The Bidirectional Relationship Between Country Image and Product Evaluation: The Mediating Role of Brand Image and the Moderating role of Consumer Nationality

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to analyze the bidirectional or non-recursive relationship between country image and product evaluation. Our aim is to contribute to the debate about the causal direction between these concepts that exists in the literature. Additionally, the mediating role of brand image and its contribution to the relationship between country image and product evaluation is confirmed. To contrast the proposed hypotheses, the data of three groups of consumers are compiled by means of a survey in a simulated hypermarket. The results confirm the non-recursive relationship between country image and product evaluation; however, the mediating role of the brand image is not the same for both directions of the aforementioned relationship, nor is it the same for the different groups of consumers in question.

Keywords:

• Country image
• product evaluation
• brand image
• multigroup comparisons