# Introduction he fashion industry in Bangladesh has been experiencing an explosion due to considerable dynamic nature which increases fashion consciousness among consumers. Everyone has a separate and elegant fashion sense which is mainly related to the apparels throughout the world. Currently, all international brands are found in Bangladesh. This industry has progressed from emerging stage to successful blooming industry today. Clothing defines the personality, education, behavior and the way of thinking of the people. Individual consumers are assumed to have different wants or needs, and those goods that best satisfy their preferences are regarded as having the highest quality. The country of origin effect has been recognized as an important factor in consumers' purchasing decisions (Schooler, 1965). In fact, it has drawn great attention in the consumer buying behavior literature since the 1960s (Ditchter, 1962;Schooler, 1965). Despite over fifty years of research, the COO effect has been criticized as one of the least understood phenomena (Verlegh & Steenkamp, 1999). Furthermore, in an age of increasing international competition and globalization, the concept of country of origin has come under great criticism (Thakor & Kohli, 1996). As the Bangladeshi textile and apparel industry becomes more and more global, it is important to point out that favorable or unfavorable perceptions of countries associated with the product lead to corresponding favorable or unfavorable perceptions of brands that are from a certain country. Apparel products were selected as the central concentration for this study because they are produced through the most global and complex supply chain; thus, the boundary between country of origin and brand origin has been quite confusing (Dickerson, 1999). Therefore, many national companies of various countries are deregulating and encouraging market forces to operate. Multinational companies are also aggressively moving into new markets and practicing global marketing by maintaining conformance of quality and brand positioning. Consumers of a product also are getting multiple options to choose their product or brands by considering quality and other features. The increasing use of fashion clothing and the emerging market has intrigued foreign as well as local brands to provide services to its customers. The marketplace is always changing; thus consumers are forced to make judgments about the quality of a product or a brand with incomplete information about that specific product or brand (Thakor & Kohli, 1996). Therefore, consumers often use secondary cues to form the associations needed to create images of a product or a brand (Keller, 1998). According to Keller (1998), the examples of secondary cues are country of origin, brand origin, distribution channels, or a spokesperson or endorser of the product (Keller, 1998). This study particularly focuses on brand origin as a potential cue that consumers use to evaluate apparel product quality. To understand the role of brand origin, however, the concept of country of origin must be discussed as it has been used as the precursor of brand origin. Many studies have given insights about gender difference in building relationships with brands. The results revealed by these studies magnify the role of women in judgment of a brand and consider women as an active partner than men in buying behavior. This influenced author to identity the factors that are actually considered by female before purchase decision of them and its affects on country of origin. This study is a modest attempt (along with 88 factors) in this direction branded clothing, and will help marketer to determine the female consumer's preference and aggregated relationship with country of origin influence. # a) Background of Study In this competitive era, marketer must be fully aware about the customer needs distinctly and separately as regards what are they expecting from a brand, how they differ in their buying behavior, factors which push them to purchase a particular brand, their total outlay, shopping frequency etc to attain a competitive edge. This vital information can help the companies to formulate the strategies as per the customer needs & deliver them the products which consumer wants from the company which will be profitable for the company. This study investigated affects of country of origin which establish female consumers are really stressed by country of origin while they purchase branded clothing. # Justification of the Study The country of origin effect has been defined as "the positive and negative influence that a product's country of manufacture may have on consumers' decision making processes or subsequent behavior (Elliott and Cameron, 1994). Infect, in the words of Nagashima (1970), COE (Country of Origin Effect) can be defined as "the picture, the reputation, and the stereotype that businessmen and consumers attach to products or brands of a specific country. This image is created by such variables as representative products, national characteristics economic and political background, history, and traditions". The literature on country-of-origin effects is quite rich and covers the topic from different perspectives in different countries. Some studies have shown that country of origin also has symbolic and emotional meaning to consumes, and it plays an important role along with other attributes such as quality and reliability in shaping consumers attitudes toward products Moreover, attitudes and perceptions of consumers