Product-country images in the arts: a multi-country study

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0265-1335.htm

Product-country images in the arts: a multi-country study

Product-country images in the arts

Alain d’Astous HEC Montreál, Montreál, Canada

379

Zannie Giraud Voss Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas USA and Euromed Marseille School of Management, France

Received August 2007 Revised January 2008 Accepted March 2008

François Colbert HEC Montreál, Montreál, Canada

Antonella Caru` Bocconi University, Italy

Marylouise Caldwell University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, and

François Courvoisier Haute ećole de gestion de Neuchaˆtel, Neuchaˆtel, Switzerland Abstract Purpose – The country-of-origin literature has focused mainly on tangible products and has neglected largely intangible services and products such as the arts. The objective of this study is to examine the impact that country of origin may have on consumer perceptions of artistic and cultural products and to explore the variables that explain how consumers form their perceptions of countries as producers of cultural products. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted among adult consumers in Australia, Canada, Italy, Switzerland, and the USA that assessed participants’ perceptions of 16 countries with respect to their reputation for nine cultural products. Findings – The results indicate that product-country images in the arts are affected by country and product familiarity as well as consumers’ openness to foreign cultures and home country bias. Countries more proximate to the participants’ home country were also better evaluated, especially when the proximity factor played a significant role in the consumption of cultural products. Research limitations/implications – While almost all of the hypotheses were supported, additional research is needed to examine the cultural products of non-Western and emerging markets as well as product-country perceptions in these markets. Originality/value – This study extends our understanding of country-of-origin effects in the context of aesthetic, intangible, and complex products that elicit both cognitive and affective responses. It demonstrates that familiarity with a country of origin has a stronger association with positive perceptions of product-country reputation than does product familiarity, and that openness to foreign cultures, home country bias, and proximity have a positive effect on product-country evaluations. Keywords Country of origin, Arts, Cross-cultural studies, Intangible assets, Individual perception Paper type Research paper

The authors would like to thank Marco Negrini who collected the data in Italy on which the results of this study are partly based.

International Marketing Review Vol. 25 No. 4, 2008 pp. 379-403 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0265-1335 DOI 10.1108/02651330810887459

IMR 25,4

380

Introduction There is a substantial body of literature in marketing that is concerned with the impact of a product’s country of origin (COO) on consumer perceptions (see, e.g. Chao, 1998; Verlegh and Steenkamp, 1999). Numerous studies conducted in several countries for a period of more than 40 years have demonstrated consistently that perceptions of global products are shaped by country images and stereotypes. A typical result of this research domain is that products made in less economically developed countries are generally perceived less favourably than those originating from highly industrialized countries (Al-Sulaiti and Baker, 1998). COO effects have been observed for products in general as well as for specific product categories. These effects are generally less pronounced when the manufacturing process is simple (e.g. shoes) than when it is complex (e.g. cars) (Ahmed et al., 2002) and they have been shown to be moderated by several variables, such as product expertise (Maheswaran, 1994) and preference for domestic products (Shimp and Sharma, 1987). Many artistic and cultural products are global products. For instance, movies are produced and distributed in different parts of the world; symphony orchestras, dance companies, and museum exhibitions often tour internationally. Consumer perceptions of global artistic and cultural products may be influenced by their national origin. However, the COO literature has focused mainly on tangible products and has neglected highly intangible services and products, particularly those heavily symbolic and emotional in nature such as the arts. The objective of this study is, therefore, to examine the impact that COO may have on consumer perceptions of artistic and cultural products. We posit that artistic and cultural products (hereafter collectively termed “cultural products”), which are expressive products rooted in the behaviors, beliefs and identity of a society, by nature provide valuable insight into the complex perceptions and preferences that customers form with respect to COO. They are high-involvement products that evoke both cognitive and affective responses that cause consumers to go beyond simple heuristics and to elaborate message cues (Voss and Cova, 2006). Furthermore, due to the complex and intangible nature of most cultural products, quality assessment is more difficult than it is for tangible, functional products, leading to greater variance in consumer beliefs. High levels of variance in consumer beliefs about product quality increase consumers’ sense of perceived risk and uncertainty (Erdem et al., 2006) and increase the importance of expressive or image attributes such as COO to consumer preferences and brand equity (Baughn and Yaprak, 1993; Kotler and Gertner, 2004; Lefkoff-Hagius and Mason, 1993; Papadopoulos and Heslop, 1993; Verlegh and Steenkamp, 1999). At the same time, COO relates a cultural product not only to a cognitive reputation for quality but also to national identity, which evokes symbolic (e.g. status, exoticism) and emotional (e.g. personal history, ideological (dis)agreement, national pride, desire for involvement) responses (Fournier, 1998; Maheswaran and Chen, 2006; Papadopoulos et al., 1990; Verlegh and Steenkamp, 1999), perhaps more so than any other type of product. This rich context for the study of COO effects offers some perspective into the extent that cognitive and conative elements influence perceptions for products with largely affective qualities.

Conceptual development In the following sections, we develop a conceptual framework that integrates empirical research that has examined the link between consumers’ product-country evaluations in the arts and the factors that influence these assessments (see Figure 1). This framework identifies four categories of independent variables that have been studied by various researchers: country familiarity, openness to foreign cultures, product familiarity, and country proximity. We also examine the particular impact that country proximity may have when proximity is inferred from a dimension that is highly relevant for the evaluation of the cultural product (evaluative relevance). In addition, we posit the existence of a home-country bias, which reflects the effects of country familiarity and country proximity.

Product-country images in the arts 381

Country familiarity and openness to foreign cultures It seems obvious that people make associations between cultural products and countries. Thus, opera is quite naturally associated with Italy, jazz music with the United States, and theatre with England. These product-country perceptions are rooted primarily in reality but may also be subject to stereotypical perceptions (Gu¨rhan-Hanli and Maheswaran, 2000; Maheswaran, 1994). Numerous marketing studies have shown that consumers use the overall image of countries in order to make specific inferences about various product characteristics, including quality (see e.g. Liu and Johnson, 2005; Papadopoulos and Heslop, 1993; Schaefer, 1997). It is likely that such stereotypical perceptions also apply to cultural products. Stereotypical judgements are quite efficient when consumers’ knowledge is limited and when an objective assessment is difficult. For instance, evaluating a new electronic product is likely to be a complex task for someone who does not know anything about electronics. Learning that this new product was fabricated in Japan would be useful in this particular situation given this country’s image as a producer of electronic products. In this way, Japan’s strong reputation with electronics serves a role similar to that of strong brand recognition, which lessens consumer uncertainty about product benefits or attributes. When there is ambiguous or conflicting information about a product, consumers will search for clues or frameworks that improve image clarity, reduce perceived risk and, ultimately, increase perceived utility (Erdem et al., 2006). Like a brand, country of origin provides consumers with information about where to position the product in their schema of attribute space (Schaefer, 1997). Unlike brands,

