Morally Legitimatized Regional Governance and Sustainable Region Brand Reputation Spillover Effects on Host-Country Consumer Trust

Under growing geopolitical uncertainty and rising expectations for responsible development, regional governance increasingly functions as a cross-border signal that shapes how region brands are evaluated in international markets. Drawing on moral legitimacy theory, this study examines whether morally legitimatized regional governance is associated with region brand reputation and, in turn, host-country consumer trust. We conceptualize morally legitimatized regional governance through three dimensions—governance vision altruism, governance procedural transparency, and governance structural compatibility—and test the proposed model using survey data from 975 consumers who had purchased or intended to purchase foreign brands. Structural equation modeling shows that all three dimensions are positively associated with region brand reputation, which is subsequently associated with higher host-country consumer trust. Among the three governance dimensions, procedural transparency shows the strongest association with region brand reputation, followed by structural compatibility and vision altruism. Multi-group analyses further show that perceived economic distance and cultural distance significantly condition the associations between morally legitimatized regional governance and region brand reputation. These findings indicate that responsible regional governance is not only a public governance issue but also a sustainability-relevant intangible asset associated with reputation spillovers in international markets. The study extends moral legitimacy theory to the regional governance context, clarifies the reputational transmission mechanism from governance to host-country consumer trust, and shows that the effectiveness of governance signals depends on host-country context. The results also suggest that regions seeking to build reputation in international markets should move beyond symbolic sustainability narratives and invest in verifiable transparency, governance capability, and context-sensitive communication.