INTERPRETING COUNTRY-OF-ORIGIN EFFECTS IN HIGH- AND LOW-CONTEXT CULTURE SOCIETIES

Abstract: Purpose: To explore and describe how country-of-origin has its effect towards both high- and low-context culture societies. Theoretical perspectives: Country-of-origin effect, cultural context, international marketing. Methodology: A comparative study using six focus group discussions to obtain differences and similarities on country-of-origin effect in both high- and low-context culture societies. Empirical foundation: In order to equally study high- and low-context cultural societies, three brands and its country-of-origin. Empirical examples are chosen based on a pre-study conducted towards forty-six people. Conclusions: Country-of-origin effects such as cognitive, affective and normative all exist within high- and low-context societies to a certain different degree. The main differences are associated to one’s cultural context upbringing where high-context culture values a brand and its country-of-origin under the imposed social hierarchy, as opposed to the low-context culture that focuses more on the segmented individual life.