Figure 1. Conceptual model

IMR 25,4

382

however, countries do not necessarily make claims about the quality of their cultural products. The reputation or perceived stereotype is a manifested identity created by the consumer based on historical knowledge or experience rather than an identity projected by the country as a promise to consumers (Maheswaran and Chen, 2006; Soenen and Moingeon, 2002). Building on previous research that employed more conventional contexts of study, we propose that consumer product-country evaluations in the arts are influenced by country familiarity. Judgements about a country’s reputation in the arts should be more objective when they are based on factual knowledge of the country (Balabanis et al., 2002). Consumers who are more familiar with the expertise of specific countries should evaluate more favorably these countries as producers of cultural products. In addition, openness to foreign cultures (OFC), which represents an elevated degree of interest in the people, the customs, and the culture of other countries, should logically be positively associated with more favorable assessments of the cultural products of foreign countries. Indeed, OFC is conceptually similar to the desire for interaction with a foreign country, found in prior research to be a key component of country image (Laroche et al., 2005). Consequently, country familiarity and OFC both should be closely associated with favorable product-country perceptions in the arts. H1. The higher the degree of familiarity with a country, the more favorable the evaluation of that country with respect to cultural products. H2. The higher the degree of openness to foreign cultures, the more favorable the product-country evaluations. Product familiarity As consumers become more knowledgeable about cultural products, they are likely to acquire some information that relates to countries of origin (Okechuku, 1994; Schaefer, 1997). This greater knowledge should lead to higher levels of country familiarity and, as argued above, more favorable product-country perceptions. However, it is predicted that the overall effect of product familiarity on product-country evaluations in the arts is less consistent than that of country familiarity because consumer familiarity with cultural products may focus on specific art domains and a limited number of countries, making it less global and generalized. For instance, expertise can be restricted to very specific art content domains (e.g. nineteenth-century classical music) and to one (e.g. Japanese comic strips) or a few countries (e.g. French and Russian literature). Thus, although a general positive relationship between familiarity with cultural products and product-country perceptions is predicted, this relationship is expected to be less consistent than in the case of country familiarity. H3. The higher the degree of familiarity with a cultural product, the more favourable the evaluation of countries with respect to this product. Country proximity and evaluative relevance Past research has revealed that consumers show a bias for products from countries with which they have some particular relationships, whether these relationships are based on geographical proximity, common history, shared values, shared language, political or economic ties. In this way, consumers create an in-group of similar countries and judge all other groups – i.e. out-groups – in relation to it (Balabanis and

Diamantopoulos, 2004). For example, analyzing survey data from 20 nations, Hsieh (2004) found that consumers tend to prefer products that originate from countries in the same geographical region. Klein et al. (1998) found that Chinese consumers’ propensity to own Japanese products was inversely related to their degree of anger toward Japan in relation to past military events and economic tensions. Greater country familiarity should lead to more favorable product-country perceptions for in-group members and, by extension, less favorable product-country perceptions for out-group members. H4. Consumer cultural product-country evaluations will favor countries proximal to the consumer’s home country. The proximal country effect is a generalized closeness effect. This effect should be stronger when the dimension on which it is based is relevant to the product-country judgements that are made. For instance, the perception of a country with respect to some political dimension should be affected more by country similarity on political issues than by say, geographical proximity. Therefore, when judging the reputation of a country with respect to a given cultural product, the country proximity effect should be more pronounced if the proximity dimension in question is a key product characteristic. One such dimension is language. All else being equal, product-country perceptions related to cultural products for which language plays a significant role in the consumption process – e.g. comic strip books, novels, and theatre – should be influenced by the existence of a common language since it is an essential product characteristic. H5. The impact of country proximity on product-country perceptions is more important when the proximity dimension in question plays a significant role in the consumer’s ability to fully evaluate the cultural product (i.e. the effect of country proximity on product-country evaluations is moderated by evaluative relevance). Home-country bias Many studies have shown that consumers tend to perceive their country’s products more favorably than do consumers in different countries (e.g. Balabanis and Diamantopoulos, 2004; Elliott and Cameron, 1994; Hsieh, 2004). However, this home country bias does not necessarily imply that consumers prefer products that are made in their own country (Papadopoulos et al., 1990). For instance, although Canadians could perceive to a greater extent than people from other countries that Canada has a good reputation as regards say, automobile construction, Canadians should be nevertheless inclined to think that Japanese cars are better. According to Shimp and Sharma (1987), there exists a general tendency by American consumers to question the legitimacy of buying foreign products, a predisposition they termed “consumer ethnocentrism”. We predict that a home country bias exists in the case of cultural products as well. This bias may be in part explained by the country familiarity effect discussed above, i.e. in general consumers should know more about their home country than consumers from other countries. It may also reflect the country proximity effect, i.e. consumers’ most proximal country is obviously their own. In addition, one can argue that cultural products heavily reflect a country’s culture and people. Therefore, evaluating one’s country regarding cultural products is equivalent in some way to making an evaluative judgement about oneself.


IMR 25,4

384

H6. There is a generalized home country bias, i.e. consumers will tend to perceive their country’s cultural products more favorably than will consumers from other countries. Method To test the research hypotheses, a survey was conducted with adult consumers in Australia (n ¼ 162), in French-Canada (n ¼ 203), in Italy (n ¼ 165), in Switzerland (n ¼ 208), and in the USA (n ¼ 137). The same data collection procedure was used in each country. Streets were randomly selected in some cities and interviewers knocked on the door of every two dwellings to obtain the residents’ participation. Special efforts were made to convince male consumers to participate. The Australian data were collected in Sidney; the Canadian data were collected in Laval, a large city located north of Montreál in the French-speaking province of Que´bec; the Italian data were collected in Milan; in Switzerland the data were collected in the French-speaking suburbs of the city of Neuchaˆtel; and in the USA the data were collected in the city of Durham, North Carolina. Table I displays the response rate information for each data collection site. The selection of these specific sites was based partly on convenience and the availability of resources to facilitate the collection of data, but the main objective was to choose countries that would exhibit some significant variance in terms of geographical location (three different continents) and language (three different languages), could be clustered with respect to shared language (e.g. Canada and Switzerland), and would be close to some of the country stimuli on such factors as geographical location (e.g. the USA and Mexico), history (e.g. Australia and England), and economic ties (e.g. Canada and the USA). Measures and product-country stimuli A questionnaire was developed and pre-tested with a convenient sample of ten French-Canadian adult consumers. In the first section of this questionnaire, 16 countries, namely France, the USA, Italy, China, Switzerland, Mexico, Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Austria, South Korea, England, Russia, Japan, Brazil, and Australia, had to be evaluated regarding their reputation as producers of various cultural products. These perceptions were measured using a nine-point bipolar numeric scale with anchor points no reputation at all/very good reputation. A total of nine cultural products were selected as stimuli for gathering consumer perceptions: theatre, opera,

Table I. Response rate information

Number of visited dwellings Number of contacts Contact rate (%) Number of refusals Acceptance rate (%) Number of distributed questionnaires Number of questionnaires picked up Number of unusable questionnaires Number of usable questionnaires Response rate (%)

Australia

Canada

Italy

Switzerland

USA

430 300 69.8 123 59.0 177 162 0 162 91.5

1,001 691 69.1 472 32.7 219 205 2 203 92.7

330 250 75.8 0 100.0 250 226 71 165 66.0

414 322 77.8 80 75.2 242 209 1 208 86.0

1,313 774 58.9 598 22.7 176 151 14 137 77.8

classical music, art museums, action and adventure movies, novels, comic strip books, classical ballet, and jazz music. Because the survey participants were required to judge a large number of product-country stimuli (i.e. 16 £ 9 ¼ 144), it was not realistic to use several scales to measure the main dependent variable. Indeed, during the pre-test, consumers complained that completing the questionnaire required a taxing amount of time. Under these circumstances, the single-item country reputation scale was a necessary compromise that proved acceptable to participants. Several considerations guided the selection of country and product stimuli. It was deemed important to choose countries from various parts of the world and with different levels of economic development in order to make comparisons with the existing literature on COO effects. In addition, the stimulus set included countries in which a data collection was planned (i.e. Australia, Canada, Italy, Switzerland, and the USA) in order to verify whether the home country bias, which is sometimes observed in COO studies, would surface in the case of cultural products. Four main criteria guided the definition of the set of product stimuli. First, for the purpose of generalization, the stimuli had to cover a wide range of cultural products. Second, they had to evoke a sufficient level of familiarity so that consumers with different backgrounds in cultural matters would be able to give their opinion with a minimum of difficulty. Third, the association of the product stimuli with the chosen countries had to show some variance in order to allow for the emergence of COO effects. For example, countries like Belgium and Morocco would a priori be perceived as having a lower reputation for opera than Italy. Finally, it was important to limit the number of cultural products to attenuate as much as possible the burden associated with completing a lengthy questionnaire. In the second section of the questionnaire, the product and country stimuli had to be rated with respect to the respondent’s knowledge (do not know at all/know very well) and interest (no interest at all/a great deal of interest) using nine-point bipolar numeric scales. These scales were adapted from Oliver and Bearden (1985). The third section of the questionnaire contained two additive scales. The first was a ten-item scale to assess the respondent’s general involvement with the arts and culture. The scale was adapted from the well-known involvement scale developed by Zaichkowsky (1985). The second was a seven-item scale developed by Sharma et al. (1994) to measure a person’s cultural openness – i.e. one’s interest in the people, the customs, and the culture of other countries – using nine-point bipolar numeric scales (strongly disagree/strongly agree). The last section of the questionnaire contained questions to assess the respondent’s socio-demographic characteristics (i.e. gender, age, occupation, family income, and education). The original questionnaire was translated in English and in Italian and adapted (e.g. socio-demographics) to fit the country in which the data were collected. Results The total sample comprises an almost equal number of male (49.3 percent) and female (50.7 percent) respondents. Several socio-demographic differences exist between the multi-country samples: in summary, the Italian respondents are less educated and have less financial resources, respondents in Australia and Switzerland are younger and more likely to be students, and Australian, Canadian, and US participants are more likely to be professionals.


