Country of Production Biases on Consumer Perceptions of Global Brands: Evidence From an Emerging Market

ABSTRACT

Globalization has created significant opportunities of cost reductions for players to take advantage of location specific benefits. Simultaneously, it has presented significant opportunities for countries, such as China, to actively participate in global trade, attract foreign direct investment, and improve the economic wealth of their nations. However, literature cautions marketers about consumers’ biased evaluations of products based on their country of production. Moving production to low-cost countries could potentially harm brand trust, quality evaluations, and purchase intentions due to unfavorable biases for the country of production. The objective of this study is to investigate country of production biases of Turkish consumers for two global brands, Philips and Adidas. Data for the study (N = 1,608) were collected using mall-intercepts from the 17 largest cities of Turkey. Study findings show that brand trust, perceived quality, and purchase intentions declined sharply for both brands when consumers learned that the product was manufactured in China.     

Chinese and British consumers’ evaluation of Chinese and international brands and factors affecting their choice

This paper examines Chinese and British consumers’ evaluations of Chinese, and international brands, and factors affecting their brand choice. The results support recent findings of a decline in Western brands’ preference in China. But, these are attributed to several factors. The findings show country of origin does not affect Chinese brand choice, has a great effect on British choice between Chinese and other brands; brand value, and brand familiarity influence Chinese choice whereas brand reputation, and brand trust determine British choice. Implications for Chinese domestic and international expansion strategies, demographics’ influence, and cultural differences are discussed.     

Country of Origin Association in Retail and Wholesale Branding

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to consider country of origin in terms of its association with brand heritage and its implications in fashion branding, thus providing a new perspective within the context of retail and wholesale brands. This qualitative study demonstrates how country of origin is widely used as a communicative tool by retail and wholesale brands, associated with brand heritage. However, the way country of origin is manifested and/or associated (e.g., brand name, color, etc.) varies depending on a brand's history, positioning, brand value, and the type of market sector that the retail and wholesale brands are targeting.     

Attractiveness,Purchase Intention,and Willingness to Pay More for Global Brands: Evidence from Turkish Market

Emerging markets (EMs) are increasingly becoming significant in income growth for Multinational corporations (MNCs). Therefore, what affects the consumer perceptions and behaviors toward global brands in EMs is a fundamental question to answer for MNCs. There is a remarkable literature on global brands in EMs however there is little evidence specifically upon bandwagon effects. This study aims to fulfil this gap and examines the effects of bandwagon consumption, conspicuous value and social value on consumer attitudes towards the global brands. In the study, data were collected via face-to-face questionnaire from a sample of 458 university students, and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to test the research hypotheses. As a result, it was found that bandwagon consumption, conspicuous value, and social value have positive impacts on brand attractiveness, purchase intention and willingness to pay more for global brands.     

中国消费者中外品牌偏好及关键影响因素实证研究

根据北京大学管理案例中心2004年7-10月在全国32个大中城市调查收集的数据,本文探讨了消费者中外品牌偏好的关键影响因素,研究发现年龄、受教育程度和家庭月收入是主要影响变量;试图探究影响中外品牌选择的深层次原因,研究得到"可转移价值因子"和"不可转移价值因子",它们能较好地解释中国消费者的品牌选择行为.最后针对如何开发中国市场提出了具体的营销建议.     

Do Product Components and Their Country-of-Origin Influence Product Evaluations?

ABSTRACT

The country of origin literature suggests that consumers attach pre-conceived notions about countries and their products during pre-purchase evaluations. The present research shows that when consumers are presented with information about the country of origin of motor vehicle components, they are able to differentiate between these and rely on country stereotypes in this evaluation. Based on a judgmental sample of 159 respondents, the findings suggest that consumers are able to discriminate between vehicle component systems from different countries and shows that there is a hierarchy of effects where consumers rank, in order of decreasing quality: German > Japanese > Australian component systems. The results also suggest that summary effects explain consumers' judgements about Australian, Japanese and German components, and halo effects appear to have a weak influence on their assessment of German components.     

