Literature review范文：The purchase decision of automobiles in Malaysia

Literature review范文-馬來西亞汽車采購決策。文獻綜述是對特定主題或領域相關文獻的描述。文獻綜述旨在描述、評估、總結和澄清相關主題的內容。這樣做是為了在當前的研究中提供更清晰的圖像和信息。在本章中，Literature review文獻綜述將捕捉過去的發現，如信息、想法、數據和證據，這些信息、想法、數據和證據是從特定的角度編寫的，以實現特定的目標或表達特定的觀點來支持當前的研究。下面就一起來看一下留學生dissertationLiterature review部分寫作范文。

Literature review范文

Literature review is description of the literature relevant to a particular topic or field. Literature review seeks to describe, evaluate, summarize and clarify the content of the relevant topic. It is done in order to give a clearer image and information in the current research study. In this chapter, the literature review will capture the past findings like information, ideas, data, and evidence that written from a particular standpoint to fulfill certain aim or express certain views to support the current study.
營銷人員需要更深入地了解當他們有購買產品的欲望時，可能吸引和影響消費者的因素，以便與客戶建立牢固而長久的關系。在購買汽車時，有許多因素和因素可能會影響購買決策。在這一章中，研究人員提出了一些發現和論點。
Marketers need to understand more in depth on the factors that may attract and influence consumer when they have a desire to purchase a product so they can build strong and long relationship with customer. When it comes to purchase a car, there are many factors and element that might influence and affect purchasing decision. In this chapter there are some findings and arguments from the researchers.
2.1 Transportation 運輸
基本上，運輸是用于將物品和乘客從一個位置移動到另一個位置的任何設備。將物品或人員從A點移動到B點的過程。常見的交通工具包括飛機、火車、汽車和摩托車或自行車等兩輪裝置。運輸方式包括公路、水路、航空、鐵路、電纜、管道和空間。交通可以是公共的，也可以是私人的，具體取決于使用情況。私人交通僅由車主負責，車主自行操作車輛，公共交通運營通過私人企業或政府完成。
Basically transportation is any device used to move items and passengers from one location to another. The process of moving and carrying items or peoples from point A to point B. Common transportation can be found include planes, trains , automobiles and two-wheel devices such as motorcycles or bicycles. Modes of transport include road, water, air, rail, cable, pipeline and space. Transport may be public and private determine by the usage. Private transport is only subject to the owner of the vehicle, who operates the vehicles themselves and public transport operations is done through private enterprise or by government.
在經濟方面，運輸是專業化的必要條件。縱觀歷史，交通一直是擴張的動力。它允許更多的貿易和更廣泛的人口傳播。經濟增長始終依賴于運輸能力和合理性的提高。交通使文明成為可能，沒有交通就沒有貿易，沒有貿易就沒有城鎮。
In the aspect of economic, transport is a necessity for specialization. Throughout the history, transport has been a spur to expansion. It allows more trade and wider spread of people. Economic growth has always been dependent on increasing the capacity and rationality of transport ( Stopford, 1997 ). Transportation helps make civilization possible and without it, there could be no trade, without trade there could be no cities and towns.
2.2 Automobile 汽車
汽車或小汽車是一種輪式車輛，可自行運輸汽車和乘客。汽車不是一個發明家一天發明的。汽車的歷史反映了世界范圍內發生的演變。汽車的歷史始于第一輛蒸汽、電力和汽油發動機汽車。17世紀80年代在俄羅斯，伊萬·庫利賓開始研制帶有蒸汽機的人力腳踏馬車。1791年，他完成了這項工作，其特點包括飛輪、制動器、變速箱和軸承，這些也是現代汽車的特點。他的設計有三個輪子，沙皇政府看不到潛在市場，私人開發也很少，因此車輛沒有進一步開發。
An automobile or car is a wheeled vehicle that carries its own motor and transport passengers. The automobile was not invented in a single day by a single inventor. The history of the automobile reflects an evolution that took place worldwide. History of automobile starting with the first steam, electrical and gasoline-engine cars. In 1780s in Russia, Ivan Kulibin started working on human-pedaled carriage with a steam engine. He finished working on it in 1791 with its features included flywheel, brake, gearbox, and bearing which are also the features of a modern automobile. His design had three wheels and the Czarist government unable to see the potential market and there was little private development, therefore the vehicle was not developed further.