IMR 25,4

386

Product-country perceptions across data collection sites The product-country perceptions were analyzed using repeated-measure analyses of variance. More specifically, for each product, the perceptions were analyzed as a function of country (16 levels – within-subject factor) and data collection site (five levels – between-subject factor). In all cases, the country £ site interaction was statistically significant at p , 0:001, indicating that the pattern of perceived country differences was not the same across data collection sites. In all cases, the main effect of country and data collection site was significant at p , 0:001. Table II presents some partial results from the analyses of variance. The table shows the mean perceptions of the two most positively as well as the worst evaluated countries across all products. Test of H1 H1, which proposed that product-country evaluations are influenced positively by country familiarity, received strong support. The hypothesis was tested by computing the correlation between country familiarity and each product evaluation for this specific country. For instance, the familiarity with France was correlated with the perceived reputation of France regarding theatre, opera, classical music, etc. This was repeated for all sixteen countries. Table III displays the results of these correlation analyses. In addition to showing all correlations, the table presents the mean correlation computed across all products (9) and across all countries (16). All significant correlations were positive. Significant correlations ranged from 0.11 (e.g. Italy-opera) to 0.44 (Canada-novels); 143 of 144 correlations were positive and statistically significant. Test of H2 The second hypothesis predicts an overall effect of OFC on product-country evaluations. To test this hypothesis, consumers’ country evaluations were averaged over all products, resulting in an overall evaluative rating for each country. A principal components analysis conducted on the OFC items, for the total sample as well as for each sample separately, revealed that a single factor explained a good proportion of the item variance (total sample: 69.05 percent; Australia: 62.75 percent; Canada: 65.27 percent; Italy: 73.91 percent; Switzerland: 69.74 percent; USA: 64.92 percent), implying that the scale was unidimensional. The mean of the items was therefore computed to serve as the indicator of the OFC construct. The reliability of the scale was high in the total sample (Cronbach’s alpha ¼ 0:92) as well as in each sample (Australia: 0.90; Canada: 0.91; Italy: 0.94; Switzerland: 0.93; US: 0.90). The overall OFC score for the country was correlated with the evaluative rating index for each country described above. The 16 correlations were all positive and statistically significant (p , 0:001), ranging from 0.12 (Italy) to 0.29 (England) with an overall average correlation of 0.19. H2 is, therefore, supported. Test of H3 This hypothesis proposes that product-country perceptions are influenced positively by product familiarity. However, because cultural product knowledge may be local, narrowly specialized, or associated with a few countries, it was expected that this impact would be less consistent. The hypothesis was tested by computing the correlation between product familiarity and how each country was evaluated for this

Worst country

Second best

Country perceptions in Italy (minimum n ¼ 165) Best country

Worst country

Second best

Country perceptions in Canada (minimum n ¼ 180) Best country

Worst country

Second best

Country perceptions in Australia (minimum n ¼ 152) Best country

Cultural products

Italy (7.73, 0.13) England (6.59, 0.17) Morocco (2.16, 0.15)

France (7.47, 0.14) England (7.03, 0.16) S. Korea (3.04, 0.14)

England (7.44; 0.17) France (6.59; 0.15) Morocco (2.93; 0.15)

Theatre

Italy (8.22, 0.09) France (6.18, 0.17) Morocco (2.07, 0.13)


Italy (8.04; 0.11) France (6.83; 0.17) Morocco (2.70; 0.14)

Opera

Italy (8.25, 0.11) Austria (6.81, 0.19) Morocco (2.03, 0.14)


Italy (7.45; 0.13) France (7.06; 0.16) Morocco (2.90; 0.15)

Classical music

Italy (8.55, 0.08) France (8.36, 0.08) S. Korea (2.50, 0.15)

France (8.52, 0.07) Italy (8.28, 0.07) S. Korea (3.40, 0.14)

France (8.15; 0.10) Italy (8.10; 0.11) Morocco (3.36; 0.17)

Art museums

USA (8.56, 0.08) Italy (5.58, 0.16) Morocco (2.26, 0.14)

USA (8.70, 0.07) England (5.67, 0.16) S. Korea (2.95, 0.13)

USA (8.59; 0.08) China (6.42; 0.21) Morocco (2.49; 0.14)

Action movies

Italy (7.80, 0.14) France (7.52, 0.12) S. Korea (2.32, 0.15)

France (8.06, 0.11) USA (7.92, 0.13) S. Korea (2.94, 0.14)

England (7.73; 0.17) France (7.08; 0.14) Morocco (2.82; 0.15)

Novels

USA (7.70, 0.13) Italy (7.05, 0.16) Morocco (1.99, 0.13)

USA (7.80, 0.13) France (7.45, 0.17) Morocco (2.82, 0.12)

USA (8.03; 0.16) Japan (6.65; 0.24) Morocco (2.43; 0.13)

Comic strip books Jazz

USA (8.43; 0.11) England (5.39; 0.19) S. Korea (2.22; 0.12) USA (8.51, 0.11) Canada (6.88, 0.16) S. Korea (2.23, 0.12) USA (7.96, 0.12) Italy (5.39, 0.17) Morocco (1.86, 0.13) (continued)

Classical ballet

Russia (7.62; 0.20) France (7.55; 0.14) Morocco (2.68; 0.15) France (7.51, 0.12) Italy (6.72, 0.13) S. Korea (2.95, 0.15) Italy (8.05, 0.14) France (7.65, 0.12) Morocco (2.35, 0.15)


Table II. Product-country perceptions across data collection sites

Table II. USA (7.67; 0.18) England (7.60; 0.18) Morocco (2.76; 0.16)

France (7.90, 0.12) Italy (6.73, 0.13) S. Korea (2.60, 0.11) Italy (8.31; 0.12) USA (6.86; 0.20) S. Korea (2.32; 0.16)


Opera

Italy (7.60; 0.14) France (6.95; 0.17) Morocco 2.55; 0.16)

Italy (7.56, 0.11) Austria (7.21, 0.18) Morocco (2.12, 0.12)

Classical music

France (8.61; 0.11) Italy (8.40; 0.12) Morocco (3.32; 0.19)

France (8.29, 0.08) Italy (7.75, 0.09) Morocco (2.61, 0.14)

Art museums



Action movies

USA (8.20; 0.16) England (7.41; 0.18) Morocco (2.72; 0.16)

France (8.28, 0.10) USA (7.32, 0.13) S. Korea (2.15, 0.13)

Novels


France (7.50, 0.15) Belgium (7.40, 0.31) Mexico (2.28, 0.15)

Comic strip books

France (7.75; 0.15) Russia (7.53; 0.22) Morocco (2.43; 0.16)

France (7.26, 0.12) Italy (6.88, 0.14) Morocco (2.02, 0.13)

Classical ballet

USA (8.57; 0.12) France (5.00; 0.20) S. Korea (1.99; 0.13)