toward brands and products will depend on categories, for instance, electronic goods from Italy may be perceived as a poor quality but Italian clothing would be perceive as fashionable and high quality (Bikey and Nes, 1982). This would be differently perceived with Japanese brands as Japanese electronic goods would be perceive with positive attitudes and Japanese clothing will be negatively perceived. International trade and the development of the global market have grown considerably. Companies and international marketers are also looking for more opportunities in the global market and multinational firms, which causes international competition between companies. There are many factors that have an impact on this growth as well as consumer products and services evaluation, such as brand name and perception of country. Among the many parameters, country of origin is one of the most important affecting this competitive market. Studies show that country of origin (COO) is one of the factors that most concern marketers in respect of its impact on consumer purchase intention (L. Y. Lin & Chen, 2006). Although there are many parameters that consumers consider when they want to buy something, such as brand, colour and design, researchers cannot ignore extrinsic factors like country of origin. The international marketing literature shows that consumers use this extrinsic factor for evaluating products. In other words country of origin is a higher risk for international trade because it reflects consumer intention. In brief, in respect of other studies and the literature, country of origin is usually abbreviated as "COO", which refers to the country that manufactures designs or assembles a product or brand with which it is associated (J. K. Lee & Lee, 2009). Nowadays, in this modern and competitive era, in which global marketing is growing day by day, country of origin, as a significant parameter, has been studied in much research, and it is shown that this factor influences consumer behavior and also their purchasing. The other point that studies demonstrate is that people care about which country products come from and where they are made and consider these factors when evaluating the quality of products, (Parkvithee & Miranda, 2012). The number of business enterprises relocating production facilities is constantly growing. Decisions to relocate production are being taken more and more frequently by many manufacturers, both to capitalize on labour cost advantages and for strategic market considerations (e.g. to circumvent import quotas and/or excessively high import duties). The title "country-oforigin effect" usually indicates a description of the influence of the country of origin on consumers' of the country of origin on consumers is determined by feelings towards the country (affective country evaluation), by rational estimates of the quality of the country (cognitive country evaluation), from the general "made in"-image of the country (competence of country in manufacturing) and by evaluating individual products made in the country (evaluation of branded clothing of the country). Furthermore, these components are interdependent as far as the influence exerted by them is concerned, and, for this reason, a major part of their influence is exerted indirectly. This form of indirect influence also illustrates why many firms and marketing experts underestimate the effects of product origin. # III. # Research Method a) Questionnaire Development In finding the factors, researcher conducted an exploratory research with an open ended question and asked more than 50 respondents to answer it. (What are the factors actually they considered while purchasing branded cloth?). After that, around 88 factors were found excluding demographic information's. Based on it, a close ended structured questionnaire has been made by using 5 point Likert Scale to measure the relative importance of the variables. The questionnaire was pre-tested in order to maintain proper wording, length and sequencing of the questions .The respondents were asked to rate on several statements on the questionnaire using the scale between Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree. # b) Population The target population for the study was the female consumer of Dhaka city aged between 18 to 32, who frequently buy their own clothing. It has been anticipated by author that, female's living in capital city has their own perceptions, multiple option of choice and freedom of decision making which backed by their educational background and fashion consciousness. # c) Sample Size A total of 250 questionnaires were handed out and a sample of 220 was realized. The remaining 30 questionnaires were discarded for one of the following reasons: i. Non-compliance with the set of parameters. ii. Incorrect completion of questionnaire. iii. Too many fields of data missing. # d) Sampling Technique For sampling, non-probabilistic sampling method (i.e. convenient judgment sampling) was used. # e) Data Collection Method The needed data has been collected from the both primary and secondary sources f) Primary data Sources of primary data are collected by university students on different area of Dhaka City conducting survey through questionnaire for the first time and thus happen to be original in character. # g) Secondary data Secondary information collected from different web sites and published articles, online journals, and working papers. After collecting data, it was scrutinized and analyzed by using statistical tools SPSS 16.0 (Statististical Package of Social Science). # a) Reliability Reliability and internal consistency of the multi item scales for each of the constructs were measured using Cronbach Coefficient Alpha. The minimally acceptable reliability for primary research should be in the range of point five to point six. (Nunnally, 1967) Based on the assessmenta total of 88 items measuring the constructs were finally retained for final use. Cronbach's Coefficient alpha values were computed. 