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This study aims to draw on cue utilization and irradiation theories to: determine the extent to which country-of-origin image and its sub-dimensions exert an aggregate and relative influence on consumer brand evaluations; and identify the contextual and methodological factors that account for between-study variance in the focal relationship.

A random-effects model was used to examine 166 empirical articles encompassing 499,563 observations, and 282 effect sizes from 1984 to 2020 using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software.

Results show that country-of-origin image has a positive, moderate effect on consumer brand evaluations. Moreover, findings reveal that each dimension of country-of-origin image – general country image, general product country image, specific product country image and partitioned country image – significantly influences consumer brand evaluation, but the effect of general product country image is the largest. What’s more, the aggregate impacts of country-of-origin image on consumer brand evaluation – brand commitment, brand-specific associations and general brand impressions – show that the effect on brand commitment is the largest. Finally, findings show that contextual factors (brand source, product sector, culture [individualism vs collectivism], brand origin continents and respondents’ continent) and methodological factors (cues, sampling unit, publication year and sample size) significantly account for between-study variance.

This study provides the first meta-analytic review of the relationship between country-of-origin image and consumer brand evaluation to help clarify mixed findings and balance out the literature, which has only seen quantitative reviews on product evaluation and purchase decisions.

Country‐of‐origin (COO) effects are concerned with buyers' opinions regarding the relative qualities of goods and services produced in various countries. It is the aim of this study to test a framework for investigating the match/mismatch between consumers' product category and country image perceptions. Specifically, the paper seeks to examine whether consumers perceive all products emanating from a particular country favourably simply because consumers associate favourable attributes with that country or whether this effect is specific to particular product categories.

The study employed a structured survey administered through mall intercepts. Data were collected from a sample of 188 Australian consumers. While Australian consumers were the focal country of study, countries selected for evaluation included Japan, Korea, the USA, Canada, China and New Zealand. The products selected included beer, automobiles, watches, leather shoes and stereos.

The findings suggest that when a strong favourable match exists between country and product image then COO will positively influence product evaluation and willingness to buy. Conversely, when an unfavourable mismatch is evident COO would negatively influence consumers' product evaluations and willingness to buy.

Given that most products originating in foreign countries are subject to country stereotyping or image effects, it is important for marketers and retailers to understand and manage the potential impact of COO effects. This study tests a framework that can be applied by marketers to determine the effect of product and country matches in relevant domestic or international markets.

This research investigates if perceived brand globalness (PBG) can help mitigate the adverse effects of consumer animosity on brand evaluations and purchase intentions.

The authors analyze survey data from Chinese consumers (N = 395) and South Korean consumers (N = 420) using multi-group structural equation modeling. In both countries, the authors use Japanese products as stimuli, ensuring high comparability levels between the studies.

The authors empirically demonstrate that PBG can mitigate the negative consequences of consumer animosity by weakening the spillover effect between product–country image and brand evaluations. However, the authors find the mitigating effect of PBG only in China, not in South Korea.

By highlighting PBG's role as an actionable moderator that firms can manipulate to attenuate the negative consequences of consumer animosity toward a brand's country of origin, this work adds to the much-needed debate about how animosity-induced effects can be mitigated in times of global conflicts and tensions.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to facilitate and clarify the perceptions of Spanish consumers towards China, its people, and its products, while outlining the overall contemporary Chinese product-country image (PCI) within the Spanish market.

A 52-item construct was adapted from former PCI scales from cross-cultural equivalence, including “country image”, “personal image”, “product image”, “general knowledge about China”, and “personal data”. Overall, 215 valid structured questionnaires were gathered.

The current study provides: a PCI literature review; hypotheses results concerning Spanish citizens’ views of Chinese products’ price, quality, technicality, inventiveness, and known brands concepts; descriptive statistics and results graphs for each of the PCI sections; and correlations of other variables with the five product image variables within the construct.

Implementing standardized, longitudinal consumer studies that facilitate better comprehension of PCI evolution within a specific market emerged as a future research agenda.

The data informed both the Chinese public and private organizations’ managers of the importance of adapting to the market and non-market environments within Spain to avoid the liability of country of origin effect.

As part of a cross-cultural research, the purpose of this paper is to provide further insights into the existing product-country image (PCI) of the Chinese consumers’ perceptions of Spain, its products, and its people, thereby providing an overall contemporary Spanish PCI within the Chinese market.

In total, 215 valid structured questionnaires were gathered throughout China. Following a pre-investigation of 259 usable questionnaires, a 52-item construct was drawn from the existing widely used PCI item scales, designing a structured PCI construct, covering: “country image,” “personal image,” “product image,” “general knowledge about Spain,” and “personal data.”

The study provides: a PCI pre-investigation research results as well as a literature review on PCI topic; research results for the five hypotheses concerning Chinese citizens’ view of Spanish product price, quality, technicality, inventiveness, and known brands view; descriptive statistics as well as result graphs for each of the covered PCI sections; our PCI construct variable correlations with the tested five product image variables; and general implications.

Standardizing PCI longitudinal studies, as well as focusing on how the Spanish Government and private sector should determine the long-term criteria to facilitate a clearer representation of the Spanish PCI evolution within the Chinese market, is advised.

The current study intends to capture insights for Spain and other country’s public and private sector decision makers to better integrate market and non-market strategies. The results would further assist delineating strategies to avoid the liability of foreignness of Spanish organizations within China.

The main purpose of the study is to extend Schaefer's paper by investigating how different dimensions of consumer knowledge may affect country of origin cues with an Australian sample.