Jazz

Notes: All mean differences in country perceptions (including all countries) are statistically significant at p , 0.001. The moderating role of data collection site is statistically significant at p , 0.001 in all analyses

Worst country

Second best

Country perceptions in the USA (minimum n ¼ 133) Best country

Worst country

Second best

Country perceptions in Switzerland (minimum n ¼ 191) Best country

Theatre

388

Cultural products

IMR 25,4

0.20 * 0.16 * 0.11 * 0.13 * 0.10 * * 0.39 * 0.34 * 0.22 * 0.27 * 0.26 * 0.25 * 0.23 * 0.27 * 0.25 * 0.21 * 0.29 * 0.23

0.32 * 0.30 * 0.27 * 0.30 * 0.25 * 0.29 * * 0.41 * 0.26 * 0.33 * 0.30 * 0.26 * 0.27 * 0.20 * 0.21 * 0.28 * 0.35 * 0.29

United States (6.29) France (6.07) Italy (5.78) England (5.47) Switzerland (4.91) Canada (4.88) Australia (4.04) Russia (3.74) Austria (3.61) Belgium (3.46) Mexico (3.38) Japan (3.38) China (3.29) Brazil (3.06) Morocco (2.70) South Korea (2.25) Mean

0.22 * 0.17 * 0.24 * 0.23 * 0.08 * * * 0.38 * 0.32 * 0.23 * 0.26 * 0.24 * 0.23 * 0.25 * 0.35 * 0.29 * 0.24 * 0.35 * 0.26

0.22 * 0.16 * 0.19 * 0.26 * 0.28 * 0.42 * 0.34 * 0.29 * 0.27 * 0.33 * 0.37 * 0.26 * 0.29 * 0.31 * 0.26 * 0.37 * 0.29

0.11 * 0.19 * 0.12 * 0.12 * 0.02ns 0.36 * 0.27 * 0.11 * 0.21 * 0.25 * 0.21 * 0.20 * 0.25 * 0.22 * 0.29 * 0.30 * 0.20

0.21 * 0.30 * 0.31 * 0.22 * 0.25 * 0.44 * 0.41 * 0.33 * 0.28 * 0.27 * 0.30 * 0.30 * 0.34 * 0.32 * 0.32 * 0.39 * 0.31

0.15 * 0.32 * 0.34 * 0.12 * 0.36 * 0.41 * 0.34 * 0.17 * 0.17 * 0.18 * 0.20 * 0.20 * 0.20 * 0.22 * 0.26 * 0.34 * 0.25

0.21 * 0.15 * 0.25 * 0.17 * 0.13 * 0.45 * 0.35 * 0.17 * 0.29 * 0.30 * 0.23 * 0.17 * 0.16 * 0.20 * 0.26 * 0.27 * 0.24

Country evaluation regarding: Classical music Art museums Action movies Novels Comic strip books Classical ballet

Mean 0.21 0.22 0.23 0.19 0.20 0.41 0.35 0.23 0.26 0.27 0.26 0.24 0.26 0.25 0.26 0.33

Jazz 0.22a 0.23a 0.25 * 0.12 * 0.31 * 0.33 * 0.34 * 0.25 * 0.25 * 0.32 * 0.27 * 0.29 * 0.25 * 0.23 * 0.24 * 0.34 * 0.27

* *p , 0:01; * * *p , 0:05; ns: not statistically significant

Notes: Entries are Pearson correlation coefficients. The mean country familiarity is presented within parentheses. Significance levels: *p , 0:001;

Opera

Theatre

Familiarity with:


Table III. Correlations of country familiarity with product-country perceptions, pooled for all respondents

IMR 25,4

390

specific product. For instance, the familiarity with theatre was correlated with the perceived reputation of France, the USA, etc. regarding theatre. Table IV presents the results of these analyses. As shown, all significant correlations were positive. Significant correlations ranged from 0.07 (e.g., Switzerland-theatre) to 0.33 (Russia-art museums). A total of 120 correlations out of 144 were positive and statistically significant. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is support for H3. However, as predicted, the influence of product familiarity on product-country evaluations is less consistent than that of country familiarity. Most non-significant correlations were observed with action movies and comic strip books. Test of H4 This hypothesis predicts that product-country evaluations will be more favorable when they concern a country which is associated with the respondent’s home country on such dimensions as language, history, culture, politics, and economy – i.e. country proximity. A multivariate analysis of variance was conducted using the 16 country evaluative measures averaged over cultural products as the dependent variable vector and data collection site as the independent variable. The results of this analysis revealed that there was a statistically significant effect (p , 0:001) concerning data collection site. Follow-up univariate analyses of variance indicated that all mean differences were statistically significant, except in the case of Austria. Table V presents the mean evaluations of countries of relevance for this hypothesis in each data collection site as well as the results of planned contrasts involving different combinations of sites. Countries in which the French language is used (i.e. France, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, and Morocco) were generally better evaluated by the Canadians and the Swiss; the only exception was in the case of Morocco, which received better evaluations from the Canadians only. The evaluations of the USA and Mexico were higher in the Canadian sample than in the other samples. This may be explained by the geographical proximity of the USA and Canada and the economic ties (i.e. NAFTA) between the three countries. England and Australia received a better evaluation by the Canadians and the Americans. Similarly, the USA, Canada, and England were better evaluated in the Australian sample. Australia, Canada, England, and the USA share a common language. Overall, these results provide strong support for H4. Test of H5 This research hypothesis proposes that the association between country proximity and product-country perceptions is more pronounced when the country proximity dimension plays a significant role in the consumer’s ability to evaluate the cultural product, i.e. the heightened performance of language for comic strip books, novels, and theatre. To test this hypothesis, we operationalized country proximity by averaging the evaluations of French-language countries, i.e. Belgium, France, and Morocco (in order to control for the home country bias, Canada and Switzerland were not included in the average since data were collected in these countries). The resulting average evaluations were compared across products and data collection sites. The results are presented in Table VI. Mean differences across all product stimuli were statistically significant (p , 0:001). Planned contrasts were estimated between French-speaking data

USA

0.18 * 0.25 *

0.25 * 0.18 *

0.24 *

20.01ns 0.24 * 0.25 *

0.30 * 0.21

France

0.12 * 0.18 *

0.19 * 0.05ns

0.23 *

0.33 * 0.22 * 0.19 *

0.25 * 0.20

China

0.08 * * * 0.11 *

0.10 * * 0.14 * 0.25 *

0.09 * * 0.20 * 0.10 0.14

0.18 * 0.12 * 0.12 *

0.10 * * 0.19 *

0.20 * 20.02ns

0.00ns 0.09 * * 0.11 * * 0.13 *

Italy

0.15 * 0.16

0.23 * 0.14 * 0.19 *

0.26 *

0.20 * 0.07 * * *

0.03ns 0.16 *

Switzer-land

0.25 * 0.17

0.03ns 0.23 * 0.22 *

0.22 *

0.24 * 0.19 *

20.01ns 0.20 *

Mexico

0.17 * 0.17

0.25 * 0.17 * 0.22 *

0.23 *

0.26 * 0.12 *

0.02ns 0.12 *

0.22 * 0.19

0.13 * 0.22 * 0.21 *

0.22 *

0.18 * 0.14 *

0.15 * 0.20 *

0.18 * 0.13

0.04ns 0.19 * 0.18 *

0.14 *

0.13 * 0.14 *

0.03ns 0.12 *

Belgium Canada Morocco

0.14 * 0.13

0.05ns 0.17 * 0.21 *

0.17 *

0.23 * 0.08 * * *

0.00ns 0.16 *

Austria

Product-country evaluation:

