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Cultural and Personality Differences in Consumer Product Decision Making
Lori Parker
Florida Tech
Melbourne, Florida USA
Abstract
The usefulness of collectivist values as a market segmentation variable was
investigated by examining consumer product decision processes in two cultures.
Fifty-seven Anglo-American and 47 Hispanic students made three simulated product
choices. Attitudes and social norms concerning each of the decisions were
assessed using methods derived from Ajzen and Fishbein's (1977) Model of
Reasoned Action.. Results indicated that Anglo-American product decisions were
based primarily on Attitudes toward the purchase decision, while Hispanics'
decisions were guided mainly by the social norms of their parents. The
implications of these findings for market research, and their limitations, are
discussed.
Marketing to a diverse group of people has been a puzzle to marketing
strategists for decades. According to Engle, Kollat, & Blackwell (1968), no
clear cut strategy for such a diverse group has been developed. Therefore,
advertising has been adapted toward homogenous consumer groups by the use of
market segmentation. Traditionally, this segmentation has been achieved by the
use of demographic information such as age, gender and income.
Previous studies (Graham & Gronhaug, 1989; Lazer, Murata and Kosaka, 1985;
Meissner, 1986; Nakane, 1970) have shown cross-cultural differences in
advertising techniques. When studying automobile print advertising the in the
United States and in Brazil, Tansey, Hyman and Zinkman (1990) found that ads in
the United States place much more emphasis on leisure time, whereas Brazil's
advertising adopts a more work oriented theme. Other studies such as those
conducted by Meissner (1986), Mueller (1987), and Lazer, Murota and Kosaka
(1985) have shown that in Japan, advertising is deeply rooted in the cultural
values of hierarchy and harmony. Mass marketing and price competition are
emphasized as well as subtle imagery and symbolism. Japanese advertisers set
the "proper mood" for consumption and then emphasize the process of the consumer
interacting with the product (Meissner, 1986).
One approach to cultural market segmentation is to identify the most important
variables that have been found to differentiate cultures in cross-cultural
research, and to investigate the relationships between these variables and
consumer decision processes. Collectivism may be one such variable (Triandis
1994). People in collectivist cultures value relationships in in-groups,
conformity to others expectations, harmony, empathy, and sociability. In
individualist cultures, the other end of the continuum, people value autonomy,
personal freedom, competition, solitary or small group interaction, and tend to
be self-focused. Hofstede (1980, 1983) examined national differences in
individualism/collectivism among IBM employees in 40 countries. Some examples
of individualist cultures found by Hofstede (1980) are the United States,
Australia, and Great Britain. Collectivist cultures that emerged in Hofstede's
(1980) study include Venezuela, Colombia, and Taiwan.
People in collectivist cultures are concerned with what others think about them
than people in individualist cultures. Products are often purchased and consumed
in public, and are assumed to have "images" that are determined not only by
physical characteristics, but also by packaging, advertising, and price.
Specifically, purchasing behavior has self-presentational implications (Sirgy,
1982) that should be more important in collectivist cultures.
As the United States continues to become more culturally diversified and
products must be marketed to diverse groups, an understanding of the processes
linking culture to consumer behavior is increasingly important. The present
study was designed to address this question in the context of Anglo-American and
Hispanic/Latino cultures in a 2 x 2 between subjects design where culture and
name/bargain brand products were the two independent variables. (Throughout
this paper, the term Hispanic is used to refer to people from Latin-American
countries.) It was hypothesized that Hispanics would score higher than AngloAmericans on a measure of collectivism.
Anglo-American (Individualist) and Hispanic (Collectivist) subjects evaluated
the characteristics of national brand and bargain brand consumer products and
indicated their willingness to purchase the products. Their decision behavior
was examined from the perspective of Ajzen and Fishbein's (1977) model of
reasoned action. This model was chosen due to its ability for formulate an
understanding of the internal and external cues that affect the decision making
process that leads to intent (in this study, the intent to purchase).
Intentions, according to Ajzen and Fishbein (1977), can be predicted by a
person's social norms (perceptions of what others think and an individual's
motivation to perform by what they think others wish) and attitudes
(evaluations). Subjects' levels of self-consciousness and self-monitoring were
also assessed to help determine a level of social norms and values.
