This research examines the growing phenomenon of cross-border brand alliances and the potential factors that influence consumers' attitudes toward these alliances. Building on an existing framework, it establishes country of origin fit as a new variable that influences consumer attitudes toward brand alliances and examines its relationship with brand fit under various conditions of brand familiarity. The results of two studies replicate previous research findings and demonstrate a new relationship between country of origin fit and brand fit in predicting consumer attitude towards cross-border brand alliances. These results extend research in understanding the relationship between the fit variables and the strength of their effects on brand alliance evaluations. / Master of Science

Thesis (M.B.A.) - Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 169-176). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Country-of-origin effekten påverkar alla exportföretag. Hur gynnsam effekten är skiljer sig beroende på ursprungsland, bransch och produktkategori. För att ett varumärke ska kunna utvinna en maximal effekt av Sverige som ursprungsland krävs en djup förståelse för hur effekten står sig på olika marknader och hur den bäst förmedlas. Därför syftar studien till att förklara hur svenska exportföretag använder sig av country-of-origin effekten för att stärka sina varumärken. Genom den teoretiska referensramen som berör brand equity och country-of-origin effekten får country-of-origin effekten en tydlig roll i de olika delarna ett varumärke består av. Undersökningen har en kvalitativ undersökningsmetod genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Tre svenska exportföretag från olika branscher deltar i studien för att undersöka syftet. Analysen inleds med en inomfallsanalys för varje fallföretag som utmynnas till en mellanfallsanalys. Studien visar att svenska exportföretag generellt sett gynnas av country-of-origin effekten, men styrkan av effekten skiljer sig beroende på bransch, marknad och produktkategori. / The country-of-origin effect has an impact on all exporting companies. How favorable the effect is differs based on the country-of-origin, line of business and product category. To extract the maximal effect of Sweden as a country-of-origin, a deep understanding of how the effect influences different markets is needed as well as knowledge of how it is best communicated. Therefore, the study aims to explain how Swedish exporting companies use the country-of-origin effect to strengthen their brands. Through the theories on brand equity and the country-of-origin effect, the country-of-origin effect is presented with a clear role within the different parts of a brand. The study has a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews. Three Swedish exporting companies from different lines of business takes part in the study to investigate the purpose. The analysis is structured through three within-case analyses and a cross-case analysis. The study shows that Swedish exporting companies are generally favored by the country-of-origin effect. Although the strength of the Swedish country-of-origin effect differs based on the line of business, market, and product category.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of country of origin (COO) on the UK fashion industry, with specific reference to retail and wholesale brands. In this study, the fashion industry encompasses both manufacturing and branding perspectives. This qualitative study comprised 23 in-depth interviews with key informants from large-scale retailers, manufacturers and textile consultancy companies, thereby analysing the issues from an industry, rather than consumer, perspective. The key informants were chosen using a judgmental sampling approach, and the data obtained were analysed using a thematic approach. The notion of country of origin is deemed important because the existing literature suggests that COO, has been considered as an effective branding device with which consumers associate when evaluating the quality of the product and when making purchasing decisions. However, no research has examined country of origin from an industry perspective, and the findings in the UK context are limited in the existing literature. Consequently, this study contributes to the body of knowledge about the importance of COO, and its implication on retail and wholesale brands in the UK fashion industry. The findings of this research also have practical implications for manufacturers and retailers, informing the debate on the value of the 'Made in [...]' epithet, and how country of origin can be used as a branding strategy. This study demonstrates that country of origin is considered important in the UK fashion industry in terms of its strategic importance to organisations. Moreover, COO is manifested in different ways, depending on brand positioning, long-term strategic plan, expertise, brand history and values. Another finding that emerged as a key theme is the blurring of retail and wholesale brands. Thus, the study has found that retailers are becoming wholesale-oriented businesses by selling own label products through third party retailers, including online via pure-play retailers (e.g. ASOS), and concessions within department stores. This is being done to expose brands internationally, to develop a global recognition, as well as improve the brand image. Furthermore, wholesale brands are becoming retail-oriented in order to enjoy superior profit margins, to have control over the product merchandise and to increase customer loyalty. Finally, the study developed a typology of strategic action and implications of country of origin to include the blurring of differences whereby, for instance, brand name is used to promote country of brand origin by both retail and wholesale brands, however, how this manifests itself differs in the sense that retailers promote via sub-brand name, and wholesales have associations with company's name.

