How can Country-of-Origin image be leveraged to create global sporting goods brands?

While much marketing research has focused on brand creation and management, less isknown about the creation of sport brands. This paper complements the stakeholder model of brandingand brand creation, which highlights the role of a firm's stakeholders in the analysis of brands, byincluding country-specific factors based on location and Country-of-Origin (CoO). Using a sample ofinnovative New Zealand-based firms, our qualitative study uses a comparative case method in twosubsector settings to investigate how they have built outdoor sport brands based on that country'sparticular country-specific factors. We show how firms are able to leverage New Zealand's strong sportproduct category-country associations to create brand value. Our findings confirm that CoO imagetogether with sport product category-country associations enables the creation of brands in sportproduct categories. Our paper contributes to theory and practice by extending understanding of brandcreation by demonstrating the importance of location and product category. Further researchdirections are suggested.