The country of origin effect on consumers' preferences for technological product - Taiwanese brands as example

The country-of-origin effect (COO-effect) research has been central and widely researched field in international marketing for more than half a century. The general conclusion emerging from the previous researches on this topic is that country-of-origin (COO) does affect consumers' product evaluations. In this study; the concepts related to consumer behavior, including the concept of consumer and the characteristics of consumer behavior and consumer purchase process, and factors affecting purchasing behavior; and the concepts related to country-of-origin-effect, including country image, country-of-origin, country of origin effect, and the factors affecting country of origin effect were investigated and evaluated. A survey was conducted across Turkey and a total of 460 valid sample were collected to examine the country-of-origin effect on Turkish consumers towards the Taiwanese technological products and the following brands: HTC, ACER, ASUS, and MSI. The SPSS Statistics 22 was used for the statistical analysis, including factor analysis, Independent-Samples T-Test and One-Way ANOVA. According to the findings, the strong COO-effect of Taiwan was not found and the individual brands were found to be more powerful than the COO itself. Although some Turkish consumers associate Taiwan as a country which produce high-tech products, some Turkish consumers do not have a clear perception of Taiwan. Therefore, Taiwan's country image still needs to be reformed, or it is not easy for Taiwanese brand to benefit themselves from country image.