The Role of Government Reforms on Country Image

Abstract

In today's globalized markets, a favorable country image has a considerable impact on attracting tourists, investors, and talent and therefore influences their subsequent decisions. However, building a positive country image is a complex set of processes. The most complicated part of this process is that a tool or a campaign works for a particular country may not work for others. The study explores the relationship between resident satisfaction about a place where a resident lives and the country's reputation and image. It considers internal variables like quality of life affected by political, economic, and socio-cultural factors from an inverse perspective; rather than looking at external factors. It measures the determinants of a country's image along with resident satisfaction. It used a method that blends survey and experimental design to test the effects of resident satisfaction and other factors on a country image using 257 subjects in Uzbekistan. The results indicate no support for resident satisfaction: residents satisfied by living standards of a place may not have a positive impact on a country’s image as a diversity of population have different levels of satisfaction, particularly, if they are from developing countries. Rather, quality of life is positively correlated with a country’s image. There are unsatisfied residents even in developed nations, however, they have a little negative impact on a country’s image. An implication of the study is that government reforms should be forwarded towards the improvement of standards of living as high quality of life has a great impact on the image of a place no matter of a level of satisfaction.