The CoO-ELM Model: a Theoretical Framework for the Cognitive Processes Underlying Country of Origin-Effects

Purpose – the purpose of this paper is to present an extended version of the elaboration likelihood model (elm-model) to explain and predict which of the four cognitive processes that are distinguished in the literature, with respect to country of origin (coo), can be expected to occur: the halo-effect, the summary construct-effect, the product attribute-effect or the default heuristic-effect.design/methodology/approach – contrary to most of the previous theoretically-oriented work on cognitive coo-effects, the epistemological background of the coo-elm model proposed in this paper is of an inductive nature with theoretical propositions being derived from empirical data already gathered in the existing studies.findings – the outcome of this paper is a flow chart model leading to a set of theoretical propositions on which cognitive coo-effects can be expected to occur under different situational contexts.research limitations/implications – this paper only focuses on the explanation of cognitive coo-effects, not on affective or conative/normative effects. Also, the coo-elm model applies only to the processing of consumers' prior knowledge about a country's products and not about the country itself. Finally, the coo-elm model still needs to be subjected to empirical verification. An important implication of this paper is that the coo-elm framework makes the bulk of empirical data become more transparent given the four effects of cognitive coo-processes.practical implications – the coo-elm model provides marketing practitioners with an easy and practical tool for the management of coo-cues.originality/value – this paper is the first attempt trying to catch all the cognitive coo-effects previously identified within a theoretically solid framework.