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Consumer knowledge has frequently been mentioned in the literature as a potential mediating factor in consumers’ use of country of origin as a product information cue. However, there is little agreement on the appropriate definition and measurement of consumer knowledge in this context, nor on the likely direction of its impact. Reports of empirical findings concerning the issue are even scarcer. Looks at various dimensions of consumer knowledge and how they impact on consumers’ use of the country of origin cue in evaluations of alcoholic beverages. Finds that neither brand familiarity nor objective or subjective product knowledge has a general main effect on consumers’ use of the country of origin cue but there are significant interaction effects. Shows that objective product class knowledge can, under certain circumstances, increase consumers’ reliance on country of origin when evaluating products with unfamiliar brand names but not with familiar brand names.

The main purpose of the study is to extend Schaefer's paper by investigating how different dimensions of consumer knowledge may affect country of origin cues with an Australian sample.

A self‐administered mail survey was used in this study. The main sample consisted of Australian residents who are aged 18 and above and may or may not be alcoholic drinkers. The mailing list was purchased from a local council consisting of a suburb of metropolitan Perth, Western Australia. The total usable response rate was 38.7 per cent.

The results indicated that country of origin cues affect Australian consumers in beer evaluations despite its weak influences. It suggested that brand familiarity and objective product knowledge mediate the extent to which consumers relied on country of origin in product evaluation. However, the study found inconsistent results between different levels of objective knowledge and its effects on country of origin of manufacture.

The paper replicates Schaefer's with extensions. Despite the inconclusive results, objective product‐country knowledge, to some extent, may distort country of origin influences on consumers. This finding yields some insight for the efficiency in market segmentation. By segmenting consumers on different levels of knowledge, the marketers will subsequently make a better decision of how brand and country of origin should be managed.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how brand origin (BO) cues affect the consumer’s association of a new brand with BO learning and the subsequent effects on brand image (BO semiotics). An integrative theoretical framework is proposed that includes both processes.

The proposed model is based on analogical learning theory and triadic semiotic theory.

Two types of BO knowledge form BO meanings in consumer minds: country-related categories and exemplar brands, which have a classification and/or inferential role. The brand cues (indexes or icons) used by consumers to identify BO generate one or the other type of BO knowledge. Indexes trigger the classification function of country-related categories while icons trigger the inferential role of country-related categories and exemplar brands. BO knowledge informs the meaning transfer when consumers interpret the meaning of a new brand, leading to either a transfer of relations or a transfer of attributes to the new brand.

Marketers should monitor BO exemplar brands that consumers use as meaning sources and carefully select the signs used in their communications to evoke BO.

The proposed framework contrasts with dominant categorisation perspectives, re-establishing the dual role of categories and emphasising the relevance of brand cues in BO identification and BO exemplar brands in the BO meaning transfer process. A meaning-centred perspective is adopted to integrate BO identification and the related transfer mechanisms.

A recent stream of research has focused on typicality associations – those that bring origins and products together. Most of the research has focused on typical products but atypical products have received very little attention, even though they are more and more present on the market. As it has yet to be reviewed, the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic product cues and product evaluations is examined in this paper for typical and atypical origin products.

Wine was used as the stimulus, and consumer evaluations of typical and atypical wines were reviewed. Consumers were segmented based on their knowledge of the product category. French respondents (n = 370) participated in an online questionnaire regarding the product cues they found most important, depending on if the wine was from the New World or the Old World.

The results show that extrinsic cues are just as important as intrinsic cues in the evaluation of origin products, contrary to what prior research suggests. Furthermore, consumer knowledge moderates the evaluations of origin products; the results empirically confirms the theoretical country of origin – elaboration likelihood model (CoO-ELM) proposed by Bloemer et al. (2009) for atypical origin products, but show typical products are evaluated differently.

This is the first study that empirically tests the CoO-ELM and includes the added dimension of typicality. The results allow for a better understanding of consumer perceptions of origin products and their cues.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize and test a new concept named “Brand Origin RECall Accuracy” (BORECA) that assesses consumers’ ability to recall accurately the origins of brands they are aware of. It measures consumers’ brand awareness and brand origin (BO) awareness for a given product category.

Based on the accessibility–diagnosticity model and the limitations of the brand origin recognition accuracy concept, the authors propose and test the BORECA concept focusing on one product category (apparel) in an emerging country context, i.e. Tunisia (Mena). A sample of 374 respondents were surveyed on country-of-origin (COO)-category awareness, brand awareness, BO awareness and foreign vs local brand quality evaluation. Descriptive statistics, correlation indices, MANOVA and linear regression analysis were used in data analysis.

Results show a substantial BORECA score, i.e. highly accurate awareness of the origins of the recalled brands, affected by respondents’ age, gender and education level. The average BORECA score for local brands is higher than for foreign brands. The local BORECA score seems to positively correlate to respondents’ evaluation of local brand quality and negatively to foreign (dominant COO category) brands.

