Role of attitudes in Brazil’s country brand image.

For past three decades, the academic community has sought to advance the analysis relating to the image of several countries around the world. In relation, several studies have since been published on contemporary relevance of the image of a given country, and its subsequent effects on product evaluations and purchase intentions, among other behavioural outcomes (Bloemer et at., 2009; Elliot, Papadopoulos & Kim, 2011; Khan et al., 2012; Koschate-Fischer, Diamantopoulos & Oldenkotte, 2012; Diamantopoulos, Schlegelmilch, Sinkovics, & Bohlen (2003); Magnusson, Westjohn & Zdravkovic, 2011; Maher & Carter, 2001; Pappu & Quester, 2010; Zeugner-Roth, Diamantopoulos & Montesinos, 2008; Tseng & Balabanis, 2011). Nonetheless, despite the importance of the theory of attitude in evaluating the image of a country, the majority of papers in the field has focused on the cognitive component of attitude only, having the other components, affective and conative, not thoroughly being examined (Brijs, 2006; Roth & Diamantopoulos, 2009). As a result, with an aim to extend our current understanding into the role of attitudes on country brand image, this paper considers the conations more broadly such as, the predisposition for traveling, doing businesses, investing, working in the country, as well as, the willingness for either buying products made in the Brazil or shopping in the Brazil. Additionally, the purpose of this paper is to investigate Brazil's country brand image, based on the three attitudinal categories "cognitive", "affective", and "conative". The methodological approach taken in this study is a quantitative method via an online survey. The study 3 / 7 population consisted of the 427 undergraduate students at foreign institutions partaking agreements with a Brazilian public university. Attitudes were analysed using exploratory factor analysis to correlate potential impact on Brazils' country brand image. The country's image refers to a construct derived from the concept of attitudes, being comprised of cognitive, affective, and conative components. Results of this study indicate that the conative dimension received the highest scores of the respondents implying strong behavioural intentions in relation to Brazil's country brand image. It is also noteworthy that the technical dimension presented a more negative assessment in comparison to all other dimensions of Brazil's image, indicating that such a cognitive element to be adequately developed to highlight better brand assurance.