1 The Chinese-Brand Electric Vehicles in the Eyes …
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• I am willing to purchase a CBEVs, labeled as “Made in (country)”.
The scale ranges from “1: strongly disagree” to “5: strongly agree”.
Perceived product quality toward CBEVs consists of four questions with the fivepoint Likert scale about technological advancement, workmanship, reliability, and
safety modified from Klein (2002). For example on safety,
• I think Chinese-brand EV, labeled as “Made in [country]” is safe to drive.
The score of perceived product quality (PQ) is derived from the average of the scores
of these four aspects.
1.3.2.2 Perceptions Toward CBEVs
The questionnaire items measuring the respondents’ perceptions toward CBEVs are
modified from Wang et al. (2013) and Matsumoto et al. (2018). Perceived benefits
index (PB) is constructed by two items:
• Buying EV instead of a conventional car can lead to resource and energy savings
• Buying EV instead of a conventional car can reduce the harmful effect on the
environment.
Perceived risks index (PR) is three items
• The quality and the safety of EV is not as good as that of a conventional car
• The EV does not perform and function as well as a conventional car
• Buying EV is not a good investment.
The scores of five items are measured by the above-mentioned scale. PB and PR
are calculated by the average of scores of items within each construct.
1.3.2.3 Ethnocentrism
A respondent’s ethnocentrism index (ET ) is measured by four questionnaire items
modified from Klein (2002):
• It is not right to purchase foreign cars because it puts Americans out of a job
• A real American should always buy American automobiles
• Americans should not buy foreign products, because this hurts American business
and causes unemployment
• We should purchase automobiles made in the USA instead of letting other
countries get rich off of us.
This combination takes care of the multicollinearity issue. All four items are
measured by the five-point scale as before. ET is derived from the average of the
scores of four items. We transform this variable from continuous to dichotomous by
separating ET > 3 (high levels) from ET ≤ 3 (not high levels).
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• I am willing to purchase a CBEVs, labeled as “Made in (country)”.
The scale ranges from “1: strongly disagree” to “5: strongly agree”.
Perceived product quality toward CBEVs consists of four questions with the fivepoint Likert scale about technological advancement, workmanship, reliability, and
safety modified from Klein (2002). For example on safety,
• I think Chinese-brand EV, labeled as “Made in [country]” is safe to drive.
The score of perceived product quality (PQ) is derived from the average of the scores
of these four aspects.
1.3.2.2 Perceptions Toward CBEVs
The questionnaire items measuring the respondents’ perceptions toward CBEVs are
modified from Wang et al. (2013) and Matsumoto et al. (2018). Perceived benefits
index (PB) is constructed by two items:
• Buying EV instead of a conventional car can lead to resource and energy savings
• Buying EV instead of a conventional car can reduce the harmful effect on the
environment.
Perceived risks index (PR) is three items
• The quality and the safety of EV is not as good as that of a conventional car
• The EV does not perform and function as well as a conventional car
• Buying EV is not a good investment.
The scores of five items are measured by the above-mentioned scale. PB and PR
are calculated by the average of scores of items within each construct.
1.3.2.3 Ethnocentrism
A respondent’s ethnocentrism index (ET ) is measured by four questionnaire items
modified from Klein (2002):
• It is not right to purchase foreign cars because it puts Americans out of a job
• A real American should always buy American automobiles
• Americans should not buy foreign products, because this hurts American business
and causes unemployment
• We should purchase automobiles made in the USA instead of letting other
countries get rich off of us.
This combination takes care of the multicollinearity issue. All four items are
measured by the five-point scale as before. ET is derived from the average of the
scores of four items. We transform this variable from continuous to dichotomous by
separating ET > 3 (high levels) from ET ≤ 3 (not high levels).