الفهرس 
Research FrameworkOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
A few decades ago, the country of origin concept began
to arise as an issue of interest to many researchers. The large
number of studies have provided a strong evidence of the
existence of country of origin (COO) effects on product
evaluations (Ahmed and d‟Astous, 2008; Pharr, 2006). The
growth of international trade and the development of the global
market have increased the competition among international
firms, which all seek to gain more opportunities globally. With
globalization, several products made in different countries have
now become available to consumers. Therefore, consumers
have a wider range of domestic and foreign products to choose
from (Rezvani et al., 2012).
International companies that are operating in a
competitive domestic and foreign market need to be aware of
how consumers‟ evaluate products made in foreign countries
(Ahmed and d‟Astous, 2008).
Accoding to Rezvani et al. (2012), “Country of origin is
one of the most important factors that most concern marketers
in respect to its impact on consumer purchase intention”. There
is a role for country of origin in shaping the perceptions of
consumers, their choices of products, and their willingness to
pay a premium. For instance, in a country like Egypt, country
of origin of a product is perceived by consumers as an
indication of the product‟s overall quality. It sometimes also
symbolizes status and enhances consumers‟ self-esteem
(Mostafa, 2015).
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The country of origin concept is a complex one as there
are several aspects communicated to consumers once they read
the “Made in” label on a product. According to Lin and Chen
(2006), Hong and Wyer (1989) discovered that in the process of
consumer evaluation of a foreign product, he/she will most
likely consider country-of-origin image to reflect their
perception easily.
In addition, the country of origin effect and its ability to
trigger consumers‟ interest in buying certain products is
influenced by many factors such as the level of ethnocentrism
or patriotism of consumers. “Supporting domestic products for
the good of the domestic economy may therefore be regarded
as a form of ethnocentric behavior” (Dinnie, 2003).
The present research aims to examine the effect of the
dimensions of country of origin image construct on consumers‟
purchase intentions in Egypt. The introduction is followed by
the research problem, and objectives. Next, the research
hypotheses, framework, and methodology are illustrated.
Finally, the research importance and limitations are outlined.
1.2 Research Problem:
Country of origin is one of the extrinsic cues, which
consumers use in their process of evaluating a product. Based
on the review of literature on country of origin, country of
origin image, and purchase intention, it is clear that the study of
the effect of country of origin on consumers‟ buying behaviors
has received attention from many researchers in the marketing
field. Some previous researches have argued that country of
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origin is an important cue that consumers use in their
evaluation of products, while other researches argued that the
effect is weak.
Through this research study, there is an interest to examine if
we can consider country of origin image as a factor affecting the
willingness of consumers to buy a product. In specific, is there a
relationship between country of origin‟s dimensions (economic
development, technological advancement, human aspects) and
consumer purchase intention? Moreover, we need to understand if
purchase intention, as a variable, reflects consumers‟ perceptions of
products?
Therefore, country of origin and purchasing intention is a
field that needs further research and investigation to understand
how consumers react based on their knowledge of the made in
information. This is an important step of improving marketing
strategies for companies, specifically in Egypt.
1.3 Research Objectives:
The main objective of this research is to find the effect of
country of origin on Egyptian consumer purchase intention.
This is going to be based on investigating the influence of each
of the country of origin image dimensions on purchase
intention. Therefore, the objectives could be summarized as
follows:
Examine the relationship between country of origin‟s
economic development and consumer purchase intention.
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Determine the relationship between country of origin‟s
technological advancement and consumer purchase
intention.
Investigate the relationship between country of origin‟s
human aspects and consumer purchase intention.
1.4 Research Hypotheses:
Based on the above, there research hypotheses consist of a
main hypothesis that is divided into three research hypotheses.
These are as follows:
There is a relationship between country of origin and
consumer purchase intention.
H1: There is a significant positive relationship between country
of origin‟s economic development and consumer purchase
intention.
H2: There is a significant positive relationship between country
of origin‟s technological advancement and consumer purchase
intention.
H3: There is a significant positive relationship between country
of origin‟s human aspects and consumer purchase intention.
1.5 Conceptual Framework of the Research:
The current research is divided into three independent
variables and one dependent variable. The independent
variables are represented by the country of origin economic
development, technological advancement, and human aspects