Consumer imperfection in observation – is it a boon for manufacturers? The case of India's automobile sector

Key drivers of automobile brand choice in sub‐Saharan Africa: the case of Ghana

“…This is, however, incongruent with previous studies (Pappu et al , 2005; Baek et al , 2010; Bian and Moutinho, 2011) which have postulated the indispensable role played by a brand's image on consumers when making purchase decisions. Again, unlike past studies (Erdem et al , 2006; Chattopadhyay et al , 2009; Ching et al , 2009) which emphasized on the effects of prices on brand choice of products, this study found a contrary result. This may be deduced from the fact that whilE some consumers are inclined to buy highly priced products as a sign of quality, others may stick to low‐priced ones due to other individual economic circumstances.…”

“…External influence was equally adopted from the literature (Wang and Yang, 2008; Schiffman and Kanuk, 2009) and was measured with five items. Furthermore, price was adopted from the works of (Chattopadhyay et al , 2009) and operationalized with three variables. Similarly, car attributes was operationalized with four variables from previous studies (Russell and Taylor, 2006).…”

“…Price perceptions directly influence satisfaction judgments as well as indirectly through perceptions of price fairness (Hermann et al , 2007). As a reflection of the brand's ability to command a price higher than its competitors, the price premium construct is consequently important for all types of car brands, despite their actual position within the category of automobiles (Chattopadhyay et al , 2009). The fifth proposed hypothesis for the study is thence as follows:…”

“…However, the results on the relative importance of these factors have not been consistent. For instance, some scholars have found awareness as a major determinant of brand choice (Keller, 2001; Srinivasan et al , 2010; Huang and Sarigollu, 2012) while others found brand image (Erdem and Swait, 2004; Freling and Forbes, 2005; Baek et al , 2010), or accessibility (Lin and Chang, 2003; Van Auken, 2003; Kim, 2008), price (Erdem et al , 2006; Chattopadhyay et al , 2009; Ching et al , 2009) as the major determinants of brand choice. Subsequently other external factors such as country‐of‐origin (COO or CO) and impact of family and friends were also found to influence consumer choice of brands (Evanschitzky et al , 2008; Wang and Yang, 2008).…”