Correspondence: Bruno Godey, Groupe ESC Rouen, Boulevard André Siegfried, BP 215 – 76825, Mont Saint Aignan cedex, France. E-mail: bruno.godey@groupe-esc-rouen.fr

¹is Full Professor of Marketing at the Faculty of Economics – University of Florence. His research interests include international marketing and firm internationalisation, retail and trade marketing, fashion marketing and SME marketing.

²is Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Faculty of Economics – University of Florence. His research interests include retail marketing, international marketing, fashion marketing and communication.

³is Associate Professor of Marketing at the Rouen School of Management. His research interests include consumer behaviour, brand and luxury marketing.

⁴is Associate Professor of Marketing at the Rouen School of Management. His main research interests are retailing, internationalisation and channel management.

⁵is Full Professor and Director of the Institute of Marketing and Management at the Leibniz University of Hannover. His research interests include strategic marketing, international marketing, brand and reputation management, consumer behaviour, corporate culture and change management, and innovation and technology marketing.

⁶is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Marketing and Management at the Leibniz University of Hannover. Her research interests include financial services, marketing and management, social capital, customer relationship management, sports marketing and luxury marketing.

⁷is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Marketing and Management at the Leibniz University of Hannover. Her research interests include tourism marketing, luxury marketing, consumer behaviour, target group '50plus' and CRM.

⁸is Assistant Professor II at the Institute of Textiles and Clothing at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and is a Beta Gamma Sigma recipient. Her research interests include brand marketing and management, consumer psychology, cross-cultural studies, international retailing and specialised market.

⁹is Full Professor and Head of the Department of Sociology at Waseda University (Tokyo). His research interests include social theory on collective behaviour and social change.

¹⁰is Full Professor of Marketing at Northeastern University College of Business, Boston, USA. His research interests are international and fashion marketing, product development and SMEs.

¹¹is Full Professor of Marketing at the Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics. He is Editor-in-Chief of the leading Russian marketing journal 'Marketing and Marketing Research' (Grebennikov publishing house). Her Research interests include international marketing, evolution of marketing thoughts and luxury marketing.

¹²is JC Penney Eminent Scholar of Marketing and Executive Director of the David F. Miller Center for Retailing Education and Research at the University of Florida. His research interests include retailing, distribution channels, sales force management and personal selling.

¹³is Research Director of the David F. Miller Center for Retailing Education and Research at the University of Florida. Her research interests include virtual shopping, visual marketing, fashion marketing, global retailing and luxury branding.

¹⁴is Assistant Professor of Emerging Market and Finance at the Birla Institute of Management Technology, India. His research interests include financial risk management, emerging market and cross-cultural issues.

Received 8 December 2008; Revised 8 December 2008.

Abstract

The effects of the country-of-origin (COO) upon consumer perceptions and purchase intentions remain of interest to marketing researchers. Our paper analyses the perception of the COO and of brands, and their influence on consumer perception and purchasing intention. A cross-national sample was set up in order to obtain a more complex understanding of how the COO concept operates in various countries across different product categories (convenience products, shopping goods and specialty/luxury products).