The Priming Effect of News Context on Chinese Attitudes toward Foreign Brands

This article investigates the priming effect of news context on Chinese college students' brand attitudes. The first experiment examined the effects of domestic news topics and news negativity and found that exposure to positive Chinese product news led to lower attitude scores for Nike. The second experiment employed a news piece on China–U.S. trade relations and tested whether different news sources (the Chinese press, the U.S. press, and a combination of Chinese and U.S. press) had the same effect on Chinese brand attitudes. It located a significant effect of news source on Chinese attitudes toward Coca-Cola and Nike.     

如何提升我国民族品牌核心价值

在日趋激烈的竞争中,品牌如何脱颖而出占据消费者心理,成为热点课题。有关品牌研究主要从品牌资产出发探讨,但对品牌核心价值的研究尚属起步阶段。什么是品牌核心价值、我国民族品牌的核心价值与国外品牌相比具有哪些独特性、以及我国民族品牌核心价值的作用成为目前主要研究对象。为此需要了解品牌核心价值的重要性,并且为我国民族品牌核心价值的建立和发展提出相关建议。     

Transformation and Rebirth of Chinese Brands: A Case From the Hotel Industry

ABSTRACT

Chinese domestic brands have developed rapidly in recent years, and yet few of them have entered global competition as product or service brands brands with exceptions such as Huawei. In addition, the evolution of Chinese brands has hardly been understood or introduced properly by international business educators. In this article, we identify the development patterns of Chinese domestic brands by using a local hotel brand as an example. Particularly, we examine and discuss how a Chinese brand can be established with specific positioning, brand image, and product offering, as well as how the brand can grow by vertical and horizontal extensions based on balancing market opportunities and the brand’s own capabilities. Moreover, we expect this research to facilitate the understanding of Chinese brands among international business education.     

Technological Complexity and Country-of-Origin Effects on Binational Product Evaluation: Investigation in an Emerging Market

ABSTRACT

Research into the impact of the country of origin (COO) dimensions on product perceived quality in emerging markets is limited and does not distinguish between technologically complex/simple products. This paper investigates country-of-design (COD) and country-of-manufacture (COM) effects through their two subconstructs (global country image and the perceived capacity of the country to design/manufacture products), on the perceived quality of four products varying in their level of technological complexity. Findings indicate that consumers are more sensitive to COM than COD for complex and for simple products, and that COD only affects product quality for products carrying symbolic meaning. The findings have marketing implications for binational products entering emerging markets.     

Looking at the brain: Neural effects of “made in” labeling on product value and choice

International business research posits that, under certain circumstances, consumers prefer goods manufactured in their own country regardless of their country of origin image. Yet the psychological origin of such Domestic bias remains unknown. This study presents a neuroimaging experiment developed in Spain. The task combined low and high involvement goods marked with Domestic “Made in Spain” and Foreign “Made in USA” (similar culture) and “Made in China” (different culture) labels. The findings reveal that Domestic goods always convey neural rewarding sensations. Neural aversive biases toward Foreign goods occur only when the products are culturally different and high involvement. These findings help improve business retailing strategies.     

Brand origin and country of manufacture influences on brand equity and the moderating role of brand typicality

This research investigates how country macro and micro images associated with both brand origin (BO) and country of manufacture (COM) impact two main dimensions of brand equity-brand image and brand quality. Whereas BO images relate positively to both dimensions of brand equity, COM images exert an impact on brand quality, not on brand image. The typicality of the brand as a representative of the country of origin moderates the impact of BO on brand equity, such that the effects of BO on brand equity are stronger when the brand is more typical. The authors explore implications for theory and practice.     

国际著名品牌的中国公关策略:一个社会责任的视角

本研究以公共关系的社会责任伦理观为研究视角，探讨了国际著名品牌在中国的本土化公关策略。研究发现：第一，十大国际著名品牌在中国大陆的本土公关活动主要以公益性的宣传支持和慈善性的社会捐助为主，以政治性沟通合作和社区志愿者活动为辅，同时兼及伦理型商业实践和文化型娱乐活动，而关联性的公益营销较少开展。第二，社会责任型公关活动，在品牌关系建立、品牌文化推广、品牌形象塑造和品牌战略确定等四个方面，发挥了主要和积极的作用。     

绿色认证对品牌信任和购买意愿的影响研究

绿色认证是政府或民间机构向企业证明其产品符合相关环境保护要求的手段.通过绿色认证的企业通常会把绿色证书或标志放在公司网站和产品包装的显著位置,目的是提高消费者对企业生产的产品和品牌的信任感,提高消费者的购买意愿.文章通过问卷调查,检验绿色标志对消费者品牌信任度和购买意愿的影响,分析了消费者价值观对这种影响的作用,提出结论和未来研究方向.     

