This thesis proposal is inspired by a personal business idea: the import of German bicycle locks to the Taiwanese market. The Taiwanese bicycle market experienced a remarkable boom in the last 3 years. Across the island, bicycle riding became a very popular hobby for people of all ages. Parallel to the increased bicycle sales, the market for various bicycle accessories has also expanded.
Most of the purchasing decisions are still made at the point of sale. This study examines how Taiwanese consumers evaluate a product that they in general have little knowledge about. Manufactured products of almost every category are getting more and more sophisticated hence their value is often not very evident for the consumer. With intrinsic cues not clearly visible or difficult to identify, consumers will have to rely on extrinsic cues when making their purchasing decisions.
This study is using a combination of the extrinsic cues: country-of-origin, business longevity and price. These three cues were chosen for their realistic adjacency to the German manufacturing landscape. German products are usually higher priced due to its general high labor costs. The manufacturing industry has a long tradition in Germany. Most of the companies were already founded before the Second World War or shortly after it and as Germany is a developed country it should have a positive country-of-origin effect.
Price and country-of-origin are well researched extrinsic cues with research studies on these topics are dating back more than 40 years. Business longevity on the other hand, just recently became an extrinsic cue of interest in the academic world. This is the first study combining all three cues and their influence toward perceived value, perceived risk and finally their influence on purchase intentions.

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