The country of origin effect on retailer buying behavior: a cross-country analysis on Italian footwear

The paper analyzes the effect of country of origin (COO) multidimensionality on the intention to buy Italian footwear in samples of retail buyers operating in three different countries, namely Spain, Russia and China. Specifically, it proposes a model aimed at testing the relationships among three different country image dimensions \u2013 Country Image (CI), Product\u2013Country Image (PCI), and Country-Related Product Image (CRPI) \u2013 and the retail buyers\u2019 intention to purchase products originating in Italy, while also verifying the effect of product\u2013country congruity (FIT). A total of 483 questionnaires were collected from samples of Spanish, Russian, and Chinese fashion retailers and processed applying Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Results show that COO influences retail buyers through a causal link within the three COOs\u2019 dimensions, reinforced by the FIT, as the CI effect is fully mediated by PCI. Theoretical and managerial implications for fashion firms are derived