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Introduction
"Made in China" has become the title of many marketers' worst nightmare. Amidst massive toy recalls, tainted toothpaste scares and poisonous pet food incidents, consumers around the globe started thinking twice before buying Chinese-made goods ([61] Roberts, 2007). The setback to the "Made in China" brand has affected a wide variety of products distributed all over the world ([10] Blecken, 2007). Almost 40 percent of UK consumers are less likely to buy Chinese-manufactured products because of the 2007 toy recall crisis, while 38 percent of Hong Kong consumers reduced their purchases of China-made products with the toy and food sectors the worst affected ([10] Blecken, 2007).
Like their counterparts worldwide, US consumers have become very hesitant to put Chinese products in their shopping carts ([10] Blecken, 2007). Given that China is one of the largest sources of US imports, this hesitancy has dramatically affected industry both at the manufacturing and the retail level. One of the hardest hit industries has been toys, an industry in which over 80 percent of total US imports come from China ([19] Dyer, 2007). In response to the product recalls, concerned parents and grandparents reportedly started asking whether toys are made in China ([66] Smith, 2007). Mattel, the world's biggest toymaker, reported that the recall of more than 21 million Chinese-made toys as a result of design flaws and dangerous lead levels in paint adversely affected both sales and profits ([60] Pimlott, 2007).
Interestingly, some toy retailers were spared from this fate. Toys "R" Us, for example, announced that holiday same-store sales at its US toy stores grew by 3.1 percent, a performance that out-paced primary competitors Wal-Mart and Target. Sales also boomed at upscale toy retailer FAO Schwarz, despite the fact that most of its toys are made in China ([66] Smith, 2007). Of course, this situation is not unique to the toy industry. To the degree that country-of-origin (COO) effects contribute to sales growth, it would be helpful for retailers to understand those factors that motivate consumers to buy products with a negative "made in" claim.
In this paper, we investigate the moderating effect of trusting beliefs on negative COO effects. While early studies documented the influence of COO information on consumer response, more recent research suggests...