Purpose The main purpose of the research is to continue to the understanding of the relationship between the country-of-origin effects and automobile evaluation and apply the Extended COO-ELM model(Bloemer, Brijs and Kasper, 2009) for the cognitive processes underlying country of  origin-effects. The study also aims to give managers some information to assess consumer's purchase intentions of car and assist them in managing their product's COO. Design/methodology/approach A self-administered survey was used in this study.The main samples consist of the 31 students in Linnaeus university from more than 10 countries.The Spss software was used to analyze the empirical data which provide the source of judging three hypothesis of the study. Findings The results indicated the impact of country of origin on automobile evaluation is mainly moderated by other prior country-product knowledge rather than the perceived economic development.In addition, the different cognitive processes  underlying country of origin-effects occur when responders evaluating Chinese automobile and Swedish automobile Originality?Value The paper applies ELM model with extensions.This finding yields some insight for the efficiency in marketing strategy of Chinese car and Swedish car. By designing the marketing strategy more efficiently, the managers will subsequently make a better decision of how brand and country of origin should be managed. Paper type Research paper

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Carleton University, 2003. / Appendix A in English and Spanish. Includes bibliographical references (p. 143-149). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

This study extends previous research by exploring perceptions of healthiness in the international food marketplace. To this end, it aims to fill an important gap by shedding light on the role of country of origin in shaping perceptions of healthiness. The authors provide evidence that domestic and foreign food products elicit different perceptions of healthiness. Consumers choose domestic products because they perceive them as healthier and more natural. The effect holds across different samples and product categories (apples, tomatoes, bread, and yogurt). However, this healthiness bias vanishes when products are presented as posing health risks and when products are introduced with a dual identity (i.e., both foreign and domestic). Researching these health-related effects helps provide a better understanding of consumer attitudes toward domestic- versus foreign-made food products.

