Cultural and economic components of the country of origin effect: Advertisement evaluations for goods and services among multicultural individuals

A brand\u27s country of origin affects consumer attitudes and purchasing behavior due to cultural and economic factors. Consumers prefer brands from countries whose cultures they perceive as similar to that of their own country and from countries with high economic prestige, especially for countries with a strong reputation for producing certain products. For individuals who identify with multiple cultures, it is unknown how important cultural similarity is to their consumption behavior. In this study we attempt to discern the main motivator of multicultural individuals\u27 country of origin consumption behavior by measuring liking and purchasing ratings for both goods and services to determine the relative importance of cultural similarity and national economic prestige in product evaluations. Analyses revealed that all participants showed country of origin preferences related to the economic prestige of a country for both name liking and purchase likelihood. Second, advertisement ratings did not significantly vary between goods and services from a participant\u27s own country, indicating that a brand\u27s level of culture does not change consumer attitudes or behavior. Most importantly, we found that preference for a brand name based on country of origin does not necessarily indicate intent to purchase the brand, suggesting that the country of origin effect may have more theoretical than applicable usefulness