Conference Proceedings, March 29-31, 2016 International Conference on Business and Social Sciences, Kyoto, Japan 939 ICBAS-7990 Country-of-origin Effect and Evaluation of Competence of a Foreign Individual – A Narrative Review Malgorzata Rozkwitalska a, * a Management Department, Gdansk School of Banking, Poland E-mail address: mrozkwitalska@wsb.gda.pl Abstract The aim of this paper is to analyze whether the country-of-origin (COO) effect impacts on the competence perception of an overseas relocated individual by the locals. Owing to a limited number of the studies on the COO effect regarding individuals, a narrative review method was applied to the discourse. Four main topics were identified in the prior works, i.e. selection biases and challenges, acceptance of a foreign individual, integration of inpatriates/immigrants, and perception of a foreigner. The results of the narrative review indicate that the COO effect may be apparent when the competence of a foreign individual is assessed by the locals. Overall, foreignness is rather considered as a liability and a foreign newcomer is seen as an out-group member. Only those people who come from socio-economically dominant states may be preferred over the locals. Furthermore, the degree of similarity between the COO of a person and a host country and novelty of the former affect how s/he is perceived in a domestic environment. Keywords: country-of-origin effect, in/expatriates, liability-of-foreignness effect, im/migrants, narrative review 1. Introduction – the study’s background and aim As the number of foreign country nationals in economies worldwide, i.e. in/expatriates and migrants, is increasing (Collings, Morley, & Gunnigle, 2008; Harvey, Hartnell, & Novicevic, 2004; Nolan, 2012; van Veen, Sahib, & Aangeenbrug, 2014), the question if one’s country of origin (COO) matters when his/her competence is evaluated, becomes a vital scientific inquiry. Thus the aim of this paper is to analyze whether the COO effect impacts on the competence perception of an overseas relocated individual by the locals. To date, the COO effect has been mainly and widely scrutinized in international marketing, where the phenomenon is defined as an impact of the COO of products/brands/organizations on how they are perceived by individuals (Ghazali, Othman, Zahiruddin, & Ibrahim, 2008). Yet, rather innumerous studies so far have tackled the issue of the COO effect with regard to