Country Of Origin Effect Research Articles

Influence of Country of Origin on Brand Evangelism (E-WOM): The Mediating Role of Consumer Engagement in an Emerging Market

This study investigates the impact of country of origin (COO) on consumer attitudes and brand evangelism in Ghana’s telecommunications industry. The research uses a multi-study approach, examining three telecom brands (A, B, and C) in Ghana. The data was collected online and offline, with a month delay to reduce method bias. The study found that the COO significantly influences consumers’ affective and cognitive engagements with telecom brands A and B, but does not directly impact behavioral engagement of any of the brands. The study emphasizes the importance of emotional and cognitive connections in driving brand evangelism as behavioral engagement alone may not translate into evangelism. The findings suggest that telecom brands can leverage their COO to enhance consumer engagement and foster brand evangelism by emphasizing positive associations with their origin. This research fills a gap in the literature by exploring the COO effect on telecom brands’ consumer engagement and brand evangelism. However, limitations include the focus on Ghanaian consumers and the use of PLS-SEM analysis, suggesting opportunities for further research in different cultural contexts and alternative methodologies.

Country-of-Origin Effect in the Marketing of Sports Shoes among University Students

The aim of this study is to examine the Country-of-Origin (COO) effect in the marketing of sports shoes among university students. 156 university students were randomly distributed into three groups and exposed to a fictitious sports shoes’ advertisement. COO information was not provided in the Control Group (n = 53). The experimental groups were provided information on COO from either a country with high COO scores (n=50) or low COO scores (n=53). A one-way ANCOVA found that there was a significant difference in Perception of Quality of the sports shoes between groups, F(2,152) = 2.98, p <.10 with respondents exposed to the advertisement featuring a country with high COO scores reporting the highest level of perceived quality. However, there was no significant difference across the groups for purchase intention. This suggests that COO effect exists for perception of quality but does not translate to purchase intention. Keywords: perception of quality, purchase intention, advertising, sports, footwear

Validation of country-of-origin effects on crisis spillovers: A meta-analysis

In today's globalized economy and highly interconnected media landscape, the impact of country-of-origin (COO) effects on crisis spillovers has attracted growing interest. However, the majority of the relevant studies are limited to case studies. A clear understanding of the relationship between COO effects and crisis spillovers has yet to be established. To address this gap, a meta-analysis of 24 causal pairs from 9 papers (n = 5746, combined n = 10942) was performed. The results indicate that COO effects can somewhat limit crisis spillovers. Specifically, the COO effect has a medium degree of mitigating effect on morality (r = 0.403) and competence crises (r = 0.240). When the COO is a developed country (r = 0.345), the COO effect can effectively mitigate crisis spillovers to a medium extent, while when the COO is a developing country (r = 0.180), the COO effect is small. Using organizational impressions (r = 0.357) rather than purchase intentions (r = 0.157) as a measurement instrument makes it easier to observe the dampening effect of COO on crisis spillovers. These findings enrich the theoretical framework of public relations and crisis management and provide strategies for business organizations to cope with spillovers.

Country of origin effect in the preferences of wine consumers in new markets

El efecto país origen ha sido protagonista de numerosos estudios durante varios años, donde se ha afirmado que es un factor relevante por considerar en el comportamiento del consumidor, debido a que se refiere a la percepción que tienen las personas frente a un producto extranjero, de acuerdo con la etiqueta de su país de origen. El objetivo de la presente investigación es conocer las características del consumidor de vino en Cali (Colombia), una región donde el consumo de esta bebida ha venido en aumento en los últimos años, teniendo en cuenta su nivel de involucramiento y la influencia del país de origen en su decisión de compra.

