Bridging Disciplinary Perspectives of Country Image Reputation, Brand, and Identity

Reputation, Brand, and Identity

Diana Ingenhoff, Candace White, Alexander Buhmann, Spiro Kiousis, Diana Ingenhoff, Candace White, Alexander Buhmann, Spiro Kiousis

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351984423
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Communication Studies
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Country image and related constructs, such as country reputation, brand, and identity, have been subjects of debate in fields such as marketing, psychology, sociology, communication, and political science. This volume provides an overview of current scholarship, places related research interests across disciplines in a common context, and illustrates connections among the constructs. Discussing how different scholarly perspectives can be applied to answer a broad range of related research questions, this volume aims to contribute to the emergence of a more theoretical, open, and interdisciplinary study of country image, reputation, brand, and identity.

1

Charting the Landscape in Research on Country Image, Reputation, Brand, and Identity

A Transdisciplinary Overview

Alexander Buhmann, Diana Ingenhoff, Candace White, and Spiro Kiousis

Introduction

In times of globalization, countries are increasingly observed by global media and publics. Countries are rated and compared according to their economic development, political stability, effectiveness, and morality of their national and international politics, and the attractiveness of their scenery and culture (Buhmann & Ingenhoff, 2015). The fact that perceptions of countries are both the cause and outcome of social and psychological processes that relate to a multitude of economic, cultural, and political effects has led to a plethora of studies in diverse academic disciplines such as psychology (e.g., Ashmore, Deaux, & McLaughlin-Volpe, 2004; David & Bar-Tal, 2009; Huddy, 2001), business studies and marketing (e.g., Lu, Heslop, Thomas, & Kwan, 2016; Roth & Diamantopoulos, 2009; Suter, Borini, Floriani, Da Silva, & Polo, 2018), sociology (cf. Werron, 2014), political science (e.g., Leonard, Stead, & Smewing, 2002; Schatz & Levine, 2010; Smith, 1991), and communication science (e.g., Buhmann, 2016; Ingenhoff, 2017; Jones, Aelst, & Vliegenthart, 2013; Kiousis & Wu, 2008; Kunczik, 2002; Wanta, Golan, & Lee, 2004), focusing on the interrelated constructs of country image, reputation, brand, and identity. Among these disciplines, research about the formation and effects of these constructs remains largely segregated, and there is still a great need for more integrative efforts “that would merge the available knowledge across the various fields” (Papadopoulos, 2004, p. 47).

This handbook contributes to this much-needed integrative perspective for the study of perceptions about countries and their effects. By showing different disciplinary approaches and discussing how concepts developed from different scholarly perspectives can be applied to answer a broad range of research questions on country perceptions, this volume aims to contribute to the emergence of a more coherent and interdisciplinary field of study. To this end, the book aspires to begin to weave diverse transdisciplinary perspectives into some more overarching interdisciplinary conclusions (see Chapter 16).

In this book, we bring together the state of the art and recent research advances in studying the formation and effects of country perceptions from the fields of business studies (e.g., international marketing and destination branding), social psychology (e.g., intergroup relations, collective and national identity research), sociology and political science (e.g., international relations, political anthropology, sociology of competition, public diplomacy), and communication science (e.g., mass media, social networks and media effects research, international communication, public relations and communication management). Thus, the volume maps a diverse field of research that focuses on four interrelated constructs: country image, country reputation, country brand, and country identity.

As we are bringing together a wide array of research perspectives on these constructs, the book places related research interests across disciplines in a common context. This interdisciplinarity imposes the challenge that we can hardly assume a shared or common understanding of these central constructs. As a first broad attempt to bridge disciplinary siloes and work toward common approaches for more cross-disciplinary work and integration of research findings and insights, this handbook is not intended to impose any standard, but to provide an inclusive picture. However, in opening the book, we may enter into this endeavor from a coarse conceptual grid, on which different constucts and research approaches may be placed (see Figure 1.1). This grid uses the primal perspectives (national versus international) and the constitutive processes (perception versus communication) as basic criteria of demarcation of constructs.

