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© 2016, American Marketing Association

Journal of International Marketing
PrePrint, Unedited
All rights reserved. Cannot be reprinted without the express
permission of the American Marketing Association.

Intention-Behavior Discrepancy of Foreign versus Domestic Brands in Emerging

Markets: The Relevance of Consumer Prior Knowledge

Luping Sun, Xiaona Zheng*, Meng Su, and L. Robin Keller

October 2016

*Corresponding author.

Luping Sun is Assistant Professor of Marketing, Central University of Finance and

Economics (e-mail: sunluping@cufe.edu.cn). Xiaona Zheng is Associate Professor,
Department of Management Science and Information Systems, Peking University (e-mail:
xzheng@gsm.pku.edu.cn). Meng Su is Research Professor, Marketing Department, Peking
University (e-mail: sumeng@gsm.pku.edu.cn). L. Robin Keller is Professor, Operations &
Decision Technologies, University of California, Irvine (e-mail: LRKeller@uci.edu).
Professor Xiaona Zheng serves as the corresponding author. The authors contribute equally to
this research.

The authors would like to thank the Editors and the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful
and constructive comments, which helped improve the paper significantly. The authors also
thank Dr. Ying Jin for her contribution during the early stage of this research, and Professor
Shaoming Zou from University of Missouri – Columbia for his helpful suggestions. The
authors gratefully acknowledge data and financial support from General Motors Corporation.
This research was also supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
(Grant No. 71172032, 71502182, 71332006, and 71272039) and the Fundamental Research
Funds for the Central Universities.
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ABSTRACT

Most research on the performance of foreign versus domestic brands in emerging markets

examines dependent measures of product evaluation or purchase intention. However,

consumers intending to buy a product may switch to competing brands, displaying an

intention-behavior discrepancy (IBD). Drawing upon literature on country associations and

dual process theory, we examine the performance of foreign versus domestic brands on IBD

in emerging markets and the moderating role of prior knowledge. We conducted an intention

survey followed by a post-purchase survey in the Chinese automobile and smartphone

industries. We found that foreign brands have an advantage on IBD relative to domestic

brands, indicating that they have the dual advantage of higher evaluations and lower IBDs.

Furthermore, foreign brands’ advantage on IBD is smaller for consumers with inaccurate

prior knowledge, as they are more likely to systematically reprocess information and discount

foreign brands’ favorable country associations. For these consumers, overestimating the

product reduces foreign brands’ advantage to a smaller degree than underestimating it due to

confirmation bias. These findings provide implications for brands in emerging markets.

Keywords: foreign brands, domestic brands, intention-behavior discrepancy, prior knowledge,

emerging market
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The globalization of the marketplace has intensified competition between foreign and

domestic brands. Some prior research suggests that consumers prefer foreign to domestic

brands because they experience favorable feelings or affinity toward some foreign countries

(Oberecker and Diamantopoulos 2011). Other research, however, finds that consumers show

a home country bias that favors domestic brands, due to economic and socio-psychological

motives (Feurer, Baumbach, and Woodside 2016; Verlegh 2007; Zeugner-Roth, Zabkar, and

Diamantopoulos 2015). Despite the mixed findings, there is a consensus that consumers in

emerging markets such as China, India, and Tunisia generally prefer foreign brands

(especially those from more developed countries) over domestic brands (Batra et al. 2000;

Essoussi and Merunka 2007). In these markets, foreign brands from developed countries are

perceived to have higher quality and higher symbolic value, and signal a western lifestyle that

consumers prefer (Guo 2013; Zhou, Yang, and Hui 2010). This may explain why some

Chinese brands use foreign-sounding names to attract local consumers (Melnyk, Klein, and

Völckner 2012). For example, the leading Chinese appliance brand Galanz uses a Germanic

name to be associated with the high durability and quality of German appliances.

There is, however, still a research gap when it comes to the performance of foreign

versus domestic brands in emerging markets. In this body of literature, most research

examines product evaluation or purchase intention (i.e., what consumers say) and ignores the

subsequent purchase behavior (i.e., what consumers do) and the possible discrepancy

between intention and behavior. Allman et al. (2016) reviewed research on brands’ country of

origin and positioning strategy, and found that most research uses brand evaluation and

purchase intention as dependent variables. Recent literature on international marketing calls

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for research to examine performance measures that capture consumer purchase behavior

(Bartsch, Riefler, and Diamantopoulos 2016; Sharma 2011). A few exceptions that use market

share or brand ownership as dependent outcomes focus on firm-level performance or

consumer animosity toward a specific foreign country (e.g., Gao et al. 2006), which cannot

help academics and practitioners fully understand consumer purchase decisions of foreign

versus domestic brands.

This research addresses the gap in prior literature by examining the performance of

foreign versus domestic brands on converting purchase intentions into purchase behaviors in

emerging markets. Consumers intending to buy a brand may end up purchasing a competing

alternative, leading to an intention-behavior discrepancy (IBD). The concept of IBD captures

a brand’s competitiveness, and helps researchers and practitioners understand consumers’

purchase behaviors in their final decision stage. For a brand, a low IBD rate indicates

consumers’ stickiness to the brand and its competitive advantage. When consumers say they

would purchase the brand but instead buy a competing one, firm profits suffer (Billington

1998). Hence, IBD is highly relevant for brand managers. To stand out in competitive

emerging markets, firms must understand to what extent consumers stick to their intentions to

buy the brand. Moreover, in international marketing, “ignoring the discrepancies between

intentions and purchase behavior can cause biased results, and thus the use of intention

ratings alone could be misleading” (Koschate-Fischer, Diamantopoulos, and Oldenkotte 2012,

p. 22). Thus, IBD is also worthy of investigation from a theoretical perspective.

Drawing upon the literature on country associations and dual process theory, this

research examines the performance of foreign versus domestic brands on IBD in emerging
 5

markets and the moderating role of inaccurate prior knowledge. We propose that, in emerging

markets, foreign brands have favorable rational and emotional country associations, and thus

have an advantage of lower IBDs relative to their domestic competitors. However, this

advantage may be smaller for consumers with inaccurate prior knowledge because they tend

to encounter incongruent information, and thus may systematically reprocess product

information and devalue the favorable country associations. The empirical testing is based on

two-round surveys of purchase intention and purchase behavior for automobiles and

smartphones in a large emerging market. With the influx of foreign brands, emerging markets

offer a great context to examine the performance of foreign versus domestic brands. The large

market potential of these markets has been attracting brands from many developed markets.

Marketing in these markets, however, is a big challenge for foreign brands because of the

market environment and institutional factors (Bahadir, Bharadwaj, and Srivastava 2015; Gao

et al. 2006). Understanding the foreign brands’ IBD relative to their domestic competitors

could assist foreign brands in developing effective marketing strategies in these markets.

We chose one of the largest emerging markets, China, as our research context. The

rapid development and transition to a market-based economy have boosted the Chinese

market’s attractiveness to foreign brands (Johnson and Tellis 2008; Walters and Samiee 2003).

Its economic resurgence has also attracted extensive international marketing research. Prior

research conducted in emerging markets such as China and India suggests that foreign brands

are preferred because of their favorable country associations (Batra et al. 2000). In these

markets, one expects to observe a similar phenomenon that foreign brands have an advantage

on IBD. However, compared to other emerging markets, Chinese consumers are more likely
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to display conspicuous consumption and associate foreign brands with higher symbolic value,

even for products with lower social signaling value (Zhou and Hui 2003). Thus, it is expected

that foreign brands’ advantage on IBD is more pronounced in China.

