Assessing the predictive validity of perceived globalness and country of origin of foreign brands in quality judgments among consumers in emerging markets

Abstract

Consumers in emerging markets are known to have strong preferences for well‐known foreign brands. Drawing on schema and categorization theories, this study empirically investigates how accessible two components of brand foreignness – globalness and country of brand origin – are in consumer perceptions of brand quality in emerging markets. In addition, we argue that brand globalness can be shaped by inferential reasoning and test how consumer perceptions of brand globalness are affected by both a brand's country of origin and its perceived quality. Two different studies were conducted with young‐adult consumers in China. The study found that in their evaluations of foreign brands consumers are more influenced by country of origin than by brand globalness. It also found that consumers tend to perceive a high level of globalness in high‐quality brands and brands from a favorable country‐of‐origin. Further, this tendency was found to differ between well‐known and lesser‐known brands. These findings confirm the predictive validity of country of origin, but contrast with extant literature on the role of brand globalness as a principal quality cue for foreign brands among consumers in emerging markets. Our findings also imply brand globalness can be an inferred attribute of perceived brand quality and country‐of‐origin image. Keywords: brand foreignness, brand globalness, country‐of‐origin effect, emerging markets.

Brand Foreignness and Anger Decrease Purchase Intentions of Ethnocentric Consumer for National Icon Products

“…Country of origin studies inquires into consumer attitudes toward a product or a brand due to the originating country. In those studies, the 'country of origin effect' is accepted to shape consumer attitudes (C. M. Han, 2020;Herz & Diamantopoulos, 2017;Janda & Rao, 1997;Suh, Hur, & Davies, 2016;C. K. Wang & Lamb, 1983; Y.…”

“…Foreignness is not limited to a specific country, as consumer perception is related to a brand's more general characteristics and can be explained through perceived brand foreignness. Whether a brand is foreign or domestic is a more general categorical division in the mind of consumers than that of the origin country-oriented division (Batra et al, 2000;Samiee, Shimp and Sharma, 2005;Zhou, Yang,, and Hui, 2010), which is narrow in terms of being restricted to merely one country (Askegaard & Ger, 1998;C. M. Han, 2020).…”

Firm innovation activities and consumer brand loyalty: A path to business sustainability in Asia

“…Categorization theory posits in consumer research that “consumers construct and use categorical representations to classify, interpret, and understand the information they receive” ( Loken et al, 2008 ). The term “category” refers to the information kept in the memory and is later utilized to classify and assign products or services to a consumer category ( Han, 2020 ). In the process of brand categorization, consumers develop brand prototypes according to their perceptions, and these prototypes assist them in product evaluation ( Loken, 2005 ).…”

Country-of-origin cues: effects of country-related affect and product association on consumer responses to hospitality firms

“…This line of research has demonstrated that COO influences product evaluation and purchase intention (Suh et al , 2016; Alshibly et al , 2019; Souiden et al , 2020), attitudes toward brand acquisitions (Nguyen and Alcantara, 2020), brand love (Cho and Hwang, 2020), brand equity (Cowan and Guzman, 2020), perceived product authenticity (Cheah et al , 2018; Melewar and Skinner, 2020) and destination evaluations (Zhang et al , 2016). Prior research shows that consumers are more influenced by COO than by brand globalness (Han, 2020). If COO information about a certain product is not available, consumers will search online for it (Cheah et al , 2018).…”