Impact of relocation strategy on brand trustworthiness and word-of-mouth: Experimental vignette research on the US fashion industry

Li, Xinwei ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4796-1189, Tse, Ying Kei, Zhang, Minhao and Phi, Hoang Dinh (2023) Impact of relocation strategy on brand trustworthiness and word-of-mouth: Experimental vignette research on the US fashion industry. International Journal of Production Economics, 257. ISSN 0925-5273

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Abstract

To avoid continued global uncertainty, multinational enterprises have begun to reconsider relocating operations to emerging countries. While re-shoring has been a phenomenon that is well studied, the literature largely overlooks the customer response to far-shoring. Therefore, this research investigates the effects of different far-shoring strategies on customer trustworthiness and satisfaction from the perspective of three countries - i.e., far-shoring country (Vietnam; N = 208), host country (China; N = 203), home country (US; N = 198). We conduct a three-stage experiment with four far-shoring conditions (i.e., production, design, production & design, remain) with three countries' consumers. Stage 1 carries the baseline measurement of customers' established brand preference; Stage 2 measures customers' trustworthiness and satisfaction changes after far-shoring motivation; Stage 3 measures customers' trust recovery after far-shoring decision. Results show that far-shoring to Vietnam (far-shoring economy) can significantly recover purchase intention compared with remaining in China. For the host economy (China), operating in China obtained the greatest purchase intention and word-of-mouth recovery. Lastly, for the home economy (US), relocating to Vietnam does not significantly impact customers' purchase intention recovery. However, the strategy of far-shoring design will lead to higher word-of-mouth recovery. Further, building on Eclectic Theory, we examined the “cost” of relocation from customers' perspective. Actionable winning relocation strategies are identified from the perspective of the far-shoring country, host country, and home country consumers, suggesting that businesses should consider the changes in purchase intention and word-of-mouth from customers’ points of view from different economies fully benefiting from relocation strategy and resource allocation.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: far-shoring,purchase intention,re-offshoring,relocation strategies,trust recovery,word-of-mouth,business, management and accounting(all),economics and econometrics,management science and operations research,industrial and manufacturing engineering ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1400
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Innovation, Technology and Operations Management
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 04 Mar 2024 18:37
Last Modified: 15 Dec 2024 01:27
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/94541
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2023.108775

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