A Meta-analysis of the Antecedents and Outcomes of Consumer Foreign Country Image Perceptions: The Moderating Role of Macro-level Country Differences.

VerfasserLeonidou, Leonidas C.
PostenRESEARCH ARTICLE

1 Introduction

As a consequence of the accelerating globalization, growing economic integration, and intensifying trade liberalization of the world's economies, there has been more than ever an abundance of foreign products and services across local markets (Tintelnot, 2017). This is reflected in the exponential growth of the global value of imports of products and services from US$382.8 billion in 1970 to about US$21.8 trillion in 2020 (World Bank, 2021). This reality has been responsible for conducting a large number of studies during the last five decades, focusing on how country image (CI), that is, the image of a country as a product's origin, affects foreign consumers' purchasing behavior (Zeugner-Roth, 2017). Notwithstanding the voluminous and insightful knowledge generated by this line of research, this has been criticized as being largely fragmented, suffering from various inconsistencies, controversies, and sometimes conflicting results (Lu et al., 2016).

In response to these criticisms, there were several attempts in the past to review pertinent research on CI (e.g., Carneiro & Faria, 2016; Lu et al., 2016; Papadopoulos & Heslop, 2002; Roth & Diamantopoulos, 2009; Samiee & Chabowski, 2020) (see Appendix 1 for a summary of the objectives, methodologies, and findings of these review studies). Although these review efforts have helped to organize, integrate, and critically assess previously published material on CI in a systematic and insightful manner, no attempt has yet been made to statistically synthesize and evaluate previous empirical findings using a meta-analytical approach. However, such a meta-analysis of the CI phenomenon would help to consolidate extant knowledge, resolve possible controversies, and guide future research on the subject (Grewal et al., 2018).

To avoid confusion between our meta-analysis on CI and other meta-analyses focusing on country-of-origin (CO) (e.g., De Nisco & Oduro, 2022; Peterson & Jolibert, 1995; Verlegh & Steenkamp, 1999), it is important to draw a distinction between these two concepts. While CO refers to the country where the product was made and serves as an extrinsic informational cue for consumer responses (Samiee, 1994; Verlegh & Steenkamp, 1999), CI is a consumer's summary evaluation of a country as an origin of products and represents a set of characteristics organized into meaningful groups at an overall country or product-country level (Kock et al., 2019; Pappu et al., 2007). (1) Moreover, while conventional CO studies help to understand whether consumers prefer products from one particular country as opposed to another, CI assessments by consumers allow to analyze why this occurs (Roth & Diamantopoulos, 2009).

Our aim is to fill this need by identifying, synthesizing, and evaluating the key antecedents and outcomes of CI perceptions in the foreign consumer buying decision-making process, based on a meta-analysis of the extant empirical research. Specifically, we have four major goals to accomplish: (a) to develop an integrative conceptual model, incorporating the key independent and dependent variables found in the pertinent literature associated with CI perceptions; (b) to concurrently test the associations between constructs in this model, using structural equation modeling; (c) to examine the moderating role of various macro-level differences between reference and focal countries on these associations; and (d) to investigate possible control effects by study-related temporal, spatial, and product factors.

Our meta-analysis contributes to the international business knowledge in four different ways. First, we synthesize the findings of extant research and propose an integrative model, which stresses the role of CI within the broad consumer decisionmaking context. The findings of this meta-analysis provide a holistic and cumulative picture of the antecedents and outcomes of CI, which can help to resolve the prevailing ambiguity among academics and practitioners alike as to the role played by certain factors affecting or affected by CI. We expect that the consolidated findings stemming from this meta-analysis, coupled with our recommendations for future research, will provide an inventory of knowledge that will further stimulate scholarly thinking on the subject and help to push this line of research to a more advanced stage of development (Lu et al., 2016).