辽宁沿海经济带中华老字号服务创新与企业声誉研究

通过构建中华老字号服务创新与企业声誉之间的关系模型,并选取辽宁沿海经济带中华老字号企业作为调查对象,实证分析发现:中华老字号企业进行服务创新可以提升企业声誉。服务创新主要有服务理念创新、服务界面的创新和服务传递的创新三个要素。企业声誉由情感声誉与认知声誉两个要素组成。服务创新的三个方面对情感声誉都有直接正向的影响,而三要素中只有服务界面的创新直接正向影响认知声誉,其它两个方面没有直接正向的影响作用。     

Country‐of‐Origin and Social Resistance in Host Countries: The Case of a Chinese Firm

While China's outward direct investments continue to soar, many Chinese firms reportedly face social resistance in host countries during the internationalization process. We explore this phenomenon from a country‐of‐origin (COO) perspective using Fiske and colleagues’ (Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, & Xu, 2002; Fiske, Xu, Cuddy, & Glick, 1999) stereotype content model. Our findings from a recent case in New Zealand show that China's COO emerges as a key variable influencing how local actors view Chinese investors. Specifically, despite China's significant economic and social developments over the past decades, it suffers from a somewhat negative country image in two stereotype dimensions: competence and warmth. This leads to a perception by local actors that Chinese firms are of low quality, which explains the source of resistance in society. To address such a liability of origin, Chinese firms must learn to deal with this form of stereotypical judgment encountered in a host environment. Further contributions and limitations of the study are discussed in the article. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Cross‐Border M&As by Chinese Companies in Advanced Countries: Antecedents and Implications

Theoretically grounded in the ownership, location, and internalization (OLI) paradigm and institutional theory, this article investigates major macro‐level factors that determine cross‐border mergers and acquisitions (CBMAs) by Chinese firms in developed markets. Using panel data of Chinese CBMA deals in developed markets from 1996 to 2012, we found that market size, natural resources, and strategic assets of host advanced economies positively affected the number of Chinese CBMAs in the developed markets. With regard to institutional variables, the overall economic freedom of host countries positively affected Chinese CBMAs, whereas the host government effectiveness negatively influenced the number of Chinese CBMAs. Furthermore, the above hypothesized effects were significantly strengthened by the home country's government involvement mainly through ownership. Finally, we found that significant factors to explain Chinese overall outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) are not necessarily applicable to explain Chinese CBMAs. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Interrelationship Between Macroeconomic Variables and Stock Prices-The Case of China

ABSTRACT

Prior studies of industrialized countries have found that a definite relationship exists between the stock market returns and macroeconomic variables such as inflation and real output. This paper investigates the effects of changes in the consumer price index on industrial production and stock market returns for China. Six different types of Chinese shares are examined for the period 1994–1998. The results show a very significant positive relationship between inflation and real output. A positive and significant association is found between stock returns and real output in current periods. Inflation seems to have no impact on Chinese real stock returns. These relationships all hold for “B” shares, “H” shares and red chips. China's “A” share returns seem not to be impacted by either changes in domestic inflation or real industrial production.     

Talent Management Practices in IT Companies from Emerging Markets: A Comparative Analysis of Russia,India, and China

ABSTRACT

In this article, the authors review talent management practices in information technology (IT) companies from Russia, India, and China, discussing their differences and similarities. Using the emerging market context, the authors debate the factors influencing talent management, specifically in IT companies. The article examines the relevant research on the main talent management issues in Russia, India, and China, and offers one of the first intercountry comparative analyses of talent management practices in IT companies from emerging markets. The authors argue that although talent management practices are influenced by different institutional and cultural factors, there are similarities and differences that can be explained by the emerging market and industry-specific contexts.     

休闲装品牌营销渠道宽度与品牌经营年限之间的关系研究

渠道宽度作为营销渠道结构之一,对产品的营销效果影响非常重要。本文在西方关于营销渠道的理论基础上,结合国内现有休闲装品牌的实际市场情况,通过个案研究,用SPSS曲线分析法得出休闲装品牌渠道宽度与品牌经营年限之间的关系。