Young Australian consumers and the country-of-origin effect: Investigation of the moderating roles of product involvement and perceived product-origin congruency Alexander Josiassen Centre for Tourism and Services Research, School of Hospitality, Tourism and Marketing, Victoria University, Footscray VIC 3010, Australia article info Keywords: Country-of-origin image Product evaluation Product involvement Product-origin congruency Halo effect Summary effect abstract The effect that consumers’ country-related images have on their purchase decisions is known as the country-of-origin effect. Marketing researchers have thoroughly investigated COO effects in a range of contexts since the mid-1960s. However, since the 1980s it has been thought (e.g., Levitt, 1983; Ohmae, 1995) that consumer needs and wants are converging and that nation states are artificial and superficial entities of little value as quality indicators. The argument is that since the world is changing and because young consumers are used to seeing products from a variety of countries they do not have the country biases that the COO effect stipulates. Indeed, a recent study (Wong et al., 2008) on young Chinese con- sumers and the COO effect seems to confirm that young consumers no longer are influenced by the COO effect. The aim of this research is to investigate if and how the relationship between young Austra- lian consumers’ product-country image and their product evaluations is influenced by two contextual variables: their product involvement and their perceived product-origin congruency. The research reports the results and relevant implications for research and practice. Ó 2009 Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction American Coca-Cola and IPod; Mexican Corona; and Australian Billabong are all examples of companies that appeal to a global youth culture while celebrating their national heritages. Since Schooler’s (1965) seminal article the effect of country-of-origin (COO) biases on consumer purchase behaviour has been an issue of continuing interest. Over the past four decades the attention of researchers in this area has continuously shifted as new chal- lenges presented themselves (Josiassen and Karpen, 2007). A key challenge is the investigation of potential variables that moderate the influence of COO (Eroglu and Machleit, 1989; Laroche et al., 2005). Researchers have traditionally been interested in the influ- ence of product involvement (Ahmed et al., 2004; d’Astous and Ahmed, 1999) and in recent years it has been suggested that per- ceived product origin incongruence may significantly reduce the importance consumers place on the COO cue (Chao, 2001). The influence of these moderators, however, on young consum- ers’ purchase behaviour is unclear. The importance of this particu- lar market segment to marketers is well-documented as young consumers typically drive brand growth and success (Morgan, 2007). The present-day young consumers are young in an era where multi-origin market offerings are more pronounced than any other generation has experienced (Wong et al., 2008). Promi- nent researchers have even suggested (Levitt, 1983; Ohmae, 1995) that consumer needs are converging and that younger con- sumers therefore ignore regional and national differences. This perspective is supported by recent insights investigating the COO effect in the context of young Chinese consumers: ‘‘In targeting young consumers it appears that globalization leads consumers to believe that the world is converging and becoming one ‘coun- try’” (Wong et al., 2008, p. 469). The present research reports a study that was undertaken to ex- plore two issues: firstly, whether a COO effect can be found in the context of young Australian consumers, and secondly whether product involvement and product-origin congruency influence the effect of young Australian consumers’ COO-image on their product evaluations. An additional contribution is that this paper is the first to hypothesis test the interacting influence of product- origin congruency using a survey. This paper is organised as fol- lows. First the report develops the hypotheses. Then the research methodology is explained. Next, the article presents the findings, and concludes with a discussion. 2. Hypothesis development 2.1. Product involvement Product involvement in this study refers to ‘‘[...] the general level of interest in the object or the centrality of the object to the 1441-3582/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ausmj.2009.10.004 E-mail address: Alexander.josiassen@vu.edu.au Australasian Marketing Journal 18 (2010) 23–27 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Australasian Marketing Journal journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/amj