CAN COUNTRY IMAGE PROTECT FIRMS FACING A PR CRISIS? Roberta Veale, The University of Adelaide, Australia Pascale Quester, The University of Adelaide, Australia Vinh Nhat Lu, Australian National University, Australia INTRODUCTION The world is now an international marketplace, with organisations trading in diverse geographical locations. However, the links between organisations and their home countries often remain strong in the minds of consumers (Phau and Prendergast 2000). Indeed, international managers often work to strengthen and gain leverage from these associations, for example Alfa Romeo with Italy or Dior with France. Alternatively others will seek to diminish them when country of origin (COO) associations are likely be negative (Chao 1989; Chao 2001). The degree to which a firm’s Country Image (CI) influence consumer attribution of blame for an organizational crisis, their subsequent level of trust in the organization and its products, and ultimately their future purchase intentions, remains unclear. The lack of research in this area of international public relations management is surprising, given the body of work validating the ability of COO to influence consumer opinions regarding brands and product/service choices (Al-Sulaiti and Baker 1998; Hamzaoui and Merunka 2006). The literature conclusively shows that consumers, from both developed and underdeveloped countries, prefer products and services from developed countries. There are many reasons for this, including perceptions of enhanced personal status and greater trust due to their advanced levels of industrialisation and superior technical expertise (Parameswaran and Pisharodi 1994; Chao 2001). Conversely, products and services from less developed countries are generally considered to be lower quality and less trustworthy (Chao 1989 a; Hamzaoui and Merunka 2006). Given that an ever-growing proportion of everyday consumer goods, including those manufactured by global brands, now originate from developing and emerging economies, there is considerable value in understanding any COO effects in a crisis management context. It is surprising then, that the potential influences (both positive and negative) of an organisation’s COO in an organisational crisis context is significantly under researched given that organisational crises are becoming increasing more common, often threatening organisational viability. Therefore, managers need to understand the nature and orientation of any country-of- origin consumer biases to develop and implement the most effective Crisis Management (CM) strategies to exploit or diminish their effects. This research attempts to take initial steps in addressing this gap in our current understanding via an empirical study aimed to reveal the extent to which country image may protect, buffer or shield a firm from the impact of negative PR following a crisis. This was done by testing the ability of an organisation’s home CI to influence attribution of blame for the crisis and trust in the organisation and its products, both antecedents of consumer future purchase intentions, post an organisational crisis. METHODOLOGY This research was conducted in two stages. A first qualitative stage comprising of two focus groups was undertaken to confirm the specific crisis type scenario and suitable countries for testing in the empirical quantitative phase. These insights were combined with scenarios and measures sourced from the literature, in order to develop internet-based questionnaires. The focus group findings indicated that a firm’s CI was indeed likely to significantly influence levels of attribution (blame) for an organisational crisis, their subsequent levels of trust in that organisation and its products and, ultimately, their future purchase intentions. Furthermore, respondents indicated that a crisis involving children poisoned via lead paint on toys was both credible and serious. Hence, a scenario adapted from that used by Arpan and Sun (2006) was employed in the experimental stage of the study. Moreover the crisis types of victim, accident and intentional (with a ‘no comment’, neutral, response held constant) were also endorsed for testing, as they elicited appropriate variations in attribution levels from participants. Lastly, the use of China (as the less developed) and England (as the highly developed) countries were endorsed. The quantitative study involved a three (crisis type) x two (home country) experimental design. A series of six crisis scenarios was compiled, where wording was altered in each case to reflect each of the three crisis types, whilst the neutral organizational response of ‘no comment’ remained constant. The names of the hypothetical organizations were chosen to reinforce any stereotypical CI and product associations. Therefore, for England the organization was named ‘Blue Bobby Toys’ and the Chinese organization ‘Smiling Dragon Toys’. To avoid respondent fatigue, each respondent completed a questionnaire specific to only one country and one crisis treatment. The questionnaire commenced with the 14 items 161