54NS |
0.90* |
0.42NS |
||||
* Significant at level 0.05, **Significant at
level 0.01, NS Non significant
Using the above multi-attribute measures of the categories of product
evaluation by each sample, a multivariate bi-dimensional representation of the
data was prepared (Brown, 1990). This multivariate graphical representation is
an efficient multi-dimensional procedure relaxing the usual orthogonal
orientation of the axes of the variables in traditional factorial analysis.
Figure 1 is a bi-dimensional representation (accounting for 97.5% of the
variance in the data) of the seven countries in relation to the three product
categories as perceived by the Japanese respondents. The three categories of product
are represented graphically as three oriented vectors passing through the
center of the circle. The position of the label on each vector indicates the
positive orientation of the multi-attribute evaluation. The angle formed by two
vectors indicates the degree of correlation between two measures. In Figure 1,
the perceived evaluations of the three categories of product by Japanese
respondents appear strongly correlated.
The points in the diagram represent the countries. The orthogonal
projections of each point on each vector give the perceived ordering of each
country with respect to the corresponding category of product. For instance,
the multi-attribute evaluation of Japanese respondents places clothing from
Japan first, followed by France, the USA and China, with the evaluation of
clothing from Germany, South Korea and Canada being less favorable. Projection
of the country points in two dimensions accounts for 97.5% of the variance and
therefore does not perfectly recover the scoring order of countries at the
lower end of the multi-attribute measures. Further, Japanese respondents show a
strong bias in favor of Japanese products in all three categories.
Figure 1 Multivariate representation of
combined scores given by Japanese respondents
Figure 2 Multivariate representation of
combined scores given by Canadian respondents
The projection of the country points in two dimensions accounts for
99.5% of the variance for the Canadian data, and therefore recovers almost
perfectly the scoring order of countries. In comparison to Japanese consumers,
the perception of Canadian respondents in Figure 2 shows a different
correlation pattern, with the evaluation of consumer electronics almost
orthogonal to the evaluation of clothing and food. From the Canadian viewpoint,
the evaluation of consumer electronics is unrelated to the evaluation of
clothing and food. Canadian respondents perceive consumer electronics from
Japan as the best, followed by those from the USA, Canada, Germany, China,
South Korea and France. However, with respect to clothing and food, Canadian
respondents show a strong bias in favor of Canadian products as was found by
Hung (1989). A more recent study on the quality of manufactured products from
19 countries by Gallup (Milner 1996) indicated that Canadian products (with
17.9% of respondents rating the country's products as excellent or very good)
ranked after Japan (41.2%), Germany (35.1%), the USA 34.9%), Britain (21.2%)
and France 20.8%). However, 60% of Canadian respondents rated their own
country's products as very good to excellent, but only 41% felt that way about
Japanese goods. All other respondents had a lower perception of their own
country's products. However, using specific categories of products allowed us
to observe that the general bias in Canada for Canadian products, although
present for food and clothing, was not present for consumer electronics.
DISCUSSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH
Several limits to this study can be raised. First, only large categories
of consumer products were involved. The level of globalization may vary widely
among firms within each category. For example in the food category, Nestlé is
well known for adapting coffee flavor to local markets. According to Ohmae
(1991), “Some companies say the new world requires homogeneous products-“one
size fits all”-everywhere. Others say the world requires endless
customization-special product for every region. The best global companies
understand it’s neither and it’s both. They keep the two perspectives in mind
simultaneously.”
Second, buying attributes were measured in terms of importance at the
product category level. This does not capture how determinant an attribute
would be for a consumer facing several competitors within the category.
Third, this is a cross-sectional study with respondents from specific
regions, the two second-most important urban centers in Japan and in Canada.
Attitude toward product category may be affected by specific events such as for
example the recent milk poisoning of Snow Brand (“Yuki-Jirushi”) in Japan. Results are preliminary and need to
be validated and replicated with additional samples from different regions and
over more than two groups of respondents. The globalization process is dynamic
and evolves as international trade deals are concluded. With lower trade
barriers, product categories may reach
new markets and with a wider diffusion of information on those product
categories, they may reach new levels of globalization. Future research could
also cover additional categories of products and be improved by checking the
perceived degree of globalization (using the dimensions of Fraser and
Opppenheim, 1977 and of Keegan and Green, 2000) of those categories by the
respondents themselves.
Fourth, concerning the evaluation of imported categories of products,
the degree of availability of products of the specific countries within the
Japanese and the Canadian markets may have an impact on consumer perception.
However, Han (1989) found that when experience with a category of product from
a specific country was low, a “halo” model would apply and consumers would use
the country image as a proxy. Papadopoulos and Heslop (1993) have later
suggested that attitudes toward each country and its products and product
categories tend to be congruent. In a recent study, Heslop, Papadopoulos and
Bourk (1998) show that specific product evaluations are virtually identical to
the evaluation of a global product. Product images tend thus to be congruent
across categories. Finally, a higher experience with domestic products may
strongly account for the strong bias toward domestic categories of products
found both in Japan and in Canada.
CONCLUSION AND MANAGEMENT
IMPLICATIONS
The results of this
study confirm that Japanese and Canadian consumers share a more similar
structure of buying attribute importance for the more globalized category of
consumer electronics. However, the level of product familiarity was only found
to have an influence for clothing. Total evaluation of imported products in the
category of consumer electronics was also found more similar than for clothing
and food.
The implications of
this study for Canadian marketing managers is that whatever the degree of
globalization of their products, Canadian consumer products in Japan compete
with a less favorable and a less differentiated image. Canadian manufacturers
are also likely to find that getting acceptance for their products in Japan
much more difficult than in the domestic market. A condition for success for
Canadian exporters to Japan is to increase the evaluation of quality, price and
country of origin images of Canadian products, since they are the most
important buying attributes for Japanese consumers, whatever the category of
product.
Japanese international marketing
managers interested in selling food and clothing in Canada should take into
account that Canadian consumers hold a strong bias in favor of Canadian
products, and that they must compete with strong international competitors.
Quality and price are also the most important attributes valued by Canadian
consumers. However, building a well-known brand image is also important, since
this is the third most important attribute favored by Canadian consumers.
Note
1: The cross-classification ratio is used to validate the discriminant results.
The method used is also called the jackknife or U-method. The discriminant
model is estimated by leaving out one case and then predicting that case with
the estimated model. This is done in turn for each observation such that an
observation never influences the discriminant model that predicts its group
classification. The validity of the discriminant model is supported when the
cross-classification ratio is above the ratio obtained if all observations were
assigned to the group with the highest probability of occurrence or the maximum
chance criterion (Hair, Anderson, Tatham and Black, 1998). For Table 1 the
discriminant model is not supported since the cross-classification ratio
(65.6%) is below the maximum chance criterion of 66% (376/(376+191).
Note
2: To keep the length of the questionnaire reasonable and to keep the response
rate acceptable, the degree of perceived buying-values of the three categories
of products for each of the seven countries (21 judgments) was limited to three
buying attributes. Therefore, the multi-attribute evaluation was limited to
price, quality and popularity.
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