Previous research indicates that collectivists emphasize social considerations
in their behavioral decisions and individualists tend to behave on the basis of
inner convictions. Therefore, we hypothesized that Hispanic (collectivist)
decision criteria would emphasize Social Norms, and that Anglo-American
(individualist) decision criteria would place greater weight on Attitudes in
Ajzen and Fishbein's (1977) model of reasoned action.
Method
Participants
Participants were undergraduate and graduate students from a small private
university, a large public university, and a large community college. Subjects
were chosen on a volunteer basis by soliciting participation from classrooms
during regularly scheduled class times, and verbally asking subjects to gather
at a particular time and place. Fifty-seven Anglo-American and 47 Hispanic
volunteer subjects agreed to participate in the study which was divided into 11
sessions. The Anglo-American group consisted of 34 males and 23 females and
ranged in age from 18 to 27 with a mean age of 20. The Hispanic group consisted
of 25 males and 22 females and ranged in age from 18 to 28 with a mean age of
20. The Hispanic group reported lengths of time in the United States from one
year to six years with a mean time of 2.5 years.
Materials
Demographic information was collected in a 12-item questionnaire which included
questions regarding age, degree program, year in that program, country of birth,
length of time in the United States, if respondent had ever lived in another
country (other than that of birth and the United States) and for how long,
religion, mother and father's educational level, and mother and father's
occupation.
Individualism/Collectivism was assessed with Hui and Yee's (1994)
Individualism/Collectivism Instrument (INDCOL). This instrument consists of
thirty-six questions with response ratings of 1-7 (1=extremely disagree,
6=extreme agree).
Purchasing intent was assessed with questionnaires designed for the evaluation
of national brand and bargain brand consumer products. Items used for
evaluation in this study were a shelf-top stereo system, basketball shoes, and
an automobile. A national brand name and a bargain brand name assigned to
identical representations of each product for a total of three per subject. No
subject received all national brands or all bargain brands. Each of the items
was accompanied by an individual evaluation sheet. A separate questionnaire
requiring each subject to assess the level of prestige of each brand included in
the study was also used.
Procedure
A questionnaire packet was given to each subject containing an instruction
sheet, the demographic questionnaire, the INDCOL and the purchasing intent
instruments, as a set. Prior to administration, the general purpose of the study
was explained to the subjects and they were asked to write their gender on the
first page of the questionnaire packet. After administration, the subjects were
told the exact intent of the study.(footnote 1)
Scoring
Individualism/Collectivism. Thirty three of the 36 responses to this
questionnaire were combined to create two higher-order measures of
individualism/collectivism, Ingroup Solidarity and Social Obligation. Ingroup
solidarity represents a collectivist orientation towards people who are either
nuclear family members or those with whom one can freely choose to relate.
Social Obligation represents a collectivist orientation towards those with whom
one has to interact without much choice in which neighbors and relatives outside
the nuclear family fall into. A higher score in these measures indicates a
tendency toward collectivism (Hiu & Yee, 1994).
Decision Making Criteria. Independent variables used in Ajzen and Fishbein's
(1977) model of reasoned action, were defined through examination of the Anglo
and Hispanic correlations among the product questionnaire items for each
product.
Three measures of decision criteria were generated using the methods proposed by
Fishbein and others. These included attitude toward behavior (AB), social norm
for friends (SNF), social norm for parent (SNP). The correlations between items
that were designed to measure distant consequence (DC) (see Gabrenya & Biddle,
1982) and personal norms (PN) and the AB, SNP and SNF were too strong to justify
treating DC and PN as separate variable, and therefore, they were not used in
the analyses reported below. Purchasing behavior, the dependent variable in
this model, was estimated from question 10 in the product questionnaire, which
asked how willing the subject would be to buy the particular product. Ab, SNf,
SNp, and behavioral intent were calculated for each product, standardized, and
averaged over the three products to generate overall measures used to test the
hypothesis.
