s established reputation may have the potential to overcome any negative associations of COO stereotyping.
It has been observed that COO may influence buying decisions either directly or indirectly (Hsieh, 2004). Direct influence occurs in a "summary" manner, when knowledge of a product's COO "helps consumers summarise (sic) product information as they become more familiar with a country's products" (p. 27). Indirect influence has to do with the psychological force of stereotyping, or associating a product's COO with a whole range of inferences and beliefs about the country that are brought to bear on evaluating a product for purchase. Stereotyping, also referred to as a "halo effect," is linked with the phenomenon of ethnocentrism, which entails a range of beliefs that may be bound to culture and the familiar. In other words, absent specific experience of a product, a consumer may make a judgment about its quality solely or principally on the basis of COO (Stoltman, Young, & Morgan, 1991; Balabanis, 2004).
Another complicating factor of COO is that no single theory of the phenomenon has been agreed upon by the experts, despite evidence of rather extensive study of the issue. Olsen and Olsson (2002) explain that the very design of a study of COO may affect conclusions and study implementation, which is important given the vagaries of psychology that come into play in the impact of COO knowledge on prospective buyers. They argue that the most important feature of COO study is the measure of "attitudinal effects, including effects on purchase behaviour" (sic) and that an understanding of such effects could have an impact on organizational management decisions about improving a "country-product image" (p. 150). That fact alone makes COO issues relevant to an organization's marketing strategy and operations. Additionally, in the climate of globalization on one hand and a competitive foreign-trade marketplace on the other, COO issues h...