"Branded in China": A study on brand origin effect on the Swedish smartphone market

Sammanfattning: Along with the economic development of China, an increasing amount of Chinese companies have expandi internationally. Many of them have entered the Swedish market, trying to establish their brands to new consumers. At the same time, international marketing research has suggested that global brands should pay attention to the countryof-origin effect, as it conformably affects how consumers evaluate brands. The purpose of this study is to provide a deeper understanding of country-of-origin effect, by investigating the brand origin effect, a branch that has emerged as a consequence of globalization. Our study tests the brand origin effect on brand associations for Chinese brands on the Swedish smartphone market. Additionally, we also test for consumers' product knowledge as a moderating variable A qualitative focus group is first conducted, followed by a quantitative questionnairebased experiment with 208 valid responses. Five brand association dimensions, quality, innovation, CSR, prestige, and safety and integrity are tested with three different brand origins: China, Japan, and Germany. Lastly, we conduct follow-up interviews with respondents as well as two experts within our research field to further understand the results. The results show that a Chinese brand origin does affect brand association dimensions in terms of quality, CSR, and safety and integrity negatively. Furthermore, lower product knowledge shows larger brand origin effect on brand association for all dimensions except for innovation and safety and integrity. The results empirically support that brand origin does affect brand association, and that product knowledge is moderating the relationship between brand origin effect and three of the brand association dimensions.