The Processes Behind the Country of Origin Effect

This chapter presents and tests three alternative processes through which country of origin information affects attitudes toward and intentions to purchase a product. Results support a cognitive process in which beliefs about ad-derived attributes are affected by country of origin cues. Belief effects mediate the effect on attitudes. Halo effects on inferential beliefs are not observed. Though an interaction between countries in the binational test is not significant, a simple main effect is observed that supports separate country of design and country of assembly effects.