Country of origin effects in explaining motivations for COVID-19 vaccine acceptance: A cognitive-affective-norm approach

This study aims to broaden the understanding of the motivational factors influencing vaccine acceptance framed as product country image (PCI) by exploring the role of overall country image (OCI), vaccine knowledge and information inconsistency, in addition to the three most commonly investigated constructs: vaccine efficacy, fear of vaccine and social norm. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed online to 593 Vietnamese participants to collect data on COVID-19 vaccines from four different countries: the USA, the UK, Russia and China. Structural equation modelling was employed to test the proposed model and hypotheses. The results indicated that OCI had a positive effect on vaccine acceptance for vaccines from the USA and Russia, but a non-significant effect for vaccines from the UK and a negative effect for vaccines from China. Vaccine efficacy, social norm and subjective knowledge had a positive effect for most vaccines, while fear of the vaccine and information inconsistency had negative effects for certain vaccines. The results suggest that vaccine efficacy and social norm are more stable and significant predictors of vaccine acceptance than other constructs. Moreover, OCI moderated the effects of vaccine efficacy, fear of the vaccine, information inconsistency, subjective knowledge and social norm on vaccine acceptance for certain vaccines.

The Impact of Country-of-Origin Effect on Brand Marketing-Taking Hagen-Dazs as an Example

With an emphasis on the use of the Country of Origin (CoO) effect to influence consumer views of the brand and its goods, this study attempts to analyze the difficulties and issues faced by Hagen-Dazs, a well-known American ice cream producer. The investigation reveals fascinating results that defy accepted wisdom. The study offers insightful conclusions and suggestions for Hagen-Dazs and the larger marketing sector by investigating these findings. Examining Hagen-Dazs's difficulties reveals the difficulties in applying the CoO effect, a crucial branding strategy. The study deepens our understanding of the mechanics and dynamics involved in managing an internationally renowned brand like Hagen-Dazs by focusing on these difficulties. The report also provides analyses and suggestions based on the discovered empirical evidence. These thoughts are intended to improve brand management strategy comprehension and application, particularly in light of the CoO impact. Overall, this study adds to the body of knowledge on brand management by highlighting the particular difficulties faced by Hagen-Dazs and offering insightful advice to marketers looking to fully utilize the CoO effect.

A closer look at geographical indicators: how food labels influence product values, authenticity and willingness to pay premium prices

PurposeThe effects of country-of-origin (COO) cues on product evaluations are well documented. However, research on the relative effects of COO compared to other geographical indicators, such as region-of-origin (ROO), on food purchases is still limited. This study investigates how geographical origin labels influence consumers' perceptions of product value and authenticity of foreign food, as well as subsequent purchase intention (PI) and willingness to pay premium prices (WTPPP). The moderating role of health consciousness on these relationships is also examined due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a between-subjects experimental design conducted with 300 middle- and high-income Chinese consumers aged between 25 and 50 years. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling.FindingsWhilst under both COO and ROO cues, all five product values positively influenced consumers' WTPPP, only functional, economic and novelty values influenced PI. The ROO cue performed significantly better than the COO cue in eliciting functional, economic and novelty value perceptions, which triggered stronger PI and willingness to pay a premium price. These relationships were mediated by product authenticity (PA) and moderated by consumers' health consciousness (HC).Practical implicationsBecause food labels provide salient product information that facilitates consumers' evaluation of products, marketers should assess which product value perceptions they wish to enhance and then choose the appropriate geographical indicators for their labelling strategies.Originality/valueThis study identifies the effects of COO and ROO cues on product values, authenticity, PI and WTPPP. It also provides valuable insights into the role of HC on consumers' purchase decisions, which also aids in understanding the impact of global crises on food purchases.

How product hedonism affects the Country-of-Origin effect on product perceived quality and price in the China market

PurposeWestern manufacturers have often benefited from the Country-of-Origin (COO) effect when a product is launched into emerging markets. The authors examine if this still holds true in the China market. The authors believe that the degree of perceived hedonism associated with the product does matter and, therefore, conducted an experiment to test how this influences the effect of COO on perceived quality and price of the product. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned objective.Design/methodology/approachA lab experiment with a 2 (COO: Western vs. Local) x 2 (Hedonism: High vs. Low) factorial design was conducted with Chinese consumers as subjects. The dependent variables were perceived quality and price of the products.FindingsIt was found that Western COO has a positive effect on the product perceived quality and price in the China market, but the effect was significantly moderated by the degree of perceived hedonism of the products.Originality/valueThe study used an experiment to investigate the different prominence of the COO effect on perceived quality and price in terms of hedonic vs. utilitarian products which has not been done previously. The findings provide implications concerning allocation of marketing resources to product positioning in the presence of different degrees of perceived hedonism and suggest additional areas for future examination.

