FACETS OF COUNTRY-OF-ORIGIN IMAGE - AN EMPIRICAL-ASSESSMENT

Country of origin (CO) is a potentially powerful image variable that c an be used to gain competitive advantage in international marketing. H owever, deficiencies in the definition and measurement of its facets h ave contributed to ineffective and infrequent use of CO image as a com petitive tool. The research reported in this article addresses these w eaknesses through the use of confirmatory factor and incremental fit a nalyses. The findings reveal that CO image is a multifaceted construct and that its facets are clearly interpretable. The article concludes with a discussion of advertising implications and directions for futur e research.