早期的蒸汽動力汽車非常笨重，只能在堅固如鐵的平坦表面上使用。后來的蒸汽車變得越來越大，越來越重，他們最終能夠拉一列滿載貨物和乘客的火車。1798年，奧利弗·埃文斯獲得了美國第一項汽車專利，埃文斯展示了他第一輛成功的自行式汽車。他的蒸汽動力汽車能夠在陸地上用輪子行駛。
The steam powered vehicles in the early stage were so heavy that they were only practical on a perfectly flat surface as strong as iron. The later steam vehicle got bigger and heavier and they eventually capable of pulling a train of many cars filled with freight and passengers. The first automobile patent in the United states was granted to Oliver Evans in 1798 and Evans demonstrated his first successful self-propelled vehicle. His steam-powered vehicles was able to travel on wheels on land.
第一輛馬車大小的汽車是1871年在美國發明的，由蒸汽驅動。汽車是由J.W.博士發明的。卡爾·哈特，威斯康星州拉辛衛理公會主教教堂的牧師。他們規定，在200英里的賽道上，車輛的平均速度應能保持在每小時5英里以上。蒸汽機由燃燒燃料驅動，燃料加熱鍋爐中的水，產生蒸汽，蒸汽膨脹并推動活塞，活塞轉動曲軸，曲軸轉動車輪。在那里，蒸汽汽車繼續發展，到20世紀初取得了重大進展。             
The first carriage sized automobile was invented in 1871 powered by steam in the United States. The automobile was invented by Dr.J.W. Car hart, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in Racine, Wisconsin. They stipulated that the vehicle would able to maintain an average speed of more than five miles per hour over a 200mile course. Steam engines powered by burning fuel that heated water in a boiler, creating steam that expanded and pushed pistons that turned the crankshaft, which turned the wheels. At there, Steam car development continued, leading to significant advances by the early 1900s.
1928年，一個匈牙利名字Anyos Jedlik發明了一種早期類型的電動機，他創造了一個由他的新電動機驅動的小型模型汽車。1834年，佛蒙特州鐵匠托馬斯·達文波特發明了美國第一臺直流電動機，他將電動機安裝在一輛小型模型車上。1885年，德國人卡爾·本茨用汽油驅動的內燃機制造了他的第一輛汽車。1886年1月29日，奔馳獲得了汽車專利，并于1888年開始生產第一輛汽車。到了1900年，許多國家都有可能談論一個全國性的汽車工業。在老牌汽車時代，汽車被視為一種新奇的東西，而不是真正有用的設備。故障頻繁，燃料難以獲得，適合旅行的道路有限，快速創新導致一輛年久的汽車幾乎一文不值。
In 1928, a Hungarian name Anyos Jedlik who invented an early type of electric motor, created a small model car powered by his new motor. In 1834, Vermont blacksmith Thomas Davenport, the inventor of the first American DC electrical motor, installed his motor in a small model car. A German name Karl Benz built his first automobile in 1885 with gasoline-powered internal combustion engines. Benz was granted a patent for his automobile on 29 January 1886 and began the first production automobile in 1888. By 1900, it was possible to talk about a national automotive industry in many countries. Throughout the veteran car era, automobiles were seen as more of a novelty than a genuinely useful device. Breakdowns were frequent, fuel was difficult to obtain, road suitable for travelling were limited and rapid innovation caused a year-old car nearly worthless.
到了1930年，今天汽車中使用的大部分機械技術都被發明出來了，有些東西后來被重新發明并歸功于其他人。現代時代通常被定義為今年之前的25年。然而，現代汽車在技術和設計方面與古董有所不同。如果不考慮汽車的未來，現代時代已經是一個日益標準化、平臺共享和計算機輔助設計的時代。
By the 1930, most od the mechanical technology used in today’s automobile had been invented and somethings were later re-invented and credited to someone else. The modern era is normally defined as the 25years preceeding the current year. However, there are some technical and design aspect that differentiate modern cars from antiques. Without considering the future of the car, the modern era has been one of increasing standardization, platform sharing, and computer-aided design.
