Brand Equity and Country-of-Origin Effects on Consumer Evaluations: Leveraging Data to Explore the Role of Country Image and Brand Familiarity on Amazon Product Reviews

Abstract

As globalization accelerates transatlantic trade, both developing and developed countries are experiencing an entry of more foreign products simultaneous to rising exports. Against the backdrop of a progressively fluid marketplace, the question of how a product’s country-of-origin (COO) influences consumer judgement has propelled in significance. Although the consequences of country-of-origin effects have received robust attention in extant literature, few studies have reproduced the results on ecommerce platforms, which are rapidly replacing conventional brick-and-mortar retailers. In this study, the authors explore the extent to which origin effects influence consumer perceptions on Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, by investigating (1) how Amazon consumers rate products based on country-of-origin cues such as level of economic prosperity, (2) if brands from developed countries are perceived as more familiar than those from developing countries, and (3) if brand familiarity moderates country-of-origin effects. The findings from this study offer significant implications to both the domains of marketing and consumer studies as well as to marketing practitioners.