Country branding emerging from citizens’ emotions and the perceptions of competitive advantage: The case of Malaysia
Abstract
This article aims to examine the elements of country branding from the perspectives of a country’s citizens. In this exploration, the study constructs their views toward the country using both emotion (affect) and perceptions of competitive advantage and subsequently conceptualizes and tests a framework of internal country-branding elements. Using a survey approach, the study generated a total sample of 445 respondents across Malaysia. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the data and to test the hypotheses. Findings indicate that Malaysia can be portrayed favorably through export, human capital, culture and heritage, and political efforts. While some elements (human capital, culture and heritage, and politics) are important to foster positive emotions among its citizens, others (export, human capital, and politics) are considered as key tools to build competitive advantage. Implications exist for tourism marketers and policy makers, as the study highlights the importance of branding toward a country’s citizens and revealing the specific preferences affecting the citizens’ emotions and perceptions toward competitive advantage.
Get full access to this article
View all access and purchase options for this article.
References
Amine LS, Chao MCH (2005) Managing country image to long-term advantage: the case of Taiwan and Acer. Place Branding 1(2): 187–204.
Anholt S (2006) Why brand? Some practical considerations for nation branding. Place Branding 2(2): 97–107.
Anholt S (2005a) Anholt nation brands index: how does the world see America. Journal of Advertising Research 45(3): 296–304.
Anholt S (2005b) Some important distinctions in place branding. Place Branding 1(2): 116–121.
Anholt S (2003) Brand New Justice: The Upside of Global Branding. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Anholt S, Olins W (2005) Why Brand a Nation? A Design Indaba Project. Available at: http://www.designindaba.com/projects
Anderson B (1991) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Revised ed. London and New York: Verso.
Bolton LE, Keh HT, Alba JW (2010) How do price fairness perceptions differ across culture? Journal of Marketing Research 47(3): 564–576.
Beerli A, Martin JD (2004) Tourists characteristics and the perceived image of tourist destinations: A quantitative analysis – a case study of Lanzorote, Spain. Tourism Management 25: 623–636.
Blichfeldt BS (2005) Unmanageable place brands? Place Branding 1(4): 388–401.
Chang K, Lu L (2007) Characteristics of organizational culture, stressors, and well-being – the case of Taiwanese organizations. Journal of Managerial Psychology 22(6): 549–568.
Country Brand Index (2005) Country Brand Index 2005. Available at: http://www.brandxpress.net/2005/11/country-brand-index-2005/
Daye D (2007) Branding snapshot. Available at: http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2007/03/branding_snapsh_1.html (accessed 12 August 2011).
De Vicente J (2004) State branding in the 21st century. Master Thesis, The Flecher School. Available at: http://fletcher.tufts.edu/research/2004/DeVicente-Jorge.pdf (accessed 12 August 2011).
Dinnie K (2004) Place branding: overview of an emerging literature. Place Branding 1(1): 106–110.
Domeisen N (2003) Is there a case for national branding. International Trade Forum 1: 14–16.
Dunn SC, Seaker RF, Waller MA (1994) Latent variables in business logistics research: scale development and validation. Journal of Business Logistics 15(2): 145–172.
Fan Y (2006) Branding the nation: what is being branded? Journal of Vacation Marketing 12(1): 5–14.
Gellner E (1983) Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Georgescu A, Botescu A (2004) Branding National Identity. Master Thesis, Lund University, Sweden.
Gertner D, Kotler P (2004) How can a place correct a negative image? Place Branding 1(1): 50–57.
Gilmore F (2002) A country-can it be repositioned? Spain - the success story of country branding. Journal of Brand Management 9(4/5): 281–293.
Gudjonsson H (2005) Nation branding. Place Branding 1(3): 283–298.
Henderson JC (2007) Uniquely Singapore? A case study in destination branding. Journal of Vacation Marketing 13(3): 261–274.
