TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose Country image (CI) has been one of the most studied topics in international business, marketing, and consumer behaviour of the past five decades. Nevertheless, there has been no critical assessment of this field of research. The purpose of this paper is to understand the status and evolution of CI research.Design/methodology/approach The authors review 554 articles published in academic journals over 35 years. The authors examine publication, authorship, and research procedure trends in these articles as an empirical and quantitative assessment of the field. The authors identify weaknesses and strengths, and the authors address disconcerting and encouraging trends.Findings The authors find a number of laudatory trends: CI research is becoming less US-centric, more theory driven, more sophisticated in methodology, evaluating more diverse product categories, and making use of multiple cue studies. There are, however, two major methodological concerns: poor replication and questionable generalizability of findings. The authors also noted the influence of CI articles has been decreasing, as well as their rate of publication in top tier journals.Originality/value Since the authors present data that reflect actual practices in the field and how such practices have changed across time, the authors believe the study is of substantial value to CI researchers, journal editors, and instructors whose curriculum includes CI. The critical assessment and subsequent recommendations are accordingly empirically justified.
VL  - 33
IS  - 6
SN  - 0265-1335
DO  - 10.1108/IMR-03-2015-0036
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/IMR-03-2015-0036
AU  - Lu Irene R.R.
AU  - Heslop Louise A.
AU  - Thomas D. Roland
AU  - Kwan Ernest
PY  - 2016
Y1  - 2016/01/01
TI  - An examination of the status and evolution of country image research
T2  - International Marketing Review
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 825
EP  - 850
Y2  - 2024/04/27
ER  -