This research contributes to the empirical work that examines the performance of

foreign versus domestic brands in emerging markets. First, we extend prior research that only

studies consumers’ self-reported measures (e.g., purchase intention) for foreign versus

domestic brands. We use two-round surveys to examine whether, in an emerging market,

brands from developed foreign countries have an advantage over their domestic counterparts

in converting purchase intentions into purchase behaviors. Answering this question is

especially important in emerging markets where foreign brands have been striving to build up

market share and gain a competitive advantage (Walters and Samiee 2003). Second, this

research deepens the understanding of the performance of foreign versus domestic brands on

IBD in emerging markets by examining the moderating role of consumers’ prior knowledge.

Though prior knowledge has been found to moderate the country of origin effect on purchase

intention (Rao and Monroe 1988), whether and how it affects the performance of foreign

versus domestic brands on IBD remains to be explored. Third, we provide insights into when

the foreign brands’ advantage on IBD in emerging markets is more likely to be sustained and

offer implications for firms’ segmentation strategies. We divide inaccurate prior knowledge

into knowledge overestimating versus underestimating the target (i.e., the product consumers

intend to buy). Drawing upon literature on confirmation bias, we propose an explanation for

why the moderating effect may differ for these two types of inaccurate knowledge.
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THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

Intention-Behavior Discrepancy (IBD)

Substantial prior literature in international marketing has used purchase intention as

the surrogate for purchase behavior, possibly because of the convenience and cost savings in

collecting intentions data (Sharma 2011). However, there can be considerable inconsistency

between purchase intention and purchase behavior (Morrison 1979; Morwitz 1997).

Psychology research proposes some fundamental drivers for the discrepancy, including

intention uncertainty (Chandrashekaran et al. 2000), behavioral control and willpower (Fitch

and Ravlin 2005), state vs. action orientation (Norman, Sheeran, and Orbell 2003), and time

perspective (van Ittersum 2012), among others. Thus far, most marketing literature examines

consumers’ IBD toward a product category, in which consumers state an intention to buy in a

product category but do not make any purchase within a specific time period (Morwitz 1997).

Prior research finds that a long time separation between intention measurement and the

purchase decision, and lack of volitional control can lead consumers to show IBD toward a

product category (Morrison 1979; Morwitz, Steckel, and Gupta 2007).

Nonetheless, relatively little research has examined consumers’ IBD toward a specific

brand, which is more crucial for understanding a brand’s competitiveness (Morwitz 1997).

For this type of IBD, some studies propose quantitative models to improve the predictiveness

of stated purchase intentions for brand sales (e.g., Hsiao, Sun, and Morwitz 2002). Regarding

the reasons for this discrepancy, the factors that influence IBD toward a category may also

affect IBD toward a brand. Moreover, IBD toward a brand can also vary contingent on brand
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features. This study examines whether this type of IBD differs for brands with a foreign

versus domestic origin in emerging markets. To the best of our knowledge, this research is the

first attempt to examine IBD from an international marketing perspective.

Using IBD as the dependent variable can provide additional insights beyond those

generated by product evaluation or purchase intention. It has been well established that in

emerging markets, consumers have more positive evaluations of and higher purchase

intentions for foreign brands. Yet, with evaluation or purchase intention as the dependent

variable, related research ignores the “sacrifice” of buying a foreign versus a domestic brand,

which can be an important antecedent of IBD (Carrington, Neville, and Whitwell 2014). For

example, in emerging markets foreign brands are often more expensive, and thus consumers

intending to buy a foreign brand might switch to a less expensive brand (i.e., showing an

IBD). With IBD as the dependent outcome, this research allows study of consumers who have

time to seriously consider the “sacrifice” of the purchase and can shed light on whether

foreign brands have a stronger ability to convert purchase intentions into actual purchases.

IBD of Foreign versus Domestic Brands in Emerging Markets

In emerging markets, most consumers prefer foreign brands because of their favorable

country associations (Melnyk, Klein, and Völckner 2012). When a country is considered to

have a favorable country image or to possess particular expertise in a product category,

brands from that country benefit from the association and have a more favorable brand image

(Lee, Lockshin, and Greenacre 2016; Sichtmann and Diamantopoulos 2013). As foreign

brands have more favorable country associations in emerging markets, they tend to be

associated with higher perceived quality and symbolic value than domestic brands (Batra et al.
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2000; Zhou, Yang, and Hui 2010). These findings are consistent with prior research that

suggests the existence of both rational and emotional country associations (Herz and

Diamantopoulos 2013a; Strizhakova and Coulter 2015).

Based on associative network theory, prior research views country associations as a

network of linked nodes that reside in consumer memory, and these associations, either

rational or emotional, can be spontaneously activated and affect product evaluation and

purchase behavior (Lee, Lockshin, and Greenacre 2016; Magnusson et al. 2014). Rational

country associations influence brand preference and purchase behavior through reshaping

consumers’ brand beliefs in a cognitive manner (Herz and Diamantopoulos 2013a). Hence,

for a foreign (relative to a domestic) brand in emerging markets, favorable country

associations may enhance its customer-based brand equity by increasing perceived quality

(Keller 1993). Customer-based brand equity is in turn positively correlated with customer

loyalty (Vogel, Evanschitzky, and Ramaseshan 2008) and the amount that consumers are

willing to pay for the brand (Swait et al. 1993). On the other hand, Herz and Diamantopoulos

(2013a) propose that country associations also have an emotional component which can

affect consumer purchase behavior directly. This influence is usually fast, effortless and out

of the consumer’s awareness. Thus, favorable country associations may also strengthen

consumers’ affective attachment and make them stickier to foreign than to domestic brands.

Taken together, we conjecture that the favorable country associations in emerging

markets may deter consumers that intend to purchase a foreign (versus a domestic) brand

from switching to other brands. In other words, after forming a purchase intention, consumers

are stickier to a foreign target brand than to a domestic brand. Thus, it is hypothesized:
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H1: In emerging markets, the IBD of foreign brands is lower than that of domestic

brands.

Moderating Role of Inaccurate Prior Knowledge

This study conceptualizes prior knowledge as consumers’ inaccurate versus accurate

understanding or beliefs regarding the target’s performance, relative to a set of comparable

products, at the time of revealing purchase intentions. Inaccurate prior knowledge is

measured by the divergence between consumers’ subjective rating and the objective rating of

the target. Previous research has also taken into account the relationship between subjective

and objective ratings (Erickson, Johansson, and Chao 1984); however, these studies did not

directly measure the divergence between these two. In this research, prior knowledge

indicates consumers’ beliefs about the product’s advantages or disadvantages relative to other

products (Alba and Marmorstein 1987). Such prior knowledge may matter more than the

product’s absolute performance in consumer decision making (Keiningham et al. 2015).

After forming a purchase intention, consumers may encounter additional information

and re-evaluate the target product before purchase (Belk 1985). We propose that prior

knowledge may influence how consumers value country associations in their information

reprocessing. As consumers already have some prior knowledge or beliefs regarding the

target product, their information reprocessing may be conducted in a confirmatory way

(Fischer, Greitemeyer, and Frey 2008), in which inaccurate prior knowledge may attenuate

the impact of country associations on IBD.

