• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.67-79
• /
• 2024

Purpose - A brand's country-of-origin (COO) could influence a behavior of consumers in a country. Nevertheless, there have been few studies of how exporters overcome the barrier of a negative COO effect and what can be a useful strategy for an exporter to alleviate the effect on consumer behavior. Against this background, it is essential to present a factor moderating the effect on consumers' brand awareness. Therefore, suggesting that environmental, social, and governance (ESG) management would be such a factor, we attempted to develop a model showing that the management could moderate the relationship between the COO effects and consumers' recall and evaluation toward a foreign brand. Design/methodology/approach - Using the stakeholder theory, the categorization, and the attribution theory as underlying theories, our study developed an empirically testable model that explains and predicts consumers' behaviors. Findings - We posited that positive ESG information influences consumers' brand recall and evaluation. In addition, we posited that positive ESG information moderates the COO effects on consumers' brand recall. Finally, we posited that positive ESG information moderates the COO effects on consumers' brand evaluation. Research implications or Originality - This manuscript filled a knowledge gap of none of alternative strategy toward COO effects in export marketing and provided implications regarding exporters' branding strategy in a foreign country.

• Asia Marketing Journal
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.71-98
• /
• 2008

Considerably many numbers of studies on country-of-origin(hereafter COO) effects have been presented in international business and marketing areas. Recent studies have been included the effects of COO of manufacture, parts, and design, as well as the effects of brand origin, reflected by the accelerating convergent manufacture circumstances and increasingly competitive environments. Moderating constructs such as knowledge of product category and involvement as individual variables, have been also introduced and researched in various angles. In addition, how the effects of COO occur as processes is also argued in previous studies. This research has attempted to explain business corporation's strategic decisions on choosing a domain of its product manufacturing for several critical reasons, for cost reduction or better image. We displayed two constructs of brand and manufacture in a positive and negative country image group to reconfirm the existence of the effects of COO. Additionally, the effects of respondents' regulatory fit between their motivational focus and the contents of product messages, have been declared. Furthermore the respondents' motivational focus moderates the main effect of COO on product evaluations in a positive 'made-in' combination, while, surprisingly, it does not statistically moderate in a negative, except attitude. Based on the results, implications and suggestions on how to plan and execute more effective marketing strategies regarding COO dimensions, especially COO of manufacture, are separately presented for each situations when it has already been determined and when it is to be.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.17 no.8
• /
• pp.5-14
• /
• 2019

Purpose - This study aims to proposes a conceptual framework to segment multi-national products based on a Chinese consumer's perception of multi-national products, to find the role of consumer ethnocentrism (CET) in country of origin (COO) effects for Chinese, and to figure out how different dimension of CET Effects on purchase intention developed market and home country. Research design, data and methodology - This study selected a 2×2×2 factorial design for the hypothesis test based on the product category × combination of manufactured type × Ethnocentrism level. This study distinguishes products between luxury (Burberry) and non-luxury (Nike) products and choose combination of manufactured type (Spain vs India/ Spain vs China) in order to perform comparative studies. A total of 223 Chinese participated in the experiment. After being exposed to each scenario, participants were asked to respond to questions about brand preference and purchase intention Results - Regarding to luxury made in developed country, it is worth that exposing COO information to low level of ethnocentrism consumers. Regarding to non-luxury product made in emerging country, it makes it worse when COO information to high level of ethnocentrism consumers. Lastly, regarding to non-luxury product, patriotic consumers prefer to purchase product made in home country.

• Asia Marketing Journal
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.77-103
• /
• 2012

Two experiments examined how product evaluations were affected by country-of-origin information presented with varying amounts of product-specific information. Consistent with social judgeability theory, participants were more likely to make COO-based judgments, once they felt like they had product-specific information and they were motivated to conform their judgments to socially shared standards of validity. The results of each experiment revealed that the presentation of COO information alone was not sufficient to draw judgments based on COO stereotypes. The findings were discussed within the framework of social-psychological models of impression formation.

