THE EFFECT OF COUNTRY-OF-ORIGIN IMAGE, PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE AND PRODUCT INVOLVEMENT ON CONSUMER INFORMATION SEARCH INTENTION TOWARDS MOBILE PHONES: SPECIAL REFERENCE TO UNDERGRADUATES OF EASTERN UNIVERSITY, SRI LANKA

Abstract

Today Marketing is the buzz word around the globe, and marketers are trying their best to be successful within their respective market over competition. Increasing the knowledge of customers about products makes research about factors that influence their decisions more worthwhile than before. The aim of this study is to identify the effect of country-of-origin image, product knowledge and product involvement on Information search intention towards mobile phones. The added value of this paper is to link between theory and practice, and explore the different country-of-origin image, product knowledge and product involvement on consumer purchase decisions. Four variables are used country-of-origin image, product knowledge, and product involvement and consumer information search intention. Most of the related research has been conducted in developed countries, with a very few exceptions. Therefore, in order to have a perspective of a developing country, the current research was conducted in Srilankan context. The primary data were collected through structured questionnaire from 370 Undergraduates of EUSL. Then data summarize through SPSS, and different tests applied on it, and three hypotheses were tested. The major finding are country of origin, product knowledge, product involvement have a positive effect on consumer information search intention towards mobile phones. But Out of three determinant variables, product knowledge has relatively high impact on consumer information intention towards mobile phones. The findings of this study have various managerial implications for import mobile phone industries. In addition, it also helps marketers who work on related topics according to the consumer decision perspective. Practical implications of the study are that the company must face competitive strategies from many countries and also the effect of consumer product knowledge on business competitive strategy.