European expert buyers perceptions of New Zealand products and businesses by level of knowledge and experience: an investigation of the food and beverage industry

As a country, New Zealand’s economy is dependent on its export markets. This is especially true for the food and beverage industry. With exporting so vital to the nation’s economy, it should be imperative to understand how the country’s products and businesses are perceived from a buyer’s standpoint. This is especially true for the European Union, as it is New Zealand’s third largest trading partner. Together, the European Union members take around 11.5 percent of New Zealand’s exports (in value terms) (Statistics New Zealand, 2014). For New Zealand businesses, being able to understand how the European buyers perceive your performance should be of great importance. Knowing this would allow businesses to allocate resources more efficiently, and meet the needs of the buyers easier. This research will draw on key theory from buyer-seller relationships and the country of origin theory. There have been very few studies addressing this topic from a New Zealand context, but no studies that have looked specifically at perceptions of New Zealand businesses and products from an expert buyer’s point of view. Also yet to be researched, is whether there are any differences in how buyers perceive New Zealand products and businesses across different levels of knowledge and experience. For this study, a quantitative approach was used to discover the perceptions held by the European expert buyers. Bipolar adjective scales were used to test product and business attributes. This led to a comparison of means for the sets of scales to see how the European buyers perceived New Zealand products and businesses. One-way ANOVA’s and least significant difference post hoc tests were selected as the best methods to examine whether perceptions change as European buyers gain experience with New Zealand’s products and/or businesses. The 132 respondents were able to provide a diverse sample in terms of the countries they were from, industries they were in, size of their business, and experience with New Zealand’s products and businesses. The perceptions of New Zealand’s products and business attributes showed how well they were preforming. Largely, they were viewed as being excellent in the European market. These findings differed somewhat to what the previous literature had shown. Generally, New Zealand businesses were viewed more positively than products by the European buyers. It was also found that perceptions do change across attributes as European’s gain experience with New Zealand’s products and/or businesses. The ANOVA and least significant difference post hoc tests showed that perceptions about New Zealand products and businesses do change depending on level of experience/knowledge. Although, that change varies between seven product and thirteen business attributes and the level of experience (low, medium and high). It was found that the more experience a buyer has the more positively they would rate the attribute. Overall, it was concluded that with New Zealand preforming exceptionally in the European marketplace, trading should be increased. Awareness of New Zealand products and businesses inside the European marketplace needs to be increased, and perceptions should match that of the European buyers who have high experience/knowledge with New Zealand