Consumer Responses to Imported Products

When consumers adopt imported products they may rely on a different adoption process than they do when adopting domestic products primarily because imported products are developed under different positioning strategies in foreign markets that have different levels of development. Several factors influence the adoption process of imported products. The main goals of this book are 1) explaining consumers’ purchase intention for imported products 2) examining the process consumers engage in when adopting imported products and 3) determining how market context (developed vs. emerging) influences consumers’ purchase intention and their product adoption process. This research shows that consumers in an emerging market show a higher purchase intention level when the imported product is produced in a developed market. Conversely consumers in a developed market show a similar purchase intention level for all imported products. However the purchase intention level is higher when the product is domestic and consumers identify their home country as a renowned manufacturer of that product regardless of the market development level of the home country.