0.15 * 0.12

0.00ns 0.17 * 0.23 *

0.17 *

0.14 * 0.12 *

0.02ns 0.09 * *

South Korea

0.31 * 0.21

0.06ns 0.20 * * * 0.25 *

0.27 *

0.30 * 0.21 *

0.08 * * * 0.25 *

Japan

Brazil

0.23 * 0.18

0.06ns 0.16 * 0.26 *

0.21 *

0.33 * 0.15 *

0.14 * 0.17

0.07 * * * 0.17 * 0.27 *

0.21 *

0.23 * 0.17 *

0.21 * 0.16 * 0.21 * 0.03ns 0.20 * 0.26 * 0.27 * 0.18

0.24 * 0.05ns 0.21 * 0.28 * 0.20 * 0.17

0.09 * * * 0.19 *

0.20

0.10 0.18 0.22

0.21

0.21 0.12

0.05 0.17

Australia Mean

0.21 * 0.19 *

0.03ns 0.09 * * * 2 0.03ns 0.23 * 0.16 * 0.16 *

England Russia

Notes: Entries are Pearson correlation coefficients. The mean product familiarity is presented within parentheses. Significance levels: *p , 0:001; * *p , 0:01; * * *p , 0:05; ns: not statistically significant

Action movies (6.19) Novels (6.02) Art museums (5.32) Theatre (5.01) Classical music (4.90) Comic strip books (4.69) Jazz (4.20) Opera (3.71) Classical ballet (3.63) Mean

Familiarity with:


Table IV. Correlations of product familiarity with product-country perceptions, pooled for all respondents

0.49 * 0.60 *

0.47 *

0.70 *

1.09 *

6.84 7.16 6.39 6.40 7.79

USA

1.12 *

6.16 6.43 7.40 6.34 6.09

Italy

0.73 *

3.84 4.25 3.00 4.38 3.46

Switzerland

0.64 * 0.44 *

3.19 3.36 2.57 2.53 3.17

Mexico

1.20 * 0.47 *

3.65 4.63 2.91 4.08 3.27

Belgium

0.56 *

0.37 * *

2.19 *

4.23 6.12 3.19 4.13 4.18

Canada

0.77 * 20.49 *

2.74 3.14 2.17 2.17 2.49

Morocco

0.70 * 0.51 * 0.85 *

6.48 6.32 5.63 5.66 6.16

England

0.92 * 0.58 *

1.63 *

5.11 4.02 3.06 3.23 3.72

Australia

Notes: a Mean in home country versus combined means in the four other data collection sites. b Mean in Canada versus combined means in non French-speaking sites. c Mean in Switzerland versus combined means in non French-speaking sites. d Mean in Canada versus combined means in non NAFTA sites. e Mean in the US versus combined means in non NAFTA sites. f Mean in Canada versus combined means in non Commonwealth/non English-speaking sites. g Mean in the US versus combined means in non Commonwealth/non English-speaking sites. h Mean in Australia versus combined means in non Commonwealth/non English-speaking sites. Significance levels: *p , 0:001; * *p , 0:01; * * *p , 0:05; ns: not statistically significant (one-tailed test when predicted direction, two-tailed test otherwise)

Contrast Home countrya French language: Canadab French language: Switzerlandc Geographic proximity/economic ties: Canadad Geographic proximity/economic ties: USAe English language/Commonwealth: Canadaf English language/Commonwealth: USAg English language/Commonwealth: Australiah

6.37 7.06 6.48 7.15 6.25

Data collection site Australia Canada Italy Switzerland USA

Table V. Impact of country proximity on product-country perceptions France

392

Country

IMR 25,4

Comic strips Novels Theatre Action movies Jazz Art museums Classical music Opera Classical ballet

Australia

Canada

3.48 4.43 4.44 3.17 3.49 5.49 4.80 4.36 4.67

5.75 5.45 5.25 3.92 3.91 6.03 5.02 4.57 5.17

Data collection site Italy Switzerland

USA

Contrasta,b

3.49 4.26 3.87 3.29 3.25 4.84 3.69 3.65 4.37

2.66 4.46 4.15 2.99 3.11 5.52 4.44 4.12 4.58

4.94 * 1.73 * 1.73 * 1.41 * 0.87 * 0.67 * * 0.53 * * 0.49 * 0.48 * *

5.61 5.04 4.79 3.78 3.52 5.21 4.13 4.00 4.38

Notes: Countries included in the average evaluation: Belgium, France, and Morocco. a Combined means in Canada and Switzerland versus combined means in the other sites. b Significance levels: *p , 0:001; * *p , 0:01; * * *p , 0:05; ns: not statistically significant (one-tailed tests)

collection sites (i.e. Canada and Switzerland) and the other sites. As expected, the product-country evaluations were generally more favorable in French-speaking data collection sites. The largest mean contrast was associated with comic strips, followed by novels and theatre, action movies, jazz, art museums, classical music, opera, and classical ballet, in that order. While these results provide support for the hypothesis, it should be noted that, although the largest differences among data collection sites were obtained with comic strips, novels, and theatre (i.e. the language-based products), significant mean differences also were observed with other cultural products. An additional analysis was conducted to further test the hypothesis. The French-language country evaluations were averaged across comic strips, novels, and theatre to create an overall evaluative product-country index of relevance to language. Another index was created using the same countries with all the other products. In other words, the first index represents respondents’ evaluations of French-speaking countries regarding products for which language plays a significant role whereas the other index represents their evaluations of the same countries regarding all other products. A mixed-design analysis of variance using these indices as a two-level within-subject factor and data collection site as a between-subject factor was conducted. The results revealed a statistically significant interaction (F ¼ 90:86, p , 0:001) as well as a statistically significant main effect of the index (F ¼ 67:98, p , 0:001) and data collection (F ¼ 37:06, p , 0:001) factors. The interaction means are displayed in Figure 2. As can be seen, in support of H5, in Canada and in Switzerland, the evaluation of French-speaking countries was more favorable in the case of language-based products than in the case of other cultural products. However, this was not the case in the other three samples. Test of H6 This hypothesis predicts that general product-country perceptions of home countries are more positive when they are made by residents. The hypothesis was tested by looking at product-country differences for Australia, Canada, Italy, Switzerland, and the USA across the five data collection sites. For instance, in order to explore the possibility of a home country bias by Canadians regarding theatre, the mean

Product-country images in the arts 393 Table VI. Evaluation of three French-speaking countries across cultural products and data collection sites

IMR 25,4

394

Figure 2. Product-country perceptions as a function of language-based cultural products and data collection site

theatre/Canada evaluations should be compared across the five samples. The observation of a higher mean evaluation in the Canadian sample would be consistent with a home country bias. First, a multivariate analysis of variance was conducted in order to verify that there were statistically significant differences between samples with respect to how each data collection site country was perceived in relation to the entire set of products. In this analysis, consumer evaluative judgements on all products constituted the vector of dependent variables (9) and the data collection site was the independent variable (5 levels). Five analyses were conducted, i.e. one for each country. The results indicated that there were reliable (p , 0:001) mean differences between the sites in all five cases. Therefore, these multivariate analyses were followed-up by univariate analyses of variance where the data site differences were examined for each product separately. The results are displayed in Table VII. The table contains: (1) the mean evaluation of the five countries with respect to each product across the different data collection sites; (2) the results of the omnibus F tests for mean differences; and (3) the results of contrasts between the mean in the home country sample and the combined means in the other two samples. For instance, it can be seen that the Australians gave a better evaluation of Australia’s theatre (mean ¼ 4:69) than the Canadians (mean ¼ 4:37), the Italians (mean ¼ 3:39), the Swiss (mean ¼ 3:40), and the Americans (mean ¼ 4:61). The F statistic (12.95) indicates that there are statistically significant differences between the means. In addition, the difference between the Australian mean evaluation and that of the other samples is positive (mean contrast ¼ 1:94) and statistically significant (p , 0:001 in this particular case). To facilitate the interpretation of the results, the largest mean in each product-country row of the table is presented in bold characters.

