Abstract
The effect of a product' country of origin on consumers' product evaluations and attitudes has been well documented in the marketing literature (Maheswaran, 1994; Hong and Wyer, 1989). However, few studies have examined the effect of product attribute information on consumers' country of origin perceptions (Gurhan-Canli and Maheswaran, 2000). In the current study, the author examines the effect of information diagnosticity and information typicality on foreign product evaluation and country of origin evaluation respectively. These effects were examined under varying conditions of consumer involvement. Information diagnosticity is described as the ability o f th e i n put to aid in th e j udgment task (Menon et al. 1995). Information typicality refers to the perception that an exemplar is an accurate representation of the central tendency of the group to which it belongs (Rothbart et al. 1996). The author argues that the effect of attribute information diagnosticity on foreign product evaluation will be more pronounced under conditions of high involvement than conditions of low involvement. In contrast, he proposes that the effect of information typicality on country of origin evaluation will be greater under conditions of low involvement than under high involvement conditions. Two studies were conducted that examined the hypothesized effects. Results showed that perceived diagnosticity of the attribute information leads to more favorable foreign product evaluation. This effect was found to be more pronounced when involvement level was high. Furthermore, perceived typicality of the attribute information leads to more favorable country of origin evaluation. This effect was more pronounced when involvement level was low.