Background: Globalisation is changing the world and our daily lives are governed by products and images originating from other countries and other cultures. Globalisation influences consumer culture and different authors have argued for the emergence of global consumer culture. However, previous literature de-emphasizes what consumer beliefs about the global consumer culture are and how people who believe that they are global try to construct themselves as global in terms of consumption. What are their motives of being global and what kind of needs and wants do they cover by being global consumers? Purpose: To explore and illustrate how consumers try to construct their global selves through consumption. Method: An abductive, qualitative research approach with a combination of exploratory and descriptive research design was chosen. Primary data collection through semi-structured in-depth interviews was conducted among 15 respondents who tried to construct their global selves through consumption. These consumers were selected through a non-probability sampling and interviews took place in Jönköping, Sweden. Conclusion: Consumers try to construct their global selves in a variety of ways, the most common ones are through travelling and engaging in cultural experiences, consuming products from specific countries for certain reasons, and by observing the market as one whole global market, thus not limiting themselves into the boundaries of specific countries, regions or continents. This consumption is then grounded on myths and beliefs that they have accumulated about global consumer culture while gaining experience in different parts of the world. These myths and beliefs are however based on their perceptions towards global consumer culture, not objective reality per se.

Thesis (M.B.A.) - Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 251-259). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Globalisation has created a world where countries compete with each other over trading. Historically, emerging countries started with a negative brand image to enhance exporting. This is particularly true in the Asian context where a general developmental path has been established by countries such as Japan and South Korea. Their success has gained a strong brand image for their products. China, after launching itself into the global market in the late 70s, has gained an increasing market share of ‘Made in China’ products. The reputation of ‘Made in China’, however, is perceived at low quality mass production of low-tech content, and there are only few Chinese brands which can stand out in the global market. This study explores ‘Made in China’ phenomenon in the global market, especially from the producer’s viewpoint. The literature review provides a background to the research. It covers the studies on Country of Origin (COO) effect, economic development strategies and competitive advantage theories. This research employs a mixed methods strategy that combines both quantitative and qualitative studies. The questionnaire survey was designed to reveal British importers’ perception of ‘Made in China’ products. Netnography and Interview are adopted to investigate the voice from Chinese producers and manufacturers. The design of this research allows for triangulating the findings. The results show the international buyers, i.e. British importers, perceive the biggest advantage for Chinese products is price. Chinese producers’ contributions suggest four themes to represent the current situation of ‘Made in China’, namely the image, price, quality and imitation. In their view the future development lies in ‘Created in China’, which consists of other four themes: creativity, branding, designing and R&D. A model of -From ‘Made in China’ to ‘Created in China’- is developed in this research. This model identifies the major obstacles that impede the development are thin profit and copying. This research shed lights on the study of developing a country brand, especially for the emerging nation like China. For the first time, this research explores the producers’ views to highlight the importance of their roles in a country brand’s development. The findings also have the implications for Chinese policymakers and industrial development agency. It further offers knowledge to the emerging nations who wish to develop their country brand in the international exporting market.

The aim of this work in the review was to educate consumers on the legislation concerning the indication of the country of origin on the product labels and with the current changes that take place in this area. Furthermore, methods of identifying the country of origin on food packaging were described, with focusing primarily on the brand quality.The practical part focuses on the observation of indicate country of origin of selected commodities and the evaluation of the questionnaire focused on respondents' interest in the origin of food and evaluation of hypotheses.

National branding and Country-of-origin strategy (COO) has not only shown to be convenient for research, but also of considerable importance and interest for companies to enhance competitive advantage. With constantly increasing product range on the markets and continually new technology in the society, the buying behaviour and customer preferences have changed. The customer evaluates not only the product regarding its function or physical capacity, but also regarding the product's intangible value, such as its COO. The purpose with this study was to provide a deeper understanding about how a multinational company's (henceforth MNC) use of COO in their brand communication, can be described. To realize and accomplish the purpose, two research questions were formulated which this study had the intention to answer. The first research question was meant to describe what channels in the communication process a multinational company can use to communicate their brand. The second research question was meant to describe how a multinational company can use COO in the message component of the communication process. The fundamental purpose of the thesis in question was descriptive. The study was performed by observing a multinational case company. The observation of case company was performed partly with an interview and partly with a content analysis. The interview was held with a representative of the case company. The content analysis of case company was performed by reviewing websites in two different countries. As a result, we found that the case company, which represented a multinational company (MNC), among other channels, used paper catalogues and websites as a channel in the communication process. The study also showed that different COO strategies can be used complementary in the message component in the company´s communication process, with the aim to attain competitive advantage among other companies on the market.

