Country Knowledge

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according to the „Flying Geese‟ theory of regional economic development, first published by Kaname Akamatsu in the 1960‟s. However, some economists have pointed out that the theory is now outdated and no longer accurately reflects the trends of East Asian regional development. Nowadays, countries at different stages of development compete with each other for shares of export markets, which was rare several decades ago (Chen, 2008).

The study results further suggest that the respondents see a clear difference between Taiwanese and Chinese products, and that they evaluate products from Taiwan as much better than those made in China. The concerns that consumers are unable to distinguish Taiwanese products from Chinese ones are therefore void. It appears that consumers do not extend their negative stereotypes of Chinese products to Taiwanese ones. The unfavorable evaluation of Chinese products in this study also confirms the negative perception of the Made-in-China brand, as summarized in the literature review.

As for the perception of products from Japan, this study confirms previous findings, in that Japanese products receive overwhelmingly positive appraisals. While there is no comparable previous data from Czech respondents available to assess the effect of the recent Toyota issue, it appears that it has not harmed the perception of Japanese products as a whole.

There have been no high-profile incidents or car recalls linked to Toyota in the Czech Republic, so most people probably did not feel personally affected by the situation. Overall, this study confirms the strongly positive stereotypical view of Japanese products, and negative stereotypical view of Chinese products.

6.3. Country Knowledge

One of the most unique aspects of this study, in comparison with other research on country image and country-product perceptions, is its attention to consumers‟ familiarity with the country. According to the findings of this study, the concern that knowledge of a country

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plays a significant role in perception of the country is very legitimate at least in the case of small, less visible, newly industrialized or transitional countries. There are two reasons for this claim. First, the objective realities of these countries (such as social and economic development, political situation, infrastructure, production capabilities) have often changed relatively rapidly. Second, as was shown in chapter 5.3.6., the average individual abroad likely receives very limited information about any such country, and probably has limited and / or inaccurate knowledge about the country. Therefore, a good country knowledge may be able to significantly improve the perception of country image of any country that has experienced some sort of significant transformation in recent years and decades (Asian newly industrialized economies, former socialist countries of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe) but nowadays enjoys social and political stability and at least decent living standard for most of its inhabitants. It is quite plausible that a research of the country image and country knowledge of any such country would bring results similar to Taiwan in this study, in that the knowledge of a country has substantial influence on the country image. For the countries in question and their governments, this finding means that their international reputation can be significantly improved by means of effective promotional and informational activities.

The fact that the impact of country knowledge / exposure to country information on country image was much weaker (or insignificant) for Japan‟s and China‟s data shows that this link is probably not as prominent for large, established, developed countries (Europe, North America, Australia, Japan), or for countries that are perceived as problematic in the eyes of consumers. The first group of countries is internationally visible and relatively well known to the average consumer, and probably has a fairly favorable image to begin with (barring existing animosity towards the country). The latter group of countries probably cannot attain a positive country image due to their (negatively received) objective realities,

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which prevent the country from being viewed favorably even if the consumers possess relatively good knowledge. In some instances, better knowledge can probably lead to more negative opinions of the country. This is in line with existing literature, which suggested that better knowledge of a country (especially first-hand knowledge) created more objective evaluations of the country (Heslop and Papadopoulos, 1993).

6.4. Country of Origin Research

Many of the theories and knowledge used to formulate this research were derived from the vast amount of literature on the topic usually referred to as „Country of origin‟ (COO).

The body of literature on the topic is very extensive and this study was not aspiring to add to the theoretical foundation of COO research, but many of the existing assumptions of the COO research have been used in this study, mainly dealing with the country image – product perception link, and the predictors entering the relationship. This study confirms the strong positive linkage between country image and perception of country products. This relationship was present in each of the three country image – product perception pairs.

However, none of the predictors included in this study based on existing literature was found to be a universally significant contributor to the evaluation of country products. User experience with country products came out as a significant variable in three of the six regression tests – in general and specific product evaluation of Japanese products, and general evaluation of Chinese products. The relationship was positive in each of these cases, showing that more user experience with country products leads to a better evaluation of the products.

Alternatively, this output can be explained as lack of user experience with particular products causing negative evaluations of the country products. Some past studies already suggested that consumers who have little or no experience with products from a country tend to evaluate these products more negatively. This indeed appears to be a viable explanation for Japanese products, as respondents who reported no or little experience with Japanese products rated

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them on as average considerably worse (M = 4.13, N = 92) than respondents with some (M = 4.46, N = 106) or a lot of experience (M = 4.56, N = 54).

Expertise in product category (laptops), often also referred to as product category knowledge, is a variable which has received a lot of attention from researchers. The existence of an effect of product category knowledge on product perception is generally acknowledged, though there is no consensus on the actual type of the effect. Some studies have argued that the importance of country image in product evaluation increases with product category expertise, while others show that it decreases. In the case of this research, product category expertise was found to be a significant predictor only for Taiwanese laptops, where better expertise in the product category contributed to better evaluation of Taiwanese laptops. This finding might indicate that consumers with high knowledge of computers and information technologies evaluate Taiwanese laptops more favorably than consumers with lower knowledge, because they are aware that Taiwan is one of the world‟s biggest producers of laptop computers, as well as the origin of some of the world‟s leading laptop brands (Asus, Acer). Presence of such strong brands may serve as a proof of quality of Taiwan‟s laptops in general. Alternatively, unlike other consumers, respondents with high level of expertise might be able to connect a positive experience with Taiwanese laptops to Taiwan as the country of product origin. The reason why product category expertise was not significant in evaluation of laptops from Japan and China is unclear.

As for product category involvement, this variable is only significant in evaluation of Japanese laptops, but does not play a role for Chinese or Taiwanese laptops. While we can only guess the reason behind this finding, a possible explanation lies in the wide-spread view that regards Japan as an extremely capable producer of high-tech goods. Therefore, consumers who are highly involved in the laptop computers product category (i.e. attach high importance to the choice of a laptop, do a thorough research of the market prior to purchase of

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a laptop etc.) might show preference for the best and most desirable products on the market, and Japanese IT-products are more likely to fill such role than products from Taiwan or China.

No effect of product involvement on evaluation of laptop computers was observed in the case of the other two countries. To sum up, none of the variables mentioned in this section (user experience, product expertise, product involvement) were found to be significant in a majority of tests.