• Asia Marketing Journal
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.97-119
• /
• 2009

The growth of international trade and the formation of supranational economic and political trading blocks have noticeably widened the presence on the market of products of different national origins. This has stimulated interest in explaining the Country-of-Origin (COO) role in domestic and international markets and its consequences on consumer behaviour. Since the consumer purchasing decisions can be decisive to the success of a company's strategy in domestic and foreign markets, the objective of this study is to present empirical evidence on the extent to which reputation of firms associated to a certain COO are related to consumer purchase intention. Additionally our study considers ethnocentrism as a variable that partially explains the rejection of imports products based on its foreign origin. The empirical application of the proposed model is related to the purchase of Korean automobiles which represents 5.7% of the national market share in Spain. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data collected from 202 personal interviews carried out in a large Spanish region. The results show that reputation of firms associated to a certain COO in an important factor to establish business relationships involving consumers and firms from different countries and increase intentions to purchase Korean products. Additionally, ethnocentric consumers prefer to purchase domestic products rather than foreign imports as an attempt to protect national economy however the negative effect of ethnocentrism is weaker than positive effect of firms reputation of a COO.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.11 no.7
• /
• pp.47-56
• /
• 2013

Purpose - In the academic literature, the researches on a comparative study on purchase behaviors of the consumers from emerging and mature markets remain limited. Therefore, this empirical study is attempted to examine the effects of country of origin (COO), brand image and corporate image on the purchase behavior of Chinese consumers (as from emerging market) and Korean consumers (as from mature market). Research Design, data, methodology - In total, 615 valid questionnaires were collected from the main cities of China and Korea respectively, and a multiple group analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses with SPSS 16.0 and AMOS18.0. Results - Chinese consumers are not influenced by country-of-origin effect, whereas Korean consumers are sensitive to it. Both Chinese and Korean consumers are sensitive to brand image, whereas corporate image does appear to influence Chinese consumers but not Korean consumers. The effects of country-of-origin are not more influential in less developed market (China) than more developed market (Korea). Conclusions - According to the results of this empirical study, the country-of-origin effect does impact Korean consumers but not Chinese consumers' purchase behavior. Therefore, multinational companies are relatively free to make the decision, if Chinese consumers are the marketing targets, when choosing manufacturing sites.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.49-59
• /
• 2011

Although the South Korean organic food market is in the infancy compared to other industrialized countries, Korean consumers'interest in organic food and retail stores devoting space to organic products have been rapidly increasing. Despite the fact of organic food popularity, the term "organic" is interpreted differently by individuals. As opposed to the US, Japan and the EU where have operated an integrated organic food labelling system, Korea has adopted complex organic labelling systems regulated by several different government bodies. As a result, complicated food labelling standards make consumers confused when purchasing organic foods. Furthermore, in terms of country of origin (COO), it is argued by a lot of researchers that COO effects vary from product to product and from country to country; moreover, other informational cues such as brand and price can influence COO effects. In modern society, COO labelling has been complicated, due to the sourcing, manufacturing and market locations of merchandise spread over the world. Accordingly, the evaluation of COO effects has become complex. In order to examine these issues, a quantitative research was selected to classify the commonfeatures of organic food consumers and construct statistics such as the extent to which people are aware of organic food and COO labellingvia a questionnaire which took place in two cities in Korea with a cluster sample of 161 organic food purchasers. As for the data analysis, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), T-tests, bivariate crosstatulations with Cramer's V were conducted,depending on the characteristics of variables and the assumptions the research data need to fit. It has been concluded that in general, Korean organic consumers comprehend the term "organic"in a closer way to the general concept rather than technical term, thus people do not appreciate environmentally labels which include organic food labels, although marital status influence the degree of label awareness, regardless of gender, age, education level and so on. Regarding COO effects on organic food, home organic products were Korean consumers'first choice over those from industrialized countries and developing nations. Specifically, in processed organic product category, domestically cultivated and processed organic products were absolutely preferred to leading national brands produced with imported ingredients and international brands. However, due to a lack of checks of ingredients' COO, consumers tend to purchase a leading national organic food brand, believing that it is a pure organic food sourced domestically. As a consequence, this research has suggested some important managerial implications and future research directions. In order to prevent consumer confusion when buying organic foods, it should be noted that consumers do not comprehend the organic food certifications, due to complicated labelling systems for organic produce and processed organic foods. Therefore, government bodies related to organic food distribution have to know consumers' perception of organic food labels and the significance of customer-oriented labels and reestablish labelling standards. Similarly, public advertising should be followed to raise public awareness of the labelling to enable customers to have the correct information. In addition, not only international marketers but also domestic marketers need to understand COO images and also the influence COO of ingredients has on the image of an organic product.

