Impact of company and country antecedents on B2B buyer perceived supplier performance
Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing
ISSN: 0885-8624
Article publication date: 26 November 2021
Issue publication date: 22 July 2022
Abstract
Purpose
To date, country-of-origin research has commonly explored structural relationships among country image (CI) constructs, together with attitudinal constructs, using a variety of halo, summary construct and flexible models, drawing on consumer samples. There has been no previous attempt to examine or synthesize these three models with respect to business-to-business (B2B) buying behavior. To fill this gap, this study reconceptualized these three models with B2B constructs using multi-cue settings and tested on B2B samples. This study aims to examine and estimate the relative impact of company- and country-specific images on B2B buyers’ evaluations of suppliers, and the direction of structural relationships with mediation among the constructs.
Design/methodology/approach
Data collection was administered through a web-based structured questionnaire. The final sample consisted of 276 purchasing managers. Structural equation modeling was used to test the study’s hypotheses.
Findings
Company image is significantly influenced by product country image (PCI) but not by overall CI. The existence of a significant relationship between PCI and perceived supplier performance in a multi-cue setting is an important new finding. In addition, company image significantly influences supplier performance and mediates the relationship between PCI and supplier performance. Among the three models that test structural relationships among CI and other constructs, the reconceptualized halo model fits the data best.
Practical implications
The study results revealed the contribution of company and country-related facets on B2B buyers’ perceptions of supplier performance while purchasing intermediate goods internationally. The significance of PCI on supplier performance emphasizes the strength of the industry sector within a country that may enable an industry to build a product-specific CI in international marketing.
Originality/value
This study advances the country-of-origin issue and debate concerning the strength of the country influence in the academic literature by addressing B2B buyers’ international purchasing behavior of intermediate goods. Additionally, the examination of multiple country facets, multi-cue settings and the CI influence structure in a single study, from a B2B perspective, offers a novel dimension to CI studies.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from Faculty of Business and Economics (Currently Macquarie Business School), Macquarie University in conducting this research. The authors sincerely thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions that help improve this paper significantly.
Citation
Uddin, J., Elliott, G. and Parvin, S. (2022), "Impact of company and country antecedents on B2B buyer perceived supplier performance", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 37 No. 9, pp. 1835-1851. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-04-2021-0217
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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