Perception of Domestic versus Foreign-Made Food Products

Abstract

Much research relating to country-of-origin effects has been conducted in countries in Western Europe and the U.S. where consumers have relatively long experience with free market economies and long-standing access to products from origins all over the world. The authors examine the country-of-origin effects on the perception of domestic and foreign made food products in Moravia, the south-eastern half of Czech Republic. While for most consumers in Czech Republic products from Western Europe (i.e., the European Union) are just recently available, visiting consumers from neighboring Austria are longer used to offers of international assortments. The study consists of four parts. First, domestic and foreign food images are identified and compared for both countries with several significant cross-national differences. Second, shopping orientations are investigated through a factor analysis of responses to psychographic statements related to food shopping. Third, consumer segments are identified by clustering respondents on the basis of their scores across the shopping orientations. Fourth, each of the food shopping segments is profiled with respect to perception of domestic versus foreign food images. In the Czech national sample, the shopping orientations show significantly different evaluations of food. The study delineates implications for national and international food marketers with an interest in the Czech market.

Key Words:

• Austria
• cluster analysis
• Czech Republic
• factor analysis
• patriotism
• segmentation