Does perceived quality mediate the relationship between country of origin image and consumer buying behaviour in Nigerian hypermarkets?

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the country of origin image of a product and consumers’ purchasing behavior in Nigerian hypermarkets, as well as the mediating role of perceived price in this relationship. The research considers four aspects of purchasing behavior: information search, product evaluation, purchase decision-making, and post-purchase behavior. A total of 1272 participants completed an online survey, and the data collected was analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicated that the country of origin image of a product has a significant and positive impact on consumers’ information search, product evaluation, purchase decision-making, and post-purchase behavior. The study also found that perceived quality does not mediate the impact of country of origin image on information search and product evaluation, but it does play a significant and positive role in purchase decision-making and post-purchase behavior. As a result, it is important for Nigerian hypermarkets to be aware of the origin of the products they import, as importing from countries with a positive image can enhance their performance. Furthermore, perceived quality can mediate purchase and post-purchase decisions.

The Power of Perception: Exploring Country Image, Quality, Value, and Repurchase Intentions in Chinese Smartphone Brands

“…Before proving the influence between variables, the model in this study was proven to be a fit model in predicting repurchase intention on Chinese smartphone brands. These results complement previous studies regarding the important role of country image (Martins et al, 2023;Moslehpour et al, 2017), perceived quality (Q. T. Pham et al, 2018;Phuong & Trang, 2018;Sullivan & Kim, 2018), and perceived value (Hasan, 2022;H. Pham & Nguyen, 2019) related to technology products.…”

“…Yunus & Rashid (2016) state that economic growth and technology influence consumers' views on the image of China, even their view about product quality. In addition, the relationship between country image and perceived value can be encouraged by the indirect influence of the variable perceived quality (Martins et al, 2023). People believe that the image of the country in their minds will affect the quality of products produced by the country.…”

“…Previous study shows that country image has an effect on perceived quality, which assesses that consumers will consider assessing the country and product quality (Martins et al, 2023). Also, the country's image has an influence on repurchase intention, which shows that consumers pay attention to the country's reputation at the time was about to do a repurchase intention (Moslehpour et al, 2017).…”

“…Country image can contribute influence on consumer buying behavior toward a product (Yunus & Rashid, 2016). Even consumers can make repeat purchases with the encouragement of perceived quality, consumers will judge based on the quality of the product and the image of the country of origin (Martins et al, 2023). Country image has been shown to influence repurchase intention, as consumers will be affected by the reputation of the country concerned at the time of repurchase (Moslehpour et al, 2017).…”

“…The views of a country can be either positive or negative value in the consumer's mind (Moslehpour et al, 2017). In other words, the country image is a view that a person has of a country based on existing instruments in the country and carried away by the products produced, thus making an additional assessment of the products produced by that country (Lkhaasuren et al, 2018;Martins et al, 2023). According to Martins et al (2023) measurement of the country's image can be done with indicators such as country beliefs, people's affect (confidence in people in the country), and desired interaction (the desire to interact with the country).…”