Exploring the impact of country-of-origin fit and team identification in sports brand evaluation

초록

Research question: This study sought to identify the effects of perceived quality of products associated with country-of-origin (COO) images and its interplay with team identification on overall consumer brand evaluation.Research methods: In order to test the proposed hypotheses, an experimental study using a series of 2 (COO images: incongruent vs. congruent)x2 (team identification: low vs. high) mixed factorial designs was conducted. One hundred thirty-six college student subjects from a northeastern university in the US participated in the main experiment.Results and findings: Subjects in the congruent COO image condition showed significantly greater positive post-alliance evaluation changes toward the host brand than those in the incongruent COO image condition. Meanwhile, subjects in the incongruent COO image condition showed significantly greater positive post-alliance evaluation changes toward the partner brand than those in the congruent COO image condition.Implications: This study implies that the COO images and consumer team identification jointly affect the product evaluation in a cross-border strategic brand alliance context. In order to target lowly identified consumers, the host brand should collaborate with a partner brand with a favorable country image. By contrast, for highly identified consumers, the partner brand need to ally with a well-known host brand with a favorable COO image so that the partner brand can leverage off the favorable COO image of the host brand.

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