Herstein R (2012) Thin line between country, city, and region branding. Journal of Vacation Marketing 18(2): 147–155.
Johansson JK (2005) The new Brand America. Place Branding 1(2): 153–163.
Johansson JK (1989) Determinants and effects of the use of ‘made-in’ labels. International Marketing Review 6(1): 27–41.
Katsikeas CS (1994) Export competitive advantage: The relevance of firm characteristics. International Marketing Review 11(3): 33–53.
Kelloway EK (1995) Structural equation modeling in perspective. Journal of Organizational Behavior 16(3): 215–224.
Klein JG, Ettenson R (1999) Consumer animosity and consumer ethnocentrism: an analysis of unique antecedents. Journal of International Consumer Marketing 11(4): 5–24.
Kemp E, Williams KH, Bordelon BM (2012) The impact of marketing on internal stakeholders in destination branding: the case of a musical city. Journal of Vacation Marketing 18(2): 121–133.
Kline RB (1998) Principles and Practice of Structure Equation Modeling. 1st ed. New York: The Guildford Press.
Kotler P (2004) Opinion pieces-where is place branding heading? Place Branding 1(1): 12–35.
Kotler P, Gertner D (2002) Country as brand, product, and beyond: a place marketing and brand management perspective. Journal of Brand Management 9(4/5): 249–262.
Kubacki K, Skinner H (2006) Poland: exploring the relationships between national brand and national culture. Brand Management 13(4/5): 284–299.
Idris K, Arai H (2006) The Intellectual Property-Conscious Nation: Mapping the Path from Developing to Developed.
Ma H (2004) Toward global competitive advantage: creation, competition, cooperation, and co-option. Management Decision 13(4/5): 284–299.
Magnusson P, Krishnan V, Westjohn SA, et al. (2014) The spillover effects of prototype brand transgressions on country image and related brands. Journal of International Marketing 22(1): 21–38.
Mihalache S, Vukman P (2005) Composition with country and corporate brands- capitalising on the country brand values. Master Thesis, Linkoping University, Sweden
Morgan N, Hastings E, Pritchard A (2012) Developing a new DMO marketing evaluation framework: the case of visit Wales. Journal of Vacation Marketing 18(1): 73–89.
Morgan NJ, Pritchard A, Piggott R (2003) Destination branding and the role of the stakeholders: the case of New Zealand. Journal of Vacation Marketing 9(3): 285–299.
Morgan N, Pritchard A, Pride R (2011) Destination Branding: Creating the Unique Destination Proposition. 2nd ed. Oxford: Elsevier Limited.
Nguyen B, Chen CHS, Wu S, et al. (2015) Ethical marketing in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. In: Nguyen B, Rowley C (eds) Ethical and Social Marketing in Asia. Oxford: Chandos Publishing, pp. 55–74.
Nguyen B, Melewar TC, Chen J (2013) A framework of brand likeability: an exploratory study of likeability in firm-level brands. Journal of Strategic Marketing 21(4): 368–390.
Nguyen B, Simkin L (2013) The dark side of CRM: advantaged and disadvantaged customers. Journal of Consumer Marketing 30(1): 17–30.
Nickerson NP, Moisey RN (1999) Branding a state from features to positioning: making it simple? Journal of Vacation Marketing 5(3): 217–226.
Nunnally JC (1978) Psychometric Methods. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Ooi C-S (2010) Brand Singapore: the hub of ‘New Asia’. In: Morgan N, Pritchard A, Pride R (eds) Destination Branding: Creating the Unique Destination Proposition. 2nd ed. Oxford: Elsevier Limited, pp. 242–260.
Pallant J (2001) SPSS Survival Manual: A Step-by-Step Guide to Data Analysis Using SPSS for Windows (version 10). Maryborough, Vicyoria, Australia: McPherson’s printing Group.
Papadopoulos N (2004) Place branding: evolution, meaning and implications. Place Branding 1(1): 36–49.