Results
It was expected that Hispanics would score higher in collectivism than would
Anglo-Americans. A Culture X Gender analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed a
significant difference in the predicted direction between Anglo-American
subjects and Hispanic subjects on both INDCOL measures, Ingroup Solidarity F
(1,101) = 26.1, p<.005, Social Obligation F(1, 101)=13.5, p<.05. Our hypothesis
was confirmed, but the difference was stronger for Anglo Females on both scales.
(See table 1.)
We predicted that Hispanics would place more emphasis on social norms when
making purchasing decisions and that Anglo-Americans would place more emphasis
on attitudes. To test these hypotheses, Social Norms of Parents (SNp), Social
Norms for Friends (SNf), and Attitude Toward Behavior (Ab) were regressed on
purchasing decision separately for each culture sample. These analyses were
performed on variables combined over the three products, as described in a
previous section.
The regression models for both Anglo-Americans and Hispanics were significant,
F(3, 53) = 13.75, p<.001, and F(3, 43) = 9.09, p<.001. It can be seen in Figure
1 that Anglos placed most emphasis on Ab, b = .52, whereas Hispanics emphasized
SNp, b = .64. Therefore, the hypothesis was supported. Analysis of cultural
differences in preferences for the three products revealed no differences.
Discussion
The present study was designed to determine if Hispanics and Anglo-Americans use
different decision criteria when they choose consumer products. The results
indicate that Anglo-Americans and Hispanics do employ different decision models
to make such choices, even though, for the products used in this study, they did
not differ in their actual preferences.
These results must be interpreted within the constraints of the research
methodology. Whereas consumer decision making is ultimately concerned with
actual product purchase, the present study only went so far as to assess
purchase intentions, and did so in the context of an artificial, low-commitment
scenario situation. Gabrenya and Arkin (1979) have demonstrated the problems
inherent in making inferences from low- to high-commitment decisions.
The implications of this study for market segmentation are clear: stress
individually gratifying qualities of the product for Anglos, and stress social
rewards of ownership for Hispanics. It is noteworthy that, for our college-age
Hispanic sample, parents but not friends influenced their decisions, perhaps
indicating the enduring strength of the Hispanic family.
Future research needs to pay greater attention to in-context decision making of
consumers. Novel technologies must be used to assess decision parameters
without reactively interfering in either process or its behavioral outcome.
In conclusion, the research demonstrates the usefulness of collectivist theory
and methods in furthering the consumerist agenda of wealthy capitalist
societies. As globalization reaches its crisis stage, the stability of these
cognitive representations of false consciousness remains to be seen.
References Note: this is not a complete reference list for this paper.
use these references; don't try to find the remaining citations.
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Authors: Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M.
Year: 1977
Title: Attitude-behavior relations: A theoretical analysis and review of the
empirical research.
Journal: Psychological Bulletin,
Volume: 84
Pages: 888-918
Authors: Gabrenya, W. K., Jr., & Biddle, B. J.
Year: 1982
Title: Attitudinal and consequential expectancies in behavioral decision making.
Motivation and Emotion
Volume: 6
Pages: 1-30
Authors: Gabrenya, W. K., Jr., & Arkin, R. M.
Year: 1979
Title: The effect of commitment on expectancy value and expectancy weight in
social decision making.
Journal: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Volume: 5
Pages: 86-90
Author: Hofstede, G.
Year: 1983
Chapter Title: Dimensions of national cultures in fifty countries and three
regions.
Book editors: J. Deregowski, S. Duiraweic, & R. Annis
Book title: Explications in cross-cultural psychology.
Publisher: Swets & Zeitlinger
Location of Publisher: Lisse, The Netherlands
Author: Harry C. Triandis Year: 1995 Title: Individualism and
collectivism Publisher: Westview Press Location of publisher: Boulder, Colorado
Author Note.
This paper is based on a thesis written in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for a Bachelor of Science degree at Florida Institute of
Technology. The author wished to thank her thesis committee for its valuable
contributions to this project. Correspondence should be directed to the author
at School of Psychology, Florida Tech, 150 W. University Blvd., Melbourne, FL
32901 USA.
Footnote
Respondents were treated within the guidelines set forth in the "Ethical
Principles of Psychologists" (American Psychological Association, 1981).