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The objective of the present research is to examine the impact of the country of origin of a brand on its consumer‐based equity.

Brand equity was conceptualized in this paper as a combination of brand awareness, brand associations, perceived quality and attitudinal brand loyalty. A doubly multivariate design was incorporated in a structured questionnaire to collect data via mall intercepts in an Australian capital city.

Multivariate analysis of variance of the data indicated that consumer‐based brand equity varied according to the country of origin of the brand and product category. This impact of country of origin on brand equity occurred where consumers perceived substantive differences between the countries in terms of their product category‐country associations.

An important direction for future research would be to examine how the consumer‐based equity of a brand would be affected, if the country of origin were changed from a country with weaker association with the product category to a country with strong association with the product category. The results would be useful to MNCs contemplating international manufacturing.

Marketing managers operating in the international context must identify the sources of brand equity, and understand the importance of incorporating country of origin into their brand equity measurement. Further, the results suggest that, when a brand offers a variety of product categories, brand managers should monitor and track the brand's consumer‐based equity for each product category.

The present study is one of the first to empirically examine and confirm the impact of country of origin on the consumer‐based equity of a brand.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an in‐depth examination of country‐of‐origin (COO) perceptions of consumers in a multinational setting. It shows how explanatory factors like demographics, familiarity with a country's products, purchase behaviour and psychological variables jointly work to explain consumers' COO perceptions.

This is a quantitative study using a drop‐off and pick‐up survey among three samples of consumers in Canada, Morocco and Taiwan. The final sample size was comprised of 506 male consumers. The data were analyzed using factor analysis to group countries of origin and analyses of variance to relate COO perceptions to the explanatory variables.

The familiarity with products made in a country was the strongest predictor of country perceptions, followed by nationality and the manufacturing process and product complexity dimensions of country evaluation. Canadians had the highest propensity to distinguish between countries of origin on the basis of product technological complexity and manufacturing dimensions and Moroccans the least. Taiwanese appeared to show animosity towards China.

The study used an only‐male sample from a limited number of countries. Future research should seek to develop a multi‐dimensional scale for the familiarity construct. They should also explore the concept of consumer capacity to distinguish between COOs. Cross‐national studies using cognitive style scales should be carried out. A qualitative examination of Taiwanese's COO perceptions is also recommended.

It seems important to increase consumers' familiarity with a COO and its products to improve its overall perception. Products made in Latin American countries have the lowest level of familiarity in general. Thus, increasing familiarity with their products is particularly important to achieve export success.

This study contributes to the marketing and international business literatures and provides insights to international marketers by bringing valuable information that can help make decisions as to where to manufacture and how to promote global products. It provides guidance as to what types of nations are likely to require multi‐dimensional information about countries of origin.

This paper discusses country‐of‐origin effects for automotive brands in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The focus is on two subdimensions of country‐of‐origin effects: perception of quality and emotions‐related aspects. Based on car drivers’ self‐images of various makes it is delineated that brands are perceived to have lower quality when evaluated in foreign markets. For Germany, Italy and Spain different results were found concerning the perception of emotional aspects. With respect to this dimension, foreign brands are evaluated superior in Germany. The opposite situation was found for foreign brands in Italy and Spain. Significant differences in country‐specific brand images were identified within the countries under consideration. The results apply to brands of the low/medium as well as luxury segment.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of country of origin (COO) sub‐components (i.e. design, assembly and parts), as well as the extent to which consumer ethnocentrism tendencies interact with these COO sub‐components for young Chinese consumers with regards to product quality assessments and purchase intentions.

A 2 × 2 × 2 factorial experimental design was used to examine the effects of the three sub‐components of COO with two levels of sourcing location – Home (China) and Foreign (Germany), for two high involvement products (an automobile and a digital camera). Chinese students in China represented the sample of 272 respondents. MANOVA was used to examine the direct effects and interactions of the three COO components, as well as ethnocentrism, measured using the CETSCALE.

