The Impact of Country-of-Origin and Country-of-Manufacture Cues on Consumer Perceptions of Quality and Value

With increasing sourcing and manufacture from many parts of the world, many products today are bi-national or "hybrid" products as a result of activities taking place across national boundaries. Recent research on the country-of-origin effects of such bi-national products have almost exclusively operationalized the relevant constructs using specific brand-names and countries of manufacturing or assembly. However, we contend that the use of reputed brand names may have diminished the full impact of the country-of-manufacture cues. Our research invokes country images for both the country-of-brand origin and the country-of-manufacture, and finds that both cues are important in consumer evaluations of product quality, product value, and willingness-to-buy. Managerial implications for marketing products manufactured in NICs and developing countries are also discussed with respect to the salience of the country-of-brand origin cues.