Antecedents of corporate image: The case of Chinese multinational enterprises in the Netherlands

This paper examines the antecedents of the corporate image of Chinese multinational enterprises (CMNEs) as a group in a developed economy, the Netherlands. Using insights from cognitive psychology, we developed a conceptual model to illustrate the impact of individual experiences and image transfer on the corporate image of CMNEs. The primary argument is that individual experiences influence image formation, and images can be directed from a country and country products towards corporations. We tested our hypotheses by using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) of survey data collected from the Netherlands. The main findings are that country product image and affective country image significantly influence corporate image; however, the impact of experiences on image formation is contingent upon situational factors. The findings of this study have important theoretical and practical implications.