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Consumers' preferences for domestic over imported products have been investigated in various isolated studies, but never in a single model incorporating several in-group and out-group consumer orientations at the same time. Building on social identity theory, this study develops and tests—in two countries—a conceptual model that assesses the relative influence of consumer ethnocentrism, national identity, and consumer cosmopolitanism on consumers' product judgments and willingness to buy domestic and foreign products. Furthermore, the study develops an empirically based typology of consumer segments using these sociopsychological traits and subsequently profiles them on consumptionrelevant variables. The findings reveal several undiscovered patterns regarding the interplay of consumer ethnocentrism, national identity, and consumer cosmopolitanism as drivers of consumer behavior and offer managerial guidance on their relevance as segmentation variables.

This study applies the construct of brand equity in a country context, and measures the value-added with which the name of a country endows a product or a brand as perceived by the individual consumer. Specifically, based on Yoo and Donthu's (2001) brand equity scale, a country brand equity (CBE) scale is developed and empirically tested for its psychometric properties; subsequently a model linking (home) country image (COI) and product preferences with country brand equity as an intervening variable is estimated. Results indicate (a) that country brand equity is influenced by country image perceptions, (b) that country brand equity positively impacts on product preferences, and (c) that the latter are not directly influenced by country image perceptions.

The country-of-origin (COO) of products has been shown to affect consumer choice, especially in situations where the origin has a stereotypical association with particular products and depending on certain consumer traits (e.g., national identity, consumer ethnocentrism). However, little is known about how these phenomena are related. Two controlled experiments conducted in two different countries and product categories reveal that product ethnicity moderates the impact of national identity but not of consumer ethnocentrism. National identity is found to influence consumer preference only if the foreign product ethnicity is higher but not lower than that of comparable domestic products. Furthermore, while consumers with a low national identity are positively affected by a high product ethnicity of foreign products, this effect vanishes with increasing levels of national identity. This research has implications for academics and practitioners alike, as it examines important boundary conditions of country-of-origin effects that have been undiscovered so far.

Both brand ethicality and brand authenticity focus on the moral behavior of a brand, yet the link between these two constructs is only poorly understood. Building on and integrating findings from prior research, this article suggests that authentic brand ethicality (ABE), defined as the degree to which consumers perceive a brand’s moral behavior as genuine, real, or true, represents an important extension of extant brand ethicality scales available. Using a multistep scale development procedure, this study provides a robust 12-item full scale and a 7-item parsimonious scale of ABE that are sound in their psychometric properties and show predictive and known-group validity. Furthermore, placing ABE into a broad theory-based nomological network reveals its mediating role between important brand-, customer-, and employee-related antecedents and outcomes as well as its function in moderating relationships. Overall, this research yields a deeper understanding of ABE’s conceptualization, measurement, drivers, consequences, and role in mediating and moderating relationships and provides managerially relevant outcomes.

Both brand ethicality and brand authenticity focus on the moral behavior of a brand, yet the link between these two constructs is only poorly understood. Building on and integrating findings from prior research, this article suggests that authentic brand ethicality (ABE), defined as the degree to which consumers perceive a brand’s moral behavior as genuine, real, or true, represents an important extension of extant brand ethicality scales available. Using a multistep scale development procedure, this study provides a robust 12-item full scale and a 7-item parsimonious scale of ABE that are sound in their psychometric properties and show predictive and known-group validity. Furthermore, placing ABE into a broad theory-based nomological network reveals its mediating role between important brand-, customer-, and employee-related antecedents and outcomes as well as its function in moderating relationships. Overall, this research yields a deeper understanding of ABE’s conceptualization, measurement, drivers, consequences, and role in mediating and moderating relationships and provides managerially relevant outcomes.

The concept of authenticity is gaining interest in research and managerial practice. While the focus has been on the supply side, investigating factors that make brands authentic, the demand side, or consumers’ search for authentic market offerings, has been neglected. Informed by the literature, this article develops a psychometrically sound and cross-nationally and temporally stable scale to measure consumer authenticity seeking (CAS) as a set of three dimensions: personal, true, and iconic authenticity seeking. Using a comprehensive theory-based nomological network, this research introduces CAS as an important moderator between brand authenticity and outcomes. It also examines consumers’ intrinsic and extrinsic motives that drive these effects. Finally, this research reveals different consumer profiles managers can use for targeting and segmentation purposes.

Firms pursuing expansion abroad increasingly face challenges of protectionism and discrimination against foreign products, a phenomenon widely recognized as domestic country bias. This research addresses discordant findings in previous work by introducing a new mechanism of domestic country bias that operates distinctly for national identifiers and ethnocentric consumers, connecting these two groups to regulatory focus theory. Using three experimental studies and a survey involving actual product possessions, we provide new evidence that consistently demonstrates that national identity and consumer ethnocentrism are associated with different goals, namely, an approach goal and an avoidance goal, respectively. Importantly, the results reveal that domestic country bias due to national identity can be attenuated by priming a prevention focus, while domestic country bias due to consumer ethnocentrism can be reduced by priming a promotion focus. The findings offer international marketing managers valuable insights into reducing domestic country bias and effectively segmenting international consumer markets. This research is the first to demonstrate how global companies can actively overcome domestic country bias by deploying suitable international marketing programs rather than avoiding specific segments and/or downplaying foreign origins.

Although both product-country images (PCI) and firm assets such as brand equity have been extensively studied in separate contexts, we know very little about the combined performance effects of these two important constructs in international research. Extant research has investigated brand equity primarily from a consumer perspective, but rarely from the point of view of a retailer. Retailers represent the ultimate participants in the value chain selling the product to consumers. They have the ability to significantly influence consumers’ evaluations and purchase decisions. Based upon existing literature documenting the contributions of PCI and marketing activities on brand equity, this study extends these findings by investigating their effects on retailer-perceived brand equity (RPBE) and ultimate brand profitability performance. Results indicate that both marketing activities and PCI affect retailer-perceived brand equity with PCI also strongly and positively influencing brand profitability performance.

Country-of-origin (COO) research is criticized for its lack of practical relevance. Literature largely focuses on consumers' responses to COO, while relatively little is known about whether and when companies actively choose COO in their marketing mix. This research makes predictions about COO usage versus non-usage and the number and type of COO cues used in a developed versus developing country context. We test the hypotheses with a content analysis of ads published in three major magazines in France and India, respectively, involving 2181 print ads published over a 12-month period. The results reveal surprising differences between a developed and an emerging country in terms of relevance and usage of COO, but also between theoretical predictions from the literature and actual applications by companies. This research provides companies with guidelines for the use of COO in marketing communication and contributes to the discussion on COO relevance by taking a novel perspective.