There are many factors that affect brand image, one of which is country of origin (COO) effects on the consumers' perception of the products. This factor is of particular concern to multinational companies manufacturing worldwide. The existing literatures have shown that COO has significant and differing effects on international consumer purchasing decisions. In this research I am planning to test and validate the following hypotheses:
- Images of foreign produced goods vary from one import country to another.
- Given the above, the high involvement goods, however, have more significant COO effects than low involvement goods.
- Perceptions of brand supplied from highly developed countries are the same to the member countries of the China Triangle.
And also the result of this research may answer the following questions:
- How the COO effects affect duration of the adoption time?
- How many customers "ever use" our products within a certain time interval?
- How much the marginal effects could change if we change the COO effects of the product?
Multinational companies are all interested in their brand or product performance when entering into a new market. Therefore, in empirical study, I plan to collect data from the "China Triangle" or China Economic Area market, which includes Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China. While Taiwan is achieving a developed country, Hong Kong is regarded as a "westernized Chinese" in Asia, and China as an emerging economy, as such, China Triangle market is regarded as such learning cultural differences in this market is helpful for multinational business in doing business.
Dr. Hsiu-Li Chen's Publications:
Refereed Journal papers
1. Chen, Hsiu-Li, (2002), "Benchmarking and Quality Improvement - A Quality Benchmarking Deployment Approach," International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, Vol. 19 No.6, pp.757-773.
2. Chen, Hsiu-Li, (2002), "Gray Marketing and Unfair Competition," Atlantic Economic Journal, Vol.30, No.2, June, pp.196-204. (EconLit)