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The pupose of this paper is to investigate consumers' behavior in emerging countries. In particular, it simultaneously assesses the effects of country image and country‐of‐origin's image on consumers' uncertainty, aspiration and purchasing intention of high‐tech products.

Based on a sample of 479 Chinese consumers, structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships.

Results show that compared to country‐of‐origin, country's image is a more effective tool in reducing consumers' uncertainty and increasing their aspiration to purchase high technology products. Contrary to country's image, however, country‐of‐origin's image plays a considerable role in influencing the product image.

The major role of a country‐of‐origin is to influence product image while that of country's image is to increase consumers' aspiration to acquire its product and diminish their uncertainty and hesitation about buying the product. In other words, the image of a product is much more prone to the effect of country‐of‐origin's image than country's image.

Marketers should understand that consumers in emerging countries are ambivalent when they consider the purchase of complex products. On the one hand, highlighting the country image can contribute in alleviating consumers' uncertainty and increasing their aspiration to purchase sophisticated and complex products. On the other hand, promoting the country‐of‐origin's image can prove an effective means to improve product image in emerging markets.

Most of the previous studies have focused on one of the two concepts (i.e. country's image or country‐of‐origin), interchangeably used both of them, and relatively ignored their simultaneous impact on consumer behavior. The present study has tried to address this shortfall through simultaneously studying their influences on product image and consumer purchase intention; and highlighting their differential impacts.

Country of origin is a well-studied topic for developed countries that have a favourable image. However, how country of origin image affects the consumers of an emerging country on a frontier market with high uncertainty avoidance still needs to be shed light. Therefore, this study investigated the relationship of country of origin image with consumer purchase intention through consumer uncertainty. The study further explored the conditional effect of brand image between country of origin and consumer uncertainty.

The data for this study was collected from 400 Pakistani consumers. As this study assessed purchase intentions and consumer uncertainty related to high technology products of China, therefore, the consumers of the Huawei brand were selected.

The findings revealed a negative influence of country of origin image on consumer purchase intentions both directly and indirectly through consumer uncertainty. Furthermore, the positive brand image of high tech products was found to moderate the effect of country of origin image on consumer uncertainty.

This study is the first of its kind that explores the intervening role of consumer uncertainty between country of origin image and consumer purchase intention in an emerging market. In addition, the study highlights the importance of strong brand image as it buffers consumer uncertainty because of stereotypes.

Brand positioning based on the brand’s country of origin is at the centre of attention in international marketing. It is evident that global brands constitute critical intangible assets for businesses and places. However, it is not clear how they contribute to national economies. This paper aims to discuss the significance of brands as contributing to the value of their companies but also helping to leverage national economies. Although global brands can be produced and purchased in multiple countries, their influence on the economy of the country where their owner’s seat is located can be more meaningful than in other economies included in the “global factory”.

Based on 500 Brandirectory, the Most Valuable Global Brands 2011-2015 rankings powered by Brand Finance, the authors observed a spatial-economic autocorrelation which exemplifies the potential interdependency between gross domestic product (GDP) and brand value. This relationship has become a starting point for designing a spatial regression model.

The findings support the hypothesis that assumptive spatial dependencies have a significant influence on the examined relationship of brand value and GDP.

The presented study is the first to examine the potential interdependence between brand values and GDP of the countries of origin using a dynamic spatial approach.

The purpose of this study is to explore the country of production (COP) image, trust and quality perceptions of Turkish consumers for well-known global brands that are produced in China.

Using the mall-intercept survey method from the 17 largest cities in Turkey, 3,373 consumers were interviewed about their thoughts on the COP images, trust and quality perceptions of well-known global brands.

Study findings show that the COP had a significant negative effect on brand image, brand trust and perceived quality of the global brands when consumers learned that China was the COP. Product type also influenced the intensity of the negative perceptions. Quality perceptions, image and trust were found to be highly correlated with purchase intentions.

Consumers’ levels of involvement with the products used in this study might be different in different countries. Different variables (such as lifestyles and personality) could provide additional explanation for the strength of the relationships identified between the COP information and quality perceptions. Global brands with different brand strength levels could be evaluated differently by the consumers.

When a consumer product is manufactured in a country with unfavorable perceptions, well-known or recognized brands are not immune to the negative influences of the COP effect on brand image, quality and purchase intentions.

The study used large-scale representative data collected from consumers in the actual shopping environment and examined the influence of the COP on perceived quality and purchase intentions of global brands in an emerging market.

The purpose of this paper is to bridge the gap in the literature to examine key factors that influence Taiwanese consumers to repurchase Korean beauty products.

This study uses a quantitative approach to test the proposed hypotheses using structural equation modeling. Causal research design is used in this research to identify cause-and-effect relationship among the constructs. Primary data collection is used to gather data. This study provides the better understanding about key factors that influence Taiwanese consumers’ repurchase intention (RI) of Korean cosmetics products.

