Each nation has a distinct reputation for few specific products or services
originating from it (with reference to absolute advantage, proposed by Adam Smith,
1776). From strategy perspective, it can be argued that advanced factor
endowments such as skilled labor, strong technology and knowledge base, government
support, and culture are the main factors that determine distinctive competitive
advantage of nations (Porter, 1990). Current research, in the contrast, takes a bottom
up approach by seeking to comprehend whether Indian consumers align
specific industries and organizational capabilities to specific countries.
This study serves two objectives. It seeks to comprehend whether Country
of Origin (COO) effects are palpable among Indian consumers in the context of
rapid globalization of the Indian market. An affirmative result in turn may have
implications in strategic communication and promotion context. At the conceptual level, it
seeks to push further the boundary of COO research beyond the purview of brands.
According to Johansson et al. (1985), COO is defined as the "country where
the corporate headquarters of the company marketing the product or brand is
located." Though the product might not be necessarily manufactured in that country, it
is assumed that product or brand is identified with that country. |
