Author(s): Hamed M. Shamma and Amany Bisht
Reputation management is no longer restricted to corporates; nations are now also concerned with managing their reputation relative to each other for its impact on attracting tourism and foreign investments, increasing exports, improving public diplomacy, attracting knowledge and talent. This paper studies the reputation of countries from the perspectives of people from some Developing-8 (D8) nations. Using a survey approach, this study generated a total sample of 817 respondents across Egypt, Pakistan, and Indonesia. The RepTrak model of measuring country reputation was adopted in the survey for its similarity with the purpose of this paper and for the comparison and questioning purposes. Results showed that peoples’ perception about a country’s reputation vary from one nationality to another; a country could be ranked the top from the perspective of some people and at the same time rank lower from the perspective of another group of people. Comparing the results of this research to that of the RepTrak model, it was found that people from G8 countries and those from D8 countries have different perceptions towards different countries and have different behavioral intentions towards each country. Some countries are highly reputable in terms of their appealing environment and/or effective government and/or advanced economy from the perception of some people, while others perceive the same countries as less reputable, and accordingly the behavioral intentions for the two groups of people towards the country vary.