Identifying the Levers of a Country’s Image: a Network Analysis Perspective

Understanding the richness and complexity of consumers’ memory structures for a country requires the identification of strong, favourable and unique country associations. This paper extends previous research on country image by adopting an associative network perspective to the analysis of country image. Previous studies based on standardised questionnaire measures fail to understand the underbelly of a country’s imagery. As a consequence, they fail to identify which factors should be leveraged to improve image or to overcome image defects. This study shows the application of a novel approach adapted from sociology that can provide practical help to country’s image researchers.