• Human Ecology Research
• /
• v.55 no.5
• /
• pp.507-526
• /
• 2017

To infer the true state of a regional product's attributes, consumers use the image they have of the product's region of origin; however, products may have multiple countries of origin in their design, branding, sourcing and manufacturing becuase more products are increasingly a result of multi-firm and multi-country efforts. We examined how the country-of-origin image (country image and product image) affect international consumers' perceived value (function value and symbolic value) and purchase intentions of made-in China goods by extending and deepening the flexible model. Second, to investigate the differences of COO effects according to different types of country-of-origin we divided the traditional country-of-origin into two components: country-of-manufacture (COM) and country-of-brand (COB). We then explore how the impact of China's country image on consumers' perceived value and purchase intentions varies when China is the COM or COB of the same product. Six hypotheses were proposed to test our anticipations. We recruited 800 Korean adult consumers who previously purchased made-in China products to participate in the online investigation. Data analyses were conducted with confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling using SPSS and AMOS. The main results are discussed as follows. First, the effects of China's COO image on Korean consumers' perceived value and purchase intentions vary when China is the COM or COB of a product. Second, a positive effect of the function value and symbolic value on the purchase intentions was found. Literature and practical implications of findings are discussed and suggested in the conclusion.

• Korea Trade Review
• /
• v.41 no.4
• /
• pp.131-155
• /
• 2016

Recently, the global trade environment has been composed of transactions in trade through integration of the global supply chain network. As FTAs are being signed between countries, the country of origin (COO) system on products has become an important issue. Companies are procuring raw materials through global sourcing and supplying to the retail markets. This research deducted major factors regarding the verification and utilization of the COO system through research on domestic and international literatures, and verified the mediating effects on the verification and utilization elements of the country image and the brand image of COO on the performance of the COO system through empirical study. For the purpose of this research, we conducted a survey implementing the COO system and analyzed the 152 data collected. The results of this research is as follows: First, the external verification level of the COO system has an impact on the performance of the COO system, and a mediating effect on the country image and the brand image of the COO. Second, the management capability of the COO has an impact on the performance of the COO system, and a mediating effect on the brand image of the COO. A research comparing and analyzing the difference in establishment of the verification system of the COO depending on the size of a corporation is necessary.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.859-866
• /
• 2006

The aim of this survey is to examine factors that influence on the perceived helpfulness in consumers' predicting its quality and safety when the country of origin (COO) of beef is declared. The data were analyzed that had collected from a consumer survey done in March 2006. 250 consumers living in Suncheon, Jeollanamdo were randomly selected as respondents. Eleven of them did not complete the survey material, so the total number of available samples were 239. All samples were estimated using proc logistic procedure of SAS package. The results indicate as follows: first, the levels of perceived helpfulness of COO in consumers' predicting beef quality and safety depend significantly on he age, the occupation, and the education level of demographic variables. Second, when analysing attitude variables to beef, the levels are significantly correlated with the respondents' ability to acquire information, their trust of information about beef, nd their interest about bovine spongiform encephalopathy(BSE). The proportional odds assumptions of models are not violated at p<0.05. Third, it is the gender, the age, and the education level of the respondents, and the respondents' ability to acquire information which significantly effect on the level of the perceived helpfulness of COO in predicting beef quality. Fourth, it is the consumer's age, their education level, and their trust of information about beef which statistically have a significant effect on the level of perceived helpfulness of COO in predicting beef safety.