Do COD and COM matter for retailers?

This paper investigates the simultaneous effects of Country of Design (COD) and Country of Manufacture (COM) on retailer buying behaviour. A total of 126 Italian sunglasses’ retail buyers evaluated different experimental conditions concerning COD and COM. Results show that the origin of a product exerts an effect on retailers evaluations and behaviour. Specifically, the perception of market risk moderates the effect of country of origin information on retailers’ attitude towards the product origin’s choice of the producer, retailers’ intention to buy the product, and retailers’ word of mouth. This paper makes therefore a noteworthy contribution to the country of origin literature investigating retail buyers, a subject on which very poor is the theoretical knowledge so far and possibly important the managerial implications involved.