Made in Finland – Evaluated in China: A study of Finnish country image and country of origin image in the eyes of Chinese consumers

Abstract

This study considers country of origin and country image as mental representations of a country and its people. It is affected by the cognitive as well as affective components and it is partly formed through consumers’ perceptions of products from a particular country. The purpose of the study is to examine the Finnish country image and Finnish country of origin image on the product evaluation in the context of Chinese consumers. This study will be investigating a single specific case of Finland and tries to identify groups of consumers with different reasons for their evaluations. In addition, respondents’ level of familiarity is investigated.

A survey was conducted among a sample of 109 Chinese consumers in the city of Beijing. This is a descriptive and quantitative research. Factor and cluster analysis was used in order to interpret the respondents’ scores for the country and product image dimensions. This was done to identify different reasons for their evaluations. Three different profiles of respondents were formed. These groups were formed based on different scores attributed to the image dimensions called “Quality and Satisfaction Seeker”, “Economic Value Seeker” and “Underdog”. The study found that the overall image of Finland and Finnish products are somewhat neutral. Attributes belonging to “Quality and Satisfaction Seeker” dimension were found to score the highest scores in every group. However, some consumers felt that Finnish high technology products do not represent high value. In addition, the study found that cognitive as well as affective components guide Chinese consumers evaluation process. Cognitive beliefs were more present when consumers were not that familiar with Finland and affective attitudes were present when consumers showed higher levels of familiarity towards Finland.