The Innovation of New Dry Ports in Zimbabwe: The Critical Success Factors (CSF) And Fault Lines

This research is about, “The innovation of new dry ports in Zimbabwe: the Critical Success Factors (CSF) and fault lines.” Zimbabwe wanted to start four new dry ports across the country and researchers wanted to help by carrying out research on critical success factors to make these dry ports a success, based on success stories elsewhere, and avoid having another white elephant or disappointment. Researchers used the survey questionnaire method as well as face to face interviews, expert panel interviews at universities, observation and literature review in this research. Findings revealed that dry ports required total connectivity to strategic national institutions and corporates like warehouses, bonded warehouses, airports, Ministries, roads, Customs and Excise Department and railways, and these must all fully embrace e-government/smart supply chain and be strategically linked to all importers and exporters as well as critical trade and related government departments. This is a new concept in Zimbabwe but quite old elsewhere. Systems and institutions have improved a lot but still needed further improvement in Zimbabwe to march SADC/COMESA competitors like South Africa, Zambia, Botswana and Mozambique. It was found that critical skills, ports, Customs and investment infrastructure in Zimbabwe needed to be improved as well as processing and turnaround time to match best practices in SADC/COMESA and globally. A One Stop Shop for investment was there but not fully operationalised to cover all transactions, is about partly operational. Delayed deliveries and wrong documentation were experienced sometimes due to port and Customs delays or transport and loading delays. Zimbabwe had made great strides no doubt and was marching on for stardom and big achievements. This paper is futuristic and will be mostly based on best practices globally which Zimbabwe can learn from and start successful dry ports that really add value to the national economy, and avoid toxic bottlenecks and cost overruns. It was time Zimbabwe started to seriously adopt smart blockchain technologies like South Africa to improve efficiencies and turnaround time. One of the biggest frustrations and costs in the value chain was customs delays, fuel shortages and power outages. Something must be done long-term to address these bottlenecks. Dry ports were just like any other business and were concerned about ease of doing business, national competitiveness, country of origin effect, and national image. A business was a business regardless of sector, as they all used the same benchmarks and standards, and deliverables were achievable in a conducive national business environment which generated maximum profits to shareholders and taxes to the government whilst creating thousands of jobs, giving a world-class logistics service, being a national prestige project, national pride and point of reference, giving wide product choice and prosperity to the nation, and operating with environmental protection and ethics in mind. Zimbabwean politicians, the population at large, NGOs, and industrialists needed to get this message as clear as possible.

Country-of-origin effects on consumer cognitive structures and preference for foreign brands among elites

PurposeDespite the plethora of research into country-of-origin (COO) effects, research that investigates the cognitive structures behind elite consumers' preferences for foreign brands remains limited. Hence, this study aims to investigate the cognitive structures behind foreign brand preference among professional elites in Sri Lanka.Design/methodology/approachUsing the means-end chain (MEC) theory as the theoretical lens and building on the findings of 30 laddering interviews (semi-structured), a survey was conducted among 311 professional elites to uncover the key elements of the cognitive structures behind foreign brand preference.FindingsThe findings revealed that the cognitive structures behind foreign brand preference are influenced by a bundle of brand attributes, brand consequences and personal values of elites', which significantly influence their attitudes towards foreign brands. Multi-group analysis further revealed that the relationship between brand attributes and attitudes significantly differs across Chinese and US COOs where the path coefficient is stronger for elites' preference for Chinese brands.Originality/valueThis study is the first of its kind to explore the COO effects on consumer cognitive structures. The findings contribute to MEC theory and shed light on the understanding towards elites' preference for foreign brands.

