The Effects of Country of Origin and Consumer Ethnocentrism on Product Evaluation: Evidences from Egypt

Abstract

This study aims to examine the effects of Country of Origin (COO) and Consumer Ethnocentrism (CE) on product evaluation in Egypt. For this purpose, the authors selected two tea products, one locally produced and the other imported from Britain. Data were collected from citizens living in Cairo and its suburbs during May-June 2017 and entered into SPSS 20 program. First, the authors verified the internal consistency of study constructs by applying a reliability test (Cronbach’s alpha) and described the socio-demographic profile of the sample. Then, the authors used many statistical technics to analyze data such as paired samples t-test and factor analysis. Finally, linear regression was used to test the research hypotheses. Although many previous studies have confirmed that COO is a tridimensional concept: cognitive, affective and conative, our study showed that Egyptians aggregate these three components to configure a general judgment of imported product country. Then, COO can be used as a predictor of imported product quality. Our study also proved that Egyptians, despite their strong ethnocentrism, measured by CETSCALE, base their evaluation of the domestic product on factors such as: price, familiarity and convenience. The choice of imported product is based on other factors such as: health, natural content, mood, ethical concerns and sensory appeal.

Keywords: Country of Origin, Consumer Ethnocentrism, Product Evaluation.