911 which demonstrates the high internal consistency of the collected data. V. # Factor Analysis KMO and Bartlett's Test: Before going to factor analysis result, researcher should analyze the KMO and Bartlett sphericity test. It was found that KMO exceed 0.5, so researcher should be confident that factor is appropriate for these data and Bartlett sphericity test is always significant for all factors. If the KMO value is lower than 0.5, factor analysis can not be conducted because data doesn't have enough requirement. The requirement means that factors don't have enough data to be process. It is also indicated from significant value on Bartlett test of sphericity. If the value is higher than alpha significant, the factor analysis is not allowed to be process. Here, researcher found significant value .000 and therefore factor analysis is appropriate. a) The Result of Factor Analysis Principle component analysis is used as the extraction method to identity the key factor having significant correlation with the variables. The results of principle component analysis indicate that there are twenty six factors whose eigenvalues exceed 1.0. Eigen value of a factor represents the amount of the total variance explained by that factor. The twenty six factors identified explain 77.773% or 78% of the total variance. Factor analysis result shows that communalities of variables are quite high, indicating that the variables used in data set are highly cohesive in nature. From the Table 5 it can be concluded that, this 26 factors constitute approximately 78% of the total variance. The first factor explained 13.241 percent of this variance and Frequency analysis shows that, 64.1% purchase branded clothing whenever needed, 15% once a month, 10.9% more than once a month & 10% once a year of total respondent (See Table 4).Persons accompanying respondents during purchase, on that question 87.3% of them buy with some one special, 6.8% with co-worker, 5% with family member & .9% with friends(See Table 5). Respondent's monthly expenditure on Branded clothingon that question were found, 39.5% spend 1000tk. to 2000tk. 31.8% spend 2000tk. to 3000tk. 17.6% spend more than 3000tk. and 10.9% spend less than 1000tk. (See Table 6) and Table 7 describes respondents age. # Data Analysis & Interpretations a) Model In this study multiple regression models has been used to examine affects of "Country of Origin" to identify the relationship between the factors identified through overall measure of preference of the respondents. The author has used the country of origin influence as the dependent variable and other 87 factors are used as independent variables. The author has run the regression model to determine the significance level of the variables for country of origin influences regardless other factors. The basic model for the study was therefore as follows: Where, CoOI = Country of Origin influence X 1 = Product quality X 2 = because of long lasting X 3 = Quality of finishing influences X 4 = Quality of stitching X 5 = Quality Assurance X 6 = Quality of raw materials X 8 = Color combination X 9 = different color options to X 87 = Magazine advertisement And ? is constant and ? 1, ? 2, ? 3, ? 4, ? 5, ? 6, ? 7, ? 8, ? 9, to,???????????. ? 87 are coefficient to estimate and e is the error term. # b) Regression Analysis Under multiple regression analysis, the report of analysis is given below along with SPSS software output & sufficient explanation. # i. Explanation of Model Summary ? In this model, the value of R = 0.929 expresses that there is a high degree of positive relationship between the dependent variable ?(CoOI) Country of origin and the independent variables expressed as X 1 ,X 2 ,X 3 ,X 4, X 5, ,X 6 ,X 7 ,X 8 ,X 9 , to X 87. at 5 % level of significance ? The term R Square is the multiple coefficient of determination interpreted as the proportion of variability in the dependent variable that can be explained by the estimated multiple regression equation. ? Hence, when multiplied by the 100, it can be interpreted as the percentage of the variability in ? (CoOI) that can be explained by the estimated regression equation. ? All independent variables (X 1 ,X 2 ,X 3 ,X 4, X 5, X 6 ,X 7 ,X 8 ,X 9 , to X 87 ), the R Square = 0.863. Therefore, 86.3% of the variability in ? (CoOI) is explained by the estimated multiple regression equation with all entered X 1 ,X 2 ,X 3 ,X 4, X 5, X 6 ,X 7 ,X 8 ,X 9 , to X 87 as the independent variables. ii. Explanation of ANOVA The ANOVA (Analysis of variance) tells us weather the regression equation is explaining a statistically significant portion of the variability in the dependent variable form variability in the independent variables. The test shows that table sig. value 0.05 is greater than the calculated value .000 .It means; there has significant relationship between dependent and independent variables. ? In case of ANOVA (Analysis of variance), the total sum of squares can be divided into two components: the sum of squares due to Regression (SSR) and the sum of squares due to Error (SSE) as shown below: # SST=SSR+SSE. Where, SST= Total sum of squares= ?