It was found that the three COO sub‐components did not influence young Chinese consumers’ evaluation of product quality or purchase intentions. In addition, consumers’ level of ethnocentrism also did not have a direct effect on perceived product quality or purchase intentions. There was only one statistically significant interaction effect between ethnocentrism and country of parts for one of the two products. As such, COO dimensions and young Chinese consumers’ ethnocentrism appears to have limited influence on their assessments of product quality or purchase intentions. This may occur because young Chinese consumers perceive that hybrid products are the norm for high involvement products in China as these products are all these consumers have experienced.

The findings of this research dispute the commonly held belief and evidence that sub‐components of COO have an impact on the perceptions of product quality and purchase intentions. Young Chinese consumers may be different to consumers from western countries because they have been extensively exposed to hybrid products. Given the size and growth potential of China, young Chinese are an important, under‐researched segment within the Chinese market.

Set in the newly emerging hybrid product research stream, and reflecting trends towards multi‐national production and sourcing, this paper aims to present a three‐country study on perceived quality and image of automobiles “made in and for” Southeast Asia.

The authors used a multiple cue design in the stimulus definition, reflecting assembly and component origin plus warranty level. Actual car owners were targeted, thereby adding to a relatively low number of studies requiring actual prior purchase. The related face‐to‐face interviews in the local languages resulted in 720 usable questionnaires.

Country‐of‐assembly is shown to affect perceived quality as well as perceived image. Warranty extension can moderate the quality effects to some extent, whilst buyers of luxury models display a smaller positive home bias in terms of perceived image than those of non‐luxury models. Such home region bias is not demonstrated to be significant for country‐of‐components.

The paper contributes towards ongoing theory‐building, especially with regards to an optimum level of origin cue decomposition. It also establishes the importance of adding image perception measurement to the arsenal of origin researchers normally focused on quality effects.

Managers need to make strategic decisions on the decomposition of product origin cues, reflecting consumers' abilities to notice several such cues. The selected product origin cues must then be supported with appropriate communications strategies.

For the first time, origin effects are demonstrated for the Southeast Asia region. The paper establishes the significance of country‐of‐target and contributes to research on the ever more complex product origin construct.

Country of origin (COO) is well established as an extrinsic product cue that influences buyer behavior in the business-to-business (B2B) context. However, non-product-specific attitudes to a COO, including the notion of animosity, have received rather less attention. This paper aims to investigate COO as a multi-dimensional construct and animosity as a normative dimension of buyers’ attitudes and intentions.

The work is based on data collected from industrial buyers in Egypt and Canada to enable a comparative perspective between developing and developed countries. Structural equation modeling was used to test the study’s hypotheses.

Country of manufacture was an antecedent of perceived quality and a determinant of brand evaluation in both countries. Price was an antecedent of perceived risk and value in Egypt, while its impact on perceived risk was less pronounced in Canada. Perceived value was the strongest determinant of willingness to buy, while animosity played a significant role in this respect in Canada but not in Egypt.

Country of brand was not included as a dimension to be investigated; industry type was not controlled and may confound the results; and generalization of the results is limited given the cross-sectional approach.

The study’s contribution lies in four main elements, viewed individually and in combination: investigating a large number of COO constructs that have not been studied within a single research context in B2B before; including the animosity construct in a B2B setting; contrasting “benefit received” and “sacrifice given” constructs that help to shape industrial buyers’ purchase decisions; and carrying out the research in two very different countries to help improve the generalizability of results.

This research extends existing services offshoring literature by investigating how the type of information exchanged, technical support or personal billing, in conjunction with country-of-service-origin (COSO) influences consumer likelihood to react negatively (boycott issue importance, NWOM, perceived service quality) to an offshore service exchange.

Structural equations modelling is employed to assess relationships among constructs when country of service origin (New Zealand and the Philippines) and type of service provided (technical support and personal billing services) are varied. Using a scenario-based experimental design we collected 337 responses from a consumer panel across Australia.

