台北地區消費者對鮮食葡萄之來源國形象與購買意願之研究

Abstract

Taiwan has officially joined World Trade Organization (WTO) since 2002. Under the influence of trade liberalization, agricultural products from all over the countries are continuously being imported into Taiwan’s consumer market. Literatures from the past all confirmed that country-of-origin image would have an impact on the consumer’s product evaluation. However, there were no closely related literatures discussing about individual fruit’s country-of-origin image. Hence, in this study we will take fresh grape as an example fruit product. The study will focus on nations such as Taiwan, the United States, Chile, South Africa and Australia. We utilize statistics software suite for analyzing consumer’s view towards the grape images of various countries of origin. The relationship between consumer’s view towards grape images of various countries of origin and each of the followings will also be studied: The overall images for fruits of various countries of origin, product attributes and consumer’s personal characteristics. Furthermore, there will be discussions regarding whether grape’s country- of-origin image will influence the purchasing intention of the consumers. Conclusions of this study are as the following: 1. To Taiwan’s local consumers, there are significant differences among grape’s images of various countries of origin. Among the studied countries of origin, the grape from Taiwan represents the best image. Australian grape image comes the second, then the grape image of the United States, Chile and South Africa. 2. The attribute categories are different between the superior and inferior attributes of grape of various countries of origin. The superior attributes of Taiwan’s locally produced grape consist of two forming aspects: “essential attribute” and “perceived attribute.” American grape possesses a superior attribute as the “augmented attribute.” Whereas Chilean grape does not possess any particularly outstanding attribute categories. South African grape, however, is barely satisfactory in regards to its performance on each of the attribute category. 3. The key attributes affecting the grape images of Taiwan, Australia and the United States are the superior attributes of these countries. On the contrary, the key attributes affecting the grape of Chile and South Africa are all inferior attributes of these countries. This also explains why the grape images of Taiwan, Australia and the United States are better than those of Chile and South Africa. 4. The overall fruit image of one country of origin has certain effects on the grape image of that country. Hence, when no research of study is available on a country’s individual fruit product image, the overall fruit image of that particular country of origin may act as a good indicator for the study results on the country’s individual fruit product image. 5. Consumer’s purchasing intention for grape of various countries of origin is significantly related to consumer’s impression about each country’s grape image. Better the grape image of the country of origin, higher the purchasing intention of the consumers. 6. The grape image of each country of origin is not affected by the differences in gender, educational level and occupation. However, different ages and income levels would each affect the consumer’s view towards the grape images of South Africa, the United States and Australia.