The incentive to investigate the origin of meat products and their related consumer atti-tudes have shown to be a serious and debated topic especially after receiving a lot of focus in media. The specific origin discussed in this thesis lies within the suggestion of introducing an EU origin marking or what also can be referred to as “Made in EU” labelling. During the investigation of whether this creates a negative or positive attitude many factors are needed to be considered. The nationalistic feelings that still exist within the member states is one of the major obstacles but also information and consumer awareness concerning what EU stand for. The focus is on Swedish consumers’ perspective and the effects of implementing “Made in EU” are considered solely on the Swedish market. The theoretical framework is constructed around the central concept of country of origin (COO) that can be noted as of key relevance when investigating consumer behaviour. An analysis model is also introduced to give a deeper understanding of the connections between findings and the theoretical concepts. The fundamental methodology that was cho-sen in order to investigate these attitudes was found to be through the use of focus groups. These were carried out in combination with a secondary data analysis for the clarification of knowledge concerning the topic. What results shown from this study and the connected conclusions can be summarised in a few lines. First, Swedish consumers had generally a negative attitude towards introducing this label. The reason was that the consumers on one hand could not associate the origin as EU at the same time as Swedish consumers prefer to buy Swedish meat which is related to the Swedish model. Secondly, the factors brought forward that were influencing the COO shows what the attitude consist of, for instance stereotypes and perception. Thirdly, this research has managed to bring together new findings, previous COO studies with theoretical concepts and thereby created knowledge about Swedish ethnocentrism and cultural and economical aspects the Swedish consumers use when evaluating meat. Finally, the research method and theoretical concepts can be applied to other areas such as different products or countries.

<p>The incentive to investigate the origin of meat products and their related consumer atti-tudes have shown to be a serious and debated topic especially after receiving a lot of focus in media. The specific origin discussed in this thesis lies within the suggestion of introducing an EU origin marking or what also can be referred to as “Made in EU” labelling. During the investigation of whether this creates a negative or positive attitude many factors are needed to be considered. The nationalistic feelings that still exist within the member states is one of the major obstacles but also information and consumer awareness concerning what EU stand for. The focus is on Swedish consumers’ perspective and the effects of implementing “Made in EU” are considered solely on the Swedish market.</p><p>The theoretical framework is constructed around the central concept of country of origin (COO) that can be noted as of key relevance when investigating consumer behaviour. An analysis model is also introduced to give a deeper understanding of the connections between findings and the theoretical concepts. The fundamental methodology that was cho-sen in order to investigate these attitudes was found to be through the use of focus groups. These were carried out in combination with a secondary data analysis for the clarification of knowledge concerning the topic.</p><p>What results shown from this study and the connected conclusions can be summarised in a few lines. First, Swedish consumers had generally a negative attitude towards introducing this label. The reason was that the consumers on one hand could not associate the origin as EU at the same time as Swedish consumers prefer to buy Swedish meat which is related to the Swedish model. Secondly, the factors brought forward that were influencing the COO shows what the attitude consist of, for instance stereotypes and perception. Thirdly, this research has managed to bring together new findings, previous COO studies with theoretical concepts and thereby created knowledge about Swedish ethnocentrism and cultural and economical aspects the Swedish consumers use when evaluating meat. Finally, the research method and theoretical concepts can be applied to other areas such as different products or countries.</p>

The master's thesis focuses on the perception of Czech origin of the products. The main goal was to analyze the perception of the origin of the products in terms of consumers that prefer to buy Czech products, and which designations of Czech origin on products they trust. In particular, the work deals with the so-called "official designations" of Czech origin, for example "Regionální potravina" (Regional food), "Regionální produkt"(Regional product), "Český výrobek - garantováno Potravinářskou komorou České republiky"(Czech product - guaranteed by Food Chamber of the Czech Republic) and others. On the other hand, it highlights the presence of so-called "unofficial designations" and their influence on the consumer's perception. It is also focused on the legal issue of the Czech products. In the practical part of the thesis, we deal with the quantitative and qualitative research of the perception of Czech products to the consumer, which verifies the preference of Czech products and confidence in official designation of Czech origin. Finally, my work deals with the designation "made in EU" and its perception of the consumer. The conclusion of the work is that the studied subject is missing a legal description (in the Czech law system) and enables a manipulation with customers that are not familiar with the current system and could be misled.