國立政治大學國際傳播英語碩士學位學程 International Master’s Program in International Communication Studies College of Communication National Chengchi University 碩士論文 Master’s Thesis 論文題目 A study of Taiwanese Millennials and their reliance on country of origin in relation to other criteria on wine purchase 探討台灣的 Y 世代購買紅酒時對產地國或其他衡量標準的依賴 Student: Jaroslawa Grobelna Advisor: 郭貞 Cheng Kuo, Ph.D 中華民國 107 年 07 月 July 2018 DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.001.2018.F05 探討台灣的 Y 世代購買紅酒時對產地國或其他衡量標準的依賴 A study of Taiwanese Millennials and their reliance on country of origin in relation to other criteria on wine purchase 研究生：Jaroslawa Grobelna 指導教授: Advisor: 郭貞 Cheng Kuo, Ph.D. 國立政治大學 國際傳播英語碩士學位學程 碩士論文 A Thesis Submitted to International Master’s Program in International Communication Studies National Chengchi University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement For the degree of Master of Arts 中華民國 107 年 7 月 July 2018 DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.001.2018.F05 Acknowledgements I would like to express my deepest thanks and sincere appreciation to my thesis advisor Professor Cheng Kuo for her support, advices and guidance throughout the writing process. With her help and encouragement I was able to complete my thesis in spite of all the difficulties. I would also like to express my gratitude to Professor Tsung- Jen Shih for his great help with SPSS analysis. I also want to thank my Taiwanese friends for helping me with the translation of the questionnaire, and my friend Jeffry Oktavianus who helped me format my thesis in APA style. Not to forget all the support I have received from my IMICS friends. Many thanks to my family, my mom and Andrzej for supporting me emotionally through all the hardships of writing my thesis. Thank you! And last but not least I want to thank my boyfriend Kamil for EVERYTHTING. i DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.001.2018.F05 Abstract Today, companies' success greatly depends on thorough undersigning of how consumers assess quality of products. There are various intrinsic and extrinsic quality signals a person can follow. One of the factors determining perception about products is the place where the product was made. Country of origin serves as an extrinsic cue, and is a substitute measure of product’s quality and excellence. However it is unknown whether in a globalized world young consumers still take country of origin into account. Thus, the aim of this study was to measure if Taiwanese Millennials rely on country of origin when purchasing wine, and if product knowledge, consumer ethnocentrism, and consumption occasion moderate the level of dependence on the following purchase criteria. To conduct the research a questionnaire has been used and posted on Facebook, targeting Taiwanese members of generation Y. It would found that young people in Taiwan indeed follow country of origin cue when purchasing wine, and that product knowledge and consumption occasion predict the level of reliance on the quality signal. Keywords: country of origin, product knowledge, consumer ethnocentrism, consumption occasion, Millennials, wine ii DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.001.2018.F05 Table of Contents Chapter I Introduction ............................................................................................................ 7 1.1 Research background ........................................................................................................ 7 1.2 Research objectives ......................................................................................................... 7 1.3 Research significance ...................................................................................................... 9 Chapter II Literature Review ............................................................................................... 12 2.1 Country of origin ............................................................................................................ 12 2.1.1 Country of origin image ..................................................................................... 12 2.1.2 Country of origin effect ...................................................................................... 13 2.1.3 Chronological literature review on country of origin ......................................... 14 2.2 The role and importance of country of origin in product evaluation ............................ 16 2.3 Perceived quality ........................................................................................................... 17 2.4 Product knowledge ........................................................................................................ 18 2.5 Consumer ethnocentrism ............................................................................................... 19 2.6 Consumption occasion ................................................................................................... 22 Chapter III Methodology ....................................................................................................... 24 3.1 Research framework ...................................................................................................... 24 3.1.1 Research hypothesis ........................................................................................... 24 3.2 Research method ............................................................................................................. 26 3.3 Data collection and sampling technique ......................................................................... 26 3.4 Questionnaire design ...................................................................................................... 27 3.5 Measurement of research variables and reliability test .................................................. 28 Chapter IV Data analysis and results ................................................................................... 30 4.1 Reliance on country of origin ........................................................................................ 32 4.2 Analysis of research hypothesis 1 and 2 ......................................................................... 33 4.3 Reliance on price, packaging, wine sweetness and color ............................................... 35 iii DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.001.2018.F05 4.4 Analysis of research hypothesis 3 ................................................................................... 40 Chapter V Conclusions and discussions ............................................................................... 42 5.1 Summary of research results .......................................................................................... 42 5.2 Limitations and future research ...................................................................................... 45 References ............................................................................................................................... 47 Appendix I English version of the questionnaire ................................................................ 55 Appendix II Chinese translation of the questionnaire ........................................................ 61 iv DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.001.2018.F05 List of Tables and Figures Table 1 Factor loading and reliabilities ................................................................................... 29 Table 2 Demographics of respondents .................................................................................... 30 Table 3 Respondent’s monthly income in New Taiwanese Dollar ......................................... 31 Table 4 Wine consumption frequency .................................................................................... 31 Table 5 One- way repeated measures ANOVA analysis of purchase criteria ....................... 32 Table 6 Hierarchical multiple regression analysis with country of origin as a dependent variable .................................................................................................................................... 34 Table 7 Hierarchical multiple regression analysis with price as a dependent variable .......... 35 Table 8 Hierarchical multiple regression analysis with packaging as a dependent variable .. 37 Table 9 Hierarchical multiple regression analysis with wine sweetness as a dependent variable .................................................................................................................................................. 38 Table 10 Hierarchical multiple regression analysis with wine color as a dependent variable 39 Table 11 Wine purchase criteria for different occasion .......................................................... 41 Table 12 Summary of research hypothesis and outcomes of the analysis ............................. 42 Figure 1 Research model ......................................................................................................... 24 Figure 2 Importance of purchase criteria among Taiwanese Millennials ............................... 43 v DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.001.2018.F05 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research background The last few decades have been especially crucial in the history of the world economy. The fast- moving globalization changed the way companies cooperate and do business. The rapid pace with which new products and brands appear on the market brings various challenges to the light (Pecotich & Rosenthal, 2001). The competition in the internationalized market is becoming more fierce with every year. That is why more than ever, it is important to understand consumers' behavior patterns. One of the