Passow T, Fehlmann R, Grahlow H (2005) Country reputation - from measurement to management: the case of Liechtenstein. Corporate Reputation Review 7(4): 309–326.
Phan S (2005) Why branding a nation is the key in this economy. Available at: http://www.allaboutbranding.com/index.lasso?article=238 (accessed 1 September 2011).
Pike S, Page SJ (2014) Destination marketing organisations and destination marketing: a narrative analysis of the literature. Tourism Management 41(April): 201–227.
Porter M (1989) The Competitive Advantage of Nations. New York: Simon & Shuster Trade.
Quelch J, Jocz K (2005) Positioning the nation-state. Place Branding 1(3): 229–237.
Robinson K (2003) Tourism: It’s about managing competitiveness, too. International Trade Forum 1: 17–19.
Roslin RM, Melewar TC (2008) Hypermarket and the small retailers in Malaysia: exploring retailers competitive abilities. Journal of Asia Pacific Business 9(4): 329–343.
Schulz P, Soontiens W (2004) Internationalization and country image – Being German. In Western Australia, Working Paper Series 2004, Curtin University of Technology.
Shurchuluu P (2002) National productivity and competitive strategies for the new millennium. Integrated Manufacturing Systems 12(6): 408–414.
Steenkamp JEM, Van Trijp HCM (1991) The use of LISREL in validating marketing constructs. International Journal of Research in Marketing 8(4): 283–299.
Szondi G (2006) The role and challenges of country branding in transition countries: the central and Eastern European experience. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy 3(1): 8–20.
Tabachnick BG, Fidell LS (1996) Using Multivariate Statistics. New York: Harper Collins.
Wanjiru E (2005) Branding African countries: a prospect for the future. Place Branding 2(1): 84–95.
Warner M, Joynt P (2002) Managing across cultures: Issues and Perspectives. 2 nd ed. London: Thompson Learning.
Wee CH (1994) Nation Branding Strategies and Economic Development Implications for NIE and LDCs. The International Executive 36(2): 119–145.
Wong A (2004) The role of emotional satisfaction in Service encounters. Managing Service Quality 14(5): 365–376.
Cite
Cite
Cite
OR
Download to reference manager
If you have citation software installed, you can download citation data to the citation manager of your choice
Information, rights and permissions
Information
Published In
Article first published online: May 21, 2015
Issue published: January 2016
Keywords
Authors
Metrics and citations
Metrics
Journals metrics
This article was published in Journal of Vacation Marketing.
View All Journal MetricsPublication usage*
Total views and downloads: 2092
*Publication usage tracking started in December 2016
Publications citing this one
Receive email alerts when this publication is cited
Web of Science: 18 view articles Opens in new tab
Crossref: 22
- Citizens’ perceptions of the country brand as a tourist and investment destination: A market segmentation approach
- Relationship between destination image, accessibility, tourists experience, tourists satisfaction and revisit intention: Structural equation model analysis
- Country branding research: a decade’s systematic review
- Can a nation brand be built with an online tourism brand?
- Influences of symbolic capital on destination brand equity
- Towards a framework for exploring indirect value of tourist attractions in place branding: the case of Tom Tits Experiment Science Center
- The impact of country branding on competitive advantage: Evidence from the commercial aviation industry
- Conceptualizing nation branding: the systematic literature review
- How does national image affect tourists’ civilized tourism behavior? The mediating role of psychological ownership
- Marketing advantages and sustainable competitiveness through branding for the supply chain of Islamic country
- View More
Figures and tables
Figures & Media
Tables
View Options
Access options
If you have access to journal content via a personal subscription, university, library, employer or society, select from the options below:
I am signed in as:
View my profileSign out
I can access personal subscriptions, purchases, paired institutional access and free tools such as favourite journals, email alerts and saved searches.
loading institutional access options
Alternatively, view purchase options below:
Purchase 24 hour online access to view and download content.
Access journal content via a DeepDyve subscription or find out more about this option.