世界汽車市場一直由發達國家的制造商主導。發展中國家的制造商首先服務于本國市場，然后尋求出口并將市場擴大到國外。2010年，估計全世界有10億輛汽車和輕型卡車在公路上行駛。美國大約有2.5億輛汽車在運營。2009年，中國是汽車銷售的最大趨勢，目前中國已成為世界最大的汽車市場。由于汽油成本高，所有主要汽車制造商在2011年都在大力推廣其小型高效汽車。
The world automobile market has been dominated by manufacturers from developed countries. Develop country manufacturer first served their own local market and then sought to exports and expand market to foreign countries. In 2010, estimation of 1billion cars and light trucks are on the road around the world. There are approximately 250million vehicles in operation in the United States. In 2009, China was the biggest trend in auto sales and China has become the world’s largest car market currently. All major car manufacturers aggressively pushing their smaller, high efficiency vehicle in 2011 because of the high gasoline costs (Phukett Research 2008, Retrieved 2010-09-09)
汽車現在已經成為全球最大的交通工具，而且數量還在不斷增加。在過去幾十年中，世界汽車工業已成為領先的制造業。汽車市場目前由西歐、日本、美國和韓國等發達國家主導。這個國家貢獻了世界90%以上的生產和出口。僅與德國、日本、加拿大的汽車貿易就超過1萬億美元，占世界出口的一半。較小的新興國家也以驚人的產量增長率縮小了差距，馬來西亞是其中之一。許多新興國家知道，他們可以開發自己的汽車，在世界市場上出口，并直接與黑社會競爭。
Car has become the biggest transportation that can be found around the globe right now and the numbers keep increasing. In the past decades, the world car industry has become a leading manufacturing sector. The automotive market now is strongly dominated by advanced country like Western Europe, Japan, United State and South Korea. This country contributed to more than 90% of the world production and exports. The trade of car exceeds 1000billion dollars with Germany, Japan , Canada alone contribute to half of the world exports (United Nations, 2007).Smaller emerging countries also closing the gap with spectacular production growth rates and Malaysia is one of the country included. Many emerging countries know that they can develop their own car, export in the world market and compete directly with the triad.
馬來西亞在二十年前已經從一個以農業為基礎的國家轉變為工業化國家。馬來西亞發現的天然氣和石油進一步刺激了增長。馬來西亞的汽車使用可分為兩類：個人使用和商業使用。對于個人使用，消費者購買汽車是為了他們自己的使用和目的，也稱為最終用戶。馬來西亞的消費者也購買商務用車，例如出租車和公司用車，他們使用汽車在日常工作中賺取收入。
Malaysia has transformed from an agriculture-based country two decades ago to industrialization. The discovery of gas and oil in Malaysia had further spurred the growth. The usage of car in Malaysia can be categorized into 2 groups, personal use and business use. For personal use, consumers purchase the car for their own use and purpose also called end user. Consumers in Malaysia also purchase car for business use for example taxi and company car, they use car to earn and generate revenue in daily working basis.
926年，當馬來亞福特汽車公司在新加坡注冊成立時，馬來西亞開始了汽車工業。后來與新加坡分離，這打亂了計劃，因為預期的國內市場大幅減少。政府在20世紀60年代末開始處理汽車裝配和零部件制造的申請。早在1980年，馬哈蒂爾·穆罕默德（博士命令馬來西亞工業發展局（Malaysia Industrial Development Authority）對該項目進行可行性研究時，就提出了馬來西亞制造汽車的想法。日本汽車制造商三菱合作協助馬來西亞，寶騰薩加是市場上第一輛馬來西亞汽車，緊隨其后的是寶騰威拉、伊斯瓦拉、瓦哈、佩爾達納等。
In 1926, the automobile industry began in Malaysia when Ford Motor Co of Malaya incorporated in Singapore. Then later came the separation from Singapore, which upset the plans as the expected domestic market was substantially reduced. The government began processing applications for auto assembly and components manufacture in the late 1960s. The idea for a made in Malaysia car was mooted as far back as 1980 when Dr Mahathir Mohamad ordered the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority to carry out a feasibility study of the project. Japan automaker Mitsubishi works together to assist Malaysia and Proton Saga was the first Malaysia car in the market followed by Proton Wira, Iswara , Waja , Perdana, etc.

Literature review范文

2.3 Purchasing decision of automobile 汽車采購決策
The experience owning a car is relatively infrequent occurrence that constitutes one of the important expenditure. Car is durable product and when developing it, insight into what aspect of the product are most important to consumer is useful. This ensuring the product design fits to and communicates the aspects that are important to consumers. Of course focus on one aspect doesn’t mean that other aspects can be neglected. The importance of certain product aspects in buying durable product differs with demographic characteristics, such as age, gender and social class.
