Country-of-Origin (CO) is a potentially powerful image variable which may be used to influence competitive positioning and success in the global market-place. A weakness in CO research and implementation is to treat a country's consumers as homogenous. Dividing the country market into its natural segments before studying CO perceptions would be an added advantage. The current study segments the market by immigrant status (foreign born, first generation, and local ancestry) to study the impact of acculturation and socialization on perception of foreign products. Findings reveal subtle differences in how these groups perceive foreign products. Country-of-Origin (CO) image refers to "buyers' opinions regarding the relative qualities of goods and services produced in various countries" (Bilkey 1993, p. An indication of the importance of country-of-origin images in international marketing strategy can be gauged by the sheer volume of research on the topic. Consumer perceptions of foreign products have been examined from a wide variety of perspectives.
A significant segmenting variable in the study of country-of-origin images is ethnicity, ancestry or national origin. An interesting question relating to country-of-origin images in a country like the U.S. If it does, what is the impact of the length of domicile (in a country) on the person's perceptions about foreign products? In other words, what are the impacts of consumer socialization and acculturation on the perception of foreign products? Consumer socialization and acculturation refer to "the acquisition of consumption related cognitions, attitudes and behavior" (Engel, Blackwell and Miniard, 1993, p. The current study attempts to answer some of these questions. The purpose of this study is to address some of the issues raised in the above discussion. SPA). This three-factor conceptualization of the CO construct forms the basis of our current investigation. Data were gathered from the adult population of a large midwestern metropolitan area which is highly heterogenous in terms of ethnic (national origin) composition.
Blank questionnaires were hand delivered to the selected (systematic sampling procedure) respondents comprising the relevant sampling population (namely immigrant, first generation and US consumers) and completed questionnaires were collected within the next two weeks. A total of 678 completed and useable questionnaires were returned from the 1025 that were originally placed, a 66% response rate. The statistical analysis of data consisted of three steps: the purification of the measurement model, the analysis of CO effects within the proposed model, and the assessment of the impact of socialization and acculturation on CO effects. The indicators used to measure the underlying theoretical structure of the CO construct were analyzed for unidimensionality and reliability using ITAN (Gerbing and Hunter 1988), a statistical package for item analysis with correlational data. ITAN has the capability of using multiple groups confirmatory factor analysis (MGRP) and generates inter-item correlations, item-factor loadings, factor-factor loadings, and standardized coefficient alpha.
The output generated by ITAN can be used to evaluate internal and external consistencyCtwo statistical criteria for establishing the unidimensionality of the indicators of a construct. The measures were partitioned a priori into three different sets measuring GCA, GPA, SPA, and one indicator measuring IP (Intention to Purchase). 678), indicators were dropped and reclustered progressively until smaller sets of measures reflecting fairly high degrees of unidimensionality and reliability were identified. Two dimensions underlying GCA perceptions were identified. Volkswagen Jetta (Germany). The same procedure resulted in the selection of sets of indicators representing the dimensions underlying GPA perceptions of all the respondents for both makes of car. The first dimension (labeled GPA1) consisted of a set of indicators measuring negatively oriented product attributes which Hong and Wyer (1989) term undesirable attributes. This occurred although the directions of these indicators had been reversed earlier through appropriate data transformation. The second and third consisted of indicators measuring positively oriented product attributes. The results of ITAN analysis of the indicators of SPA did not yield multiple dimensions in any of the data sets studied.
LISREL analysis was employed as a complementary technique to ITAN in the process of respecification. In M1, IP is the dependent variable and the other six variables are independent. In M2, SPA is an intervening variable with IP as the dependent variable and the rest as independent variables. The final model (M3) is presented in Figure 1a with selected structural notations and estimates. The chi-square statistic generated by the models do not indicate a good fit of any of the final models to their respective data. 0.05) indicating that relaxing the structural links significantly improves the fit between the specified models and their respective data. In order to assess the impact of socialization and acculturation, as previously mentioned, the data set was subdivided into three categories: immigrants, first generation, and US consumers. The differences between the first two categories would highlight the acculturation effect and the differences between the last two categories would highlight the socialization effect. The measurement model and the structural equation model used for analyzing CO effects (M3: the final model) were applied to the three subsamples with no alteration.