Data collection site: Home country Product-country category Australia Canada Italy Switzerland USA F statistica contrastb Theatre Australia Canada Italy Switzerland USA

4.69 4.44 6.62 4.14 6.28

4.37 5.67 6.67 4.32 6.30

3.39 3.43 7.44 2.99 5.36

3.40 4.95 6.76 4.31 5.55

4.61 5.01 5.95 3.73 7.33

12.95 * 8.11 * 9.92 * 13.19 * 14.63 *

1.94 * 2.27 * 1.30 * 1.19 * 1.85 *

Opera Australia Canada Italy Switzerland USA

4.61 3.66 8.08 4.33 4.98

4.05 4.23 8.36 4.14 5.35

3.18 3.19 8.05 2.89 4.46

3.45 3.62 8.25 3.12 4.50

4.10 3.95 8.38 3.89 6.76

7.14 * 4.09 * * 1.92ns 13.65 * 17.64 *

1.90 * 1.76 * 20.01ns 20.03ns 2.03 *

Classical music Australia Canada Italy Switzerland USA

4.04 4.02 7.50 5.14 5.24

4.16 4.98 7.78 4.89 5.66

3.03 3.18 7.92 3.19 4.34

3.22 4.01 7.52 3.80 4.61

3.75 4.47 7.75 4.43 6.47

7.82 * 9.49 * 2.01ns 18.17 * 15.18 *

1.48 * 2.05 * 0.69 * 0.01ns 1.76 *

Art museums Australia Canada Italy Switzerland USA

4.11 4.54 8.16 5.56 7.00

4.58 5.09 8.37 5.70 6.83

3.72 4.04 8.31 4.25 7.23

4.15 4.99 7.75 4.82 7.17

4.40 5.04 8.50 5.29 7.77

3.54 * * 6.70 * 7.95 * 11.72 * 4.40 * *

1.30 * 1.83 * 0.40 * 0.79 * 1.21 *

Action movies Australia Canada Italy Switzerland USA

4.17 4.31 5.01 3.06 8.58

4.32 4.72 5.17 3.53 8.64

3.21 3.87 5.38 2.41 8.64

4.08 4.65 5.07 2.14 8.81

4.02 3.75 5.23 2.76 8.44

5.43 * 5.89 * 0.65ns 12.77 * 2.30 * * *

1.28 * 1.76 * 0.51 * 20.34 * * * 20.06ns

Notes: a Overall test of differences between the five means across data collection sites after adjusting for country familiarity. b Mean in home country versus combined means in the four other data collection sites (one-tailed test when predicted direction, two-tailed test otherwise). Significance levels: *p , 0:001; * *p , 0:01; * * *p , 0:05; ns: not statistically significant. The largest mean in each product-country row of the table is italicised for clarity

The results presented in Table VII are generally consistent with a home country bias; 40 contrasts out of a total of 45 were statistically significant and in the predicted direction. The non-observation of a home country bias by Italian consumers in the case of opera and by American consumers in the case of action movies appears to have been caused by a ceiling effect. In the Switzerland sample, the results were, however, less supportive of a home country bias. The Swiss rated their own country more favorably than did the respondents in the other countries with respect to five cultural products: theatre, art museums, novels, comic strip books, and jazz. The mean differences were not statistically significant in the case of opera, classical music, and classical ballet. In the case of action movies, the Swiss home country evaluations were, in fact, less positive.


Table VII. Home country evaluation differences across data collection sites

IMR 25,4

396

These results lead us to question whether a lack of OFC or a general lack of familiarity with other cultures drives the home country bias. In order to address this question, an index of the extent of home country bias was calculated by subtracting the mean evaluation of all data collection countries, excluding the home country, from the evaluation of the home country. This operation was done for each cultural product and the results were averaged across all products. This measure of the extent of home country bias was correlated with the OFC score in each sample. The only statistically significant correlation was observed in the Italian sample and it was negative, as expected, but of low magnitude (r ¼ 20:16, p , 0:05). An index of foreign country knowledge was calculated by averaging the familiarity score across all countries except the home country. The resulting index was correlated with the measure of the extent of home country bias. The only statistically significant correlation was observed again in the Italian sample and it was negative, as expected, and of low magnitude (r ¼ 20:17, p , 0:05). Thus, the empirical evidence does not support the post hoc proposition that home country bias is driven by the lack of openness to foreign cultures or by the lack of knowledge of foreign countries. Discussion The results of this study show that while consumers’ perceptions of countries with respect to some cultural products are fairly consistent across five different data collection sites, variations exist. It appears that perceptions are shaped by consumers’ subjective knowledge about countries and cultural products, their OFC, and their nationality. We discuss these findings below. Although the pattern of product-country evaluations differed significantly across data collection sites, there appears to be some overall consistency in consumer judgements, as shown in Table II. Thus, for “high art” products such as classical music, opera, museum, and classical ballet, France and Italy were consistently rated very favorably. For “popular art” products such as action movies and jazz, the United States received the best evaluation in the five samples. Therefore, one tentative conclusion is that the differences in certain product-country perceptions between data collection sites are not large. Country images are formed partly through the consumption of products. Product-country familiarity, in this case, is generated by first-hand knowledge. For instance, the reputation of the USA as a “jazz” country may be enhanced by the presence of American jazz musicians on the international scene, by the diffusion of jazz performances (e.g. the Jazz at Lincoln Center radio broadcasts), and by the sales of compact discs. It appears that there exist several widely accepted associations between a few countries and specific cultural products. In these cases, COO has become part of the cultural product’s brand equity, just as it might with Columbian coffee or French perfume (Kotler and Gertner, 2004). To further illustrate the point of perceptual consistency across countries, as can be seen in Table II, two countries received the worst evaluations across all cultural products: Morocco and South Korea. This leads us to question why Morocco and South Korea were consistently rated poorly. One plausible explanation arises out of prior COO studies that indicate a positive association between perceived strength of a country’s products and the country’s level of economic development (Bilkey and Nes, 1982; Cordell, 1991; Verlegh and Steenkamp, 1999). The USA, China, Japan, Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Canada, Brazil, and South Korea are among the world’s top 11

largest economies as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) for 2005. However, Tables II and IV demonstrate that China, Brazil, and South Korea, each of which has a larger GDP than Mexico, Russia, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, and Australia, were perceived as having the weakest cultural products, along with Morocco, ranked 58th in GDP. COO images are complex. However, it is clear that factors other than the country’s economic status have a strong influence on perceptions of the COO’s product quality. This leads us to explore the possibility that the cultural products of Morocco and South Korea received consistently poor evaluations due to respondents’ lack of familiarity with these two countries. Table III shows that, indeed, Morocco and South Korea scored lowest on country familiarity. One explanation for this link is that as familiarity with a country increases, consumer judgments become more objective (Balabanis et al., 2002). This greater objectivity would in turn lead to a better capacity to perceive the true merits of the country with respect to arts and culture. Conversely, it may also be that some cognitive familiarity with a country is necessary before consumers can develop affective responses to the country, positive or negative (Maheswaran and Chen, 2006). Overall liking of a country then extends to such positive abstract quality as having a good reputation for cultural products. The results presented in Table V indicate that the home country bias depends on the type of product for which an evaluative judgment of the country is made. The strongest home country biases were observed with theatre, novels, comic strips, classical ballet, and jazz. When there are salient product-country associations in consumers’ minds, as in the case of opera (Italy), classical music (Italy), art museums (Italy), and actions movies (the USA), the home country bias is clearly attenuated. In addition to finding support for a positive relationship between country familiarity and positive product-country evaluations, we found support for the positive influence of OFC on product image perceptions. In general, country evaluations were more favorable in the Australian (mean ¼ 4.70) and Canadian (mean ¼ 4:87) samples than in the other samples (combined mean ¼ 4.24). These overall differences in country favorability might be due to differences in OFC across the data collection sites. A one-way analysis of variance using the OFC indicator as a dependent variable and data collection site as the independent factor revealed that OFC was higher in the Australian (mean ¼ 8:04) and Canadian (mean ¼ 7:51) samples than in the other samples (combined mean ¼ 7:30) (F ¼ 17:02, p , 0:001), giving some credence to the proposed explanation. The correlation between OFC and country evaluation across all products and data sites was positive (r ¼ 0:32) and statistically significant (p , 0:001). If we re-frame high OFC as low ethnocentrism (Sharma et al., 1994), our findings are consistent with previous research that has examined high ethnocentrism’s negative impact on the evaluation of foreign products (Chao et al., 2005; Shimp and Sharma, 1987). Lastly, the strong influence of language similarity as well as geographic and economic proximity on product-country quality perceptions raises a number of issues. Despite globalization – or perhaps because of it – it appears that consumers form more favourable product-country images when the stimulus country possesses similar traits to the consumer’s home country. In the absence of familiarity, consumers search for clues to inform them of where to place the product-country in their image schema. Language barriers, cultural barriers, and lack of geographic and economic proximity


