The mediating effect of sociocultural adaptation and cultural intelligence on citizens and migrants: Impact on perceptions of country images

Abstract

Reports indicate that international migration patterns will continue to grow between 50 and 60 million per decade. Consequently, people’s perceptions of a country’s image will evolve. Country image is an important phenomenon affecting organizations and people’s decisions to travel, invest, study, migrate, and many more. Hence, this study aims to examine the influence of global and local identity on citizens’ and migrants’ perceptions of their countries’ images. In addition, the paper investigates the mediating effect of lower sociocultural adaptation and cultural intelligence on a country’s image. Our sample is drawn from Indonesians and Australians who completed survey questionnaires in the two countries. The sample comprises citizens and migrants (n = 1188) from Australia and Indonesia. The results show local and global identity differences in how individuals perceive other countries. For Indonesians, local identity makes people perceive Australia more positively. In contrast, for Australians, global identity makes people perceive Indonesia more negatively. Furthermore, the results indicate the importance of cultural intelligence over sociocultural adaptation. This paper will make several theoretical and managerial contributions. First, the paper contributes to cultural and identity literature. Individuals’ perceptions of a country are influenced by their identity and values. Second, this study shows the importance of sociocultural adaptation and cultural intelligence. Mere identity (global or local) is insufficient to justify the relationship between identity and perception of a country.