As discussed in previous chapter, perceived quality has been viewed an important factor to branding process in both B2C and B2B markets. The strength of perceived quality is primarily driven by tangible attributes of the product such as perceived product quality, and intangible attributes of the firm such as perceived service quality. In previous studies, both perceived value and distribution performance of industrial products have been identified as the main drivers of perceived product quality (Mudambi et al., 1997). Although price is one of the most important criteria for purchasing decisions, customers even in B2B markets are willing to pay more for what they perceive to be superior value. Distribution performance entails customers’ overall satisfaction of all aspects on ordering, availability and delivery of industrial products (van Riel et al., 2005).
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Drivers of perceived service quality identified in previous studies were information services and service personnel (van Riel et al., 2005). Although industrial buyers are now able to get more information by various means of online information via the Internet (Sharma et al., 2001), industrial markets are still characterized by asymmetric information: sellers had
more information than buyers (van Riel et al., 2005). Therefore, to make good purchase decisions, B2B buyers still need information services provided from sellers. In addition, for many industrial products, good personal contact or fact-to-face interaction between buyer and seller is important to the buyers’ satisfaction. Service personnel entail all aspects of the employees’ skills, attitudes, behaviors, and modes of communication in all contacts with industrial buyers (Gordon et al., 1993).The construction of measurements for product value, product distribution, information services, service personnel, perceived product quality, and perceived service quality were presented on seven-point scale which is ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree as depicted in Table 2.
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Table 2 The measurement of perceived quality
Variable Items Reference
Product value
Products of S company reduce production costs
Products of S company offer value for money
Products of S company reduce systems costs
Product distribution
Ordering products of S company are convenient
Products of S company are available when we need it
Products of S company are supplied in a reliable way
Information services
We are satisfied with the information about products of S company (ex. Product Catalogue or Oversea Exhibition)
Online information about products of S company are good quality
The documentation of products of S company are of good quality
If I request supplementary information about products of S company, I receive it quickly
van Riel et al. (2005)
Service personnel
S company has highly skilled employees
Staff in S company is well dressed and appear neat
I can trust staff of S company
Staff in S Company is always willing to help buyers
van Riel et al. (2005)
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Perceived product quality
Products that manufactured by S company are high quality
Products that manufactured by S company development lead time are excellent
Product that manufactured by S company are dependable and consistent
Products that manufactured by S company are innovative
Perceived service quality
The technical support of products manufactured by S Company are excellent
We are satisfied with production support for products of S company
We are satisfied with development support for products of S company
Brand awareness is the customer’s ability to recognize and recall the brand among comparable products in a certain industry under different conditions of complexity and time pressure (Aaker, 1991; Keller, 1998). Since a brand name provides symbolic meanings that aid the customer to recognize and recall the supplier and its product outcome (Janiszewski and Van Osselaer, 2000), brand name is the most fundamental element of brand awareness (Davis et al., 2008). In many B2B markets brand name is often the company name and a growing number of alternative suppliers can provide similar products to their industrial buyers, how to create an effective brand name that embodies unique values to aid the
customer in recognition and recall of the supplier and product is recently becoming important
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to industrial firms. We employee items form Aaker (1996), Davis et al. (2008), Michell (2001), and van Riel et al. (2005) to measure constructs of brand awareness, industrial brand equity, and brand loyalty. The entire questionnaire items are listed in Table 3.
Table 3 The measurement od brand awareness, brand equity, and brand loyalty
Variable Items Reference
Brand awareness
The name of S company is well-known in fastener industry
S company is recognized a strong trade partner
S company is a leading edge supplier
S company makes purchase process more easier
Aaker (1996) Davis et al. (2008)
Michell (2001)
Brand equity
S company’s brand is different from other providers
S company is a financially stable company
The fact that products of S company certainly adds value
The fact that products of S company are important to me
We are willing to pay more in order to do business with S company
Davis et al. (2008) van Riel et al. (2005)
Brand loyalty
Overall we are very satisfied with S company
If asked, we would recommend S company
We intend to do business again with S company in the future
van Riel et al. (2005)
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Country-of-origin is the picture, the reputation, and the stereotype that businessmen and consumers attach to products of a specific country, and created by such variables as national characteristics, economic and political background, history, and traditions. As discussed in previous chapter, country-of-origin can be categorized as macro and micro perspectives, and this study takes the macro view of country-of-origin. The macro country-of-origin is the customer perceptions of economic, political, technological, educational or life standards of a country, and the total of all descriptive, inferential and informational beliefs one has about a particular country (Martin and Eroglu, 1993). This study employees items from Pisharodi and Paramesearan (1992) to measure COO constructs on seven-point Likert scale. The entire questionnaire items are listed in Table 4.
Table 4 The measurement of country-of-origin
Variable Items Reference
Country-of-origin
Well educated
Hard working
Achieving high standards
Raised standard of living
Technical skills
Pisharodi and Parameswaran
(1992)
All Cronbach’s Alphas shown in Table 5 were over .80 with the exception of one construct on perceived service quality. To increase construct reliability in the pretest step, we deleted an item from the construct of perceived service quality to raise its Cronbach’s Alpha to .832 as shown in Table 6.
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Table 5 Cronbach’s Alpha of each construct
Constructs Number of Items Cronbach’s Alpha on
Standardized Items
Product value 3 0.901
Product distribution 3 0.823
Information services 4 0.878
Service Personnel 4 0.871
Perceived product quality 4 0.905
Perceived service quality 3 0.746
Brand awareness 4 0.964
Country-of-origin 5 0.968
Brand equity 5 0.890
Brand loyalty 3 0.961
Table 6 Cornbach’s Alpha of perceived service quality if item deleted Scale mean