COO and its dimensions
| COO and its dimensions | Definition | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Country of origin – COO | The country of origin of the product | Nagashima [1970] and Nijssen and Douglas [2004] |
| Country of manufacturing – COM | The country where there product is manufactured | Ulgado and Lee [1993], Chao [1998], Insch and McBride [1998, 2004], Phau and Prendergast [2000], and Hamzaoui and Merunka [2006] |
| The country appearing on the label as “made in” or the place of manufacturing | ||
| Country of design – COD | The country where the part or product is designed | Chao [1993], Tse and Lee [1993], Insch and McBride [1998], Hamzaoui and Merunka [2006], and Chen and Su [2012] |
| Country of assembly – COA | The country where the product is assembled | Chao [1993], Tse and Lee [1993], Insch and McBride [1998], Li et al. [2000], and Insch and McBride [2004] |
| Country of parts/country of key components – COP | The country of origin of some or all parts of the product | Han and Terpstra [1988], Chao [1993], Tse and Lee [1993], Insch and McBride [1998, 2004], and Fan [2008] |
| The country of origin of the key components of the product | ||
| Country of corporate ownership – COCO | The country where the head office of the company selling the product or brand is located | Ozsomer and Cavusgil [1991], Thakor and Kohli [1996], and Thakor and Lavack [2003] |
| The home country of the parent company, regardless of the current place of manufacturing of the product | ||
| Country/culture of brand origin – COBO/CuOBO | The country/culture to which the brand is assigned by the target consumers | Takor and Kohli [1996], Phau and Prendergast [2000], and Lim and O’Cass [2001] |
| Country of brand – COB | ||
| Country of association – COAS | The country that consumers usually associate with a given product/brand, regardless of where the product is actually manufactured | Li et al. [2000] and Jaffe and Nebenzahl [2006] |
COO dimensions and their interpretation by the informants
| COO dimensions | The understanding of COO dimensions by managers of the surveyed companies |
|---|---|
| Country of manufacturing – COM | “[…] the place of production, where the product was produced” (Company C) |
| “[…] where it is produced” (Company G) | |
| “[…] in which country…manufactured” (Company E) | |
| “[…] country of manufacturing: who is the supplier, who is the manufacturer” (Company M) | |
| Country of assembly – COA | “[…] in which country it is assembled”(Company E) |
| “[…] who is the assembler” (Company H) | |
| “[…] the country where the product has been assembled, not on which components, but just in which country it has been assembled” (Company I) | |
| Country of parts/country of key components – COP | “[…] because it is produced here, probably on Polish parts or at least partially” (Company B – R1) |
| “ […] on the basis of customs regulations, that if 60% of the components used in a given product come from the territory of the European Union, then in such a case we consider it to be a European product” (Company I) | |
| Country of design – COD | “[…] country of design, shape, solutions” (Company A) |
| “[…] design in…” (Company C) | |
| “[…] the country where ‘additional functionality’, possibly colour or design, has been developed, and the product has been adapted for sale” (Company D) | |
| “[…] the country where the idea arises, where the design is developed” (Company F – R1) | |
| Country of technology/innovation origin– COTO | “[…] where the technology comes from, where the R&D department is from and where the inventions in this product come from”(Company A) |
| country of technical culture – COTC | “[…] country of innovation and solution (...), country of transfer of ‘production processes translocation, which means entire production lines’, who ‘set up the factory’, the way it is assembled” (Company A) |
| “[…] technical culture of manufacture of the product” (Company F – R2) | |
| Country of corporate ownership – COCO | “[…] the country where the company is located” (Company D) |
| “[…] the place where I work...” (Company F – R1) | |
| “[…] where the company, capital, and owners come from” (Company G) | |
| Country of service network localization– COSNL | “[…] country of localization of service network” (Company D) |
| “[…] the country of origin also in the context of possible available components when it comes to servicing” (Company C) | |
| Country of organizational culture origin – COOCO | “[…] primarily an organizational culture. These are the people who are considered the best organized in a given region. This is also reflected in their economic situation” (Company D) |
| “[…] organizational culture, corporate culture, approach to the market, selling, responding to changes” (Company E) | |
| Culture of brand origin – CuOBO | “[…] reference to culture, cultural associations with the perception of countries; influence of this culture, nationality on the way of management” (Company D) |
| “[…] the country of origin and the cultural associations thereof” (Company B – R1) | |
| “[…] the culture of the country of origin, which has been formed for several thousand years” (Company E) | |
| Country of brand origin – COBO | “[…] the country of brand origin – that is, who is the brand owner, which parent company owns the brand – where it comes from, what is the capital” (Company C) |
| “[…] the country where the brand was created and with which it is still associated” (B R1) | |
| “[…] country of origin of the brand” (Company D) | |
| Country of brand launching – COBL | “[…] the first country in which the brand was being sold” (Company C) |
Overall characteristics of companies and interviewees
| Company | Organization type | Sales under manufacturer brands or licensed brands (%) | Offered categories of appliances | Country of corporate ownership/country of key brand origin | Country of manufacturing | Interviewee position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Company A | Only heating equipment manufactured in own factories, other large and small household appliances – outsourced manufacturing | 100 | Large and small household appliances | Poland/Poland | Poland (ovens), Turkey, China | Director of Marketing |
| Company B | Majority of especially large household appliances manufactured in own production facilities, small household appliances – mostly outsourced manufacturing | 100 | Large and small household appliances | South Korea/South Korea | Large household appliances – factories in different countries, close to trade areas, majority of small household appliances – China | Product & Marketing Manager (R1), Category Manager (R2) |
| Company C | As above | 100 | Large and small household appliances | Turkey/Turkey | Turkey, Romania, Russia, selected parts and small household appliances – China | Regional Marketing Director (East Europe) |
| Company D | As above | 100 | Large and small household appliances | China/Yugoslavia | Large household appliances – mostly Slovenia, Serbia, and Czech Republic; selected parts and small household appliances – China, cooker hoods – Poland | Product Manager SDA |
| Company E | Most of the large and small household appliances manufactured in the company’s own production facilities, a large part under OEM agreements with foreign manufacturers or licensed brands | around 18–20 | Large and small household appliances | Turkey/Turkey | Turkey, selected parts and small household appliances – China | Managing Director |
| Company F | For the most part, the production of household appliances branded with company’s brands is outsourced to third party manufacturers | 100 | Large and small household appliances | Poland/Poland | Mostly in China, Turkey, and Italy, narrowly – Poland | Development Director (R1) |
| Company G | Production of small household appliances under the corporate brand, outsourced to external producers | 100 | Small household appliances | Poland/Poland | Mostly China, 3D TV sets – assembled in Poland | Marketing Development Director |
| Company H | Equipment assembled in the company’s own production facilities, mostly under OEM agreements with foreign contract manufacturers | 5 | Cooker hoods | Poland/Poland | Assembly in Poland, many parts from Europe and China | Chief Economic Officer |
| Company I | As above | in Poland – 4.5, in total – 8 | Cooker hoods | Poland/Poland | Assembly in Poland, selected parts – from Western Europe and China | Sales Director |