Country of Origin Effects: Consumer Perceptions of Japan in South East Asia

Favorable or unfavorable perceptions of a country associated with a product lead to a corresponding favorable or unfavorable evaluations of the product originating from that country. Country-of-origin effects have both performance and emotional components. Past research has primarily focused on performance factors that influence country-of-origin effects on persuasion. This research suggests that information unrelated to the product may generate positive or negative emotions toward the country and subsequently these emotions influence country-oforigin effects. This research examined consumer perceptions of Japan in South East Asia where Japan has major investments. Two types of emotions, anger and sadness were examined. In the angry condition, heuristic processing was observed and country-of-origin information influenced evaluations. Alternately, in the sad condition, systematic processing was observed and countryof-origin did not have any effect on evaluations. These observations highlight the importance of exploring emotional influences on country-of-origin effects. The implications for Japanese corporations in managing “country of origin effects” in the global context are discussed.