Results indicate that both COSO and type of information exchanged affect service sentiment. Overall, consumers feel more negative and more likely to punish a company for offshoring to culturally dissimilar countries such as the Philippines than to culturally similar ones such as New Zealand. However, consumers were more concerned with personal billing services provided from offshore providers than technical support, regardless of COSO.

Practitioners need to understand customer sentiment about services offshoring in general as well as the relationship between service type and country of service origin when designing the global service supply chain.

This study extends theory by applying a multi-dimensional portfolio perspective in examining customer sentiment of offshore services. Understanding the underlying bases of customer concerns and how companies can mitigate negative perceptions allows firms to better manage service offshore strategy.

The country‐of‐origin literature has focused mainly on tangible products and has neglected largely intangible services and products such as the arts. The objective of this study is to examine the impact that country of origin may have on consumer perceptions of artistic and cultural products and to explore the variables that explain how consumers form their perceptions of countries as producers of cultural products.

A survey was conducted among adult consumers in Australia, Canada, Italy, Switzerland, and the USA that assessed participants' perceptions of 16 countries with respect to their reputation for nine cultural products.

The results indicate that product‐country images in the arts are affected by country and product familiarity as well as consumers' openness to foreign cultures and home country bias. Countries more proximate to the participants' home country were also better evaluated, especially when the proximity factor played a significant role in the consumption of cultural products.

While almost all of the hypotheses were supported, additional research is needed to examine the cultural products of non‐Western and emerging markets as well as product‐country perceptions in these markets.

This study extends our understanding of country‐of‐origin effects in the context of aesthetic, intangible, and complex products that elicit both cognitive and affective responses. It demonstrates that familiarity with a country of origin has a stronger association with positive perceptions of product‐country reputation than does product familiarity, and that openness to foreign cultures, home country bias, and proximity have a positive effect on product‐country evaluations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the consistency over time of customer attitude towards country-of-origin in a transitional economy.

A single cross-sectional study in Uzbekistan was carried out, with n=527, consisting of 374 street and 153 online surveys, replicating a study carried out 20 years earlier.

Whilst consumers still perceive products from advanced countries to have higher quality, quality perception in relation to country-of-origin information is dynamic and transitional countries can improve the perception of consumers towards their national brands.

This study was carried out in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, the most populous of the Central Asian republics. Researchers may wish to extend it by examining COO effects in other transitional economies, and additionally to examine the effect of country-of-brand origin.

Customer perceptions and attitudes take a long-time to evolve. This cross-sectional study showed that the COO perception of China has improved significantly and the perception towards the products produced locally in Uzbekistan has also slightly improved across all categories. Strong brands can contribute to the image of the country. Transition countries need to take appropriate marketing actions to cultivate positive perception through innovation and branding.

Prior research has been extended by adding new product categories such as mobile phones, computers, washing machines and air conditioners. This research shows that government officials and exporters in developing countries should prioritise strengthening their country’s image to help domestic marketers export and attract foreign investors. The authors provide insights for marketers to understand the impact of product country-of-origin on customer purchase intention and its antecedents in transitional economies, such as Uzbekistan.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a new perspective by conceptualising country of origin (COO) from a management perspective, identifying the impact different COO constructs have in the context of fashion retailer and manufacturer businesses.

This qualitative study comprises a series of in-depth interviews with key informants from large-scale fashion retailers and manufacturers in the UK.

The major findings of this research demonstrate that COO is considered a strategic business imperative but manifests in a variety of ways depending on brand positioning, long-term strategic plans, expertise, and brand values, etc.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge about the importance of COO. The findings of this research will have practical implications for manufacturers and retailers, informing the debate on the value of the “Made in […]” epithet. Findings are limited to the UK fashion clothing industry.

This research presents a new perspective on the COO construct, addressing it from a management rather than consumer perspective. It argues that COO can be considered as a strategic dimension, which is manifested in a variety of ways. COO has been extensively researched from a consumer point of view but this research takes a new approach by presenting findings from a managerial point of view, with fashion manufacturing and retail branding as the context.