An exploratory research on country-of-origin and its impact on the UAE consumers buying decisions

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to explore the country-of-origin (COO) influence on the buying decisions of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) consumers. The collected data from 370 consumers were summarized and coded by using Software R Studio and Microsoft Excel. The independent variables were analyzed and tested for their significant impact on the dependent variable, final buying decision of the product/ service based on its country of origin. The selected hypotheses tested by administering the Kruskal-Wallis (K-W) hypothesis testing technique. The researchers identified that UAE consumers buying decisions influenced mainly by the country of origin of the products and services. The demographic variables like age, education, country of origin influential factors, country of choice was not displaying any significant impact on the buying decisions of consumers. The survey is limited to cover the general consumers of the country who are randomly selected from Dubai and Sharjah emirates. The study is beneficial to all the types of marketers, including domestic and international companies, who have plans to know the exact influence on consumers' buying decisions. The present research paper is original and provides empirical evidence on the country of origin's impact on the buying decisions of different products/services in the UAE.