Ways to neutralize the country-of-origin effect in the emerging market firms international branding1

Abstract Paper’s objectives The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which to neutralize the country-of-origin (COO) effect (COE) in the emerging market of firms’ international branding. Design/methods applied/approach used A multiple-case study of five companies from European and Asian emerging markets – owners of household appliances brands, with data sourced from in-depth interviews and secondary sources. Findings Companies from emerging markets neutralize the genuine COO in their international branding in various ways, for example, by applying brand or sub-brand names that do not refer to the genuine country-of-brand-origin, using slogans in foreign languages or establishing brand alliances with partners from developed countries. Originality/value This study offers original insights fostering a better understanding of international branding strategies applied by emerging market companies by identifying the ways they neutralize the COE both at the brand concept level and brand marketing communication tools.

The influence of online retail/service brand equity and effect of country of origin on e-marketplace patronage intention

E-marketplaces are estimated as the primary online shopping channel in Thailand; however, the local e-marketplaces cannot compete with foreign competitors. Besides, Thai online shoppers prefer to shop from cross-border websites. Brand equity can strengthen traditional retailers' patronage intention. However, the brand equity concept, which is particular for online retailers, may be more suitable for strengthening the e-marketplaces of the country. Also, studies on the effect of country of origin (COO) on online retailers in terms of foreignness are limited. Therefore, the study aims to investigate the e-marketplace patronage intention of Thai online shoppers by utilising the extended theory of reasoned action (TRA), with online retail/service (ORS) brand equity as an independent variable and the effect of COO as a moderator variable. The findings reveal that all of the independent variables are positively significant with e-marketplace patronage intention except the effect of COO. The relationship between attitude towards behaviour and the e-marketplace patronage intention is negatively moderated by the effect of COO.

THE MEDIATING ROLE OF CONSUMER ETHNOCENTRISM BETWEEN COUNTRY OF ORIGIN AND PURCHASE INTENTION

In the face of changing conditions and consumer needs around the world, businesses need to be able to adapt to these conditions and respond to the needs of the consumer in order to survive. For this reason, companies have to analyze the ethnocentric tendencies of the consumers, as well as the country of origin perceptions and their effects on the purchase intention. The aim of this study is to reveal the mediating role of consumer ethnocentrism between country of origin and purchase intention. For the purpose of the research, consumer ethnocentrism, country of origin effect and purchase intentions for local cheeses of North Cyprus, were examined. Quantitative research method was used in the research. The model design of this study was conducted in accordance with the causality research purpose. The sample of the research is composed of consumers in Northern Cyprus. Study participants were identified using convenience sampling method. 421 consumers participated in the research. The results show that there is a positive relationship between consumer ethnocentrism, country of origin and purchase intention. According to the results, it was determined that the consumer ethnocentrism tendencies partially mediated the relationship between the country of origin scale and the consumer purchase intention.

Bias behind closed doors: Chinese consumers' perception of foreign wines

AbstractAlthough considerable research has explored consumer ethnocentrism and conspicuous consumption effects independently, a meaningful quantitative analysis of the interaction of such effects on consumer perception is yet to be undertaken. This study aims to provide insight into these effects by examining the impacts of consumer ethnocentrism and consumption setting on foreign Country‐of‐Origin (COO) effects in a Chinese consumer wine market context. A total of 324 wine consumers in mainland China participated in a 3 (COO: France vs. Australia vs. China) × 2 (Consumption Setting: Public vs. Private) × continuous (Chinese consumer ethnocentrism) between‐subject, factorial design experiment. The study finds that Chinese consumers favor French red wine when compared with its Australian and Chinese counterparts but shows that Australian wines still benefit through smaller, indirect COO effects. Additionally, French COO effects are mediated by the utilitarian and hedonic meanings of red wine and moderated by consumer trait ethnocentrism and the consumption setting. This paper contributes to the understanding of culturally informed self‐regulation of consumer behaviors and how Chinese consumer ethnocentrism interacts with consumption settings to alter a consumer's perception of foreign goods. The findings of this paper also provide practical insight into Chinese wine consumers' perceptions and decision‐making processes for wine exporters.

