GLOBAL FASHION VALUE CHAINS: COUNTRY OF BRAND ORIGIN VS. COUNTRY OF MANUFACTURE

Abstract

Global fashion value chains, today, are in process of redefining the meaning and significance of Country of Origin (COO) – one of the critical elements of consumer purchase behavior for apparels. COO, which once was synonymous with ‘Made in …’ is now associated with at least two key dimensions – Country of Manufacture (COM) and Country of Brand (COB). While COM is man-dated by law in most countries, and prominently displayed on labels, COB is widely used by marketers to amplify the brand appeal. Each of these may ex-emplify a different, and at times conflicting, perception in the minds of con-sumers. The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature on COO images to understand the effect of (in)congruent and/or conflicting combina-tions of COB and COM images, as perceived by consumers. This paper pro-poses that (in)congruent COO information communicated to customer through COB and COM may generate contradictory cognitive emotions. The paper finds that the existing literature on COO does not give a consentaneous opinion on whether COB or COM is more important in consumer decision making. Hence, exploration of interaction between (in)congruent and/or conflicting COB and COM images and resulting behavior outcomes may repre-sent a major theoretical advancement in systematic study of COO images.