Country-of-origin cues: effects of country-related affect and product association on consumer responses to hospitality firms

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the impacts of country-of-origin (COO) cues, country-related affect (CRA) and country-related product associations (CRPA) on consumers’ intention to purchase hotel services. Design/methodology/approach A survey of 305 respondents was conducted. Mediation and conditional process tests were performed to examine the proposed theoretical framework. Findings The results suggest that CRA is positively correlated with consumer trust, which, in turn, affects purchase intention. For consumers with a high (vs low) level of consumer ethnocentrism (CE), the effect of CRA on trust is weaker. CRPA is positively correlated with both consumer trust and price perception, which, in turn, affect purchase intention. For consumers with rich subjective knowledge (SK) of hotel services, the effect of CRPA on price perception is weaker. The effects of COO stereotypes and the moderation effects of CE and SK hold after controlling for consumers’ age, gender, income, education and objective knowledge. Practical implications Hospitality practitioners can make use of different types of country-related information to communicate effectively with consumers in a global environment. Originality/value This research is the first to discover the different mechanisms underlying different types of COO and the boundary conditions on these effects.