COUNTRY OF ORIGIN IMAGE: A META-ANALYTIC REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT OF ITS EFFECT ON CONSUMER BRAND EVALUATION

Purpose: Investigating how country-of-origin image (CoOI) influences consumer brand evaluations (CBE) has been a subject of scientific inquiry in the international marketing literature for over six decades. However, despite these considerable efforts of scholars to validate and link numerous methods to CoOI and consumers behavior, little is known about the extent to which CoOI impacts CBEs, partly due to mixed and contradictory findings and partly due to the absence of a meta-analytic review that provides a quantitative assessment of this focal relationship. Therefore, the purpose of this study was two-pronged (1) to determine the extent to which CoOI and its sub-dimensions exert aggregate and relative influence on CBE; and (2) to determine the contextual and methodological factors that account for between-study variance in this focal relationship Methodology: A meta-analytic review approach was used to quantitatively examine 166 empirical articles encompassing 191 independent samples, 499563 observations, and 282 effect sizes for the timeframe between 1978-2020. Data were statistically analysed using subgroup analysis and metaanalysis (MARA) via the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software package. Findings: Results showed that CoOI positively and significantly influences CBE, with the extent of the effect being moderate (r=.31). Moreover, findings revealed that each dimension of CoOI, namely, general country image (GCI—r=.31), general product country image (GPCI—r=.46), specific product country image (SPCI—r=.29), and partitioned country image (PACI—r=.32) significantly influences CBE. However, the effect of GPCI was the largest, followed by PACI, GCI, and SPCI, in that order. Additionally, the aggregate impacts of these dimensions on the sub-dimensions of CBE— brand commitment (BC), brand-specific associations (BSA), and general brand impressions (GBI) showed that the effect on BC (r=.37) was the strongest, followed by BSA (r=.34), and GBI (r=.32). Finally, the moderator analysis revealed a significant between-study variance based on various methodological and contextual study characteristics. More specifically, findings demonstrated that brand source, product sector, economic region of brands and respondents, individualism, brand origin continents, and consumers’ continent, cues, product category involvement, product status, sampling unit, number of countries studied, publication year, sampling technique, and sample size significantly account for between-study variance. However, product stimulus level, theory usage, and study design do not account for between-study variance. Implications: Theoretically, by applying cue utilisation and irradiation theories, we contribute to international marketing and brand management literature by offering a comprehensive understanding of how CoOI influences CBE. Our special focus on CBE is theoretically relevant because it helps balance the literature with the earlier meta-analyses that focused on product evaluation, purchase decision, and buyer behaviour without recourse to CBE, thereby adding valuable insights to the ongoing scholarly debate about impact of the CoOI dimensions on CBE. Pragmatically, the study’s findings provide managers and practitioners a more valid, “au fait,” and reliable benchmark about the expected average effect or elasticity of the impact of CoOI on CBE in the midst of the contradictory findings presented in the literature. Firms are motivated to incorporate CoOI in their global promotional campaigns because there is a positive, significant relationship between CoOI and CBE. Original value: No meta-analysis exists in this research stream that ever examined the CoOI—CBE relationship. Earlier efforts have considered other dependent variables like product evaluations, purchase decisions, and buyer behavior. To this end, our study provides the pioneering meta-analytic review on this focal relationship to clarify the field's anecdotal findings and balance the literature that has only seen quantitative reviews on product evaluation and purchase decision.