Country of origin effect: A conceptualization and test of alternative models of attitudes toward foreign countries and products

Even though country-of-origin studies started more than three decades ago and still represent a major stream of research in international business and marketing, there remains a controversy over the magnitude and importance of country-of-origin effects. A review of previous studies suggested that country-of-origin does in fact influence consumer behavior. However, inconsistent applications of the country-of-origin construct and various methodological limitations have led to some insignificant findings. Furthermore, efforts toward theory development in this domain have been scant at best. This study provides a new conceptualization of country-of-origin by decomposing the construct into two separate components: country-of-origin information and attitude. The main focus of this study is to investigate the causal relation between attitudes toward foreign countries and attitudes toward products from those countries.;Depending on the mediator role of "attitude toward a foreign country" on "attitude toward foreign products," four alternative hypotheses are proposed and empirically tested. The independent influence hypothesis assumes no causal relationship exists between attitudes toward a foreign country and attitudes toward foreign products. Therefore, these attitudes independently influence the purchase intentions for foreign made products. The affect transfer hypothesis posits a direct one-way causal flow from attitudes toward a foreign country to attitudes toward foreign products. In addition to this direct effect, the dual mediation hypothesis specifies an indirect flow of causation from attitudes toward a foreign country through beliefs about attributes of foreign products to attitudes toward foreign products. The reciprocal mediation hypothesis portrays a reciprocal relationship between attitudes toward a foreign country and attitudes toward foreign products with causation flowing in both directions.;The research involved a national mail survey of consumers from four major US cities with measures obtained for five foreign countries that market cars and shoes in the USA. For mid-size passenger cars, Germany, Japan, Korea, Mexico and Sweden were studied, whereas China was substituted for Sweden for the athletic shoes study. Structural modeling was applied to test and compare the performance of competing theories of country-of-origin.;The dual mediation hypothesis model performed better than the independent hypothesis and affect transfer hypothesis models in explaining the causal relationships of attitude toward country and toward foreign products. However, unlike attitude toward advertising studies, which provided the frame of reference for developing causal models in the present study, the reciprocal mediation hypothesis model also was found to be significant in explaining relationships between attitude toward a country and foreign products.;The findings provide enhanced insight into country-of-origin effects by developing and testing a theoretical framework that incorporates alternative theoretical accounts of how country-of-origin knowledge affects attitudes and behavioral intentions toward foreign products. The significant finding of both dual mediation and reciprocal mediation hypothesis helps untangle the complex web of the country-of-origin effects. The findings are also relevant for managers involved in international management and marketing, who should be cognizant of possible negative or positive country-of-origin effects in formulating their foreign investment and marketing decisions.