4
With technology advance and ease of communication, globalization is growing at speedy
rate. “For example, in 2004 trade between China and Indonesia was valued at $763
million, but in 2008 had tripled to $2.76 billion” (Nonto, 2010). Businesses around the
world seek to enter foreign markets to expand the market for more profits.
1.1.2 Service Internationalization
The tremendous worldwide
growth
in
the service
industry
has
lead great contribution
to
many national economies (Ahmed, Johnson, Chew, Tan, & Ang, 2002). Airlines such as
Singapore Airlines
fly to many cities in different countries around
the world. Banks
like
HSBC open up branches in different countries to cater the needs. A classic example here
would be Starbucks which owns more than 16,000 locations in over 50 countries.
“Despite the growing importance of services in the global
economy,
the
majority
of
international marketing literature examines the country-of-origin (COO) effect with
respect to products, whereas only limited research
has
been
conducted on the effect of
COO on services” (Michaelis, Woisetchlager, Backhaus, & Ahlert, 2008).
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