How International Political Conflict Hurts Country Image and further Influences Consumers’ Purchase Intention

Abstract

Recently, South Korea’s decision to deploy an advanced U.S. missile defense system has drawn neighboring China’s strong protests. Amid this political tension between both countries, the purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between this specific political conflict and consumers’ purchase intention. Based on previous literature, this study suggests a research model that defines the relationship between international political conflict, country image (i.e., affective country image and cognitive country image) and purchase intention. Proposed hypotheses suggest that international political conflict between foreign firms’ host and home countries is negatively associated with consumers’ purchase intention toward foreign firms’ products in the host country by hurting cognitive and affective image of the home country. This study contributes to understanding the underlying mechanism on how international political conflict influences consumers’ purchase intentions.