(Yi-? ) SSR= sum of squares due to regression= ?(?-?) SSE= sum of errors due to error= ?(Yi-?) ? The analysis of variance part shows the three values for our selected problem with all independent variables (X 1 ,X 2 ,X 3 ,X 4, X 5, X 6 ,X 7 ,X 8 ,X 9 , to X 87 ): SST=244.086, SSE=210.610 and SSR=33.477. The value of SST is same whether independent variable added or deducted, it doesn't depend on ?, but SSR increases and SSE decreases when another independent variable is added with model. The implication is that the estimated multiple regression equation -provides a better fit for the observed data. ? Adding independent variables cause the prediction errors to become smaller, thus reducing the sum of squares due to error (SSE) because SSR= SST-SSE when SSE becomes smaller. ? The F-test is used to determine whether a significant relationship exists between dependent variable named CoOI and the set of all independent variables such as X 1 ,X 2 ,X 3 ,X 4, X 5, X 6 ,X 7 ,X 8 ,X 9 , to X 87 expressed as respectively; we will refer to the F-test as the test for overall significance. ? In this ANOVA model, the hypothesis for the F-test involves the parameters of the multiple regression models: H 0 = ? 1 =0 H1= ? 1 or is not equal to zero. ? if H 0 is rejected, we have enough evidence to deduce that, all of the parameters of variables are not equal to zero and that the overall relationship between CoOI (?) and other independent variables (X 1 ,X 2 ,X 3 ,X 4, X 5, X 6 ,X 7 ,X 8 ,X 9 , to X 87 ) is significant. ? Before interpreting the F-test, we need to know the concept of Mean Square. A mean square is a sum From the above analysis it can be easily inferred that, Country of Origin has significant impact on female consumer's perception of choosing branded clothing. # VII. # Recommendations Brands are an essential part of consumer choices when purchasing products, but to understand why this is the case, author suggest retailers need to isolate and understand the factors that underlie a brand's importance and what factors lead their own brands to possess a competitive advantage in the marketplace. By understanding the role of brands as market based assets and the relationships that can develop between consumers and particular needs and category brands, managers can not only enhance revenue generation, but also be in a better position to predict business outcomes now and in the future. Findings of the study will help marketer to set sustainable driver of brand value as well as isolating competitive advantage over retailers and manufacturer. a) Author Recommends that ? Production facilities should definitely not be moved to a country that considered very inferior in terms of competence. Need to focus on building brands that can offset negative impact of COO associations & create strong brand equity to minimize negative country image. Promote other product attributes and benefits; e.g., lower price, more extensive guarantee and service of square dividend by its corresponding degrees of freedom. In the multiple regression models, SST has (n-1) degrees of freedom, SSR has p (number of independent variables) degrees of freedom and SSE has (n-p-1) degrees of freedom. Hence, the mean square due to regression (MSR) is SSR divided by p and the mean sum of square due to error (MSE) is SSE divided by (n-p-1). # Concluding Remarks & Managerial Implication The knowledge about the country of origin plays a decisive role when not so much is known about the product and its country of origin. Understanding the processes in consumer decision making and taking care of them will help to encourage the international trade between the people and firms of different countries. International marketers could use COO marketing as an instrument to facilitate the entry of new market. However, complementary marketing strategies (e.g. brand name marketing) should be employed to sustain market position because reliance only on COO in long term may lose its effectiveness. The results regression analysis shows that the country of origin exerts a substantial influence on the female consumers' purchasing decisions. -this shows the reader the absolute influence of product origin and also enables him/her to gauge the significance of the country of origin in comparison to others fundamental product attributes. When the consumer shows an interest in a product's origin, the second step is to establish the impact of product origin on the buying decision within a product category and the impact of product origin on the brand as connecting a brand with its (supposed) country of origin can also contribute to the brand's credibility. A relocation of production facilities will only appear unproblematic, when product origin is neither significant for the product category nor for the brand. If product origin is important either for the product category or for the brand or for both, the (negative) clothing. It is also observed in the study that different color option, brightness of color, color guarantee, light colors, fashionable, adopt myself with fashion changes should be consider seriously in strategy formulation while giving critical importance to these factors. Above all, to get clear understanding by the key factors priority should be given factors like innovativeness of branded clothing, fantasy clothing influences, reasonably priced, fixed price option, category pricing, smoothness of cloth, softness of cloth, brand image., brand impression, logo of