Ülke imajının ülke marka değeri üzerendeki etkisi lider imajının moderatörlük rolü

Country image is one of the most critical issues in international marketing literature, and as a result of globalization specifically in recent years, attention to the country image has become a priority for a lot of countries around the world as it has a direct impact on the country's' economic, political and developmental aspects and it has a great effect on people's perspectives and feelings about a certain country. However, there is a lack of research regarding the effect that political leaders' image has on country image. Although the recent reports from the world's largest news agencies such as Reuters and the most popular media and news networks such as CNN, BBC, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and other major media institutions that indicate an influential role of the political leader image on attracting benefits to countries. The thesis also examines the effect of country image on country brand equity as the previous studies indicate that country image effects directly other related images (e.g., brand image) through what is so-called "image transfer effect". As a result, the main objective of this research is to examine the moderation role of political leader image on both of country image and country brand equity. To achieve the key objectives of this research, quantitative method was employed with non-probability sampling technique (N=507) from students that are studying at Anadolu University – Eskişehir. A questionnaire with close-ended options, Likert's scale, and Semantic differential scale were developed to gather the response from the unit of analysis and data collection was completed between March and June 2019. Different types of data analysis have been tested to ensure a deeper understanding of the relationship between the constructs of the research for three different countries: U.S.A, Russia, and France separately through Statistical Package for the Social Sciences SPSS program with T-Test, ANOVA, Correlation, Regression was employed to investigate relations, differences, effects and the moderation role for every country to extrapolate the results. Results for the first hypothesis of the study indicate that Country image affects directly and positively country brand equity." with 47.1% variance and p < 0.05. Therefore, the first hypothesis is accepted/supported. The second hypothesis of the study was "Political Leader Image moderate the relationship between Country Image and Country Brand Equity". On the same direction, the findings of this analysis revealed that the interaction between country brand image and political leader image significantly affect country brand equity with p < .05 and 49.4% variance. Therefore, the 2nd hypothesis is also accepted/supported. Other interesting findings of the study show that the competence of the political leaders has more impact on the political leader image than political leader personality. Further research would test the mediation effect of political leader effect to explore a new direction of the relationship between the constructs under investigation.