Second, there are repeated criticisms in the literature (e.g., Samiee, 2010; Usunier, 2006; Usunier & Cestre, 2008) regarding the importance of CI in crafting international business strategies for firms (e.g., selecting a foreign country to establish production facilities) or international trade strategies for countries (e.g., launching a communication campaign to promote locally produced goods abroad). This could be partly ascribed to the existence of inconsistent findings among extant CI studies, which creates a blurred picture as to the exact role of drivers and outcomes of CI (Usunier, 2006). Hence, we expect the findings of our meta-analysis to provide a clearer understanding of the dynamics of the CI phenomenon and allow for a more sound and reliable decision-making at both firm and government levels.

Third, CI research is built on comparisons between a focal country, where the respondents are located, and one or more reference countries, where the product originates from. Thus, it is reasonable to expect that differences between reference and focal countries to account for variations in the effect of factors influencing CI and influenced by it. Our meta-analysis investigates key macro-level country differences with regard to their degree of economic development, innovativeness, industrial performance, and political risk, for which there are indications that they may have a potential moderating role on the drivers and outcomes of CI (Brijs et al., 2011; Knight & Calantone, 2000; Lu et al., 2019). The results of this analysis could provide valuable insights as to the importance of contextual effects in shaping consumer CI perceptions.

Fourth, we take into consideration time- (i.e., study execution period), spatial-(i.e., type of focal country), and product-related (i.e., degree of product involvement) factors to interpret differences in the results produced by extant empirical CI studies. Specifically, we demonstrate that CI perceptions by foreign consumers are sensitive to: (a) the dynamic changes taking place in the international business environment; (b) the developed versus developing/emerging nature of the country where the consumer lives; and (c) the type of product involvement on which they were asked to focus. All these indicate that CI is a complex phenomenon influenced by study-specific factors, and as such there is a need to take these factors into consideration in better grasping foreign consumers' CI perceptions.

The remainder of this article is organized as follows: In the next section, we illustrate the evolution of the CI concept. This is followed by a presentation of the conceptual model and the development of hypotheses. We subsequently explain the methodology undertaken by our study, with a particular focus on the identification, selection, and coding of relevant articles. The next section focuses on data purification and analysis, as well as presents the results with regard to each of the hypotheses set. Then, we discuss our findings, draw conclusions, and offer implications for scholars, managers, and policymakers. The final section highlights the limitations of our meta-analysis and suggests directions for future research.

2 Evolution of the Country Image Concept

As explained earlier, image is a concept very closely associated with CO. In fact, the primary goal of the earliest known CO study was described as testing "... preconceived images of products on the basis of national origin" (Schooler, 1965, p. 394). Later, Nagashima (1970) offered a CO-centric definition of image and asserted '"made in' image is the picture, the reputation, the stereotype that businessmen and consumers attach to products of a specific country" (p. 68). Likewise, Narayana (1981) defines image within the context of "any particular country's product refers to the entire connotative field associated with that country's product offerings" (p. 32). Over time, the image concept has been adapted, refined, and measured to suit particular research goals in numerous investigations, which has served to divide the pertinent literature into three different streams.

The first group of studies focused on customers' overall reactions to products or brands of specific origin (e.g., Gaedeke, 1973; Lillis & Narayana, 1974; Nagashima, 1970, 1977). Studies in this group included antecedents of customer reactions and how people's images of imported products can affect their purchase intentions. These studies did not take into consideration specific country-related attributes, but view country as serving a 'halo' construct. They consider the "made in" label as a sign, the product as an object, and CI as the meaning given by buyers to the "made in label" (Brijs et al., 2011).

Studies comprising the second group identify and measure country-related attributes that form images of countries in the foreign buyer's mind (Hsieh et al., 2004; Roth & Diamantopoulos, 2009). The goal here is to develop a common basis that people use to judge countries, without, however, referring to product-related attributes (Laroche et al., 2005). This overall image transmitted by a country is referred as General Country Image (GCI), which acts as a powerful extrinsic cue that directs consumers' positive or negative biases associated with that country's products and services (Samiee & Chabowski, 2020).

The third group of studies focused on identifying pertinent product-related attributes of countries that are used by customers in assessing products and associated intended choice behavior (e.g., Demirbag et al., 2010; Roth &amp...

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