Country of origin and consumer purchase intention- An investigation into consumer evaluation of locally produced rice in Nigeria

This research employs the boundary conditions underpinning how country-of-origin (COO) mechanisms influence consumers’ preference for locally produced rice in Nigeria and the role of socio-demographic characteristics during the product evaluation process. Existing literature focuses on products linked to a foreign country, which has dominated COO debates. This research focuses on understanding COO theorisation by applying the theory to the evaluation of indigenously made products (rice). The inductive aspect of the research extends Obermiller and Spangenberg's (1989) theorisation of the country of origin. The thesis contributes to product evaluation literature by applying the perceived value and purchase evaluation model to explain the underpinning mechanism for how product characteristics influence purchase intention. While most researchers examine the importance of product characteristics, using COO helps broaden the debates by providing more insights into how consumers' cognitive, affective and normative views may influence the purchase evaluation process. The research applies an interpretive perspective that hinges on the rationale that consumer evaluation follows the principle of interpretivism. The qualitative method was used to collect data from 35 rice consumers in Nigeria while adopting a subjective paradigm. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews across three cities in Nigeria (Port Harcourt, Lagos, and Abuja). Findings emerged that consumer preference for the purchase of local rice is influenced by cognitive, affective, and normative cues depending on their age, ethnicity, and gender. This study shows that COO as a product evaluation cue transcends beyond foreign products and provides a framework for understanding how CoO influence consumer evaluation of a local product. It also underscores the importance of ethnicity (culture) as an important demographic characteristic influencing how consumers use cognitive, affective, and normative cues in their evaluation of local products. In the Nigerian context, finings emerged that COO influenced local rice purchase intention in terms of the economic policies associated with rice production, the economy, history and knowledge and reputation influenced local consumption. Furthermore, the boundary conditions underpinning the product evaluation process findings suggest that functional value, quality, price, and trustworthiness were important factors. For epistemic value, technology advancement, availability of other brands, the need to try new brands, and healthier options were important factors. For emotional value, participant’s sense of responsibility to support the local economy and patriotism were important considerations for the purchase of local rice. For social value, findings suggested that the purchase of local rice was influenced by participants’ status, lifestyle and cultural values. Lastly, findings showed that for conditional value, participants' purchase intention hinged mainly on who was to be served the local rice. This area is imperative as sustainable recommendations were made to narrow consumer preferences over foreign products and also facilitate local manufacturers' consideration of a new approach to meeting the standard of foreign competition.