Louise A. Heslop

Consumer attitudes toward Canadian-made versus imported products

A survey of 635 Canadian men and women revealed that overall attitudes toward Canadian-made products were positive, especially among women. Cynicism existed among men and among persons who were older, had higher educations, higher incomes and higher status occupations. For clothing and footwear products Canadian-made rated high, but Japanese-made rated higher for automobiles and home entertainment equipment, while European wines were rated ahead of Canadian wines. The last purchase in each product category studied was frequently Canadian-made. Consumers favored purchasing Canadian-made products in the future except for home entertainment equipment. Implications for Canadian industry, marketing and government policy are drawn.

Impact of country-of-origin cues on consumer judgments in multi-cue situations: a covariance analysis

The effect of country-of-origin labelling on consumers’ assessments of product quality, risk to purchase, perceived value and likelihood of purchasing was tested experimentally in a multi-product, multi-cue setting. Country-of-origin information was found to be more important in affecting product quality assessments than were price and brand information. Price was important in value assessment while brand was significant in a few product specific cases. Age, education, sex, and perceptions of ability to judge products were variously related to consumers’ ratings of quality, risk, value and likelihood of purchase especially when the product was more complex and difficult to judge. However, much of the variation in consumer judgments was not accounted for by the variables employed in this study, suggesting that future research should include more detailed studies of information processing whereby intrinsic and extrinsic product cues and a wide range of consumer characteristics are taken into consideration.

National Stereotypes and Product Evaluations in a Socialist Country

This article reports on a study of Hungarian consumer attitudes towards foreign and domestic products and their origin countries. Factor analysis of the findings indicates some consistency in the way consumers structure their assessment of foreign origins. The structure differs somewhat when respondents evaluate their own country and products. Implications for marketing and research are drawn.

Reference Prices and Deception in Newspaper Advertising

Consumers were exposed to newspaper advertisements for four products and one of five different price representations—regular price alone, sale price alone, regular price with Manufacturers Suggested List Price (MSLP), sale price with regular price, or sale price with MSLP. Perceptions of the ordinary prices of the products were not affected by the presence or type of reference price, but the subjects did have lower estimates of ordinary prices in the sale context. The accuracy of consumer perceptions of ordinary prices was not related to the recency of subject shopping experience for the products as measured in the study.

Who controls the purse strings: A study of consumers' and retail buyers' reactions in an America's FTA environment

Abstract Comparisons were made of the perceptions of Canadian retail buyers and consumers concerning the products, the countries and the people of the United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina and Chile to examine the differences in perceptions that might affect the buying behaviors of both groups. There was very close congruence of buyers and consumers in the images held of the countries and their products. Major differences were found for both groups in their views of developing and developed countries. A modeling approach revealed basic similarity of structure of relationships among beliefs sets and also some differences, which may affect the congruence of buying practices of retail buyers and their customers.

Development of a Technology Readiness Assessment Measure: The Cloverleaf Model of Technology Transfer

Successful technology transfer begins with the identification of appropriate candidate technologies for transfer. Technology transfer managers have few reliable tools to guide the process of determining when and which technologies are likely to be successful in the commercialization process. This paper describes a multi-stage process which incorporated ideas from the literature, materials in use, pretesting of a model, and the collective wisdom of practitioners to devise a technology transfer readiness tool, dubbed the “Cloverleaf Model” Tool for Technology Transfer Assessment, because of its identification of the four requirements for success. The tool has been customized for different environments. It can be used over time to compare technologies and adapted to the unique situation of users.

Consciousness in Energy Conservation Behavior: An Exploratory Study

An analysis of six years of electricity consumption, along with questionnaire data, highlights the importance of household characteristics and family size in predicting electricity consumption. Of the attitudinal variables, only price consciousness appears to be related to energy use; neither social responsibility nor energy and environmental consciousness measures were related to energy use.

China and the Olympics: views of insiders and outsiders

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the views of residents and foreigners of the Olympics and the host country before and after the mega‐event within the context of marketing theory on country image effects and psychology theories attribution.Design/methodology/approach – This is achieved by studying the views of American and Chinese respondents of China and the Olympics before and after the Beijing Olympics. Samples of Chinese and Americans were surveyed before and after the Beijing Summer Olympics concerning their images of the Olympics, China and its people, and China as a vacation destination. Cross‐national and pre‐post comparisons are made and interaction effects are noted using MANOVA.Findings – Significant cross‐national and time differences and several interaction effects are found across all three focal objects of image measurements. Large country differences are found. Despite how technically successful the Games might have looked, post‐event assessments are overwhelmingly lower. ...

Branding MBA programs: the use of target market desired outcomes for effective brand positioning

Branding is about delivering on desired outcomes. The importance of positioning program offerings on the basis of outcomes sought in the education market is illustrated in this study of choice of an MBA program by prospective students. MBA fair attendees were surveyed and multiple methods were employed to determine the importance of desired outcomes and the ratings of MBA programs on their ability to deliver these outcomes. In a highly competitive market, differentiation and effective positioning appear to be the keys to success of both the two competing business schools studied.

Cue incongruity in wine personality formation and purchasing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct and interaction effects of brand name (BN) of wine and country‐of‐origin (COO) on perceptions of the personality image of the wine, expected price, and willingness to engage with the wine.Design/methodology/approach – A field experiment in which label information for a fictitious wine was presented to wine consumers with a questionnaire on wine perceptions and response measures. The label information was manipulated across subjects using four BNs and three COOs.Findings – The study confirms BN and COO effects on perceived wine personality and responses to the wine. Findings also indicate the effects of BN and COO as well as a BN‐COO interaction effect on price expectations.Research limitations/implications – Findings link different personality dimensions to the two different cues, suggesting greater independence of the cues than originally expected. However, some BN‐COO incongruity effects are found particularly regarding price perceptions. A sm...