The mediating role of product judgment and country of origin effect on health literacy and behavioral intention: A study on COVID-19 vaccines perception of Turkish consumers

ABSTRACT This study is conducted on people in Turkey who had at least one dose of vaccination and it evaluates their differences in attitude in terms of health literacy, product judgment, the country of origin, intention to recommend and motivation to boycott. The 393 vaccine consumers were selected through convenient sampling and the data was collected through online questionnaires. The data was later analyzed by SPSS and AMOS. Normality, reliability tests and frequency analysis were conducted on the data. Afterward, a correlation was calculated using factor loadings to determine the relationship between the variables. The last was conducting the PATH analysis. Some consumers are prejudiced toward COVID-19 vaccines due to perceived distrust, hesitation, and lack of product information. Determining the prejudices of consumers, underlying causes and making inferences will provide more useful information on COVID-19 vaccines to health institutions, vaccine manufacturers, consumers and other organizations.

When degree of integration mediates level of acquired ownership and post-acquisition innovation performance: evidence from cross-border technological acquisitions

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to test a model for cross-border technological acquisitions (CBTAs) focusing on the level of ownership acquired in the target firm and the acquiring firm's post-acquisition innovation performance (PAIP), with the degree of integration as a mediator, based on the dynamic capability perspective of the resource-based view. This study further concludes the role of the country-of-origin effect (COE) (when emerging economies' acquiring firms purchase technological resources from developed economies' target firms) on the success of the acquiring firms in CBTAs.Design/methodology/approachData on CBTAs initiated by 542 acquiring firms was quantified from four high technology industries from 1995 to 2015 for the empirical investigation of the research hypotheses. Hierarchical fixed year effect negative binomial regression technique was used to analyze the proposed model for the success of CBTAs.FindingsThe analysis of the CBTAs confirmed that acquiring firms who opt for a higher level of acquired ownership strategy increase the degree of integration of the target firm's technological resource stock. The level of acquired ownership improves the PAIP of the acquiring firms; however, the degree of integration positively accelerates the relationship between the acquired ownership and the PAIP. Considering the COE, acquiring firms that initiated CBTAs from emerging economies to purchase technological resources from developed economies' targets have firm-specific technological capability holes to execute the integration, which negatively impacts the emerging economies acquiring firm's PAIP.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the CBTAs literature by exploring the enabling role of the degree of integration between the level of acquired ownership and the PAIP of the acquiring firms. Further, this study put forward empirics on the COE of the acquiring firms for their integrative capability to integrate the target firm's resource stock and subsequent innovation performance.

Measuring country of origin effects in online shopping implicitly: a discrete choice analysis approach

PurposeTo examine whether the country of origin (COO) effect actually exists in an e-commerce context, the authors intend to contribute to the ongoing debate by measuring the COO effect through a series of connected studies.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on cue utilization theory, the authors emphasize the urge to investigate the COO effect in multiple cue settings in order to reveal a more realistic picture of its actual effect size. In contrast to most prior research, which often does not analyze COO using methodological plurality and neglects important contextual factors, the authors employed a four-staged research design in an attempt to trigger and measure the COO’s implicit effect size in today’s pervasive context of online shopping. The importance of brands (inhering the COO) is decompositionally calculated relative to other extrinsic cues by applying a Hierarchical Bayes estimation, with the COO impact being extracted subsequently.FindingsThe results deepen concerns that the COO effect actually does not exist, particularly in the more contemporary context of online shopping. Specifically, preferences for previously favored German products faded when controlling for brand attitude for both high-involvement (p = 0.003) and low-involvement products (p = 0.024).Research limitations/implicationsThe study focused on consumers of Generation Y, as they represent one of the most important segments in online shopping. Findings might be replicated for other consumer generations. The study focused on Chinese consumers, as the Chinese e-commerce market represents the world’s largest one. Future studies might investigate other markets.Practical implicationsAs brands, rather than a COO effect, impacted consumer preferences, companies selling their products to Chinese consumers online need to establish a reputation for quality early on. Chinese companies should emphasize their COO to make use of the ethnocentrism detected. Companies profit from the Best-Worst Scaling investigation revealing which product categories Chinese consumers most preferably buy online from German companies.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to capture the importance of COO in the contemporary context of ubiquitous online shopping. Moreover, a more realistic and less biased way of measuring the importance of COO is enabled by building upon three pre-connected studies. The findings allow to develop a generalization for both high- and low-involvement products.

