Are consumers' financial needs and values common across cultures? Evidence from six countries |
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| Authors: | Lan Guo Dan Stone Stephanie Bryant Benson Wier Alex Nikitkov Chunyan Ren Edson Luiz Riccio Milton Shen Samir Trabelsi LiFang Zhang |
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| Institution: | 1. School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University, , Waterloo, ON, Canada;2. Von Allmen School of Accountancy, University of Kentucky, , Lexington, KY, USA;3. College Of Business, Missouri State University, , Springfield, MO, USA;4. School of Business, Virginia Commonwealth University, , Richmond, VA, USA;5. Brock University, , St. Catharines, ON, Canada;6. Department of Accountancy, Xiamen University, , Xiamen, China;7. School of Economics, Business and Accountancy, University of S?o Paulo, , S?o Paulo, S?o Paulo State, Brazil;8. College of Business Administration, University of Alabama – Huntsville, , Huntsville, AL, USA;9. School of Business, Nanjing University, , Nanjing, China |
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| Abstract: | Are consumers' financial needs, and financial values, the same or different across cultures? Two studies, with student (Study 1; n = 988) and non‐student (Study 2; n = 959) participants, explore the extent of equivalence, across six countries (Brazil, Russia, China, Taiwan, Tunisia and US), in financial need belief, and financial value, measurement models. The financial need beliefs, derived from self‐determination theory (SDT) principles, include financial self‐efficacy, financial autonomy, financial community trust and support; the financial values include materialism and financial altruism. Both the financial need and financial value constructs evidence configural invariance (similar factor structure), and factor invariance among student but not non‐student samples. The financial need constructs evidence full, and the financial value constructs evidence partial, metric (factor loading) invariance. Factor covariance invariance obtains for the financial need beliefs constructs but not the financial value constructs. Finally, neither financial need nor financial value constructs evidence scalar (intercept) invariance. These results provide partial support for extending SDT's hypothesis of universal human needs to the financial domain. In contrast, the financial value constructs of altruism and materialism are largely instable across cultures, suggesting that consumer views of giving, and the role of wealth in social status, differ between countries. |
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| Keywords: | Consumer behaviour consumer attitudes financial need beliefs financial values multi‐group confirmatory factor analysis self‐determination theory |
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