Perceptions of countries based on personality traits: a study in China

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine country perceptions in China from the point of view of the personality concept. Design/methodology/approach – A country personality scale developed in a Western country was adapted to the Chinese social context and used to position 11 different countries, including China, on six personality dimensions. This was accomplished by means of a survey of 184 adult Chinese people from the city of Beijing. Findings – The results show that the adapted scale has good psychometric properties, that it behaves appropriately with respect to some theoretical expectations, and that it brings about results that are consistent with common sense and with previous country image research. Research limitations/implications – The study should be replicated with a more representative sample of Chinese people and a larger array of country stimuli. Originality/value – The paper shows that the country personality scale can be used to better understand how Chinese consumers think of a product's country of origin and suggest appropriate product positioning strategies to help multinational corporations define their strategic actions with respect to China.