Results show that perceived price (PP) and country of origin (COO) significantly influence word-of-mouth (WOM). PP, COO and WOM significantly influence RI. WOM is the most influential variable toward RI, followed by COO and PP.

Very few studies have examined a general construct of RI related to beauty product. The findings of this study imply several practical directions for marketers of beauty product industries specifically for Taiwanese consumers. This study helps to know what factors become basic consideration for Taiwanese consumers in repurchasing Korean beauty products. Second, it underscores the role of WOM between the independent variables (PP and COO) and RI as the dependent variable.

The purpose of this paper is to examine ethnocentrism and animosity in a special context of two societies that share cultural, historical, ethnic and geographical characteristics. In particular, it first investigates the relationships between Chinese ethnocentrism and animosity toward Taiwan, and then it examines the impact of these two factors on the Chinese perception of Taiwanese brand quality and their purchase intent.

Based on a sample of 605 respondents from China, data were analyzed by structural equation modeling.

The results show that although Chinese animosity toward Taiwan is moderate, it is significantly driven by ethnocentrism, which has a significant and negative effect on willingness to buy, but not on the perception of Taiwanese brand quality. The Chinese animosity toward Taiwan, however, has negative and significant effects on their perception of Taiwanese brand quality and their intention of purchasing Taiwanese brands.

The immense size of the country has impeded the representativeness of the authors’ sample and the generalizability of the results. Also, the study covers only one type of product.

Forming partnerships with local Chinese businesses and developing strong ties with local communities could be considered as a solution to minimize or circumvent the effect of animosity and might help foreign companies appear more “local.”

In contrast to past studies that investigated ethnocentrism and animosity in the context of countries presenting several differences (e.g. China vs USA), this study investigates the effect of ethnocentrism and animosity in the context of two countries (China and Taiwan) that share cultural, historical, ethnic and geographic characteristics. Despite the strong ties between the two countries, the Chinese have a certain animosity, though moderate, toward Taiwan and consequently are less inclined to buy Taiwanese brands. This implies that Chinese animosity toward a country may be toned down or pronounced, depending on whether they have strong or weak ties with that country.

While country image consists of two hierarchical images – macro country image at the country level and micro country image at the specific product level – previous studies have largely failed to detail its varying effects by product category and by the level of a country’s economic development. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the macro and micro country images of four countries (USA, Italy, Korea, and Malaysia) on Saudi consumers’ purchase intentions in two product categories (symbolic and functional product).

Data were collected from shoppers older than 20 years of age at several shopping malls in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia via mall intercept method.

Analyses of 496 data revealed that the effects of macro and micro country images differ by product category. In particular, both macro and micro country images were equally relevant to the purchase intention of symbolic goods (i.e. handbags), while micro country image played a greater role in the purchase intention of functional goods (i.e. cell phones). A partial country moderating effect was found. The effects of micro country image on the purchase intention of handbags were valid only in Italy, where product-country match is high.

This study advances country image research by highlighting how the effects of macro and micro country images on purchase intention differ by product category and by country. The findings suggest which aspect of country image (i.e. macro vs micro) should be actively communicated in the marketing of symbolic and functional goods.

Despite the growing interest by scholars, practitioners and public policymakers, there are still divergent and fragmented conceptualizations of nation branding as the field is still developing. In response, the purpose of this paper is to review and synthesize nation branding research and to provide directions for future research.

The authors review peer-reviewed theoretical and empirical journal articles published during the last two decades – from 1998 to 2018. Selected journal articles on nation branding were subsequently synthesized for further insights.

The field of nation branding is fragmented and has developed in the course of the last two decades in different directions. This paper identifies key publication outlets and articles, major theoretical and methodological approaches and primary variables of interest that exist in the nation branding literature. The findings also highlight several research themes for future research.

This research fills a need to summaries the current state of the nation branding literature and identifies research issues that need to be addressed in the future.

There is little in the literature on branding that considers how a brand name may affect a brand and its global positioning. Similarly, there is little research on brand dissonance and the paradoxes that occur in a globalised world. This research aims to examine the impact of country of origin image on consumer perceptions of a successful tea brand dissonance between the country of origin and the brand name.

A case study approach, using qualitative data collection, has been applied in this study. In‐depth interviews were conducted with 22 experienced tea distributors and managers of Ahmad Tea in the Confederation of Independent States.

The findings show that a positive country of origin effect can have a positive impact on a global brand image transcending any negative connotations that a brand name may have.

The findings of this study provide useful insights for academics and practitioners regarding the success factors of branding strategy in international markets.

This paper attempts to respond to a call by Keller for more empirical research into the ways in which the images of country of origin change or supplement the image of a brand. In doing so, this paper shows that successful associations with positive country of origin images can overcome problems with a problematic brand name in a global context.