According to dual process theory, consumer decision making is monitored by two

parallel systems; namely, the affective System 1 and the deliberative or rational System 2
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(Sloman 2002). System 1 is rapid and automatic (Kahneman 2003), and includes instinctive

processes formed by associative learning (e.g., country stereotypes). In contrast, System 2 is

slow, deliberative, and cognitively effortful. Country associations, especially the affective

ones, can serve as important input into System 1 and be automatically activated (Devine

1989). The activation of country associations may bias consumer judgment and decision

making, unless consumers have the motivation to deliberately process product attribute

information (Kahneman 2003; Mishra, Mishra, and Nayakankuppam 2007). When

reprocessing information, due to the inaccurate beliefs, consumers with inaccurate knowledge

are more likely to discover incongruent information regarding the target’s performance.

Previous research suggests that incongruent information receives greater attention and evokes

systematic processing of product attribute information (Herz and Diamantopoulos 2013b;

Jonas, Diehl, and Brömer 1997), which activates the rational System 2 and undermines the

impact of country associations or stereotypical beliefs. Therefore, for consumers with

inaccurate prior knowledge, we propose that the foreign brands’ advantage of lower IBDs

brought by country associations would be smaller. Hence, it is hypothesized:

H2: In emerging markets, the advantage of foreign brands with respect to lower IBDs

is smaller when consumer prior knowledge is inaccurate than when it is accurate.

Inaccurate prior knowledge may either overestimate or underestimate the target’s

performance. Prior knowledge overestimating the target conveys a different signal from

knowledge underestimating it, and thus these two types of inaccurate knowledge may have

different moderating effects. To deepen our understanding regarding the role of inaccurate

knowledge in the foreign brands’ advantage on IBD, we further distinguish these two types of
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inaccurate knowledge.

Consumers probably overestimate the target because they have prior beliefs that the

product is better. Psychology research suggests that the confirmation bias, or the tendency of

individuals to overweigh their prior beliefs or existing hypotheses, is ubiquitous (Narasimhan

et al. 2005; Nickerson 1998). Due to the confirmation bias, consumers with knowledge

overestimating the target may attend more to information that favors the product and ignore

incongruent information (Baack et al. 2015; Russo, Medvec, and Meloy 1996). Thus, for

these consumers, incongruent information may not evoke systematical information

reprocessing.

In contrast, consumers with knowledge underestimating the target may not have prior

beliefs that irrationally favor the product, and therefore are relatively less likely to show a

confirmation bias. Thus, compared to consumers overestimating the target, these consumers

are more likely to systematically process product information, making the foreign brands’

favorable country associations less influential in converting purchase intentions into purchase

behaviors. Hence, we conjecture that the moderating role of inaccurate knowledge in the

foreign brands’ advantage on IBD is mainly driven by knowledge that underestimates rather

than overestimates the target.

H3: In emerging markets, the moderating effect of inaccurate prior knowledge in the

advantage of foreign brands on IBD is mainly driven by prior knowledge that

underestimates (rather than overestimates) the target.

This study used a dummy variable in the primary analysis to indicate the brands’

foreign origin and examined the difference in IBD of foreign versus domestic brands.
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Secondarily, to corroborate our explanation of country associations, we also used country

image as a continuous independent variable and examined whether a favorable country image

helps reduce brands’ IBD. Furthermore, we also explored IBD at the country level, where

consumers intended to purchase from one country but ultimately bought a brand from another

country. We argue that a favorable country image is associated with lower country-level IBD,

and that this effect is moderated by inaccurate prior knowledge. These investigations provide

implications for prior literature on country branding. Due to page limits, we defer these

explorations to the Discussion and Implications section.

METHODS

We conducted two-round surveys in the automobile and smartphone industries to test

the hypotheses. These industries were chosen because both are important and relevant for

regular consumers and are frequently studied in related literature (e.g., Peterson and Jolibert

1995). In addition, automobile and smartphone purchases are relatively high-involvement,

which makes forming a purchase intention necessary and research on IBD relevant (Belk

1985). Finally, for automobile and smartphone purchases, especially the former, there are

strong country origin effects. Thus, these categories are likely to display the phenomenon that

foreign brands have lower IBDs.

The Automobile Survey

The two-round automobile survey collected Chinese consumers’ car purchase

intentions and subsequent purchase behaviors. A leading international automobile company

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supported the large-scale survey and provided an automobile database, including the

attributes of 806 car models in the market. The first survey was an intercept study conducted

in the largest automobile shopping mall in Beijing. On seven consecutive days, well-trained

research assistants approached consumers in the automobile mall and invited them to

participate in the Mandarin-language written survey. Three questions were used to select

eligible participants. First, subjects who did not plan to buy a car during the next six months

were screened out. Second, subjects working in the automobile industry were excluded.

Finally, subjects who were not major decision makers for the planned purchase were also

excluded. Research assistants approached 4,867 qualified consumers in total and 3,560

subjects agreed to participate in the study. The response rate was high (i.e., 73.15%), partly

because we compensated the subjects with relatively expensive gifts (equivalent to US $20).

Subjects completed the first survey on laptops. They indicated whether the planned

purchase was their first car and the importance of different car attributes. We included four

attributes (price advantage, fuel economy, safety features, and acceleration) into the analyses,

since these were the most important attributes according to descriptive analyses. In addition,

when examining the relationship between the subjective and objective ratings of a product,

previous research also focuses on similar attributes (Mason et al. 2001).

Subjects were asked to reveal the car that they would most likely purchase during the

next six months and indicate their subjective ratings of the car’s performance relative to other

cars of the same type on the four attributes. Car types were defined to be consistent with one

of the most popular automobile websites in China. Inaccurate versus accurate prior

knowledge was measured by comparing the subjects’ subjective ratings of the target car with
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the objective ratings derived from the automobile database. Subjects also rated their

perceptions of the automobiles from the country where the target car originates, in terms of

popularity, innovation, and prestige. We also asked subjects to rate the perceived quality,

social status and uniqueness that the brand signals, and brand loyalty. Finally, the subjects

supplied their demographic information and phone numbers.

Six months later, we invited the subjects to participate in the second survey by phone

and 1,108 subjects responded to oral questions. Subjects in the two surveys did not differ

statistically on most demographic variables, except that there were slightly more males in the

second survey (see Table 1). We recorded whether subjects purchased a car after the first

survey and if so, the date of the purchase and the car purchased. Overall, 47.02% (521)

subjects had made a purchase by the second survey, indicating that consumers’ IBD toward

the automobile category was relatively high since 52.98% who stated they would buy a car

did not buy one. However, this type of IBD is less related to brand characteristics such as

country of origin, and is more related to income (Morwitz and Schmittlein 1992) and the time

separation between intention measurement and purchase behavior (Morwitz 1997). To test

our conjecture, we conducted a logistic regression with IBD toward the category as the

dependent variable. The results show that this IBD is not correlated with any brand

characteristics (e.g., the foreign origin), but is significantly correlated with time separation

and consumer income (see Appendix A). Thus, we did not focus on the category level IBD.

Finally, we checked the subjects’ target cars, and if a purchase involved an IBD, we asked

them to indicate the reasons for the different purchase.

[Insert Table 1 about here]

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The subjects’ intended targets included 61 U.S., 53 French, 216 Japanese, 113

German, 23 Korean, 1 Swedish, and 54 Chinese cars. We excluded the only subject with a

Swedish target and the remaining 520 subjects constituted our final sample. This sample had

66.5% males, an average age of 33.8, and a monthly household income of 8,015 Chinese

Yuan (CNY) (US $1,053).

