Japanese-made or Chinese-made? Exploring the country-of-origin (COO) effect on insect-based foods

Abstract

Over the past decade, insect-based food has garnered increasing attention from both the public and researchers. As the insect-based food market continues to develop, cross-border trade will become an integral part of this growing industry. This highlights the necessity for both researchers and practitioners to pay closer attention to the country-of-origin (COO) effect in the context of these novel foods. The current research focused on Eastern countries and revealed that Japanese consumers are more willing to accept insect-based foods produced in Japan than those produced in China. Additionally, our findings show that both the country where the insect-based foods are processed (COO of processing) and the country where the insect ingredients are farmed (COO of farming) influence consumer acceptance of insect-based foods. Moreover, the COO effect does not appear to be driven primarily by the congruence between the COO of brand and the COO of processing. Importantly, we examined several mechanisms underlying the COO effect, demonstrating that Japanese consumers perceive Japanese-made insect-based foods as safer and tastier than their Chinese-made counterparts. Besides, they perceive that purchasing Japanese-made products would be viewed more favorably by others. The differences in these three aspects ultimately lead to higher acceptance of Japanese-made insect-based foods.