Based on an aided recall task rather than simple recognition, BORECA provides a deeper assessment of brand awareness and BO awareness. The pressure induced by the task (knowledge test + retrieval effort) may cause anxiety bias that inhibits the recall of other brands and BOs.

Nationalistic and ethnocentric tendencies emerging in the findings point to some branding strategies for both local and foreign companies.

The paper provides a good indication of BO salience in an emerging economy. It seeks to explain the impact of the BORECA score for local brands on the perceived quality of both local and foreign brands.

The purpose of this article is to reflect on the development of knowledge management so as to argue whether knowledge management (KM) is a multidisciplinary field.

To set the scene by reviewing and synthesizing the scholarly works and published practices of knowledge management, this paper presents an overview of the recent and rapidly growing literature on knowledge management.

The paper presents a discussion, addressing the question of what those disciplines are on which knowledge management discourse is exactly drawn on. The fact is that knowledge management draws from a wide range of disciplines. Although scholars from several disciplines attempt to claim ownership of the knowledge management, today both practitioners and academics alike recognize that knowledge management is an eclectic field rather than grounded in a specific ideology.

The paper does not offer comprehensive understanding of the disciplinary roots of knowledge management because it has not reviewed all the papers available in KM.

The paper does raise awareness of the genesis of knowledge management. It will encourage insightful managers to examine this research in more depth as a means of guidance for making use of KM initiatives in their organization.

Highlighting the growing interest in knowledge management, the paper inspires knowledge management researchers to be rigorous in both disciplinary grounding and integration. Although the paper does not attempt to detail the origins and the gradual development of the KM field, it contributes to improving theory, practice, and pedagogy in the field of KM by articulating its origin.

This study investigates the relationship between accuracy of brand‐country of origin (COO) knowledge and COO image, in a franchising context. Accuracy of brand‐COO knowledge is found to be positively related to COO image. Inaccurate brand‐COO knowledge leads to a confusing and somewhat negative image about COO. In addition, antecedents to the brand‐COO knowledge are also investigated. Factors such as social class, education and travel abroad positively influence brand‐COO knowledge. This investigation, conducted in an emerging market, holds interesting research and managerial implications, especially for multinational franchisors.

The purpose of this paper is to address the apparent controversy surrounding the relevance of country of origin (CO) and brand origin (BO) lines of research, with particular reference to an article authored by Magnusson, Westjohn, and Zdravkovic (MWZ) whose research findings assert that CO matters, irrespective of whether customers can actually recall origins of brands.

Drawing on the extant literature from academic and business publications, the paper offers evidence regarding the relative unimportance of origin‐related attributes in most purchasing situations. In this context, the paper examines the atheoretic nature of CO research combined with a general lack of realistic managerial relevance, consumers’ impoverished CO and BO knowledge base, and the challenges of using CO as a positioning tool in marketing strategy. Finally, the paper examines some critical research issues regarding MWZ's contribution.

Country of origin research is not as relevant in customer choice process as some scholars believe and is generally void of meaningful managerial guidelines.

This is a commentary about an International Marketing Review article.

Irrespective of the popularity of country-of-origin research in international marketing, no attention has been paid to effects which stem from the declaration of a product's local origin, like “Made in City X”. In this study, insights from country-of-origin research as well as exploratory qualitative studies are used to model determinants of preference for local products. Conjoint analysis results based on a sample of consumers from three neighboring cities in Germany show the importance of local origin for product preference. Structural equation analysis sheds first light on the mechanism of city-of-origin effects.

Extant research shows that consumers regularly misclassify country-of-origin (COO) associated with brands. The purpose of this paper is to examine changes in behavioral intentions (i.e. purchase intentions for self and others and brand judgments) when consumers are made aware that they have misclassified the COO and then are informed of the brand’s correct origin. Drawing on cognitive dissonance theory, the authors also explore the moderating roles of consumer affinity, animosity, and product knowledge.

Two experiments test the direct and moderating effects of COO misclassification awareness on behavioral intentions.

The findings show detrimental effects of misclassification on behavioral intentions when consumers have high affinity with misclassified COO. Moreover, the experiments demonstrate a significantly greater decrease in behavioral intentions among experts than novices in the low-affinity condition and the reverse effect in the high-affinity condition.

The negative effects of COO misclassification on consumer behavioral intentions highlight the need for managers to proactively avoid misclassification. The findings should also aid managers in developing responsive marketing campaigns that consider consumer affinity, animosity, and level of product knowledge.

This research is the first to compare consumer behavioral responses before and after COO misclassification awareness. The study demonstrates that cognitive dissonance underpins the process of misclassification. It also contributes to COO literature by examining the interaction of consumer affinity and animosity with product knowledge and their influence on consumer behavior in the case of COO misclassification.