the brand, brand trustworthiness and trendy. Marketing managers and producers should concentrate their efforts to enhance and promote the image of their brand's original country because consumer perceptions about the country almost transfer to the originality of a brand apart from location of production countries which produce or assemble brand products and if increased, it will contribute positively to their firm's brand equity dimensions. All these insight have to be embedded in the policy formulation that will help marketing manager to design appropriate strategies to deal marketing practice for the benefit of companies. # IX. # Limitation of this Research This study used eighty-eight factors which are considered before purchasing branded clothing as the focal object to determine affects of country of origin. Future research could consider whole society by increasing sample size which in other case could have been done to make the research even more realistic and authenticated. Besides, female consumers may behave differently when responding to other product categories consumer reactions have to be evaluated. Finally, the evaluated consumer reactions and other disadvantages are set against the advantages of the new location in order to establish the viability of relocating production facilities. Some entrepreneurs and marketing experts hold the opinion that it is possible to be successful as long as the brand of the products is strong enough, irrespective of the production location. That fact that the original production location can be an integral component of the strength of a brand is usually overlooked. It is indeed the strongest brands that consumers closely connect with their countries of origin; relocation can evoke uncertainty among consumers as to the quality of the products of the brand in question. From the results of factor analysis, it is being revealed that most female consumer concern about product quality while choosing a brand. Moreover the female consumers who possess strong positive attitudes towards brands show high level of involvement in long lasting of cloth, Quality of finishing, Quality of stitching, Quality Assurance , Quality of raw materials. Consequently, button quality and Color combination hold a high level of involvement in fashion or branded Therefore, the researcher has phased the following limitation; Firstly, the researcher applied non-probability sampling technique for research purpose. Secondly, the research has been conducted with in a limited span of time. Thirdly, sample was taken from Dhaka city only. In addition, further research is needed to measure the relationship of overall satisfaction and behavioral intension to the consumers' perception of a particular brand or company's products. X. ![](image-2.png "") ![](image-3.png "") 1Cronbach's AlphaN of Items.91188 3Extraction Sums of Squared LoadingsComponentTotal% of Variance Cumulative %111.65213.24113.24125.9096.71419.95534.9985.68025.63544.0854.64230.27753.7564.26834.54563.5514.03538.58073.0613.47942.05982.7853.16545.22492.4732.81048.034102.3102.62550.659112.1702.46653.125122.0812.36455.489131.9612.22857.718141.8602.11359.831151.7451.98361.814161.6771.90563.720171.6021.82165.540181.4621.66267.202191.3581.54368.745201.2831.45870.203211.1981.36171.564221.1751.33672.899231.1381.29374.192241.0921.24175.434251.0401.18276.616261.0191.15877.773Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. 2Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy..699Bartlett's Test of SphericityApprox. Chi-Square1.431E4df3828Sig..000according to result; it exhibited heavy loadings for twenty six variables. Product quality (13.241) is the most important factor for female consumers of choosing branded clothing, which eigenvalues is 11.652. The second factor named long lasting explained 6.714 percent of the variance with eigenvalues 5.909 is the second preferred factor among twenty six. Thirdly, Quality of finishing explained 5.680 percent and fourthly Quality of stitching (4.642), Quality Assurance (4.268), Quality of raw materials (4.035) percent consequently of the variance 4CumulativeFrequency Percent Valid PercentPercentValidOnce a year229.910.010.0Once a month3314.915.025.0More than once a month2410.810.935.9Whenever feel needed14163.564.1100.0Total22099.1100.0Missing System2.9Total222100.0 5An Interactive Influence of Country of Origin on buying Intention of Branded Clothing: A Study onFemale BrandYear25Volume XIV Issue II Version I( )Valid MissingFriends Family members Co-workers Someone special Total System TotalFrequency Percent Valid Percent 2 .9 .9 11 5.0 5.0 15 6.8 6.8 192 86.5 87.3 220 99.1 100.0 2 .9 222 100.0Cumulative Percent .9 5.9 12.7 100.0Global Journal of Management and Business Research 67. 8Adjusted RStd. Error of theModelRR SquareSquareEstimateDurbin-Watson1.929 a.863.772.5041.951a. Predictors: (Constant), All requested variables enteredb. Dependent Variable: Country of Origin influences me to prefer Branded clothing. 9? Std. Error of the Estimate (?) expresses the totalamount of error or variability in the dependentvariable ? (CoOI) that can't be explained by thelinear effect of the all independent variables in themultiple regression model expressed by multipleregression equation. © 2014 Global Journals Inc. (US) ## Acknowledgement This research was supported by some young researcher of Southeast University who contributed in different phase of data collection. Gratitude to all and dedication to Mr. Manzur Alam. 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