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O efeito placebo tem sua origem atrelada aos estudos ligados às ciências médicas e farmacológicas e, basicamente, consiste na capacidade de produtos inertes produzirem efeitos por meio do seu uso ou consumo. Esse efeito passou a fazer parte do escopo do Marketing em 2005, quando estudos mostraram a capacidade do preço gerar modificações sobre o desempenho de um produto. A ideia do efeito placebo desencadeado pelo preço dos produtos está ancorada no fato das crenças globais, que associam preço baixo a produtos de má qualidade, anteciparem as expectativas do consumidor acerca da resposta do produto e, a partir disso, alterarem o seu desempenho. Nessa mesma linha, o estereótipo do país de origem também se apresenta como uma crença global, em que produtos oriundos de países com estereótipo negativo são associados a produtos inferiores e de má qualidade. Sendo assim, esta pesquisa analisou a ocorrência do efeito placebo desencadeado pelo país de origem do produto, analisando, ainda, a interação da força das expectativas e do preço do produto na geração deste efeito. Para tanto, três estudos experimentais foram operacionalizados. O primeiro estudo apresentou as testagens iniciais sobre o efeito placebo gerado pelo país de origem e mostrou que o país de origem com estereótipo negativo é capaz de gerar um efeito placebo negativo sobre o desempenho do produto. Não foi identificado, no entanto, a ocorrência de efeito placebo gerado pelo estereótipo positivo do país de origem. No segundo estudo, analisou-se o efeito placebo do país de origem em cenário de alta e baixa expectativa. Como resultado, obteve-se, em cenário de baixa expectativa, a ocorrência de efeito placebo negativo gerado pelo estereótipo negativo do país de origem. Já em cenário de alta expectativa, os resultados indicam que o fortalecimento das expectativas eliminou o efeito placebo negativo e, além disso, promoveu a ocorrência de um efeito placebo positivo gerado pelo estereótipo positivo do país de origem. O último estudo observou a interação do país de origem e do preço do produto sobre a geração de efeito placebo. Os resultados mostram que, em cenário de preço baixo, há efeito placebo negativo gerado pelo país de origem com estereótipo negativo, mas não foi observada a ocorrência de efeito placebo positivo gerado pelo estereótipo positivo do país de origem. Já, em cenário de preço alto, não se observou a ocorrência de nenhum efeito placebo, nem positivo, nem negativo. Ou seja, o preço elevado do produto foi capaz de anular o efeito placebo negativo gerado pelo estereótipo negativo do produto, mostrando a capacidade do preço em compensar os efeitos negativos causados pelo país de origem com imagem desfavorável. Com base nisso, os achados desta tese contribuem para o avanço teórico dos estudos sobre efeito placebo em Marketing, uma vez que adicionam o país de origem como um elemento gerador deste tipo de efeito e, ao analisar a interação do país de origem com o fortalecimento das expectativas e o preço do produto, confirmam as bases conceituais sobre a relação entre esses elementos. Além disso, seus achados, em termos gerenciais, podem promover reflexões por parte das organizações que compõem o seu mix de produtos com bens importados e também que operaram no exterior e fazem investimentos externos diretos em diversas partes do mundo. / The placebo effect has its origin linked to studies related to medical and pharmacological sciences and basically consists in the ability of inert products to produce effects through its use or consumption. This effect became part of the Marketing scope in 2005 when studies showed the ability of pricing to generate changes on the performance of a product. The idea of the placebo effect triggered by product price is anchored on the fact that global beliefs, which associate low price to low quality products, anticipate consumer expectations about the response of the product and, from there, change its performance. Along the same line, the stereotype of the country of origin also presents itself as a global belief in that products from countries with negative stereotypes are associated with inferior and bad quality products. Thus, this research analyzed the occurrence of the placebo effect triggered by the country of origin of the product, also analyzing the interaction of the strength of expectations and of product price in the generation of this effect. For this purpose, three experimental studies were operationalized. The first study presented initial testings on the placebo effect generated by the country of origin and showed that the country of origin with negative stereotypes is able to generate a negative placebo effect on product performance. However, the occurrence of the placebo effect generated by positive stereotypes in the country of origin was not identified. In the second study, the placebo effect of the country of origin in a scenario of high and low expectations was analyzed. As a result, in a scenario of low expectations, the occurrence of a negative placebo effect generated by the negative stereotype of the country of origin was obtained. However, in a scenario of high expectations, results indicate that the strengthening of the expectations eliminated a negative placebo effect and in addition, promoted the occurrence of a positive placebo effect generated by the positive stereotype of the country of origin. The last study observed the interaction of the country of origin and the price of the product upon the generation of the placebo effect. The results show that in a scenario of low price, there is a negative placebo effect generated by the country of origin with a negative stereotype, but the occurrence of a positive placebo effect generated by the positive stereotype of the country of origin was not observed. However, in a scenario of high prices, there was no occurrence of a placebo effect, whether positive or negative. In other words, the high price of the product was able to cancel the negative placebo effect generated by the negative stereotype of the product, showing the capacity of the price to compensate for the negative effects caused by the country of origin with an unfavorable image. Based on this, this thesis’ findings contribute to the theoretical progress on the studies about the placebo effect in Marketing, once the country of origin is added as a generating element of this type of effect, and when analyzing the interaction of the country of origin with the strengthening of expectations and the price of the product, the conceptual foundations about the relationship between these elements are confirmed. Moreover, its findings in management terms can promote reflections by organizations that compose the product mix with imported goods and also that operate overseas and make foreign direct investments in various parts of the world.

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