한국과 일본의 원산지 이미지가 중국 소비자들의 브랜드 개성 지각과 구매의도에 미치는 영향 : 자동차산업을 중심으로

As the competition among numerous consumer products has become much more intense than ever in the face of globalization, a considerable attention has been given to the study of the effect of COO on the consumers' product evaluation. Likewise, brand researchers has paid considerable interest into symbolic aspects of a brand, along with physical and functional aspects of a particular brand contains. The purpose of this study is to identify the effects of country of origin(COO) on the consumers' product evaluation by way of the brand personality that a consumer perceives. More specifically, this study empirically examines how Chinese consumers perceives their purchase intention of an automobile in the context of its Korean and Japanese origin. The empirical study measuring about 240 Chinese respondents was conducted and a structural analysis technique(variance-covariance) was adopted to validate the hypotheses proposed. Its results indicates that while the COO is positively related with the dimensions of 'sincerity' and 'competence', it is not related to the dimensions of 'excitement' and 'sophistication'. Interestingly, the comparison of Japan and Korean origin indicates that on the one hand, Korean origin signifies 'competent' and 'sincere' to the Chinese, on the other hand, Japanese origin has an effect only on the dimension of 'competence'.