The Impact of Country of Origin and Country of Manufacture of a Brand on Overall Brand Equity

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to explore the effects of country-of-origin of a brand (COB) and country of manufacture (COM) on the overall brand equity (OBE). A second purpose of this research is to investigate the mediating role of consumer based brand equity (CBBE) on the relationship between COB and COM and overall brand equity (OBE). To undertake this, a conceptual framework was designed and relationships among its constructs COB, COM, CBBE, and OBE were hypothesized. Data were collected from consumers located in two major cities in Egypt who were the owners of the selected brands of mobile phones. All hypotheses were tested using regression analysis. Results indicate that both COB and COM have direct and significant effect on CBBE, yet COM has significant lower effect on CBBE. In addition, COB and COM have direct influence on the overall brand equity. Furthermore, unlike COB, the results emphasized the mediating effect of CBBE on the relationships between COM and the overall brand equity. The current study considers only one product category, future researches would consider different product categories, for example convenience products and non-durable ones. Further research would take into account COB and COM effects from other developed and developing countries. Different sub-dimensions of COO for example Country of Assembly (COA) and Country of Design (COD) would be researched. The value of this paper stems from decomposing country of origin into COB and COM and investigating their plausible effect on the CBBE and the overall brand equity from the Egyptian consumers' points of view. Moreover, the mediating effect of CBBE is another significant issue.