Abstract The research presented in this article examines the effects of protectionist measures on the perceptions that consumers of a targeted country form of the country having adopted these measures as well of other countries not directly involved in the conflict. An experiment was conducted in which 148 Canadian adult consumers were informed that Germany had announced its decision to impose import tariffs on Canadian products. Two types of protectionist measures were considered, either initiated by Germany (i.e., proactive context) or as a response to similar measures adopted by Canada (i.e., reactive context). Consumers’ perceptions concerned the quality of products made in Germany, its image as a travel destination, and as a place to live. These perceptions were also obtained for three European countries differing with respect to their psychic distance with Germany; Austria (shortest distance), France (medium distance), and Spain (greatest distance). The results show that consumers’ perceptions depend on the type of protectionist measures adopted (proactive versus reactive), primarily among consumers interested in international economic news. Reactive protectionist measures were perceived as more legitimate than proactive measures and, in turn, legitimacy had a negative effect on the degree to which consumers developed situational political animosity toward Germany and, consequently, more negative country perceptions. These results were shown to spill over other countries as a function of their psychic distance with Germany. Implications for firms involved in global trading and for governments are derived from these results.

中文翻译：

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保护主义时代的国家形象效应

摘要本文提出的研究考察了贸易保护主义措施对以下观念的影响：认为采取这种措施的国家的目标国家形式的消费者以及未直接参与冲突的其他国家的消费者。进行了一项实验，向148名加拿大成年消费者通报了德国已宣布决定对加拿大产品征收进口关税的决定。考虑了两种类型的贸易保护主义措施，一种是德国发起的（即积极主动的背景），另一种是对加拿大采取的类似措施的回应（即被动的背景）。消费者的看法与德国制造的产品的质量，其作为旅行目的地和居住地的形象有关。这三个欧洲国家在对德国的心理距离方面也有不同的看法。奥地利（最短距离），法国（中距离）和西班牙（最大距离）。结果表明，消费者的看法主要取决于对国际经济新闻感兴趣的消费者采取的贸易保护主义措施的类型（主动还是被动）。被动的贸易保护主义措施被认为比主动的措施更合法，并且反过来，合法性对消费者对德国的处境政治敌意的程度产生负面影响，因此，对国家的看法也更加消极。结果表明，这些结果随与德国的心理距离而散播到其他国家。