FIGURE 1.1 A coordinative framework of country image, reputation, brand, and identity (Buhmann & Ingenhoff, 2015)

In this grid, country image and identity are understood primarily as “perceptive constructs,” while country brand and reputation are approached as “constructs of representation,” which are formed primarily within public communication processes. Furthermore, country image and reputation are seen to emerge first and foremost within the sphere of a country’s international publics – image on the subjective level, reputation as an emergent public estimation, and both commonly conceptualized as attitudinal constructs. Thus, situated primarily “outside” the realm of the country or nation, these constructs can be distinguished from country identity and brand, which are, in turn, seen to be rooted more strongly in national self-conceptions. Besides drawing these lines of demarcation, the suggested grid also highlights that these four key constructs remain closely and mutually interrelated as: (a) public communication is individually perceived and individual perceptions become part of public discourse; and (b) the constructed lines between the national and the international are permeable in both directions.

The chapters in this volume are written by scholars from around the world, bringing together perspectives from researchers working e.g., in Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States and with scholarly trajectories spanning four continents. With its interdisciplinary approach, the book is intended for a diverse set of readers. It addresses an international audience of scholars, librarians, postgraduate students, and upper-level undergraduate students affiliated to study the broad range of disciplinary perspectives focused on in the volume. Furthermore, the book provides state-of-the-art knowledge for professionals working in applied fields such as public diplomacy and international relations, international marketing or communications, and corporate diplomacy and advocacy, who are involved in practices such as country promotion, nation branding, public diplomacy, international agenda-setting, or conflict resolution. Such practices are becoming more and more popular as political leaders as well as business managers are increasingly concerned about how their country is perceived by foreign publics and how it is portrayed in foreign mass media. Professional communication agencies are hired to employ techniques of nation branding by drawing on a country’s unique identity to facilitate a better image and reputation abroad. In integrating different approaches and advancing the study of country perceptions as an interdisciplinary field, the book provides basic research that opens up new perspectives to practical challenges in public diplomacy, international relations, country promotion, branding, and related fields.

The Main Research Perspectives

The chapters of the book are divided into four main sections that lay out the major lines of research from the main disciplinary perspectives engaged in studying country image, reputation, brand, and identity: business studies, social psychology, sociology and political science, and communication science. The chapters within each of the four sections present recent advancements in researching the formation and effects of country perceptions by leading scholars from that particular discipline. The focus of all chapters across sections, however, also encompasses clear interdisciplinary elements, with authors discussing and commenting on the potential of transferring and adopting concepts and approaches across disciplines to answer current field-specific or overarching research questions related to the formation and effects of country perceptions.

The book closes with an epilogue that comments on the state of the art in interdisciplinary research on the constitution and effects of country perceptions, discusses the potential and challenges of transferring knowledge across the different fields, and suggests points of departure for future research, specifically regarding interdisciplinary work.

Business Studies

From the perspective of business and international marketing, country perceptions are researched mostly with an interest in questions regarding consumer behavior. Different concepts have been developed in the subfield with a focus on nation brands as well as country-of-origin effects. Nicolas Papadopoulos (Chapter 2) takes a marketing perspective to review the most recent approaches in studying country images, and discusses their implications especially for government, business, and research. The author traces how research and practice in related areas have developed independently of the other – especially where they revolve around the notion of place-based marketing – and argues for a stronger intergration of these fields.

Erik B. Nes (Chapter 3) complements the international marketing perspective with an overview of the role of country image in this field, including a history of the research pertaining to country-of-origin effects. Nes specifically traces how earlier research focused on the image of the country of origin as an indicator of product quality, while the more recent efforts focus more on demand effects of the emotional aspects of country image (e.g., regarding feelings of animosity or affinity toward a country of origin, and the impact of such feelings on demand for products from the country). Based on this overview, the author demonstrates and discusses how issues in country-of-origin-related marketing are linked to theories in other disciplines, such as social psychology, sociology, economics, political science, or public diplomacy. Finally, he provides suggestions for future interdisciplinary research.