The Smartphone Survey

The smartphone survey was conducted by a professional marketing research company,

which had a large subject pool with consumers from different regions of China. The company

recruited 1,281 subjects via email who were decision makers in the anticipated purchase of a

smartphone in the next month and were not working in the electronics industry.

In the first survey, conducted online in Mandarin, the subjects indicated whether this

was their first smartphone purchase. Then, they rated the importance of phone attributes,

including price, standby time (on the battery), processing speed of the CPU, screen resolution,

display size, etc. These attributes are common in the product technical details provided by

online retailers. Subsequently, the subjects indicated the specific phone model they intended

to purchase. The survey webpage then displayed five to seven phones with prices in the same

range with the target phone. The subjects were asked to rate the target’s performance on each

attribute relative to the provided comparison phones. To derive the objective ratings of the

target and prior knowledge, we obtained a database including the attributes of different phone

models from one of the largest electronics retailer in China. The subjects also reported the

country image for smartphones in a way similar to that of the automobile study. Finally, the

subjects provided demographic information and telephone numbers.

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One month later, subjects were invited by phone to participate in the second survey.

Among the 1,281 subjects, 659 subjects responded and completed the survey (the response

rate was 51.44%). In the second survey, we recorded whether subjects purchased a

smartphone after the first survey and if so, the date of the purchase and the phone purchased.

Only 25.49% (N = 168) subjects had made a purchase by the second survey, possibly because

of the short time separation between the two surveys. If the purchase involved an IBD, we

asked the subjects to indicate the reasons for the difference. The intended purchase included

42.86% Korean, 33.33% U.S., 4.17% Finnish, and 19.64% Chinese smartphones. In the

sample, 48.81% of the subjects were males. On average, the subjects were 30.69 years old

with a monthly household income of 13,464 CNY (US $2,192), see Table 1.

Variable Measures

The dependent variable IBD is a binary variable with a value of one if the subject did

not purchase the target and zero otherwise. Note that IBD exists even if a subject’s target and

final purchase are both foreign but are different brands.

Attribute importance was self-reported by the subjects for different attributes. For

automobiles, importance was measured on a 5-point scale (1 = very unimportant; 5 = very

important) and the most important attributes were price advantage, fuel economy, safety

features, and acceleration. For smartphones, importance was measured on a 10-point scale

and the most important attributes were price, standby time (on the battery), processing speed

of the CPU, and screen resolution.

The foreign-brand dummy indicates the foreign versus domestic origin, with a value

of one if the target is foreign and zero otherwise. For country image, the subjects were asked
 18

to indicate their agreement with three statements about the automobiles (smartphones) from

the target’s originating country on a 10-point scale (1 = totally disagree; 10 = totally agree):

(1) “The automobiles (smartphones) from this country are very popular”, (2) “The

automobiles (smartphones) from this country are innovative in technology advancement”,

and (3) “The automobiles (smartphones) from this country are prestigious.” The dimensions

of popularity, innovation, and prestige have been widely adopted in prior literature (Han and

Terpstra 1988; Roth and Romeo 1992). In the automobile survey, we also measured the

target’s brand equity. For perceived quality, we measured the subjects’ rating of the overall

quality of the target on a 10-point scale (1 = very low; 10 = very high). For brand associations,

we measured the subjects’ agreement with the statements that the brand is associated with

high social status and uniqueness on 10-point scales (1 = totally disagree; 10 = totally agree).

To measure brand loyalty, we asked the subjects to indicate the extent to which the brand is

their first choice in future purchases on a 10-point scale (Pappu, Quester, and Cooksey 2007).

Inaccurate prior knowledge for each attribute is a dummy variable with a value of one

representing inaccurate knowledge and a value of zero indicating accurate knowledge. In the

automobile study, for each attribute, subjects provided a subjective rating of the target’s

performance compared to other cars of the same type on a 10-point scale (1 = most inferior;

10 = most superior). The automobile database has attribute values for the cars in the market,

which makes it possible to derive the objective rating of the target relative to cars of the same

type for each attribute. For the smartphone study, the subjects provided a subjective rating of

the target relative to a set of comparison phones for each attribute (1 = most inferior; 10 =

most superior) and using the phone database we then derived the objective rating of the target
 19

relative to the comparison phones (see an example in Appendix B). Inaccurate prior

knowledge was derived by comparing the subjective and objective ratings.

Suppose a participant’s subjective rating for attribute i of the target is ei and the

objective rating is ri. If ri – 1 ≤ ei ≤ ri + 1, the subject’s knowledge is accurate so the

inaccurate knowledge for attribute i has a value of zero. Otherwise, the value of this variable

is one, indicating that prior knowledge is inaccurate. In later analyses, we further decomposed

inaccurate knowledge for each attribute into knowledge overestimation and knowledge

underestimation. If ei > ri + 1, the subject overestimates the target and knowledge

overestimation of attribute i equals one. If ei < ri – 1, the subject underestimates the target and

knowledge underestimation of attribute i equals one. We restricted the absolute difference

between ei and ri to be within one to define accurate knowledge, denoted as knowledge ± 1.

To check the robustness, we also employed a more lenient definition for accurate knowledge

ri – 2 ≤ ei ≤ ri + 2 (denoted as knowledge ± 2).

With regard to control variables, attribute evaluations of the target were reported on

10-point scales (1 = most inferior; 10 = most superior). We also derived time separation

between intention measurement and purchase behavior. For automobiles, time separation was

measured by the number of months elapsed since the first survey, while for smartphones it

was measured in days. This variable served as a control for the possibility that unobserved

contaminating events intervened before purchase (Bonfield 1974). For automobiles, we also

controlled for the target brand’s price and collected data on the No. of years in the market

from the Internet and newspapers, which measured the length of time that the brand has been

in the Chinese market. Brands in the market for a longer time are more likely to have strong
 20

brand equity (Gronhaug and Graham 1987; Roth 1995), and thus may have lower IBDs. For

smartphones, we did not include this variable as the entry of many brands happened at about

the same time. Finally, consumers’ gender, age, and monthly household income were also

included as control variables.

EMPIRICAL FINDINGS

Descriptive Statistics

In Table 2, the first (second) column shows the number (percentage) of subjects

intending to purchase a car from each country. Most subjects’ targets were from Germany and

Japan. Overall, 89.62% of the subjects intended to purchase a foreign brand while 10.38%

intended to purchase a domestic brand. These numbers were similar to those of the 3,560

subjects in the first survey (89.72% versus 10.28%). Furthermore, the third column of Table 2

shows the percentage of IBD for subjects intending to purchase from each country. On

average, the percentage of IBD for foreign automobile brands was 59.87%, whereas it was

over 70% for domestic brands in China. The competitive landscape of the smartphone

industry was different. Most subjects’ targets were from South Korea and the U.S. (see Table

2). On average, the percentage of IBD for foreign phone brands was 38.52%, whereas it was

66.67% for domestic brands.

[Insert Table 2 about here]

We used logistic regressions to test the hypotheses. For H1 and H2, the independent

variables included the foreign-brand dummy and its interactions with inaccurate prior
 21

knowledge on different attributes. For H3, the independent variables were the foreign-brand

dummy and its interactions with knowledge overestimation and underestimation variables.

