Research On The Influence Of Impression Disorder On Liability Of Foreignness

Corporate image is of great significance to the company and may vary due to countries that the company in.When host countries' impression which consumers in the host-country markets forms spontaneously differ from images established in the home-country markets,meaning impression disorder occurs,enterprises would lose their legitimacy and thus lead to liability of foreigness.Nonmarketing strategies often play important roles in changing impression disorder and reduce the liability of foreginess.This paper try to conduct a research on corporate images and impressions in backgrounds of home country and host country,finding new sources of liability of foreginess in order to provide guidances for international operation and appropriate non-marketing strategies choices.Therefore,based on the theory of “Image Congruency”,this paper studies the impact of impression disorder,the gap between foreign companies' impressions in the host country and the image of the home country,on liability of foreginess,as well as the moderating effects of nonmarketing strategies in it.First of all,this paper proposes the concept “impression disorder”,defined as the absolute value of substracting host-country impression from home-country image.According to the two dimensions,host-country impression(positive/negative)and home-country image(positive/negative),enterprises are divided into "Nobles","Foreign Guests","Pagan Masters" and " Paupers",and two representative enterprises are selected from each quadrant.This paper believes that in the case of positive or negative home-country image,the impression disorder would have a positive or negative impact on the liability of foreginess,while non-marketing strategies have disturbing or enhancing moderating effects on the relationship between the impression disorder and the liability of foreginess respectively.Therefore,theoretical framework of this paper were constructed.Secondly,regression analysis is carried out to demonstrate the influence that impression disorder have on the liability of foreigness.Expert evaluations and interviews are conducted to collect data of the home-country image.A questionnaire was developed that included questions about the host-country impression and purchasing intension of liability of foreginess.The content analysis was carried out to measure non-marketing strategies of various companies.Liability of foreginess comes from databases such as World Bank and 5-point scales.Finally,non-marketing strategies were added as moderators,assessing regulatory roles that three types of non-market strategies of foreign companies play between impression disorder and the liability of foreigness.The empirical results show that when a foreign company has a positive home-country image,the better home-country image is than host-country impression,the greater the liability of foreigness is,during which non-marketing strategies,partically the Social Responsibility Strategy and Public and Media Strategy,have interference effects.However,if home-country image of a external enterprise has a negative image,the more host-country impression precede home-country image,the smaller the LOF would be,and this relationship could be enhanced by non-marketing strategies,especially for the Social Responsibility Strategy and Public and Media Strategy.Finally,this paper proposes appropriate management recommendations for different types of corporates outside.Enterprises should pour attention into the image of the home country and the impression of the host country simultaneously,and select strategies according to business forms: “Nobles” and “Foreign Guests” enterprises ought to undertake social responsibility and actively carry out propaganda;“Pagan Masters” and “Paupers” enterprises are supposed to focus on the market and avoid political strategies.