Authors : Wong Yi Shen and Azmawani Abd Rahman
Abstract: In the 1960’s Malaysian government encouraged and promoted the concept of automobile assembly plants in Malaysia. The primary intention was to reduce the imports of Completely Built-Units (CBU). The growing industry had essentially drawn the new car manufacturers to set up their manufacturing bases in Malaysia. This study investigates effect of Country of Assembly (COA) on car brands and the impact of COA on the perception of quality. Three main brands which are Toyota, Honda and Nissan were chosen and comparison was made between Malaysia and Japan as COA. Questionnaire survey data was collected from 130 respondents and both t-test and regression analysis were used to test the hypotheses. Although, the brand is similar, results indicate consumers hold different perceptions on COA between Malaysia and Japan where Japan as COA was rated higher. Results also indicate that the COA carries a significant weight to influence customer’s perception on the quality of cars made in Malaysia as well as Japan. This research validated and proved the importance of Country of Assembly on Malaysian consumer’s perceptions when evaluating and assessing automobiles.
Wong Yi Shen and Azmawani Abd Rahman, 2016. Assessing Country of Assembly Effect on Perceptions of Product Quality: A Comparison between Malaysia and Japan. The Social Sciences, 11: 7279-7283.