Search

Abundant consumer data has made decision-making more complicated, rather than simple, for marketers. This raises an important question about which variables in the data contain reliable information for retailers to predict future consumer purchase value (CPV) to guide strategic decisions. The authors address this question by exploring the variables "distinctive choice of brand country of origin" (DBCOO) and "country of origin diversity" (COO diversity) as analytical tools to extract insights from consumer purchase data. Building on signaling theory, the authors theorize and empirically test that DBCOO and COO diversity in a consumer's purchase history can signal, and therefore help predict, CPV. Moreover, the authors explore high-involvement product categories and purchase frequency as boundary conditions to develop a comprehensive framework of COO signals as strategic analytical tools. They find that DBCOO in a consumer's purchase history indeed increases CPV and that this relationship is enhanced for high-involvement product categories but moderated curvilinearly by purchase frequency. Moreover, they find that the COO diversity–CPV link is positive but interacts negatively with both moderators. This allows retailers to successfully distinguish high- from low-CPV consumers and thus enables them to manage the marketing mix and resources more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade there has been significant interest in international expansion of emerging market firms (EMFs) due to their distinctive patterns compared with developed market firms (DMFs). In this article, the authors develop an analytical model to generate prescriptive insights for pricing strategies when EMFs enter new foreign markets. Grounded in the international marketing and organizational learning literatures, the model accounts for local and multinational competition, the influence of country-of-origin effects, and the role of organizational learning in foreign markets. The results suggest that when an EMF enters a host market with a local competitor, it could generate higher profits even when charging a lower price than the local competitor. Additionally, the authors find that DMFs enjoy greater profitability than EMFs in foreign markets as a result of positive country-of-origin effects. Finally, the authors propose and validate the use of organizational learning as a process EMFs can use to surmount the negative impact of country-of-origin effects and achieve greater profitability than DMFs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional country-of-origin strategy in international marketing uses a country-image halo to cue beliefs about the country's products. With expansive trade globalization, domestic consumers are likely to have experience with foreign products but know little of the products' origin country. Thus, equally important as traditional theory is the question of whether product beliefs can imbue country image, but little is known of this reverse influence. If product beliefs can generalize into a favorable country image, a chain effect will then enable traditional country-of-origin effects to benefit the country's other products. In this study, the results of three surveys across two countries show that product beliefs can indeed influence country image. However, the influence weakens with increasing country familiarity and exists only when the product and country are congruent. Furthermore, the influence can operate outside of conscious awareness. The authors draw on the associative network theory of memory to explain their findings. This research improves the theoretical understanding of country- and product-image halo and provides the grounds for product and brand managers to work with government and tourist organizations for increasing mutual effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the perspective of country of origin, this study provides evidence regarding how entry-mode choice and postentry branding strategy affect foreign product purchase intentions in an animosity context. The authors conduct two studies in two host country markets, one with high animosity (China) and the other with low animosity (Taiwan) toward a target country (Japan). The results of Study 1 reveal that in a high-animosity host country, consumers prefer the foreign products launched through an acquisition joint venture to those that are imports or the derivatives of full acquisition. The findings of Study 2 indicate that in a high-animosity host country, consumers prefer the foreign products launched through an acquisition joint venture mode that adopts a local brand or a local-foreign cobrand to one that adopts a foreign-local cobrand. In contrast, in a low-animosity host country, entry modes and postentry branding strategies have no effect on foreign product purchase intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extant country-of-origin research has focused on the deliberate use of country-specific associations (CSAs) as a cognitive cue, captured by consumer responses to direct questioning. However, such responses only capture rational and verbally held aspects of CSAs and do not reveal emotional and nonverbally held aspects. Drawing from dual-coding theory, the authors (1) develop propositions about the existence of two distinct types of CSAs (rational and emotional) and the differences in consumers' communication of these associations, (2) apply a three-stage qualitative design in two complementary studies to test these propositions, (3) link the identified CSAs to brand origin recognition and brand ownership, and (4) generate a consumer typology on how CSAs are communicated. Their results indicate that people tend to communicate rational CSAs verbally and emotional CSAs nonverbally. Whereas both rational and emotional associations positively affect consumers' brand origin recognition accuracy, only emotional associations affect brand ownership. The authors consider theoretical and managerial implications in light of recent criticism on country-of-origin research and offer suggestions for further research [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Price-related consequences of the country-of-origin (COO) cue have received limited attention in extant literature. In this study, the authors draw from equity theory and cue utilization theory and investigate (1) whether a brand's COO affects a consumer's willingness to pay and (2) the extent to which the consumer's familiarity with the brand moderates this relationship. The results of three complementary experimental studies reveal that COO indeed has a positive impact on willingness to pay. Furthermore, the authors find a negative moderating influence of brand familiarity on the COO effect in a high-involvement setting but not in a low-involvement setting. The authors discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings, and they identify directions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mounting empirical evidence shows that consumers often associate brands with the wrong country of origin (COO) or are unable to classify a brand to any COO. In this study, the authors investigate the consequences of brand origin mis-classification and nonclassification on consumers' brand image evaluations and associated purchase intentions. Drawing from categorization theory, the authors test hypotheses regarding the impact of brand strength and COO image on misclassification gains and losses on a sample of U.K. consumers. The results show that both misclassification and non-classification have mostly adverse consequences on both brand evaluations and purchase intentions. The findings further show that strong brands are not immune to misclassification and stress the importance of ensuring that consumers are aware of a brand's true COO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]