THE USE OF BRAZILIAN PRODUCTS’ COUNTRY OF ORIGIN INFORMATION AS A SOURCE OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN EXTERNAL MARKETS

ABSTRACT

In an increasingly competitive global market, it has become harder to establish a competitive advantage. The notion that superior performance demands that a firm acquires and retains an advantage over competition is central to the contemporary strategic thinking. An attribute that offers potential to become a competitive advantage, both in domestic and external markets, is the product’s country of origin. In general, it is considered that the country of origin influences the products’ evaluations by the consumer and his or her purchase behavior. Since the organizations deal with limited resources, they need to try to develop strategies that are appropriate for their resource base. In this sense, the present paper investigates the possibility to use the country of origin information of Brazilian products as a source of competitive advantage for the exporting Brazilian firms. An important obstacle for this strategy is related to Brazil’s image abroad, which is mainly associated to some sports or creative skills, not being given almost any meaning or importance to Brazil as a provider of items of more technological content.

KEYWORDS:
Competitive advantage; Country of origin; Strategy