Of countries, places and product/brand place associations: an inventory of dispositions and issues relating to place image and its effects
| Date | 19 November 2018 |
| Pages | 735-753 |
| Published date | 19 November 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-09-2018-2035 |
| Author | Nicolas Papadopoulos,Mark Cleveland,Boris Bartikowski,Attila Yaprak |
| Subject Matter | Marketing,Product management,Brand management/equity |
Of countries, places and product/brand place
associations: an inventory of dispositions and
issues relating to place image and its effects
Nicolas Papadopoulos
Eric Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
Mark Cleveland
DAN Department of Management and Organizational Studies, Western University, London, Canada
Boris Bartikowski
Kedge Business School, Marseille, France, and
Attila Yaprak
Mike Ilitch Business School, Wayne State University, Detroit, USA
Abstract
Purpose –This study focuses on an inventory and typology of consumer dispositions towards “place”and relates it to the underlying theories,
inputs and outcomes of place images and attitudes, aiming to unclutter a crowded research landscape by providing a holi stic perspective of product/
brand place associations.
Design/methodology/approach –The paper draws on extant literature to identify, analyze and discuss the consumer dispositions, theories and
other elements related to place.
Findings –In total, 32 dispositions, 10 inputs to image formation, 28 permutations that complicate the understanding of place images, and 18
outcomes are discussed, providing a comprehensive perspective of the images of, and behaviours towards, various types of places from
neighbourhoods to countries and beyond.
Research limitations/implications –Of the large number of constructs and combinations among them that are discussed, some have been studied
fairly extensively, but most comprise “the road(s) less travelled”. The paper identifies relevant research gaps and numerous opportunities for new research.
Practical implications –Managers are aware and act upon some of the inventoried dispositions but can benefit by considering the complete array
of constructs and concepts that are discussed.
Social implications –Individuals’dispositions towards various places help to shape their self and social identities and are important in their daily
life and consumption behaviour.
Originality/value –The study brings together for the first time a complete inventory of place-related dispositions alongside a wide range of related
theories and concepts, thus advancing our knowledge of the nature and role of the country and other place-related images of products and brands.
Keywords Place, Country-of-origin, Schema theory, Place image, Brand origin, Product-country image, Identity theory, Attitude theory,
Consumer dispositions, Image theory
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
Imagine a study that examines a consumer’s attitudes towards
foreign products and finds they are negative because of
ethnocentrism or xenophobia. Thereare many studies on such
issues that have greatly contributed to our understanding of
consumer preferencesand the reasons behind them. But what if
there are other reasonslying behind those found to be behind this
consumer’s disposition? What if important related reasons were
traditionalism or resistance to change? At least we all know what
traditionalism and resistance to change mean –but what if the
“reason behind”was neophobia, which has been related to fear of
trying new foods (especially among young children; Pliner and
Hobden, 1992)andappliestofearofanythingnew?Ifour
consumer perhaps grew up in a rural environment and has not
had much exposure to “things international”, the reasons for his
or her disposition could be any of the five constructs mentioned
here –and the problem is, we do not know which one or more among
them might be “it”or “them”. We do not know because, first,
studies find (or not) what they set out to study –a study on
ethnocentrism and xenophobia will include these two constructs
but not traditionalism and resistance to change, nor neophobia.
Second, it seems a reasonable assumption that few have heard of
neophobia, and the studies we design draw on what we know.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on
Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
27/7 (2018) 735–753
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/JPBM-09-2018-2035]
735
Third, there are limits to how many constructs any one study can
include, and five already is a lot.
Enter the notion of place, and the complex domain of
consumer dispositions that may favour,or not, the productsor
brands that are associated with it. Today’s world is
characterized by a rapidly growing and consumption-hungry
middle class in the emerging economies, which adds to the
already high consumption levels in developed markets. Many
consumers keepapace with the evolution of globalization, while
others react negatively to it and adopt back-to-roots
behaviours. Related to this, information overload encourages
consumers to look for shortcuts that make their marketplace
experiences easier and product choices more satisfying. Such
shortcuts include brandnames, price levels, or warranties; they
also include the placethat may be related to a product or brand,
the place image (PI), and product/brand place associations
(PBPA) which are the main focus of this article.
Globalization is paralleled by increasing research interest in
behavioural constructs that influence consumers’choices by
considering the images of foreign and domestic products.