In previous research, relations between the importance of functional and expressive product aspect and variables such as age, gender, social class have been indicated (Henry, 2002; Holt, 1998; Williams, 2002). Family members may play different roles in making decision within the family. They may contribute information and they may decide where to buy, time to buy, which brand and how to use the product. For past research, found that family members roles played differ with regard to the product being purchased, the stage in the decision-making process and characteristics of families and spouses (Blech and Ceresino, 1985;Davis, 1976; Piron, 2002; Webster, 1995). These roles may change from time to time due to changes in the environment, such as economic development, which lead to adjustment in the role structure of the decision-making process.
Some researcher have questioned the nature of rationality in making purchasing decision, stressing the underpinning and social construction of collective rationality. The cultural and political influences at work, and representing human rationality in the behavioral terms (Wensley, 1997; Patton, 1996). One of the demographic variable is concerning the influence of gender on certain product aspects. Henry(2002) concluded that females use less functional purchase critea than males.
Williams (2002), who respondents indicate the importance or several criteria for nine types of products, found that performance, durability, reliability, style , quality , appearance and etc were important to females. Research shows that males more indicate functional item that are valued for their instrumental value as their favorite possessions. Dittmar et al. (1995) found that men tend to buy instrumental items, while women tend to buy symbolic emotional aspects of self. Females more sensitive to the color of an electronic scanner than males, which points to the more attention to aesthetic aspects. ( Smith, 1995 )
The relation of age also an important aspect and Henry (2002) found that younger consumer use more expressive purchase criteria. Wallendorf and Arnould (1988) found that younger people focused more on hedonic pleasures in choosing their favorite objects. Older people are more sensitive to utilitarian brand image aspects ( Hsieh et al. 2004). In the other hand, Wallendorf and Arnould (1988) found older people less likely to choose functional as opposed to display items as favorite possessions. Based on these finding conducted by researchers, they found that younger peoples are likely to pay more attention to aesthetic and symbolic products than elder people. They expect older people to more toward utilitarian aspects in buying durable products, and will assess whether this applies to functionalities as well as quality and ease of use.
In marketing and consumer science, there is a long history of studying purchase decision process and a considerable amount of conceptual and empirical work exists relating to how consumers make decisions (Lehto, 1997). However , Moreau and Dahl (2005) stated that majority of it has focused on understanding the ways in which consumers learn about, construct preference for, and choose among existing standard product or services designed to meet their previous identified needs. Branding has been subject to considerable research and debate by many researchers. Despite this interest, there are some areas where research is limited, dated, or contradictory (Glynn et al., 2007)
In the past decades, economy of China has grown at an extremely pace resulting in a booming number of affluent and middle class consumers. Despite the worldwide economic downturn in 2008, China’s appetite for high-end product has shown a strong upward momentum. Germany luxury carmaker BMW saw sales in China jump by 44 percent in June of 2009, while United States sales fell by more than 20 percent (Knowledge@Wharton, 2009). Consumers’ consumption needs have been largely influenced by the cultural, economical, social and environmental factors. A lifestyle analysis perspective could serve such a purpose, as lifestyle concept provides an approach to understand consumers’ everyday needs and wants (Michman and Mazze, 2009).
When come to purchase a car, consumer always face numerous decisions related to product itself, its purchase and intended usage. Researchers have extended considerable effort to have better understanding on how such decisions are framed. Among the myriad parameters that influence the purchasing decision and consumption of a product are its country of origin . Marketer and researchers generally agreed that a product’s country of origin is actually important in consumer decision making.
The role of consumer behaviour in improving and protecting environmental quality is important to sustainable communities. Studies based on survey research suggest that there is a positive relationship between attitudes of the environmental concern and environmentally friendly consumer behaviour (Minton and Rose, 1997; Robert and Bacon 1997; Robert, 1996; Gatersleben and Steg, 2002). With respect to consumer behaviour, automobile emissions are the single largest contributors with almost 50 percent of personal pollution to several pollutants including carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.
