The effect of the perception of process technology and country-of-manufacture (COM) favorableness on consumers' overall brand evaluation

The objective of this paper is to examine the effect of the perception of process technology (hand-made vs. machine-made) and country-of-manufacture (COM) favorableness on consumers' evaluation of brands. Drawing from foreign direct investment (FDI) theory and country-of-origin literature, it is hypothesized that the effect of the perception of process technology would be greater in favorable COMs than in unfavorable COMs. This is due to the possibility that the derogation of brand evaluation would be greater for the hand-made brands than the machine-made brands as COM favorableness decreases. It was also hypothesized that the predictability of purchase intention from overall brand evaluation would be higher in the within-subjects design than in the between-subjects design because the addition of alternative attitudes in the within-subjects design can increase behavior predictions. Results show that brand evaluation is a direct function of the perception of process technology and COM favorableness. Also, results show that, in the within-subjects design, the effect of perception of process technology on brand evaluation is significant under favorable COMs, but insignificant under unfavorable COMs. However, this result is not supported in the between-subjects design. In addition, the predictability of purchase intention from overall brand evaluation was higher in the within-subjects design than in the between-subjects design.