Country of Origin as a

Stereotype: Effects of Consumer

Expertise and Attribute Strength
on
Product Evaluations
Durairaj Maheswaran (1994)
Journal of Consumer Research

Objective
To reconcile the mixed findings in
Country of Origin research by
exploring:
WHEN (Moderation)
WHY (Mediation)
the Country of Origin Information
influences evaluation

Contribution
1) Consumers' level of expertise and the strength of attribute information determine the extent to
which country of origin influences product evaluation
Novices used country-of-origin information in their evaluations regardless of whether the
attributes were ambiguous or unambiguous
Experts used country of origin only when the attribute information was ambiguous

2) Experts and novices differed in their processing of stereotypical information.

Experts used country-of-origin stereotypes to selectively process and recall attribute
information (asymmetric processing tendency)
Whereas, novices used them as a frame of reference to differentially interpret attribute
information.

3) The differential impact of negative information on the processing of experts and novices
Negative information has a larger impact on novices' than on experts' evaluation

Systematic and Heuristic Processing

This research
examines
the
interesting possibility that countryof-origin-based stereotypes can
be functional, and it identifies
the conditions under which these
stereotypes influence consumers'
product evaluation

Study 1
Method - 2 (expertise) X 2 (country of origin) X 2 (attribute strength)
between- subjects design
IV Expertise, Country of Origin, Strength of Attributes
DV Product Evaluation and Attribute related Recall

Hypotheses:
H1a: Experts will evaluate the product more positively when attribute information
is strong (vs. weak). Country of origin will not affect experts' evaluation
H1b: Novices will evaluate the product more positively when country of origin is
favorable (vs. unfavorable). Attribute strength will not affect their evaluation
H2a: Experts will recall more strong (vs. weak) attributes when attribute
information is strong (vs. weak). Country of origin will not influence experts' recall
H2b: Novices will recall more country-of-origin- consistent information. They will
recall more strong (vs. weak) attributes when country of origin is favorable (vs.
unfavorable). Attribute strength will not influence novices' recall

Unresolved issues
Country of origin guided novices' evaluations
but not their recall Why???
It is likely that novices do not distinguish between
consistent and inconsistent information and hence
recall all the information
If cognitive responses would show whether subjects
really thought about and elaborated on country-oforigin or attribute information, this can be
confirmed

Study 2

Method - 2 (expertise) X 2 (country of origin) X 2 (attribute strength) betweensubjects design

IV Expertise, Country of Origin, Strength of Attributes
DV Product Evaluation, Total Thought, Country-of-Origin-Related Thoughts,
Attribute-Related-Thought, Valenced Country-of-Origin-Related Thoughts, Valenced
Attribute-Related-Thought
Hypotheses:

H3a: Experts will process attribute information in detail and generate more attributerelated thoughts. More favorable attribute-related thoughts will be generated when the
product description features strong (vs. weak) attributes
H3b: Novices will process Country of Origin information in detail and generate more
Country of Origin related thoughts. More favorable Country of Origin related thoughts
will be generated when Country of Origin is favorable (vs Unfavorable)

H4a: For experts, the favorableness of the attribute-related thoughts will mediate product
evaluations
H4b: For novices, the favorableness of country- of-origin-related thoughts will mediate
product evaluations

Mediation

Unresolved issues
1. Conditions under which experts will use
country of origin in their evaluation
(Ambiguous vs Unambiguous)
2. If country of origin does not induce
selective processing for novices, what other
mechanism is likely to account for the
findings?
3. Whether country of origin induces selective
processing for experts and influences the
interpretation of the attributes for novices ?

Study 3 (Ambiguous)
Method - 2 (expertise) X 2 (country of origin)
IV Expertise, Country of Origin
DV Product Evaluation and Attribute Recall, Perception of
favorableness of each Attribute
Hypotheses:
H5: Both experts and novices will evaluate the product more positively when the country-of- origin
information is favorable (vs. unfavorable)
H6a:When attribute information is ambiguous, experts will recall more strong attributes when
country of origin is favorable (vs. unfavorable)
H6b: When attribute information is ambiguous, novices will not show systematic variation in their
recall of different types of attribute
H7a:Novices will rate the strong and neutral attributes more positively when the country- of-origin
information is favorable (vs. unfavorable)
H7b:Novices will rate the weak attributes more negatively when the country-of-origin information
is unfavorable (vs. favorable)

H7c: Experts' rating of attribute strength will not be influenced by country-of-origin favorableness