Results: Automobile Study

For automobiles, the coefficient of the foreign-brand dummy is significant and

negative (β = -2.31, p < .001), indicating that the IBD of foreign brands is significantly lower

than that of domestic brands, as hypothesized in H1 (see Model (1) in Table 3). To understand

the IBD for brands from each foreign country individually (relative to domestic brands), we

replaced the foreign-brand dummy with five dummy variables for target brands from the U.S.,

France, Japan, Germany, and South Korea, respectively (see Model (2)). Again, compared

with domestic brands, the IBDs for U.S. (β = -2.62, p < .001), French (β = -2.36, p < .001),

Japanese (β = -2.12, p < .001), and German (β = -2.20, p < .001) brands are significantly

lower. The coefficient for South Korea is negative but insignificant (β = -1.05, n.s., p = .21),

perhaps due to the small sample size or maybe because South Korea has relatively less

favorable country associations among Chinese consumers. Thus, H1 is supported. These

findings are robust when using a more lenient definition for accurate knowledge (i.e.,

knowledge ± 2), see Model (3) and Model (4) in Table 3. We checked the diagnostics of each

model and found no multicollinearity.

To rule out the explanation that the difference in IBD of foreign versus domestic

brands is simply caused by the distinction between strong versus weak brands, we included

three dimensions of brand equity (i.e., perceived quality, brand associations, and brand

loyalty) in the model. The results remain similar and are available upon request.

Consistent with H2, most interactions between the foreign-brand dummy and
 22

inaccurate prior knowledge on different attributes are significant and positive. This finding

indicates that foreign brands’ advantage over domestic brands on IBD is smaller when

consumers’ prior knowledge is inaccurate. In particular, inaccurate knowledge on price

advantage (β = 1.12, p < .001), fuel economy (β = .76, p < .01), and safety features (β = .38, p

< .10) significantly increases the odds of IBD (i.e., prob. of IBD/(1-prob. of IBD)) for foreign

(versus domestic) brands by 205.8%, 112.9%, and 45.9%, respectively, while inaccurate

knowledge on acceleration has no significant moderating impact (β = .02, n.s., p = .95).

In regard to control variables, the results show that IBD is higher as time separation

increases (β = .26, p < .001) and No. of years in the market decreases (β = -.03, p < .05). As

time separation increases, internal and external factors are more likely to change, creating a

greater opportunity for purchase behaviors to diverge from purchase intentions (Belk 1985).

Regarding the No. of years in the market, the longer the brand has been in China, the higher

the brand awareness is, which as a component of brand equity may induce consumers to stick

to their purchase intentions. Finally, although attribute evaluations and price may affect

purchase intention, their impacts on IBD are not significant. This finding implies that once

consumers form a purchase intention, attribute evaluations and price do not further influence

whether they deviate from that intention. The insignificant effects may also be caused by the

inclusion of better predictors such as the foreign-brand dummy and its interactions with

inaccurate knowledge. Similarly, we found no significant effect of the demographics. These

results are robust across the two definitions of inaccurate knowledge as well as when

including five country dummies (see Table 3).

[Insert Table 3 about here]

 23

To test H3, the independent variables were similar except that inaccurate knowledge

was replaced by knowledge overestimation and underestimation variables (i.e., accurate

knowledge served as the baseline). To check the robustness, we ran the analysis with accurate

knowledge defined by knowledge ± 1 and knowledge ± 2, respectively. The results are robust

across the two definitions (see Model (1) and Model (3) in Table 4). For each definition, the

results are also robust when allowing the intercepts for brands from each country to vary (see

Model (2) and Model (4)). In what follows, we only discuss the results of Model (1).

[Insert Table 4 about here]

As expected, the foreign-brand dummy is negatively correlated with IBD (β = -2.29, p

< .001). In addition, all significant interactions between the foreign-brand dummy and the

knowledge overestimation or underestimation variables are positive. More importantly, the

interactions between the foreign-brand dummy and knowledge underestimation regarding

price advantage (β = .95, p < .05), fuel economy (β = 1.23, p < .001), and safety features (β

= .64, p < .05) are significant. For knowledge overestimation, however, the only significant

interaction is for price advantage (β = 1.24, p < .001). We further examined whether the sum

of the three significant coefficients regarding the interactions with knowledge

underestimation is larger than that of the interaction with knowledge overestimation on price

advantage. The Chi-square test suggests a significant difference between the moderating role

of knowledge underestimation and overestimation (χ2(1) = 8.01, p < .01). This finding

implies that knowledge underestimation is more likely than overestimation to reduce the

foreign brands’ advantage on IBD, supporting H3.

Notably, for price advantage, the interaction effect of the foreign-brand dummy with
 24

knowledge underestimation is not significantly different from its interaction with knowledge

overestimation (χ2(1) = .55, n.s., p = .46). That is, overestimating and underestimating price

advantage are equally likely to weaken the foreign brands’ advantage on IBD. This finding

may be explained by the special characteristic of price as an attribute. Unlike other attributes,

price is easy to compare across products. Thus, consumers may not show a strong

confirmation bias even if they overestimate the target’s price advantage.

Results: Smartphone Study

For smartphones, the coefficient of the foreign-brand dummy is negative and

significant (β = -1.82, p < .10) (see Model (1) in Table 5). In Model (2), we included three

dummy variables for target brands from South Korea, the U.S., and Finland, respectively.

The results show that the IBD of Korean brands is significantly lower than that of domestic

brands (β = -1.81, p < .10), while the difference between the U.S. and domestic brands

approaches significance. Thus, supporting H1, foreign smartphone brands also have an

advantage on IBD compared to the Chinese domestic brands. In addition and consistent with

H2, this effect is smaller for consumers with inaccurate knowledge on standby time (β = 1.42,

p < .05). The interactions between the foreign-brand dummy and inaccurate knowledge on

the other attributes are not significant. Thus, H2 is partially supported for smartphones. We

found no significant effect of the control variables. The results are robust when using

knowledge ± 2 to define accurate knowledge, except that the IBD of U.S. brands becomes

significantly lower than that of domestic brands (β = -2.15, p < .05) (see Model (3) and

Model (4) of Table 5).

[Insert Table 5 about here]

 25

When the interactions of the foreign-brand dummy with knowledge overestimation

and underestimation on different attributes are included in the model, the foreign-brand

dummy is still negatively associated with IBD (β = -1.90, p < .10), see Model (1) in Table 6.

In addition, knowledge underestimation on standby time significantly weakens the foreign

brands’ advantage on IBD (β = 1.43, p < .10), while knowledge overestimation has no

significant moderating effect. Thus, H3 is supported. The key results are robust when

allowing the intercepts for brands from each country to differ and when using another

definition for accurate knowledge (see Model (2)-Model (4) of Table 6).

[Insert Table 6 about here]

Summary

The key findings are consistent across the automobile and smartphone studies, and

provide evidence for foreign brands’ advantage in converting purchase intentions into

purchase behaviors. For automobiles, brands from the U.S., France, Japan, and Germany

have significantly lower IBDs than domestic brands. For smartphones, brands from South

Korea and the U.S. have evident advantages on IBD. These findings are consistent with the

common belief that Germany has a high reputation for automobiles while South Korea has

expertise in smartphones. Regarding the moderating role of inaccurate prior knowledge, for

automobiles inaccurate knowledge on price advantage, fuel economy, and safety features are

all significant, while for smartphones only that on standby time has a significant moderating

effect. In general, the hypotheses are strongly supported for automobiles, but some of them

are only partially supported for smartphones. This may be caused by the relatively small

sample size of the smartphone study (N = 168). Nonetheless, it may also be due to the strong
 26

influence of brand name when it comes to phone purchases.