The purpose of this Master's Thesis is to investigate the attitudes of high net worth individuals toward country of origin information within the luxury goods market with respect to the quality of the products. The primary method used for the research is qualitative research based on in-depth interviews. Based on these in-depth interviews, the thesis demonstrates the synergy between the literature on country of origin and luxury goods and the consumers' quality perception on luxury based on country of origin.

The effects of consumer involvement on product choice have been studied extensively. However, to the knowledge of the researcher of this work, no study has examined whether consumers become more involved with a product choice when it is associated with a country towards which they harbour feelings of animosity. Hence, this work examines whether feelings of animosity increase consumers' level of purchase involvement. This is a cross-cultural investigation conducted in the context of the Holocaust. 340 Israeli and British Jews took part in this experimental research. Structural equation modeling was employed to examine this relationship in a model adapted from Klein et al.(1998). A positive and statistically significant relationship was observed between consumer animosity and purchase involvement. This work suggests that subcultural differences are possible moderators of consumer animosity. Thus, marketing practitioners should segment markets by looking into subcultural differences among consumers in their target market.

No / In light of current changes in the German industrial relations¿ landscape and the wider and deeper integration of German multinationals into the world economy, this study investigates the relative importance of the country-of-origin effect in employee relations of German affiliates in an Anglo-American setting. The paper addresses important issues that relate to the wider international business domain. The comparative analysis to US affiliates in the UK and British owned firms points to a distinctively German flavored hybrid approach that integrates the best practice elements of the US model with the collective orientation of the German model. This bears a resemblance to an emerging trend in the parent companies¿ home locations. The intra-German analysis revealed that affiliates of multinationals that face pressures for international integration are at the forefront of this development. The findings suggest that this might provide a suitable model of international operation for multinationals from strongly institutionalized countries.

The focus of this study is the role and function of country of origin (COO) in the creation and communication of the brand identities of Scottish premium/luxury brands. It applies the identity concept which is well developed in the branding literature to the COO literature where the focus on the consumer perspective of country image has resulted in the area of origin management being underdeveloped. Recognising the paucity of COO literature which examines the mechanisms and processes used by luxury brands to communicate COO, these are also analysed. The study uses an innovative two stage sequential mixed methods research design. In the first stage, the macro perspective is gained from the analysis of a database of companies compiled specifically for the study covering six categories of Scottish premium/luxury brands. Additionally a postal survey and analysis of company web pages gather a mix of qualitative and quantitative data to examine the role of COO. The second stage gains strategic insights from semi structured interviews with business elites achieving in depth understanding of the decision making process regarding the strategic advantages of COO in brand identities. The value of the study lies in the contribution to knowledge from frameworks which identify: the characteristics which differentiate companies within and across luxury sectors and organisational structure models which reflect the dominant ownership structures in the Scottish food and beverage, textiles/cashmere and whisky sectors; the dimensions of Scottish premium/luxury brands across a range of product categories; the motivations and drivers for adopting a COO identity; the criteria which distinguish COO brands; the COO communication process. The importance of COO as a key differentiating device which conveys competitive advantage is developed using the metaphor of COO as the anchor which locates the brand in a place which evokes symbolic, emotional and psychological associations and provides the brand with protection and security.

As companies are focused on and capable of creating brand images aimed at supporting their brands, some choose to strategically associate them with specific countries or regions in hopes of attaining perceivably higher consumer-based brand equity. Although such a strategy could prove itself effective in the sense of increasing the amount of positive consumer perceptions, it might also result in harmful effects if the marketed country-of-brand origin is not in congruence with the brand‟s other country-of-origin constructs.   With regards to what theory implies and what this study‟s results suggest, this thesis analyzes the effects of country-of-origin incongruence on consumer-based brand equity in the case of Lexington. What this thesis uncovers is that the country-of-origin incongruence of Lexington does not, contrary to theory, have negative consequences on its consumer-based brand equity. Yet, what is suggested is that further research should focus on whether these results are simply restricted to this study‟s exact settings or would be attained even in another setting in which consumer ethnocentrism would not play a significant role.