The EU as Superordinate Brand Origin: An Entitativity Perspective

Autor(en)

Adamantios Diamantopoulos, Marc Herz, Nicole Koschate-Fischer

Abstrakt

Purpose
Drawing from the entitativity theory, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the European Union (EU) as a superordinate entity and investigate the extent to which a “Made-in-EU” designation leads to superior/inferior brand evaluations and through them to higher/lower purchase intentions than different country-specific designations.

Design/methodology/approach
Prior literature and qualitative interviews with consumers are used to generate several propositions regarding the role of the EU as a brand origin. These are subsequently tested in a series of four experimental studies using a common design but different country-specific origins as stimuli.

Findings
While a “Made-in-EU” designation is interpreted as a quality signal, linking a brand to the EU fails to generate positive affective associations. Furthermore, the exact impact of a “Made-in-EU” brand designation very much depends on the standard of comparison, that is, the specific country against which the EU is evaluated.

Research limitations/implications
Superordinate designations such as the EU can indeed represent distinct entities in consumers’ minds which strongly impact their perceptions and intended behavior.

Practical implications
Moving from a “home country” label to a “Made-in-EU” label is not advisable for owners of domestic brands. For foreign brands from EU countries with an unfavorable country image, adopting a “Made-in-EU” label is worth considering since it can strengthen quality perceptions. However, any quality advantage might be offset by weaker brand affect perceptions.

Originality/value
The concept of entitativity introduces a new conceptual lens in the context of origin research which – almost exclusively – has previously focused on the individual country as the unit of analysis.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Rechnungswesen, Innovation und Strategie

Externe Organisation(en)

Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), kleinundpläcking

Journal

International Marketing Review

Band

34

Seiten

183-205

Anzahl der Seiten

23

ISSN

0265-1335

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1108/IMR-03-2015-0097

Publikationsdatum

2015

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

502052 Betriebswirtschaftslehre

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Marketing, Business and International Management

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/d5bff564-76a6-4c40-bf74-c4e952db158c