2.4 Factors influencing the purchase decision of automobile 影響汽車采購決策的因素
2.4.1 Brand image 品牌形象
Fierce competition forces firms to adopt strategies that create competitive advantage for the firm. A well established brand name is one way of achieving this aim. Firms invest heavily in developing a brand and it is a very pricey process but has high returns once succeed is achieved. Brand image can be recognized as one of the core area of the marketing research field and many researchers have done researches based on this element.
Brand image keep changing as the environment changes for example many brand start up unknown and slowly build a positive brand image through stages. Some brand will rapidly build with their name while some may die-off and disappear in a short period of time. A good example of brand still survive and compete strongly in the market is Nike sport wears. Researchers found that market is more important than factories because factories may rust away, packages become obsolete, product will lose relevance, but a good brand name can last forever. Brand image is established when consumers develop ideas, expectation and feeling towards certain brands as they learn, memorize and become accustomed to them.
Many firms do not always invest heavily creating a new brand name each time they develop a new product, however a more economical strategy being used to introduce a new product. Instead of giving a new brand name to a new product, an existing well known and established brand name is extended into the new product category which in other words, brand extension is used. It is a fact that developing a new brand requires more fund to invest compare to create a brand extension which is what motivates firms prefer brand extensions more than creating a new brand. The brand is one of the most important asset that a firm owns. A firm with a high brand equity achieves high perceptions of the brand by the customers, greater loyalty from customer, high profit margin, less threaten by competitors’ marketing actions, less price sensitive by customer, higher support of middleman, higher marketing promotion effectiveness, increasing licensing and brand extension opportunities (Keller, 2008, p.49).
There are numerous definition of the term brand image found in the literature. The American Marketing Association (cf.Kotler, 2000, p. 404) defines a brand as a name, sign, symbol, design, or combination of them. A brand has been seen as essentially being a seller’s promise to deliver a specific set of features, benefits, and services consistently to the buyers (Kotler, 2000). Therefore the brand is not only just a name, the important is to develop a deep set of positive associations for the brand image. Consumer chooses brands to received emotional benefit they believe such as prestige and status.
Brand name is a name, term, design or all the above used by a firm to differ themselves from their competitors. Brand image can be said as the set of association elaborated in imaginative capacity of the consumer, who allows the brand to reach higher volume of sales than product without a brand name (The Marketing Science Institute). A good brand image brought up by promotions and advertisements and by communicating a well defined brand image allows consumers to identify need satisfied by the brand.
Thakor and Katsanis (1997) claimed that a positive brand image can make up for a country of origin’s inferior image and a product holds a famous brand, it can delete consumers’ negative perception of that particular country. Brand image is important because consumer believed and perceived that the quality and brand name are interrelated. More research has discovers that the level of consumer loyalty, trust and intention to purchase have relation with a good brand image. Therefore, brand is a way to show an individual status and identity and rank among their social group. Doyle (1998) stated that successful brands have created wealth by attracting and retaining customers as a result of combining an effective product, distinctive identity, and added values in the mind of the consumer.
The quality of the product is an important aspect when forming a perception about the brand. The customer evaluates the brand according to his or her perceptions of quality which is sometimes more difficult than actually delivering high quality (Aaker, 1990, p. 48). Consumer who has strong attitudes about the quality of the brand tend to transfer positive attitude to the product. Car quality is often hard to evaluate prior to purchase and buyers may have to rely on car manufacturers’ reputations and consumers’ reactions to cars are often emotional and unconscious (Seidel et al., 2005). The reassurance, disctinctiveness, and image of an established brand elevate the perceived value of a car. Therefore, a prestige brand is able to follow premium pricing strategies. The commercial importance of brands is undoubtedly evident and benefits of a great brand include short-term gain on recognition to long-term competitive advantage which translated into revenues and profits.
Valuing brands is not a straightforward task because there is no formal market for buying and selling brands. Simon and Sullivan (1993) who extract brand equity from the firm’s intangible assets. Using market value of the firm, this technique focuses on a forward-looking perspective and takes into account new information. Several researchers have attempted to quantify brand equity by focusing on the consumer perspective. Srivinivasan (1979) measures brand equity by testing preferences for different primary health care physicians.
Kim et al. (2003) value brand equity on different dimensions, which include brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality and brand image. The firm seeks to communicate the message about a brand is known as brand identity (Aaker, 1991, 1996). This communication is undertaken via the product, the brand name, symbols, logo, historical roots, brand’s creator and advestising (Kapferer, 1998). However, the message that a firm seeks can be different to what consumer perceives, which referred to as the brand image. Buyer may assume or expect a thing about a firm without any objective evidence and they will hold an opinion (Hague and Jackson, 1994).