To provide more evidence, we also used country image as the key independent

variable, and examined the role of the target’s country image in consumers’ IBD. We found

that a favorable country image significantly reduces consumers’ IBD for both automobile and

smartphone brands, and this effect is positively moderated by consumers’ inaccurate prior

knowledge (the detailed results are available upon request). These findings further

corroborate the rationale that foreign brands have an advantage on IBD because of their

favorable country associations.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

In emerging markets, foreign brands have higher product evaluations and purchase

intentions than domestic brands (Zhou, Yang, and Hui 2010). However, few studies examine

whether the purchase intentions for foreign brands can result in actual purchases. As more

international companies race to capture a share in emerging markets, a brand that was once

revered may see consumers with purchase intentions eventually turn to the competitors,

leading to an intention-behavior discrepancy (IBD). In emerging markets, can foreign brands

outperform their domestic competitors in converting purchase intentions into purchase

behaviors? This question has rarely been investigated in previous research. This study

addresses this research gap and examines the difference in IBD of foreign versus domestic

brands in emerging markets and the moderating role of consumers’ inaccurate prior

knowledge. We relied on related literature on country associations and dual process theory to
 27

develop the hypotheses. Similar to other studies in international marketing, we used the

automobile and smartphone industries of China as the empirical research context.

Theoretical Implications

This research makes contributions to the theoretically-grounded literature in several

ways. First, we add to existing literature that focuses mainly on evaluations of or purchase

intentions for foreign versus domestic brands in emerging markets. Without studying

purchase behavior or the discrepancy between intention and behavior, prior research may

come to misleading conclusions (Koschate-Fischer, Diamantopoulos, and Oldenkotte 2012).

Using large-scale two-round surveys, this study obtains data on consumers’ IBD and deepens

the theoretical understanding of foreign brands’ competitiveness in emerging markets. Our

findings suggest that, in addition to higher evaluations and purchase intentions, foreign

brands also have lower IBDs than domestic brands, constituting their dual advantage in

emerging markets. Prior literature indicates that consumers in emerging economies have

stereotypical beliefs that automobiles originating from developed countries are of higher

quality, endowing brands such as Volkswagen and Toyota with higher brand equity. As one of

the most expensive purchases, the automobile is also associated with social status or mianzi

(Batra et al. 2000). One of the main theoretical contributions of this study is to demonstrate

the behavioral consequence of foreign brands’ favorable associations in emerging markets.

Second, we extend prior research on the relationship between prior knowledge and the

country of origin effect. Most existing literature examines the moderating role of knowledge

in the country of origin effect on purchase intention (e.g., Rao and Monroe 1988). We extend

this body of literature by studying the role of inaccurate prior knowledge in consumers’
 28

information reprocessing after forming a purchase intention. In information reprocessing, as

consumers have prior knowledge of the product, they may selectively attend to information

that confirms their prior beliefs (Fischer, Greitemeyer, and Frey 2008). Thus, the theoretical

rationale for the effect of prior knowledge developed in prior research may not apply to our

research setting. We make a contribution by drawing on dual process theory to develop the

hypothesis regarding the role of inaccurate prior knowledge in our setting. The results show

that foreign brands’ advantage on IBD is smaller for consumers with inaccurate knowledge,

since they are more likely to devalue the foreign brands’ favorable country associations in

information reprocessing. This finding complements prior literature and provides a more

comprehensive understanding regarding the role of prior knowledge in the performance of

brands with a foreign versus a domestic origin in emerging markets.

Moreover, we also deepen the understanding of the moderating role of inaccurate

prior knowledge by further decomposing it into prior knowledge overestimating versus

underestimating the product. We employed confirmation bias in psychology literature to

explain the potentially different moderating effects of these two types of inaccurate

knowledge. The results show that consumers overestimating the target are relatively less

likely to systematically reprocess information because of confirmation bias, and thus they

may weaken the foreign brands’ advantage on IBD to a smaller degree than those

underestimating the product.

Finally, we make contributions to related literature on country equity and country

branding by exploring the impact of country image on country-level IBD. Countries, like

brands, have intangible assets or equity, which may endow brands from the country with
 29

value (Robertson et al. 2016; Shimp, Samiee, and Madden 1993). Country equity for a

product category is closely related to the country’s image or associations (Papadopoulos and

Heslop 2002; Zeugner-Roth, Diamantopoulos, and Montesinos 2008). In particular, a

favorable country image enhances country equity, making consumers more loyal to brands

from the country (Pappu and Quester 2010) and resulting in lower country-level IBDs. We

tested these conjectures with country-level IBD as the dependent variable and the

independent variables included country image and its interactions with inaccurate knowledge.

The control variables were similar to those in the main models except that we also included

country share, which was the total market share of brands from a country in the year before

the survey. Results of both the automobile and smartphone studies show that a favorable

country image deters consumers with purchase intentions from switching to brands from

other countries, and this effect differs for consumers with inaccurate versus accurate prior

knowledge. These findings suggest that higher country equity is vital in converting intentions

into purchases for brands from a country in general.

Managerial Implications

From a managerial perspective, this research provides actionable implications for

brands in emerging markets. First, brand managers often conduct surveys to understand

consumers’ purchase intentions and use these data to predict brand sales. However, managers

should be cautious in relying on intentions to forecast sales because IBDs are rather high.

More importantly, we found that domestic brands have significantly higher IBDs than foreign

brands in emerging markets. Thus, sales forecasting will not be equally effective for foreign

versus domestic brands. In emerging markets, domestic brands should discount sales
 30

forecasts more than their foreign competitors.

Second, to effectively transform purchase intentions into purchase behaviors, foreign

brands may want to highlight their country of origin and favorable country associations in

brand communication campaigns. In emerging markets with intense competition among

brands from all over the globe, the favorable country associations of foreign brands may not

only increase consumers’ purchase intentions, but also help lock in consumers who have

purchase intentions. The dual advantage enables foreign brands to secure market share and

gain competitive advantages in emerging markets.

Third, foreign brands should be careful when exaggerating their performance on some

attributes in advertising campaigns. This is because exaggeration may induce consumers to

form inaccurate knowledge and weaken the foreign brands’ advantage on IBD. In addition,

the foreign brands’ advantage on IBD is smaller for consumers underestimating the brand

than those overestimating the brand. Thus, foreign brands may want to objectively convey

product performance in either point-of-purchase displays or advertising campaigns. When

consumers do have inaccurate knowledge, foreign brands should especially avoid consumers’

underestimation of the brand. These findings also provide implications for foreign brands’

segmentation strategies in emerging markets. To secure market share and maintain a

competitive advantage relative to domestic brands, foreign brands would do better by

targeting customers with inaccurate knowledge, especially those that underestimate the brand.

Finally, examining country-level IBD provides evidence for the effect of country

image on the advantage of a country’s products in general (Paswan, Kulkarni, and Ganesh

2003; Roth and Romeo 1992). A favorable country image not only increases consumers’
 31

purchase intentions for a country’s products (Pappu and Quester 2010) but also deters

consumers from switching to products from other countries. For example, German cars are

well known for superior engineering and Japanese cars are highly regarded for reliability and

fuel efficiency. As our findings show, the favorable image of countries such as Germany and

Japan for automobiles makes consumers stickier to brands from these countries. Thus,

developing a reputation or favorable image for a product category is critical for a country in

maintaining a competitive advantage in international markets.

LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH

There are some issues for further research to pursue and limitations of this study to

address. First, results from the Chinese markets may not apply to all emerging markets.

Future research should use other emerging markets to generalize the findings. In addition, in

this study foreign brands were from more developed countries and domestic brands had a

relatively small share of purchase intentions (10.38% for automobiles and 19.64% for

smartphones). Future studies should use other product categories in which foreign brands also

come from developing countries and examine the IBD of foreign brands from developing

versus developed countries. Moreover, there may be local icons in some categories (e.g.,

lower-priced products such as food; Strizhakova and Coulter 2015) and future research may

examine whether the conclusions change for these categories.

Second, intervening events such as marketing activities between the two rounds of the

survey may have affected IBD. Tracking all marketing activities was not feasible. However,
 32

we asked the subjects to indicate the reasons for IBD (if they switched) in the second survey.

To control for the intervening events, two research assistants (who were unaware of the

research purpose) were recruited to code these reasons. After including the dummy variables

indicating different types of reasons, the results remain similar and are available upon request.

Future research should employ other ways to better control for intervening events.

Third, this research focuses on IBD toward a brand rather than IBD toward a product

category in general. However, the IBDs toward the category are as high as 52.98% for

automobiles and 74.51% for smartphones. These numbers indicate that prior research with

purchase intention as a single dependent variable may be problematic in many circumstances.

Thus, it is interesting to examine the factors that may lead to this type of IBD. We ran an

analysis and found that this IBD is higher when time separation increases and consumer

income decreases, while brand features such as the foreign-brand dummy and No. of years in

the market have no significant impact (see Appendix A). As we focus on the foreign versus

domestic brands’ performance in emerging markets, we only examined the more relevant IBD

toward a specific brand. Future research may focus on the IBD toward a product category.

Fourth, we examined the difference in IBD of foreign versus domestic brands in

emerging markets, which is a correlational study though we have tried to use country

associations to explain the foreign brands’ advantage on IBD. According to cue utilization

theory, foreignness per se may signal higher perceived quality and deter consumers from

showing IBDs. Future research may use laboratory studies to rigorously examine this

underlying mechanism and the causal impact of foreignness on IBD.

Finally, we used the four most important attributes in each study. In considering the
 33

relationship between subjective and objective attribute ratings, prior research uses similar but

slightly different attributes. For automobiles, Erickson, Johansson, and Chao (1984)

examined price, gas mileage, reliability, durability, and workmanship, while Mason et al.

(2001) investigated price, fuel economy, horsepower, acceleration, and braking performance.

Future research should examine a more complete set of attributes.

In conclusion, this study builds on associative network theory and country

associations to show the advantage of foreign brands on the intention-behavior discrepancy in

emerging markets, and provide both theoretical and managerial implications. This study

offers theoretical support for brands in emerging markets to develop and highlight favorable

country associations to maintain consumers’ brand and country choices in making purchase

decisions. With this research, we also hope to attract greater interest in the measure of

intention-behavior discrepancy in international marketing, which will open the door for a

fruitful and managerially relevant research area.

 34

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Table 1. Sample Characteristics

Automobile Study Smartphone Study

First survey Second survey Final sample First survey Second survey Final sample
Sample Size 3560 1108 520 1281 659 168
Male 61.40% 66.40% 66.50% 54.80% 55.54% 48.81%
Age, Mean (SD) 33.90 (9.55) 33.80 (9.73) 33.80 (10.05) 30.67 (6.90) 30.62 (6.81) 30.69 (6.30)
Income in CNY, Mean (SD) 7976 (5392.31) 7785 (4989.14) 8015 (5037.79) 12890 (5569.16) 12970 (5550.88) 13464 (5212.71)
 43

Table 2. Percentage of IBD for Automobile and Smartphone Brands from Different Countries

Automobile Study

Country N Percentage Percentage of IBD

U.S. 61 11.73% 50.82%
France 53 10.19% 58.49%
Japan 216 41.54% 59.26%
Germany 113 21.73% 61.95%
South Korea 23 4.42% 82.61%
China 54 10.38% 70.37%
Overall 520 100% 60.96%

Smartphone Study
Country N Percentage Percentage of IBD
South Korea 72 42.86% 36.11%
U.S. 56 33.33% 37.50%
Finland 7 4.17% 71.43%
China 33 19.64% 66.67%
Overall 168 100% 44.05%
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Table 3. Automobile Study: The Impact of Foreign-Brand Dummy and Inaccurate Prior Knowledge

Knowledge±1 Knowledge±2
Independent variables
Model (1) Model (2) Model (3) Model (4)
Intercept -.02 -.64 -.28 -.74
Foreign-brand dummy -2.31*** -1.89***
U.S. brand -2.62*** -2.25***
French brand -2.36*** -2.25***
Japanese brand -2.12*** -1.88***
German brand -2.20*** -1.80***
Korean brand -1.05 -.77
Moderating Effect of Inaccurate Knowledge
Inac_ price×foreign-branda 1.12*** 1.09*** .99*** 1.00***
Inac_ fuel×foreign-brand .76** .71** .61** .57*
Inac_safety×foreign-brand .38† .38† .44† .45†
Inac_acceleration×foreign-brand .02 -.05 .30 .34
Attribute Evaluations
Eval_priceb .07 .08 .05 .06
Eval_fuel -.05 -.07 -.05 -.07
Eval_safety -.07 -.06 -.03 -.05
Eval_acceleration -.03 -.03 -.06 -.07
Controls
Time separation .26*** .26*** .25*** .25***
Price (in 10,000 CNY) -.01 -.01 -.01 -.01
No. of years in the market -.03* -.03* -.03* -.03*
Male -.19 -.14 -.18 -.15
Age .01 .01 .01 .01
Log (income) .11 .16 .15 .20
-2 log-likelihood 555.37 548.71 551.91 544.97
†
p < .10.
*p < .05.
**p < .01.
***p < .001.

a“Inac_” represents inaccurate knowledge (1 = inaccurate, 0 = accurate).

b“Eval_” stands for evaluation.

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Table 4. Automobile Study: The Impact of Foreign-Brand Dummy and Knowledge Overestimation vs.
Underestimation

Knowledge±1 Knowledge±2
Independent variables
Model (1) Model (2) Model (3) Model (4)
Intercept -.80 -1.55 -1.51 -2.09
Foreign-brand dummy -2.29*** -1.78***
U.S. brand -2.36*** -1.90***
French brand -2.52*** -2.30***
Japanese brand -2.32*** -1.99***
German brand -2.22*** -1.65**
Korean brand -.64 -.46
Moderating Effect of Knowledge Overestimation
Over_price×foreign-branda 1.24*** 1.36*** .93** 1.08***
Over_fuel×foreign-brand .37 .19 .28 .08
Over_safety×foreign-brand .27 .20 .03 -.05
Over_acceleration×foreign-brand -.02 -.13 .21 .28
Moderating Effect of Knowledge Underestimation
Under_price×foreign-brandb .95* .86* 1.10** 1.11**
Under_fuel×foreign-brand 1.23*** 1.35*** .94** 1.09**
Under_safety×foreign-brand .64* .69* 1.24** 1.36**
Under_acceleration×foreign-brand -.03 -.01 .31 .30
Attribute Evaluations
Eval_price c .07 .06 .09 .09
Eval_fuel .02 .05 -.01 .02
Eval_safety -.04 -.02 .03 .05
Eval_acceleration -.05 -.04 -.07 -.09
Controls
Time separation .27*** .28*** .26*** .26***
Price (in 10,000 CNY) -.01 -.01 -.01 -.01
No. of years in the market -.03* -.03* -.03* -.03*
Male -.21 -.16 -.20 -.16
Age .01 .01 .02 .02
Log (income) .12 .15 .15 .18
-2 log-likelihood 548.79 539.51 543.84 534.99
†
p < .10.
*p < .05.
**p < .01.
***p < .001.

