Title: Analysing the effect of country of origin on customer perception of product quality in foreign car exhibitions in Iran

Authors: Hadi Rezaei; Azarnoush Ansari

Addresses: Department of Management, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad Branch, Iran ' Department of Management, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract: One phenomenon that affects global trade is the concept of country of origin. Understanding the consumer's assessment of a foreign product has a significant impact on identifying consumer considerations before purchasing that product. Although this process appears to be partly affected by the consumers' level of familiarity with product features, the country of origin is still recognised as one of the influencing factors. The statistical population consists of the people who visited the exhibition of foreign cars. To analyse the data collected from the questionnaires and test the hypotheses, descriptive statistical tests and structural equation modelling were utilised using Amos 22 software. The results indicated that brand image, and the country of origin exerted a positive and significant influence on the customer's evaluation of car quality. Moreover, the customer's evaluation of car quality had a positive and significant effect on customer perception of car quality.

Keywords: country of origin; brand image; car evaluation; customer perception; structural equations; Iran.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPQM.2022.126005

International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, 2022 Vol.37 No.1, pp.79 - 98

Received: 08 Jan 2020
Accepted: 05 Feb 2021
Published online: 06 Oct 2022 *

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