EFEK INTERAKSI NEGARA PRODUSEN DAN KESADARAN MEREK UNTUK NIAT PEMBELIAN KAUM MUDA PADA PRODUK DENGAN KETERLIBATAN RENDAH

This study aims to examine the effect of producer country interaction and brand awareness, packaging and price impact on toothpaste purchase intention among young people. As previous studies have shown, country of origin should not be considered a single clue, as this overestimates the country of origin effect. This study evaluates the effect of country of origin (product) on goods with low involvement (in this case toothpaste). The Cue Utilization Theory is used to explain how consumers use product cues to assess a product before making a purchase decision. Research data were analyzed using SmartPLS. The results of this study indicate that all variables affect the consumer's purchase intention of toothpaste. IPMA (Importance and Performance Matrix) analysis shows that the interaction effect of producer countries and brand awareness is an important factor

Country of Origin Effects on Brand Image and Social Status in an Emerging Market

Research suggests that country of origin (COO) information serves as a cue from which consumers make influences about product and product attributes. The COO cue triggers a global evaluation of quality, performance or specific product attributes. Consumers inter attributes to the product based on country stereotype and experiences with products from that country. As consumer demand for products in developed countries is reaching the saturation point, companies are looking for new consumers with a strong purchasing power elsewhere. Clearly, through undertaking consumers' differences, companies can better position their product in the marketplace. Hence this research will look at COO effects with respect to price, quality, brand effect and social status to determine elite consumers buying behavior in an emerging market and will provide better understanding and insights into the emerging segments of elite consumers in India.

Effects of country of origin and importers’ innovativeness in new product trials

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to seek to investigate whether and how country of origin (COO) cues – category-country image (CCI) and typicality – and importers’ domain-specific innovativeness (DSI) influence importers’ propensity to the trial new value and premium products. Moreover, it aims to understand whether and how the relationship between the COO effect and industrial purchase intentions is moderated by importers’ propensity to innovate (DSI).Design/methodology/approachInternational importers completed a quantitative online survey. Factor analysis was used to summarize the latent constructs into orthogonal scores. General linear modeling was applied to the scores to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results indicate that importers’ propensity to trial value products is directly influenced by CCI and importers’ DSI. For premium products, typicality has a positive effect on their propensity to trial. Also, CCI and DSI have positive effects on the trial of value products, and the effect is more pronounced than for premium products. Importers’ DSI positively moderates CCI in premium product trials, while it negatively moderates typicality in value products.Practical implicationsThis research provides important managerial implications for practitioners seeking to increase foreign sales, strengthening importers’ product perceived value through COO cues. Exporters should distinguish between value and premium products and, in the selection of international channel partners, they must be attentive to importers’ personal characteristics, such as their propensity to innovate. Exporters selling value products should communicate CCI more clearly and, when targeting innovative importers, opt for atypical products instead of traditional ones. For premium products, which require more complex decisions, exporters should especially underscore product typicality and, with innovative importers, emphasize positive CCI.Originality/valueBy focusing on the two critical issues of product selection and price levels, this study’s original contribution is to emphasize that, for the same product category, in industrial purchasing decisions of value versus premium products, the COO effect can be different. It also highlights the importance of investigating the COO effect by concentrating on industrial buyers’ personal characteristics, here the DSI of importers, as moderating variables.