IMR 25,4

398

all contribute to the establishment of less favorable quality perceptions. Rather than assume that the products of unfamiliar cultures are as advanced, enriching, and respected as those that are easiest for us to comprehend, ethnocentrism causes us to cast them in a comparatively negative light. The results presented in Table V demonstrate that common language is more important to perceptions of countries’ strength regarding products that require language comprehension, but it is clear that the preference for products from proximal countries grows both out of necessity and from a sense of comfort. Consistent with prior COO research on consumer ethnocentrism (Chao et al., 2005; Shimp and Sharma, 1987) and reinforcing the direct country proximity effects described above, product-country evaluations exhibited a significant bias for common-language countries, even when consumption of the product required no language comprehension, as is the case with art museums, classical ballet and classical music. Contribution, managerial implications, limitations, and future directions This study contributes to the marketing literature on COO effects in several ways and provides several insights for marketers of international cultural products. First, it demonstrates that familiarity with a COO has a stronger association with positive perceptions of product-country reputation than does product familiarity, even when the product in question is aesthetic, intangible, and activates a high level of involvement. This extends the work of Laroche et al. (2005) who reported a similar finding but for products in general. The context of cultural products represents a specific product class whose market behavior does not always follow conventional markets for general products (e.g. Voss and Voss, 2000). The implication for marketers of international cultural products is that targeted efforts to reach those familiar with and interested in the country might be more effective than targeted efforts to reach those familiar with the product. For example, an international touring company of a German opera might attract more patrons by targeting those interested in and familiar with Germany than targeting all marketing efforts on the opera-goers of a foreign country. From the point of view of the organizations involved in the promotion of their country’s cultural products (e.g. ministries of tourism and recreation), the positive relationship between general country familiarity and product-country image in the arts suggests that promotional/educational programs targeted to non-residents are likely to have a positive impact on the country’s cultural image, even though they do not focus specifically on cultural products per se. Second, like a brand, COO can reduce consumers’ perceived risk by becoming a reliable symbol of product quality (Erdem et al., 2006; Kotler and Gertner, 2004). A country’s reputation in the arts may, therefore, be increased by systematically associating cultural products with their national origin. This can be done with cultural products alone or using brand alliance strategies between cultural products and conventional products that have already established a reputation for credible and consistent quality. For instance, Sweden’s reputation in folkloric music could be promoted on the package of IKEA products and in IKEA stores around the world. Such alliances between tourism organizations, global firms, and promoters of cultural products deserve to be studied. Strategies like these might be particularly valuable to touring performing arts organizations from emerging markets. Following the example above, Greek touring companies might benefit from a strategic alliance with renowned

Greek fashion designer Sofia Kokosalaki in order to associate positive perceptions of quality with Greek performances. Third, this study demonstrates that arts and cultural organizations that currently do not tour to proximal countries likely miss out on a market opportunity. Our results show that consumers hold the products of proximal countries in high esteem. Since touring to unfamiliar markets is an expensive risk, many arts and cultural organizations do not attempt it, especially those who anticipate a potentially strong language barrier; for example, only 3 percent of nonprofit professional theatres in the USA toured productions outside of the country in 2005. International touring to neighboring countries and to those that share a common language might prove worth exploring. Fourth, this study also extends our understanding of COO effects in the context of aesthetic, intangible, and complex products that elicit by nature both cognitive and affective responses, perhaps more than any other product or service category. Further research is needed to determine the generalizability of our findings. International marketers of aesthetic experiences, luxury products and services, and cultural tourism might benefit from a better understanding of the factors that influence product-country perceptions. Lastly, this study introduces the country proximity dimension of shared language as an important driver of consumer preferences for foreign products. Previous ethnocentrism studies have examined the product-country preferences of consumers who are multi-lingual versus those who are not (e.g. Nakos and Hajidimitriou, 2007; Witkowski, 1998), but, to our knowledge, this study is one of the first to directly examine preference for products of foreign countries that share a common language. The results of this study have to be evaluated in light of some important methodological limitations. First, the cultural products that were used as stimuli were very broad. This may have led to different interpretation from the survey participants. For instance, classical music refers to categories of music, which are quite different (e.g. baroque, contemporary, chamber music, symphonic music) as well as to diverse perceptual dimensions (e.g. composers, performers). Depending on how one interprets the term “classical music”, product-country perceptions may change significantly. Thus, although South Korea may be perceived as having a poor reputation as regards classical music composers, this country has produced some of the best performers of classical music. Future studies in this area should, therefore, consider the possibility of using better-defined cultural product stimuli within a reduced number of categories. Second, the cultural product stimuli used in this study were mostly relevant to Western countries. It seems clear that product-country perceptions would have been different had we used casbah dancing (Morocco), belly dancing (Middle East, Africa), Beijing opera (China), Noh Theatre (Japan) and other cultural products typically associated with non-Western countries. Furthermore, because data were collected in five countries with strong European influence, there likely was a tendency among respondents to employ a Euro-centric bias in the construction of their image of each country’s strength with respect to cultural products. For example, music that is culturally “classical” in China might refer to a completely different genre of music than the classical music of European cultures. Quite naturally, a respondent with a Western bias will be less likely to perceive China as having “strong” classical music because his or her point of reference is the European tradition of classical music. Therefore,


IMR 25,4

400

conducting this survey in China might yield very different results. Choosing product stimuli in a study like this, involving a multi-country data collection, is not an easy task and is bound to be the object of criticism. It should be noted, however, that the main objective of this study was not to position countries on their reputation as regards the selected cultural products – although we recognize that this is an obvious outcome of the data analysis – but to explore the variables that explain how consumers form their perceptions of countries as producers of cultural products. From this point of view, it remains to be demonstrated that the effects that were uncovered in this study (e.g. home country bias, country proximity-based judgments) would change in any way with a different set of stimuli. Future studies should examine more attentively the product stimulus set issue within the perspective of producing results that contribute to useful and generalizable knowledge about product-country images in the arts. Third, the data collected in this study came from only five data collection sites and concerned a limited number of cultural products and countries. In addition, the cities in which the data were collected were chosen by convenience. Therefore, one should be cautious in attempting to generalize the results of this study across consumers and cultural products. More research exploring how consumers perceive countries in the context of the arts is needed, with better samples and more relevant product-country stimuli. In particular, it would be relevant to collect data in countries having received less favorable evaluations in the present study (i.e. Morocco, South Korea) in order to verify if there exists a Western bias in product-image perceptions in the arts of various countries. Lastly, like many cross-national surveys, our investigation may suffer from differences in response styles across countries (e.g. (dis)acquiescence, extreme response style, midpoint responding, etc.) (Baumgartner and Steenkamp, 2001; Steenkamp and Baumgartner, 1998), although such differences generally do not render research findings invalid and, as demonstrated in Table II, the pattern of perceived country differences was not the same across data collection sites. We opted to focus on consistent presentation of questions for all 16 countries and nine products rather than create reverse-keyed items for isolated product-country combinations, which would have reduced the effects of (dis)acquiescence. Future research might employ fewer product-country combinations and make an attempt to avoid potential response style contamination. Conclusion Respect for foreign cultures grows out of knowledge of foreign cultures. Consumer images of the people, traditions, ideology, and values of other cultures can be informed by exposure to the cultural products of those countries. Ethnocentrism causes us to downplay the strengths of other cultures, particularly those that do not share our language and culture and which are not geographically or economically proximal. This study highlights the extent of bias and relativity inherent in reputation formation with respect to global cultural products. The study of product-country images in the arts has been largely ignored by researchers. It is, therefore, fertile ground for future research. Those interested in this domain should benefit from the vast research literature which concerns COO effects on consumer product evaluations (see e.g. Al-Sulaiti and Baker, 1998). One research direction suggested by this literature is the study of how consumers react to products