A brand that is established and has the patronage of consumers is said to possess brand loyalty. Brand loyalty can be defined as a strongly motivated and long standing decision to purhase a product or service to the extent that buyers become loyal to a specific brand (Dibb et al., 2001, p. 271). It can be extremely advantageous to the seller because they require much cheaper cost to retain customers than attract new ones.
Buying a new car is considered a big investment and final decision is usually made after careful consideration. The automobile market consists of several car-type segment, for example mini car, sedan cars, and sport car. This market structure allows car makers to serve better to their customers, as different car types match with different customer needs. Brands names convey informations about various aspect of a product that are difficult to quantify such as reputation, status and heritage. This is particularly so in the car market where brand names play a traditionally important role in purchase decision for various reasons.
2.4.2 Lifestyle 生活方式
A successful business operation normally dependent upon an adequate knowledge of consumer behaviour and lifestyle market segmentation strategies has become more significant and important. Lifestyle of potential consumer is viewed as one aspect of an overall marketing strategy which allow company to develop a more lifelike portrait of customer. Lifestyle analysis enhances target marketing and makes niche marketing feasible. Consumer lifestyles change from time to time. Adjustment to changing consumer lifestyles are important in order for marketing to progress smoothly ( Ronald D. Michman, Edward M. Mazze, Alan James Greco, 2003).
Well and Tigert (1977) stated that lifestyle segmentation has been a useful concept for marketing and advertising planning purposes. Lifestyle has been defined as how one lives but in marketing, lifestyle describes the behaviour of individuals, a small group of interacting people and large group of people acting as potential consumers. The concept represent a set of ideas quite distinct from that of personality. The lifestyle relates to economic level at which people live, how they spend the money, and how they allocate their time (Anderson and Golden, 1984).
Lifestyle segmentation research measures people’s activities in term of:
How they spend their time
What interests they have and what importance they place on their immediate surroundings
Their views of themselves and the world around them and some basic demographic characteristics.
The most widely used approach to lifestyle measurement has been activities, interests and opinions rating statement (Wells and Tigert, 1977). The marketers and consumer researchers generally focus on identifying the broad trends that influence how consumers live, work, and play. It allows a population to be viewed as distinct individuals with feeling and tendencies, addressed in compatible segments or groups to make more efficient use of mass media.
Researchers tend to equate psychographic with the study of lifestyles. Market Researchers used Psychographic research to describe a consumer segment so as to help an organization better reach and understand its customers. Lifestyle pattern provide broader views of consumers so that marketers can think more intelligently. The basic premise of lifestyle research is that the more marketers know and understand about their customers, the more effectively they can communicate with and serve them better (Kaynak and Kara, 1996). Majority of lifestyle studies have been carried out in the western countries, lifestyle analysis in some countries like Turkey is surely lacking.
Prior research has shown that employed consumer lifestyle to predict and profile natural segments of users for a number of products and services (Fournier et al., 1992). Researchs on alcohol in particular tied lifestyle to levels of consumption for beer, wine and spirits ( Lesch et al., 1991). Considerable practical relevance is added through the fact that insight into lifestyle activities of consumers with specific brand preferences and benefit orientation support managerial decisions on selecting, combining and designing media.
2.4.3 Country of origin 原產地
Building strong brands has become a marketing top priorty for many organizations today because it yield a number of advantages and strong brands help firm establish an identity in the market place. In buying process, consumers are not only concern about the quality and price of a product but they also concern other factors such as the brand’s country-of-origin. Many consumers use country-of-origin stereotypes to determine products for example, “Japanese electronics are reliable”, “German cars are excellent”,
Many consumers believe that a “Made in . . .” label means a product is “superior” or “inferior” depending on their perception of the country. Countries with a favorable image generally find that their brands are readily accepted than those from countries with less favorable image.
Country of origin effect refers to how consumers perceive products made in a particular country. In developing a corporate imagery for a product, the importance of various marketing mix variable such as product appearance, brand image and name are firmly established, as well as that of the imagery elicited by a product’s country of origin. Nagashima (1970) defined imagery of the country of origin as the picture, reputation, stereotype that businessmen and consumers attach to product of a specific country. This image is created by such variables as representative products, national characteristics, economic and political background, history and traditions.
