The Structural Relationship about Country Image and Corporate Image of Exporting Goods under Global Trade Environment

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a relational model which can explain consumer selection for exporting goods and analyze the effect of corporate image on the relations between country image and consumer selection under global trade environment. The specific objectives are as follows: 1) to suggest a concept of consumer selection and measurement criteria, 2) to analyze correlations among country image, corporate image and consumer selection and 3) to find out the effect of corporate image on the relations between country image and consumer selection. The SPSS program for window and LISREL program were used to analyze the data for this study. The statistical method used in this study was the covariance structure analysis estimating parameters by maximum likelihood method. Path coefficients were tested for t-tests with a statistical significance level of .05. The conclusions of this study are as follows. First, significant correlations were observed among all sub-variables proposed in this study. In addition, significant correlations were detected among country image, consumer selection and corporate image. Second, a hypothetical model proposed in this study was mostly appropriate. Country image had a positive direct effect on consumer selection and corporate image with statistical significance. In addition, it has an indirect impact on consumer selection with statistical significance with corporate image as an intervening variable. Third, corporate image had a significant moderation effect in country image-consumer selection relations. As corporate image levels increased, the effect of country image on consumer selection increased as well. In other words, it has been confirmed that if corporate image levels are high, country image could end up with consumer selection.