Country‐of‐origin effects on purchasing agents’ product perceptions: an international perspective

In a study involving a mail survey of Australian and New Zealand purchasing agents, a number of hypotheses relating to the potential influence of country‐of‐origin information were investigated. Country‐of‐assembly and country‐of‐design were both included in this study, which also examined the differences between higher risk purchases such as machine tools and more routine purchases such as component parts. A multi‐dimensional approach to product quality was adopted, based on earlier exploratory studies. Country‐of‐origin was found to influence product quality perceptions and similar patterns were observed in both national samples. Differences in absolute levels, however, were found, suggesting that caution is needed on the part of suppliers dealing in both markets in relation to the value of this type of information.