Scholars have raisedquestions about the role of constructs such
as ethnocentrism, animosity, or cosmopolitanism in relation to
place. Yet while these constructs have been studied to varying
degrees, a large number of questions remain. Different studies
have treated the same construct (e.g. ethnocentrism) as an
attitude, as a belief system, or as a personality trait; the
conceptual domain of many of these constructs remains
incomplete and in some cases overlaps with that of others; and
some constructs have started receiving attention only recently,
others seem to be forgotten, and others have not yet been
studied at all. In sum, while we have come a long way in
establishing that psycho-sociological consumer behaviour
constructs do impact foreign versus domestic purchase
behaviour, the journeyof discovery that lies ahead is long.
Four issues are particularly relevant in helping this journey
along, and addressing them comprises the intended
contribution of this article. First, consumer dispositions and
their effects have been conceptualized as lying in the
international domain and contrast foreign to domestic, even
though they are equally applicable at the subnationallevel (e.g.
one may feel animosity towards a neighbouring state or town
just as towards a foreign country, and the resident of a small
village in Arizona may feel cosmopolitan by adopting elements
of the New York City lifestyle as much as those of Paris).
Second, research in this area has inevitably been affected by
various disciplinary perspectives: Environmental psychologists
focus on neighbourhoods, tourism scholars on tourism
destinations,and those in international marketing on countries,
with each group rarely exchangingknowledge and insights even
though they all work on the same basic issues, namely, the
notion of “place”and the constructs that explain how place
affects behaviour.Third, there are many more constructs of this
type than meets the eye, and they have never been brought
together under one roof to establish a reasonably complete
range of relevant dispositions that can serve as the impetus for
new research on those that represent the road less travelled,
and/or for more in-depth research on those that have been
studied but are not yet fullyunderstood. Finally, the concept of
place effects, or, as it is commonly referred to in international
marketing, “country of origin”(COO) effects, entails a variety
of conceptual and other permutationsof which several have all
too often been brushed aside, perhaps because they further
complicate whatalready is a complicated research task.
The purpose of this paper is to contributeto addressing these
issues by:
developing an inventory and typology of the behavioural
dispositions reflected in these constructs, addressing their
conceptual overlaps and highlighting their key characteristics;
identifying the inputs that help to create place images, the
disciplines and theories that underlie the place-related
dispositions, the variety of permutations that complicate
our understanding of the issues, and the outcomes that
result from the dispositions that affect attitudes towards
places and their products;
examining all of theabove (dispositions, inputs, disciplines,
theories, permutations, and outcomes)together for the first
time to help createa holistic understanding of this research
field; and
pointing to gaps in the literature on this topic and
recommending avenues that will help fill these gaps.
This should help unclutter the current crowded landscape of
consumer behaviour dispositionsthat compose attitudes which
lead to purchase behaviours.
Of the sections that follow, the first presents 32 dispositions,
the second discusses the underlying theories in which theseare
anchored together with elements related to the study of places
and their outcomes, andthe third provides overall conclusions.
We follow three conventions in presenting the study. We use
“place”as the generalterm for all place levelsincluding country;
“product”includes tangibles,intangibles, people and ideas and
“brand”refers to producer-specific offerings; “consumer”
means any buyer (end-consumers, industrial buyers, tourists
and investors in search of a location to “buy”); and, to reduce
clutter we do not preface every term with the qualifier
“consumer”, which is obviously implied (i.e. “ethnocentrism”
instead of “consumerethnocentrism”), and we providecitations
to prior research only for key points or those that may not be
very familiar to readers, avoiding citations to well-known
conceptsand ideas (a fuller list of references,or a citation(s) to a
specific point(s), is available from the a uthors upon request).
Place and place-related consumer dispositions
Place
Four aspects should be considered in relation to the notion of
“place”(Jaenicke, 2010;Relph, 1976). First, place does not
begin or end at the country/nation level, but rather refers to
everything from a seat at a dinner table to a roomand onwards
to the universe. Broadly speaking, in this research field place
begins at the neighbourhood level. Second, place is not just a
spot on the map; it encompasses and reflects the identities,
memories, heritage, experiences and characteristics that are
associate with it and the meanings ascribed to it. Third, place
does not just “exist”–it is constructed in the minds of
observers. And fourth,a place may be perceived very differently
by those who are directly involved in it (e.g. local residents)
versus external others. Place research comprises five decades of
study on PBPAs under widespread product category contexts,
using consumers and target brands from a myriad of focal places.
These studies have overwhelmingly shown that the images and
Place image and its effects
Nicolas Papadopoulos, Mark Cleveland, Boris Bartikowski and Attila Yaprak
Journal of Product & Brand Management
Volume 27 · Number 7 · 2018 · 735–753
736
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