William Newburry and Mohan Song (Chapter 4), from a wider business disciplinary perspective, focus on the constructs of nation brands, product-country images, and country rankings in order to trace how these three constructs are interrelated across different business disciplines, discussing distinctions among the constructs as well as areas where the constructs overlap. The authors show that businesses often do not realize the importance of country-level constructs until they compete internationally, and emphasize how these higher-level constructs potentially influence parallel firm-level constructs. The chapter concludes with suggestions for future research, several of which stress the importance of interdisciplinary studies.

Henrik Merkelsen and Rasmus Rasmussen (Chapter 5) add a critical perspective to the business section through an evaluation of nation brand indexes. The authors’ analysis of the conceptual foundation for nation branding points to how it is inherently vague and ambiguous. The analysis of the nature of nation brand indexes explicates their capacity for aggregating data to a level where multiple perceptions about a given nation become that nation’s brand, which leads to the criticism that nation brand indexes construct brands rather than measuring them. The authors argue that while the nation brand as a highly aggregated theoretical construct has a strong appeal in terms of its capacity for reducing complexity, there is an important downside: when aggregation is high, details disappear. Based on this critique, the authors argue that nation brand indexes are of limited value to international marketing and communications professionals, pointing to recent attempts to establish more scientifically sound measurement methods in the field of nation branding.

Social Psychology

From the perspective of social psychology, country perceptions are widely analyzed regarding individual cognition, emotion, and behavior. The field has developed concepts of country image and country self-image (i.e., country identity) in the two subfields of intergroup relations and collective identity research. Pierre Bouchat and Bernard Rime (Chapter 6) introduce the perspective of collective memory and national identity research, emphasizing the importance of the evolution of the societal context in the study of collective memory and national identity, as well as the relevance of a social psychological approach for appraising these phenomena. The authors exemplify this with a case on the generational evolution of collective memories in Belgium, showing how memories of the past and national identity are characterized by dynamic relations. Their analyses also look at the process of the transmission of collective identities to new generations and the transformation of feelings of victimhood and the identification with Belgium in general.

Fabrice Desmarais and Toni Bruce (Chapter 7) focus on the link between print media, global sport mega-events, and national publics in creating meaning and interest around patriotic national publics via representations of a “threatening opponent.” Specifically, the chapter explores the significance of such representations during a global sports event during which the reputation of the host country is at stake, arguing they should be understood as part of a center-periphery discourse in which the nation uses negative representations of the other to galvanize itself. Based on an analysis of media representations of the French rugby team during the 2011 Rugby World Cup hosted by New Zealand, the authors illustrate the conceptual intersections of country reputation, country brand, and country identity.

In the final chapter of this section, Martina Hřebíčková and Sylvie Graf (Chapter 8) introduce an understanding of country image and country identity from the perspective of personality research, showing how national stereotypes rated by people from the same country (in-group stereotypes) are part of country identity, while national stereotypes rated by people from other countries (out-group stereotypes) relate to country image. Further, the chapter develops a comparison between both in-group and out-group national stereotypes with personality traits of real people to determine if national stereotypes are accurate. In doing so, the chapter shows that representation of both country identity and country image are shared widely across different countries, even though they may not correspond with reality.

Sociology and Political Communication

From the perspective of sociology and political science, country perceptions are widely studied regarding matters of international affairs and competition, as well as political identity and behavior. Concepts of country image, identity, reputation, and brand have been developed and applied mostly in the subfields of international relations, the sociology of competition, and political anthropology. Tobias Werron (Chapter 9) traces a sociological...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Contributors
• 1. Charting the Landscape in Research on Country Image, Reputation, Brand, and Identity: A Transdisciplinary Overview
• PART I: Business Studies
• PART II: Social Psychology
• PART III: Sociology and Political Science
• PART IV: Communication Science
• PART V: Bridging Disciplinary Perspectives
• Index