초록 열기/닫기 버튼
Purpose: Building on the view of country-of-origin, the present study provides evidence of how entry-mode choice influences consumers’ purchase intention of foreign products in a country-related product association context. Research design, data, and methodology: An experimental study was conducted in a host country market with a strong favorable country-related product association (Germany) and with an unfavorable country-related product association (China). The author used a 3 (market entry modes: import, wholly-owned subsidiary, and international joint venture) × 2 (country-related product associations: high vs. low) between-subjects factorial design. Results: The results of the experiment show that in an unfavorable country-related product association, consumers prefer the foreign products launched through an international joint venture to ones launched through the other two entry modes. On the other hand, in a strong country-related product association, there is little difference of consumer purchase intention among market entry modes. Conclusions: This paper presents empirical evidence on how country-related product associations can affect consumer purchase intention of foreign products in terms of the types of market entry. The author suggests that international firms carefully seek out market entry modes appropriate to the country-related product associations in order to yield favorable outcomes.
