Country-Of-Origin (COO) Impact and Product Categories’ Evaluations: The Case of an Emerging Market

Abstract

This study assesses the impact of culture on the perception of COO and consumer decision-making processes in Morocco, as an emerging market and a non-Western and North African nation. In general, the findings confirm that product categories from more developed countries receive more favorable evaluations than products from developing nations. The results from this exploratory study confirm other researchers' conclusions that economically developed nations and economies have the highest perceived quality image and that there is a bias against products from less advanced countries and markets. Managerial implications are also discussed.