Regional differences of country image effect in Chinese market

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how differently Chinese consumers, located in different regions, perceive country image. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 1,257 consumers from Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao, Shenyang, and Wuhan are surveyed. Findings – The results demonstrate that Chinese consumers in different regions focus on the different country image factors when they perceive the general quality of foreign products. Emotional and cognitive factors have a more significant effect on the consumers' perception of the product's quality than normative factor in Beijing and Wuhan. In the case of Shanghai, emotional factor has the strongest effect, cognitive factor has the modest and normative factor has the weakest. Cognitive and normative factors have a significant effect on the consumers' perception of the product's quality in Qingdao and only cognitive factor has a significant effect in Shenyang. Research limitations/implications – The proportion of young consumers who are in their early 20s accounts for 63 percent of the sample, which may propose the representative problem of the sample, affecting the contents of the regional differences in the Chinese market. Practical implications – The results suggest that not only the businesses' marketing activities to improve the company image are important, but the government's national promotional strategies to improve the country image are also important. It is suggested that regional heterogeneity of Chinese market should be carefully considered when implementing effective marketing strategies. Originality/value – The paper provides an in‐depth investigation into how the country image influences Chinese consumers differently from those who are located in different Chinese regions when they perceive product quality from various foreign countries.