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Introduction
In general, people of a given country perceive people from other countries differently, especially those that are culturally and geographically distant (Kleppe and Mossberg, 2005). Nations and people often seek to portray their best possible image in the international arena. At the same time, they wish to know how their image is perceived outside their cultural group (Laroche et al., 2002). However, there remain many wrong ideas and misbeliefs about other countries (Pecotich and Rosenthal, 2001). For instance, there is a gap in the world in between the Spanish economy, Spanish brands, and the presence of Spanish brands (Cervino, 2007). China and Spain’s bilateral diplomatic relations have been fluid since their establishment (1973), following both nations’ civil wars (Lozano, 2010; MAE, 2011). However, social values and structures vary among countries (Rice and Wongtada, 2007). Though historical and geographical closeness may foster economic relations between nations (Martinez, 2006), as the interplay between two countries increase, greater possibilities for more successful relations or unfavorable experiences might be generated (Laroche et al., 2002).
Although during the last four decades researchers have focused their attention on the factors and variables included in the product-country image (PCI) construct, other related image, and perception studies have also been developed (Balabanis and Diamantopoulos, 2004; Jaffe and Nebenzahl, 1984; Lala et al., 2009; Laroche et al., 2002; Nagashima, 1970, 1977; Papadopoulos and Heslop, 1993, 2000, 2002; Parameswaran and Pisharodi, 1994). Ethnocentrism studies, for example, analyze the tendencies of people to believe that their cultural group is the most important (Shimp and Sharma, 1987).
Product beliefs can affect country images. However, the impact diminishes with the increase of country familiarity (Lee et al., 2016). The perception of products from a country (micro country image) can significantly and positively influence consumer’s product quality perceptions. Contrarily, the perceptions of a country’s economic, political, cultural, and technological conditions (Macro country image), may not have a direct connection with the perceived brand quality (Bayraktar, 2015).
The role of country image acts diversely in different “country-of-target” (COT) markets. Nonetheless, there is a possibility that the sensed quality of a country of origin (COO) product may influence the image of a country if they delivered low-quality merchandise for a period (Lee et al.,...