Roth and Romeo (1992) defined country image as the overall perception consumers forms of products from a particular country, based on their prior perception of the country’s production , strengths and weaknesses. Research has identified ways with which country of origin is credited to impact consumers’ evaluation of product, for example consumers’ cognitive processes may include self-perception, expressed as a desire to match self and product image (Sirgy et al., 1991). The country of origin may directly affecting consumers’ attitude towards the brand of a country instead of through product attribute ratings (Wright, 1975).
In globalized competition, many multinational companies have moved or outsourced their production to low-cost locations or countries. Although developing countries can assist corporations in enhancing cost advantages but corporations also face the risk of potential loss due to negative country of origin effect (Cho and Kang, 2001; Trent and Monczka, 2005). It has been evident that where a product is made can have an impact on consumer product evaluation and purchase decision (Bilkey and Nes, 1982; Gaedeke, 1973; Han and Terpstra, 1988; Okechuku, 1994). Consumers’ sensitivity level to country of origin has become an important issue for marketers, many researchers focused their attention on the relative importance of country of origin information and other product cues such as price and store name.
Several explanations have been proposed to interpret how consumer react to country of origin information. “Halo effect” and “Summary effect” are two of the most common ones. Halo effect model serve as a cognitive cue for consumers to infer their beliefs regarding other attributes of a product and thus overall product evaluation (Erikson et al., 1984). Summary effect model in the other hand suggested that consumers recode and abstract their knowledge about a country’s products into their image of the country’s image serves as hint to infer quality of product from that country. Among many determinants of a country image, stage of economic development of a country has been the most common cited one and customers typically hold unfavourable feeling and have lower quality perceptions toward product made in less developed countries (Cordell, 1993; Kaynak and Cavusgil, 1983).
Automobile manufacturers are rapidly competing to persuade consumers to purchase their brands. A knowledge of the different evaluation criterion for selecting cars further improves the firm’s capability to influence a purchase. M.Sadiq Sohail (2004) carried out a study on Malaysian consumers’ perception towards product originated from Germany. The study reveal that Malaysian consumers take note of product originating from Germany and they are able to critically assess products from different dimensions. Malaysian consumers evaluate product dimensions differently based on the country of origin and also have different preferences for product based on country of origin (Sohail 2004a; Sohail 2004b). On the choice of products made from Germany, Malaysian consumers have shown a high preference for automobile.
Srikatanyoo and Gnoth (2002) defined that consumer are generally known to develop stereotypical beliefs about products from particular countries and the attributes of those products. Therefore the country of origin image has power to arouse importers’ and consumers’ belief about product attributes, and to influence evaluation of product and brands. Since consumers’ perception of a particular country of origin influence their evaluation of products from that country, this will influence their purchase intention, preference and choice of a particular brand name.
2.4.4 Environmentally friendly 環保
Environmentally friendly product or green products are designed to minimize the environmental impact when they are being used or consumed. Green products are interesting to firms because green issues and social responsibility are becoming important to consumers. Brown and Dacin (1997) found that a companys’ efforts toward social responsibility, including environmental sustainability, will lead consumers to give their product better evaluation than product from less responsible organizations.
The automobile industry has made remarkable positive contributions to the world economy and people’s mobility throughout the globe, but its products and processes are a significant source of environmental impact. There is still a lack of literature investigating high involvement purchases of green products. (Goldstein et al., 2008; Hage et al., 2009; Thøgersen, 1996). Better understanding of green consumer is important for business and environmental reason. According to some researchers, Western societies and Asian societies differ in their perception of environmental values. People in the West tend to associate environmental values with altruism, whereas environmental concerns are typically correlated with traditional values by their Asian counterparts.
Researchers have made few contributions pertaining the importance of environmental attitudes and behavior, but these related studies have been limited to behavior or to products that typically garner lower consumer involvement. The green consumption behavior has to be done across product categories that are more expensive which is car and this able to reflect more on the consumers’ image, have higher social risk or require more research prior to purchase. The intention to purchase hybrid cars have increase and that become a variable that related to intention to purchase a high involvement environmentally product. The reason hybrid cars demand increased was due to the rising gas prices and advocacy for global sustainability have increased the emphasis on environmentally vehicles (Hybrid Cars.com, 2008).
 

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