Determinants of Selecting Country-Of-Origin (COO) as an Ingredient of Sourcing Strategy: Evidence from an Emerging Economy

Abstract

Bangladesh, an emerging economy with substantial dependence on import, necessitated her businesses to formulate international sourcing strategy. The study focuses on Bangladeshi retailers’ and wholesalers’ contemplations to choose country-of-origin (COO) as a part of their sourcing strategy. Retailers and wholesalers, dealing with ceramic tiles and sanitary wares and also undertake international sourcing activities, are the respondents of this study. Multiple regression analysis generated adjusted R2 of 0.95, and identifies five significant factors responsible for deciding source country origin. Minimum possible price offer, quick adjustment with importers’ specifications, consumers’ positive impression about the country, source country’s ability to provide variety, and keeping promise of delivery time and quantity are the variables in the regression model. The significant variables have also been checked for the problem of multicollinearity. Hence, the findings of this study add value to the existing body of COO literature.