In recent decades, the growth of international trade and delocalisation been increasing with the advent of globalisation and nationalisation. Consequently, a proliferation of hybrid or bi-national products has emerged in the research of international marketing. A large body of studies agree that country of origin (COO) plays an important role on product evaluation, since a product consists of an array of information cues, and intrinsic (physical appearance) and extrinsic (price, brand or COO) compositions. There is a strong evidence that consumers usually use COO as one of the most important cues when making a judgement about a product. However, bi-national products raise a particular issue because they are associated to both country of manufacture (COM) and country of design (COD) constructs. The interaction effects between both cues are found to have a more powerlful effect than when only cue is presented (Bertoli and Resciniti, 2012). This study intends to decompose the COO construct into COM and COD constructs. Moreover, the roles of COM and COD on customers’ purchase intentions are investigated in order to provides practical implications for the sportswear industry, as well as consumption insights relating to the emerging market, Thailand. This research provides an in-depth examination of COM, COD and product involvement on consumers’ purchase intentions and customer perceived value (CPV). Thus, the research measures the effects of product familiarity in order to infer how consumers use country-related information in purchase decision-making. In addition, the research clarifies the role of CPV, which remains unclear regarding how consumers develop a product’s value through informational cues (COM and COD). Moreover, the previous research have only examined the outcomes of perceived quality as influenced by COO. Hence, this research intends to bring all dimensions of CPV to investigate whether the combined effects of COM and COD can have either a positive or a negative impact on customer’s value. A model of CPV is developed by Sweeney and Soutat (2001), which consists of quality, social, price and emotional values. A quantitative approach using experimental research design was conducted in Bangkok, Thailand for the purposes of this study, with a pilot test to ascertain the variables used in the main experiment: product involvement, favourable/least favourable COM and COD images. The experiment was designed to measure the relationship between constructs, of a high involvement product, namely sports trainers, and a low involvement product, namely sports t-shirt. The US and China were selected as the most and the least favourite COD, resepectively. Meanwhile, Japan and China were selected as the most and least favourite COM, respectively. Data analysis techniques such as analysis of varaince (ANOVA), multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), and t-test were employed for hypothesis testing. The results of this research demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the interaction effects of country image and product involvement. The study confirms that COD is the salient cue for the evaluation of sportswear products in emerging countries. However, the level of product involvement does not influence the consumer’s decisions when COD and COM are both presented. Thus, the roles of COM, COD and product invovlement play an important role in evaluating overall CPV. The key contribution of this research is in its practical, theoretical and methodological implications to international marketing communications toward the sportswear industry. It offers the insights of two informational cues (COM and COD) to explain the phenomenon of bi-national products for unknown or new products.

Corporate colonial behaviour of fashion companies has left the Rana Plaza in ruins and paved the garment industry with catastrophic deaths, casualties, and hypocrisies. As a consequence, the industry is being scrutinized, especially the cheap brands. This paper is an examination of the sustainability of clothes in relation to price and an exploration of the differences between price segments. Quantitative data in the form of price and country of manufacture of 173 t-shirts from different brands were collected and analysed by using the Sustainable Society Index. The results indicate that the social sustainability level of the country of manufacture accounts for roughly 20% of the differences in t-shirt prices. Clothes made in more socially sustainable countries indeed tend to have higher prices. However, the difference in social sustainability is not significant between the high-priced and the luxury segments. Environmental and economic sustainability have little influence on clothing prices. The limitations and implications of assessing product sustainability through the lens of the country of manufacture are addressed.

Syfte: Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur konsumenters köpbeslut påverkas utifrån deras kunskap och uppfattning om produkters tillverkningsland (Country of Manufacture). Metod: I denna studie används den kvalitativa forskningsmetoden där datainsamlingen utfördes genom 10 kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer via telefonsamtal och Zoom-möten. Slutsatser: Informationen om ett tillverkningsland används i konsumenternas utvärdering av alternativ i form av stereotyper om länder, vilket även påverkar deras förväntningar av produktens inre värden. Påverkan av informationen om tillverkningslandet är större vid personliga och känslomässiga aspekter i form av fientlighet, affinitet och etnocentrism. Bakomliggande faktorerna till dessa aspekter är politik, hållbarhet och religion vilket uppstår på kollektiv och individuell nivå utifrån deras livssituation och tidigare erfarenheter. Dessutom tar konsumenten ställningstaganden över om de ska genomföra ett köp eller inte utifrån dessa aspekter. / Purpose: This study aims to investigate how consumers purchasing decisions are affected based on their knowledge and perception of the Country of Manufacture of products. Method: This study has a qualitative research method where collection of data was performed through 10 qualitative semi-structured interviews via telephone conversations and Zoom meetings. Conclusions: The information about a Country of Manufacture is used in consumers' evaluation of alternatives in the form of stereotypes about countries, which also affects their expectations of the product's intrinsic values. The influence of the information about the Country of Manufacture is greater in personal and emotional aspects in the form of animosity, affinity and ethnocentrism. The underlying factors to these aspects are politics, sustainability and religion, which arises on a collective and individual level based on their life situation and previous experiences. In addition, the consumer takes a stand on whether or not to make a purchase based on these aspects.

This study investigated the influence of brand incongruity on females’ perception of the properties of bi-national apparel products. A survey was conducted across Tshwane, a major urban area in South Africa, to provide empirical evidence of female consumers’ reliance on brands in the context of an emerging economy where global brands have become widely available and easily accessible in recent years. Data was collected by means of convenient sampling and through self completion of a structured questionnaire by 322 willing, working females. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, factor analysis, ANOVAs and post hoc tests. This study confirmed the significance of brand names as a cue of the functional performance related properties of female apparel and concluded that the relevance of brands for status related purposes is secondary to females’ use of brands to infer the functional and performance attributes or to deduce the eco friendliness of apparel. This was true for all the age, income, and education levels or population categories. Although extant research confirms the importance of brands to convey status and to boost consumers’ self image, i.e. serving as an extension of an individual’s self, this study revealed that females do not primarily use brands for status purposes. Brands are mostly trusted to provide good fit, durability, comfort and good quality. Consumers do not necessarily seem familiar with the majority of apparel brands that are widely advertised. However, the majority of consumers preferred the country of manufacture (COM) and the country of origin (COO) of brands to match. Overall, they preferred brands originating from Western countries as the COM, and were more approving of locally manufactured goods than apparel manufactured in Eastern countries. As a simplifying strategy, consumers’ ignorance about the COM of global brands is probably addressed by opting for brands associated with Western COM. Brand incongruence may therefore have noticeable consequences for brand equity in a highly competitive global market and this should be addressed through clever marketing initiatives to prevent dismay and brand switching. / Dissertation (MConsumer Science)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Consumer Science / unrestricted