A self‐administered mail survey was used in this study. The main sample consisted of Australian residents who are aged 18 and above and may or may not be alcoholic drinkers. The mailing list was purchased from a local council consisting of a suburb of metropolitan Perth, Western Australia. The total usable response rate was 38.7 per cent.

The results indicated that country of origin cues affect Australian consumers in beer evaluations despite its weak influences. It suggested that brand familiarity and objective product knowledge mediate the extent to which consumers relied on country of origin in product evaluation. However, the study found inconsistent results between different levels of objective knowledge and its effects on country of origin of manufacture.

The paper replicates Schaefer's with extensions. Despite the inconclusive results, objective product‐country knowledge, to some extent, may distort country of origin influences on consumers. This finding yields some insight for the efficiency in market segmentation. By segmenting consumers on different levels of knowledge, the marketers will subsequently make a better decision of how brand and country of origin should be managed.

To date, country-of-origin research has commonly explored structural relationships among country image (CI) constructs, together with attitudinal constructs, using a variety of halo, summary construct and flexible models, drawing on consumer samples. There has been no previous attempt to examine or synthesize these three models with respect to business-to-business (B2B) buying behavior. To fill this gap, this study reconceptualized these three models with B2B constructs using multi-cue settings and tested on B2B samples. This study aims to examine and estimate the relative impact of company- and country-specific images on B2B buyers’ evaluations of suppliers, and the direction of structural relationships with mediation among the constructs.

Data collection was administered through a web-based structured questionnaire. The final sample consisted of 276 purchasing managers. Structural equation modeling was used to test the study’s hypotheses.

Company image is significantly influenced by product country image (PCI) but not by overall CI. The existence of a significant relationship between PCI and perceived supplier performance in a multi-cue setting is an important new finding. In addition, company image significantly influences supplier performance and mediates the relationship between PCI and supplier performance. Among the three models that test structural relationships among CI and other constructs, the reconceptualized halo model fits the data best.

The study results revealed the contribution of company and country-related facets on B2B buyers’ perceptions of supplier performance while purchasing intermediate goods internationally. The significance of PCI on supplier performance emphasizes the strength of the industry sector within a country that may enable an industry to build a product-specific CI in international marketing.

This study advances the country-of-origin issue and debate concerning the strength of the country influence in the academic literature by addressing B2B buyers’ international purchasing behavior of intermediate goods. Additionally, the examination of multiple country facets, multi-cue settings and the CI influence structure in a single study, from a B2B perspective, offers a novel dimension to CI studies.

The purpose of this paper is to extend international marketing theory by examining country image effects simultaneously from the perspectives of Product-Country Image (PCI), Tourism Destination Image (TDI), and General Country Image (GCI), and by using tourism satisfaction as the central construct in a comprehensive model that investigates post-visit effects in both the product and tourism domains.

International tourists from multiple countries were intercepted at the end of a tourism trip and interviewed in-person using a structured questionnaire, resulting in 498 usable responses for data analysis. The model comprised seven constructs measured with 28 variables and was tested with structural equation modelling.

The study uncovers a number of cross-effects between a country as destination and as producer, and establishes tourism satisfaction as a core construct that is relevant to both the tourism and product facets of place image.

Above all, the study’s findings argue strongly in favour of greater coordination between the “product” and “tourism” sides of place marketing.

The study is original in its integrative analysis of GCI, PCI, and TDI constructs as antecedents and consequences of the tourism experience and, among other original contributions, is the first to investigate the direct link between product beliefs, tourism satisfaction, and post-visit product-related intentions.

The purpose of this research is to explore the influence of the pandemic on manoeuvring consumption decisions towards goods and encouraging the trial of local food goods in a developing country, Jordan; primarily by taking an internal look into country image from a local perspective. Given the lack of studies analysing the impact of crises on consumption decisions, this research highlights the hidden benefits of the pandemic in shifting the perceptions of local food goods among Jordanian consumers.

This study adopts an exploratory approach to obtain rich, descriptive data to aid in the understanding of the shift in country image perceptions after the COVID-19 crisis and associated influences on purchase intentions. Using a qualitative open-ended approach eliminates the boundaries of closed-end methods of experimental research. Due to the nature of the phenomena being explored in this research, this study adopts the approach of responsive interviews with 26 participants.

Findings indicate that participants’ perceptions of country image and local goods and their consumption changed responding to COVID-19 for different reasons, creating new norms and perceptions of country image and local food goods. The findings precisely indicate a shift from negative to positive perceptions of country image and local food goods due to the pandemic. Results reveal that there are inconspicuous benefits associated with the role of the pandemic in shifting perceptions of country image and local food goods in Jordan.

Consumers’ perceptions and consumption decisions continue reciprocally to respond to and reflect on the COVID-19 crisis. Adjusting to the new normal is now the focus of research to understand the variance in consumption decisions across the world, including in emerging markets such as Jordan. Results also extend research on cue theory, as crisis seems to have a moderating role in the extent of influence cue theory has on perceptions of goods.

Assisting local brands in improving their marketing strategies, by identifying the barriers that hinder the “desire to try” phase among Jordanian consumers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is unique and first of its kind, as it investigates perceptions of Jordanian consumers of their country’s image and whether the perceptual change in their country image would also stimulate a shift of perceptions in local food goods concerning the COVID-19 crisis. The results provide new insights into understanding consumer behaviour and preferences in crises; and the inconspicuous benefits that a crisis may have on local goods.