Abstract
The purpose of this study was to measure the effects of foreign economic, political, and cultural environments on American consumers' willingness to buy foreign products. Additionally, the effect of consumers' socio-demographics on their willingness to buy foreign products was examined. To accomplish these purposes, thirty-six countries were categorized into different environmental dimensions according to (1) the literature of economics, political science, and geography, and (2) respondents' perception of selected foreign environmental factors. A total of thirty-two hypotheses were developed and tested. Based upon the characteristics of the independent variables, three types of factorial designs were selected as research models. Analysis of variance was used to test the main effects of interaction effects of the independent variables on the dependent variable. Duncan's multiple range test was used to compare the individual treatment means. To collect the data, a random sample of 500 residents in Bryan College Station, Texas Standard Metropolitan Statistics Area (SMSA) were hand-delivered a self-administered questionnaire. Of these, 305 questionnaries were returned, 273 of which were usable. The results of the analysis of variance indicated that, based upon both authoritative judgment and consumers' perceptions of the foreign environments, American consumers' willingness to buy foreign products were strongly affected by the variations in the level of economic development, political climate, and culture of the products' country of origin. More specifically, American consumers appeared to give more positive responses to the foreign products from highly economically developed, free countries with a European, Australian, or New Zealand culture..
Wang, Chih-kang (1978). The effect of foreign economic, political, and cultural environment and consumers' socio-demographics on consumers' willingness to buy foreign products. Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Libraries. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /DISSERTATIONS -323542.