Abstract

The aim of this study is to ascertain the extent to which consumers' images of home and foreign business units, and their perceptions of the corporate images held by other stakeholders, influence their buying behavior. The sample consisted of high school students in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) who intended or expected to enter higher education. Using a survey questionnaire, we asked respondents about the extent to which they believed their overall impressions of foreign universities operating in the UAE were influenced by images of the institutions' home and UAE campuses and by their perceptions of the images held by other stakeholders. We found that when deciding on whether or not to buy from a foreign firm, consumers will be most influenced by the corporate images held by other stakeholders rather than the images of home and foreign business units constructed by themselves. These findings suggest that it would be advisable for firms to adopt a stakeholder perspective when developing and implementing their marketing strategy.

DOI

10.1016/j.jbusres.2014.01.003

Publication Date

2014-10-01

Publication Title

Journal of Business Research

Volume

67

Issue

10

Publisher

Elsevier BV

ISSN

0148-2963

Embargo Period

2024-11-19

First Page

2224

Last Page

2230

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