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Multinational corporations (MNCs) are converging world cultures by creating common consumer lifestyles across countries through standardized products. However, little is known about how consumers’ exposure to foreign cultures affects their purchase experience from the country. This study explores this gap in the literature by investigating how consumers’ exposure to foreign cultural source (e.g., entertainment) shapes their attitude toward its country. This attitude is conceptualized to influence the perceived product quality and corporate ability of the country’s MNCs, which are further hypothesized to influence consumers’ purchase experience with products offered by the MNCs. Furthermore, the impact of product quality and corporate ability on consumer purchase experience is expected to be moderated by consumer ethnocentrism. The study framework is tested in the context of the Korean Wave (or “Hallyu”) using data consisting of 533 Indonesian consumers. The results support most of the study hypotheses. Theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.

The theory of planned behavior (TPB) and place image have both been the foci of studies in understanding one’s intentional visit behavior in leisure research. Few studies, however, have ever attempted to differentiate the roles of attitude and image in predicting visitors’ intentional behaviors. This study is designed to fulfill this gap by examining the two concepts together in the context of responsible casino gaming. Based on the TPB and the concept of place image, a predicting model of visitor’s intentional behavior was posited and tested, based on a survey dataset collected in an American Midwest city. This study concluded that visitor’s attitude and perception of place image both play significant and distinctive roles in predicting visitor’s intentional behavior, and such perceptual discrepancies between attitude and image should be reflected and highlighted in leisure and marketing. Implications of this study in terms of leisure marketing are discussed.

This chapter integrates brand identity and equity as a two-dimensional approach to destination branding. By incorporating the supply- and demand-side perspectives, the approach enables different destination stakeholders to be included in this process. Drawing on general branding and marketing literature, the study presents a three-part framework for building and implementing a destination brand. It illustrates consumer-based equity as consisting of the four dimensions: awareness, image, perceived quality, and loyalty. The chapter also offers a critical synthesis of destination image studies and recognizes the important research advancement from image to branding.

The concept of brand image has received considerable attention in marketing (Batra & Homer, 2004; Dhar & Wertenbroch, 2000; Roth, 1992; Thompson, Rindfleisch, & Arsel, 2006; van Reijmersdal, Neijens, & Smith, 2007; van Rekom, Jacobs, & Verlegh, 2006), yet there is still little agreement on its definition and operationalisation in the literature. As Dobni and Zinkhan (1990) observed, despite the frequent use by scholars of the term “brand image,” its definitions in the literature tend to focus on different elements. It is possible to group definitions of brand image into different categories. For example, brand image has been defined as (a) an attitude extending its meaning beyond the physical product (e.g., Reynolds & Gutman, 1984) and (b) perception, relating brand image to psychological aspects of a product's tangible attributes (e.g., Keller, 1998). One generally accepted view is that brand image can be defined as perceptions regarding a brand as reflected by the cluster of associations that consumers connect to the brand name in memory (Herzog, 1963). This is consistent with an associative network memory model. Thus, “brand associations are the other informational nodes linked to the brand node in memory and contain the meaning of the brand for consumers” (Keller, 2003, p. 66).

This study is set out to assess the country of origin effect on Turkish consumption practices in order to provide a richer context for its formation process.

The research is exploratory and interpretative in nature. It follows a qualitative design with in-depth analysis of consumption experiences by utilizing semi-structured interviews.

The research shows that country of origin effect is product specific, and when it exists, it has an essential effect on product evaluations. It reveals that the country of origin effect is intrinsically constituted with the individual perceptions of and attitudes toward brands, countries, and past experiences, and it is extrinsically constituted with socially created perceptions by media, marketplace myths, and popularity.

This research investigated country of origin effect in a specific context of a developing country with a qualitative methodology. Unlike the existing literature, this study analyzes consumers’ actual purchase decisions in different product categories. Country of origin effect is found to be formed by individual and societal factors.

On the basis of research from Dutch bank an empirical framework, this report describes how discourses of organizational culture imply a perceived relationship to performance. The study includes an ethno-methodology of 25 in-depth interviews with two groups includes managers and employees from the Services Business Unit of a global Dutch bank. Results from managers reveal discourses of organizational culture provide a negative perceived relationship to performance. Results from employees show discourses of organizational culture provide a positive perceived relationship to performance.

This study explores the influence of cultural heritage tourism perception on China's tourism image. It analyzes the role of the spiritual bond established between overseas Chinese youth and the motherland during their visit to the cultural heritage sites in China. This study constructs a theoretical model with 350 overseas Chinese youth as samples based on the identity theory, Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) theory, and Howard-Sheth model. The results show that cultural heritage tourism perception directly and positively promotes cultural identity among overseas Chinese youth. It is also indirectly and positively associated with their cultural identity through enhancing the tourism image. Cultural intelligence plays a positive moderating role between cultural heritage tourism perception and cultural identity. The results provide significant implications for developing cultural heritage tourism and cultural communication.

This study investigates how direct cultural interaction between a supplier country’s personnel and host country purchasing decision makers (HCNs) occurring during the exporting of professional, high-contact services can help shape the latter’s perception of the image of the supplier country and their willingness to buy its services or products. The article develops a theoretical framework that identifies those key drivers and their relationship.

This is a conceptual paper based on a comprehensive review of the literature complemented by a pilot study with offshore executive MBA programs.

A conceptual model is developed with a series of testable propositions.

The framework should help companies and organizations involved in the exporting of such services devise programs to bolster the image of their country as a provider of these and other services and products.

Trade in services is becoming a lifeline for many developed countries that have seen their manufacturing industries relocate to low labor-cost countries. Thus, it is imperative for these countries to bolster their COO to gain competitive advantage. Developing countries can also use such a framework as a means of improving the overall image of their own country and its products.

This research complements those rare studies done on the acculturation of HCNs by examining, for the first time, this process in the context of the exporting of professional services and on how it can lead to changes in the perception of the HCNs vis-à-vis the image of the supplier country.

Oklahoma's attractions have not caught much attention from either the international tourists or tourism researchers. In order to promote international tourism and make effective marketing strategy, it is important for Oklahoma to be well informed of visitors’ perceptions prior to any actual campaigns. A survey was conducted at Oklahoma's twelve Welcome Centers in 2002 and 202 valid questionnaires were returned. Based on the survey, Oklahoma's underlying attraction dimensions were examined and the dimensions that determined Oklahoma's overall attractiveness were identified. Implications of this study were further discussed and recommended.