An extensive body of research on the effects of the country-of-origin (COO) on the purchase of foreign brands has emerged in the international marketing stream. Although previous studies have enhanced the understanding of the effects of the COO on the purchase of foreign brands, they provide limited insight into organizational buyers’ behavior on foreign brands. The objective of this research is to provide an understanding of the effects of the COO on overseas distributors’ behavior in international marketing channels. Integrating the theory of planned behavior and the concepts of country-induced biases, the current study develops an empirically testable model that explains and predicts overseas distributors’ behavior in international marketing channels. The model identifies attitude toward foreign brands, social valuation of the origin of brands, and perceived behavioral control as the factors affecting overseas distributors’ intention to place foreign brands. The model also incorporates the factors of country-induced biases—buyer animosity and perceived risk to the origin of manufacture as the antecedents of attitude toward foreign brands. The model is tested using the primary data drawn from a survey. Findings from an examination of 103 distributors in America reveal that these country-induced biases affect the intention to place foreign brands, in the manner of the hypotheses, through the attitude toward foreign brands. Finally, the present study discusses implications for theory and practice, indicates limitations, and concludes with some suggestions for future research.

The purpose of this study was to select market variables that a foodservice company should consider when expanding overseas and to regional market analysis by variables. Twenty-three different variables were derived from 17 previous studies. These were: population, urbanization rate, women employed, enrollment in tertiary education, gross domestic product, value added by service, total number of mobile cellular telephone subscribers, number of internet users, total Asian highway, inward foreign direct investment, total service imports, inflation rate, international tourist arrivals, energy use by industry, growth rates of the food consumer price index, access to urban sanitation, per capita total expenditure on health, male life expectancy at birth, adult literacy rate, contributing women family workers, passenger car, and country risk assessment. The selected variables were collected as secondary data from the UN, Asian Development Bank, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and Michigan State University.