Effects of Preferences for Foreign Product and Extrinsic Cues on the Perceived Quality and Customer's Loyalty : Focused on Products of Multinational Corporations

외산제품선호경향 및 외재적 단서가 지각된 품질과 고객충성도에 미치는 영향 : 다국적기업 제품을 중심으로

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of consumer's preferences for foreign products and extrinsic cues such as brand, country of origin, and corporate reputation on the consumer's evaluation which includes the construct of perceived quality, and loyalty. In addition, this paper is aimed to provide Korean firms insights in strategic approaches about foreign consumers behavior. A conceptual model is developed and empirically tested against a sample of university students in Korea, who have buying experience of products from multinational firms. 290 samples were used for this analysis. Results of multiple regression analysis using SPSS 18.0 show that consumer's preferences for foreign products, brand awareness, and corporate reputation have a significant effect on the perceived quality of the product from multinational firms. The most important factor to influence the perceived quality was found to be a corporate reputation. But country of origin had not significant effect. Also it is found that both product and product related service quality are positive and statistically significant in explaining the customer's loyalty. Implications for increasing perceived quality and customer's loyalty for Korean products in the global market are discussed.