with multiple national origins. As markets are globalizing, products are often associated with more than one originating country. Thus, a product can be designed in one country, assembled in another with components sourced in yet another country (see e.g. d’Astous and Ahmed, 1999). Research has shown that the perceived competency of countries varies significantly as a function of these different processes. Multi-origin products also exist in the context of the arts. For instance, a concert may involve a South-Korean symphonic orchestra interpreting some classical music French repertoire at Carnegie Hall. Or, a play from an American author may be performed by an Italian cast in some Australian city. How do consumers perceive multi-origin cultural products? Are consumer perceptions and eventually their consumption experiences and preferences affected by country stereotypes? What is the predictive value of COO perceptions on the consumption of cultural products? Research should be undertaken to provide satisfactory answers to these and other questions, which are relevant to our understanding of consumer behavior in the context of the arts. References Ahmed, S.A., d’Astous, A. and Eljabri, J. (2002), “The impact of technological complexity on consumers’ perceptions of products made in highly and newly industrialised countries”, International Marketing Review, Vol. 19 No. 4, pp. 387-407. Al-Sulaiti, K.I. and Baker, M.J. (1998), “Country-of-origin effects: a literature review”, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 150-99. Balabanis, G. and Diamantopoulos, A. (2004), “Domestic country bias, country-of-origin effects, and consumer ethnocentrism: a multidimensional unfolding approach”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 32 No. 1, pp. 80-95. Balabanis, G., Mueller, R. and Melewar, T.C. (2002), “The human values’ lenses of country of origin images”, International Marketing Review, Vol. 19 No. 6, pp. 582-610. Baughn, C.C. and Yaprak, A. (1993), “Mapping country-of-origin research: recent developments and emerging avenues”, in Papadopoulos, N. and Heslop, L.A. (Eds), Product-Country Images: Impact and Role in International Marketing, International Business Press, New York, NY, pp. 89-116. Baumgartner, H. and Steenkamp, J.E.M. (2001), “Response styles in marketing research: a cross-national investigation”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 38 No. 2, pp. 143-56. Bilkey, W.J. and Nes, E. (1982), “Country-of-origin effects on product evaluations”, Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 89-99. Chao, P. (1998), “Impact of country-of-origin dimensions on product quality and design quality perceptions”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 42 No. 1, pp. 1-6. Chao, P., Wu¨hrer, G. and Werani, T. (2005), “Celebrity and foreign brand name as moderators of country-of-origin effects”, International Journal of Advertising, Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 173-92. Cordell, V.V. (1991), “Competitive context and price as moderators of country-of-origin preferences”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 123-8. d’Astous, A. and Ahmed, S.A. (1999), “The importance of country images in the formation of consumer product perceptions”, International Marketing Review, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 108-25. Elliott, G.R. and Cameron, R.S. (1994), “Consumer perception of product quality and the country-of-origin effect”, Journal of International Marketing, Vol. 2 No. 2, pp. 49-62. Erdem, T., Swait, J. and Valenzuela, A. (2006), “Brands as signals: a cross-country validation study”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 70 No. 1, pp. 34-49.


IMR 25,4

402

Fournier, S. (1998), “Consumers and their brands: developing relationship theory in consumer research”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 24 No. 4, pp. 343-73. ¨ Gurhan-Canli, Z. and Maheswaran, D. (2000), “Determinants of country-of-origin evaluations”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 96-108. Hsieh, M. (2004), “An investigation of country-of-origin effect using correspondence analysis: A cross-national context”, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 46 No. 3, pp. 267-95. Kotler, P. and Gertner, D. (2004), “Country as brand, product and beyond: a place marketing and brand management perspective”, in Morgan, N., Pritchard, A. and Pride, R. (Eds), Destination Branding: Creating the Unique Destination Proposition, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 40-56. Klein, J.G., Ettenson, R.E. and Morris, M.D. (1998), “The animosity model of foreign product purchase: an empirical test in the People’s Republic of China”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 62 No. 1, pp. 89-100. Laroche, M., Papadopoulos, N., Heslop, L. and Mourali, M. (2005), “The influence of country image structure on consumer evaluations of foreign products”, International Marketing Review, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 96-115. Lefkoff-Hagius, R. and Mason, C.H. (1993), “Characteristic, beneficial, and image attributes in consumer judgments of similarity and preference”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 100-10. Liu, S. and Johnson, K. (2005), “The automatic country-of-origin effects on brand judgments”, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 34 No. 1, pp. 87-97. Maheswaran, D. (1994), “Country-of-origin stereotype: effects of consumer expertise and attribute strength on product evaluations”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 21 No. 2, pp. 354-65. Maheswaran, D. and Chen, C.Y. (2006), “Nation equity: incidental emotions in country-of-origin effects”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 33 No. 3, pp. 370-6. Nakos, G.E. and Hajidimitriou, Y.A. (2007), “The impact of national animosity on consumer purchases: The modifying factor of personal characteristics”, Journal of International Consumer Marketing, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 53-72. Okechuku, C. (1994), “The importance of country of origin: a conjoint analysis of the United States, Canada, Germany, and The Netherlands”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 5-19. Oliver, R. and Bearden, W.O. (1985), “Crossover effects in the theory of reasoned action: a moderating influence attempt”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 324-40. Papadopoulos, N. and Heslop, L.A. (1993), Product-country Images: Impact and Role in International Marketing, International Business Press, New York, NY. Papadopoulos, N., Heslop, L.A. and Bamossy, G. (1990), “A comparative image analysis of domestic versus imported products”, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol. 7 No. 4, pp. 283-94. Schaefer, A. (1997), “Consumer knowledge and country of origin effects”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 56-72. Sharma, S., Shimp, T. and Shin, J. (1994), “Consumer ethnocentrism: a test of antecedents and moderators”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 23 No. 1, pp. 26-37. Shimp, T. and Sharma, S. (1987), “Consumer ethnocentrism: construction and validation of the CETSCALE”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 280-9. Soenen, G. and Moingeon, B. (2002), “The five facets of collective identities: integrating corporate and organizational identity”, in Moingeon, B. and Soenen, G. (Eds), Corporate and Organizational Identities: Integrating Strategy, Marketing, and Organizational Perspectives, Routeledge, London, pp. 15-34.

Steenkamp, J.E.M. and Baumgartner, H. (1998), “Assessing measurement invariance in cross-national consumer research”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 78-90. Verlegh, P.W.J. and Steenkamp, J.E.M. (1999), “A review and meta analysis of country-of-origin research”, Journal of Economic Psychology, Vol. 20 No. 5, pp. 521-46. Voss, G. and Voss, Z. (2000), “Strategic orientation and firm performance in an artistic environment”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 64 No. 1, pp. 67-83. Voss, Z.G. and Cova, V. (2006), “How sex differences in perception influence customer satisfaction: a study of theatre audiences”, Marketing Theory, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 201-21. Witkowski, T.H. (1998), “Consumer ethnocentrism in two emerging markets: determinants and predictive validity”, in Alba, J.W. and Hutchinson, J.W. (Eds), Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 25, Association for Consumer Research, Provo, UT, pp. 258-63. Zaichkowsky, J.L. (1985), “Measuring the involvement construct”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 341-52. Further reading Schooler, R.D. (1965), “Products bias in the central American common market”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 2 No. 4, pp. 394-7. Corresponding author Alain D’Astous can be contacted at: [email protected]

To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: [email protected] Or visit our web site for further details: www.emeraldinsight.com/reprints
