Abstract
The main purpose of this study is to explore the effects of country-of-origin of a brand (COB) and country of manufacture (COM) on the overall brand equity (OBE). A second purpose of this research is to investigate the mediating role of consumer based brand equity (CBBE) on the relationship between COB and COM and overall brand equity (OBE). To undertake this, a conceptual framework was designed and relationships among its constructs COB, COM, CBBE, and OBE were hypothesized. Data were collected from consumers located in two major cities in Egypt who were the owners of the selected brands of mobile phones. All hypotheses were tested using regression analysis. Results indicate that both COB and COM have direct and significant effect on CBBE, yet COM has significant lower effect on CBBE. In addition, COB and COM have direct influence on the overall brand equity. Furthermore, unlike COB, the results emphasized the mediating effect of CBBE on the relationships between COM and the overall brand equity. The current study considers only one product category, future researches would consider different product categories, for example convenience products and non-durable ones. Further research would take into account COB and COM effects from other developed and developing countries. Different sub-dimensions of COO for example Country of Assembly (COA) and Country of Design (COD) would be researched. The value of this paper stems from decomposing country of origin into COB and COM and investigating their plausible effect on the CBBE and the overall brand equity from the Egyptian consumers' points of view. Moreover, the mediating effect of CBBE is another significant issue.
Highlights
Since its emergence in the 1960s, branding has attracted the attention of many researchers, with special emphasis on Brand Equity (BE) (Zeugner-Roth et al, 2008; Swaminathan et al, 2009; Keller, 2010; Hamzaoui-Essoussi et al, 2011)
The main purpose of this study is to explore the effects of country-of-origin of a brand (COB) and country of manufacture (COM) on the overall brand equity (OBE)
The results show that country-of-origin of brand country of origin of brand (COB) is significant in the regressions mediated by brand loyalty, perceived quality, brand awareness and brand image, with almost indifferent decrease in the beta coefficients across all consumer based brand equity dimensions except for brand loyalty
Summary
Since its emergence in the 1960s, branding has attracted the attention of many researchers, with special emphasis on Brand Equity (BE) (Zeugner-Roth et al, 2008; Swaminathan et al, 2009; Keller, 2010; Hamzaoui-Essoussi et al, 2011). According to Keller (2013), brand equity represents the value that consumers associate with a brand. It reflects consumers’ perceptions towards a particular brand (Yasin et al, 2007). The country of origin (COO) or the 'made in' label of a product creates secondary association (Baldauf et al, 2009). Country of origin (COO) shapes consumers perceptions, manipulates their preferences and choices of a particular brand, and their tendencies to pay more. In a developing country like Egypt, consumers perceive country of origin of a product as a manifestation of its overall quality, besides sometimes COO symbolizes status and enhance consumer's self-esteem
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