a“Over_” represents knowledge overestimating the target (1 = overestimate, 0 = otherwise).

b“Under_” stands for knowledge underestimating the target (1 = underestimate, 0 = otherwise).

c“Eval_” stands for evaluation.
 46

Table 5. Smartphone Study: The Impact of Foreign-Brand Dummy and Inaccurate Prior Knowledge

Knowledge±1 Knowledge±2
Independent variables
Model (1) Model (2) Model (3) Model (4)
Intercept .87 -.59 1.59 -.01
Foreign-brand dummy -1.82† -2.08**
Korean brand -1.81† -2.33**
U.S. brand -1.40 -2.15*
Finish brand -.02 -.35
Moderating Effect of Inaccurate Knowledge
Inac_price×foreign-branda -.15 -.02 .42 .49
Inac_time×foreign-brand 1.42* 1.31† .96* .97*
Inac_CPU×foreign-brand -.44 -.79 -.49 -.68
Inac_resolution×foreign-brand -.12 -.16 .46 .58
Attribute Evaluations
Eval_priceb .05 .06 .06 .06
Eval_time -.08 -.09 -.05 -.06
Eval_CPU .05 .06 .01 .05
Eval_resolution -.00 .01 .00 .03
Controls
Time separation .00 .00 -.00 -.00
Male .26 .30 .17 .22
Age .03 .03 .02 .04
Log (income) -.03 .11 -.11 .01
-2 log-likelihood 214.57 210.29 213.32 208.57
†
p < .10.
*p < .05.
**p < .01.
***p < .001.

a“Inac_” represents inaccurate knowledge (1 = inaccurate, 0 = accurate).

b“Eval_” stands for evaluation.

 47

Table 6. Smartphone Study: The Impact of Foreign-Brand Dummy and Knowledge Overestimation
vs. Underestimation

Knowledge±1 Knowledge±2
Independent variables
Model (1) Model (2) Model (3) Model (4)
Intercept .85 .05 .05 -.35
†
Foreign-brand dummy -1.90 -2.40**
Korean brand -2.06† -2.63**
U.S. brand -2.24 -2.83*
Finish brand -.52 -1.10
Moderating Effect of Knowledge Overestimation
Over_price×foreign-branda .08 .23 .63 .64
Over_time×foreign-brand .99 1.20 .57 .84
Over_CPU×foreign-brand -.21 -.25 .27 .23
Over_resolution×foreign-brand .29 .17 .38 .43
Moderating Effect of Knowledge Underestimation
Under_price×foreign-brandb -.15 -.10 .51 .41
Under_time×foreign-brand 1.43† 1.28† 1.32* 1.21*
Under_CPU×foreign-brand -.69 -.83 -.71 -.60
Under_resolution×foreign-brand .34 .40 .44 .59
Attribute Evaluations
Eval_pricec .02 .02 .04 .03
Eval_time -.01 -.05 .01 -.03
Eval_CPU .02 .05 -.04 .01
Eval_resolution .03 .07 .01 .04
Controls
Time separation .00 .00 -.00 .00
Male .32 .29 .29 .28
Age .03 .04 .01 .02
Log (income) -.07 -.01 .07 .07
-2 log-likelihood 213.80 210.65 211.67 208.78
†
p < .10.
*p < .05.
**p < .01.
***p < .001.

a“Over_” represents knowledge overestimating the target (1 = overestimate, 0 = otherwise).

b“Under_” represents knowledge underestimating the target (1 = underestimate, 0 = otherwise).

c“Eval_” stands for evaluation.
 48

Appendix A: Estimation Results for IBD Toward the Automobile Category in General
Model 1b Model 2c
Independent variables
Coefficient SEa Coefficient SE
*** ***
Intercept -11.72 2.85 - 11.93 2.86
Foreign-Brand Dummy .69 .56 1.03 .66
Moderating Role of Inaccurate Knowledge
Inac_price×foreign-brand - .23 .36
Inac_fuel×foreign-brand - .10 .35
Inac_safety×foreign-brand - .09 .36
Inac_acceleration×foreign-brand - .24 .36
Attribute Evaluations
Eval_price .71* .08 .18* .08
Eval_fuel -.05 .09 - .05 .09
Eval_safety .04 .12 .03 .12
†
Eval_acceleration -.22† .11 - .20 .12
Controls
Time separation 1.93*** .18 1.94*** .19
Price (in 10,000 CNY) -.00 .02 - .00 .02
No. of years in the market -.00 .02 - .00 .02
Male -.29 .33 - .27 .34
Age -.01 .02 - .01 .02
Log (income) -.48† .27 - .47† .27
†
p < .10.
*p < .05.
**p < .01.
***p < .001.
a SE represents standard error.
b The dependent variable is IBD toward the automobile category in general. Regarding the independent variables, Model 1

only includes the foreign-brand dummy and the control variables (e.g., attribute evaluations and demographics).
c In Model 2, the dependent variable is also IBD toward the automobile category. In regard to independent variables, this

model includes not only the foreign-brand dummy variable but also its interactions with inaccurate knowledge on different
attributes. The control variables in Model 2 are the same as those in Model 1.

Appendix B: The Derivation of Objective Ratings

Inaccurate knowledge is measured by the divergence between a consumer’s subjective

rating and the objective rating of the target relative to other products. In this study, the

objective rating is derived by comparing the target’s attribute values with those of the

comparison products. The attribute values are provided by the car/phone database. We use the

objective rating of standby time for the target phone as an example and those of other

attributes are derived similarly. The standby times are shown in the first column of the
 49

following table.

Appendix B: An Example of the Derivation of Objective Ratings on Standby Time

Phones Standby Time (hours) Rescaled Objective Ratings
(Rob)
Target phone 12.00 7.00
iPhone 5 8.00 1.00
Samsung S4 8.50 1.75
SONY Xperia 10.00 4.00
NOKIA Lumia 1020 13.30 8.95
HTC Butterfly 14.00 10.00

Remember that the subjective rating is reported on a 10-point scale. To ensure

comparability, we rescale the attribute values of the target’s standby time to be between 1 and

10 using the linear interpolation method, which is a widely used technique for rescaling. In

particular, the rescaled objective rating (Rob) of the target phone on standby time has to

satisfy:

Rob − scale− min timetarget − min(time)

= , (1)
scale− max − scale− min max(time) − min(time)

where timetarget is the target’s standby time and time is a vector with standby times of all the

phones involved. min() and max() are functions to return the minimum and maximum of a

vector, respectively. scale_min and scale_max are the minimum and maximum of the scale

(i.e., 1 and 10). Thus, solving for the rescaled objective rating Rob, we obtain:

9 × ( timetarget − min(time) )
=Rob +1. (2)
max(time) − min(time)

Objective ratings of other phones on standby time are derived similarly (see the

second column of the above table).