Time perception and consumer behaviour: some cross-cultural implications

Perception of time differs across cultures. As time perception is a critical component of consumer decision making, awareness of such differences is a key to successful cross-cultural marketing. Mistakes in international marketing efforts are frequently traceable to ethnocentric cultural assumptions. No culture's perception of time is ‘right’, but there can be a tendency to impose such assumptions without cultural self-awareness. Time perception differences in four cultures are examined: Anglo, Hispanic, Eastern and Arabic. Implications for marketing efforts due to these cross-cultural differences are offred.     

Workplace isolation: Exploring the construct and its measurement

Virtual offices are a growing trend in today's work environment and are expected to influence marketing roles dramatically, especially selling. These conditions may lead to perceptions of isolation, both socially and organizationally. Workplace isolation is a twodimensional construct that represents individuals' perceptions of isolation from others at work and includes perceived isolation from both colleagues and from the company's support network. This article reports the results of a four‐sample study to develop and validate a selfreport scale for measuring the two facets of workplace isolation. The scale's usefulness for future research and management applications are discussed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The desire for unique consumer products: A new individual differences scale

In this article we examine individual differences in the desire for unique consumer products. We identify several of the antecedents and consequences of this variable and argue that a new scale to measure it is needed. Then we report the results of our efforts to develop and validate such a scale. The 8-item scale that emerged from these efforts is shown to be unidimensional, to have a factor structure that generalizes across student and nonstudent samples, and to have acceptable internal and test–retest reliabilities. The scale's validity is attested to by its theoretically intelligible relationships with other personality measures and by its ability to differentiate between the patrons of an artistic theater and a second-run theater. Finally, we discuss the potential uses of the scale in both basic and applied marketing research. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

One-click at a time: Empowering mothers for their adolescent children's educational expenditures through social media usage

Mothers play a significant role in deciding their adolescents' educational expenditures. They increasingly rely on the Internet for information search and building online support networks to enhance their confidence. Thus, we use the psychological empowerment theory in this study to examine the association between social media use and educational expenditures. Through two studies, we show how a mother's use of social media (active/passive use) significantly impacts adolescent children's educational expenses via dimensions of psychological empowerment. We further demonstrate that the two dimensions of psychological empowerment differentially drive this relationship: intrapersonal (relying on the self) and Interactional (leveraging the community) empowerment. We discover that active (passive) social media use increases mother' intrapersonal (interactional) empowerment. We also find that cross-cultural differences play a role in psychological empowerment's effect on educational expenditures, where intrapersonal empowerment is vital in the United States, and interactional empowerment is more relevant in India. Our key contributions to literature are three-fold: we establish the relationship between a mother's social media use and educational expenditures for their adolescent children, identify predictors of different dimensions of psychological empowerment, and present evidence for cross-cultural differences in the empowering role of social media.     

Educating the Global Manager

Abstract

The culturally diverse classroom would seem to be the ideal resource that educators can tap to develop their students' cross-cultural competence and bridge different cultures. However, evidence from the education literature suggests that students typically do not benefit from classroom diversity and that, in general, there is a lack of cross-cultural interactions between different cultural groups on campus. In this paper, we provide an integrated framework for developing students' cross-cultural competence by drawing on the cultural diversity in the classroom. The framework incorporates established and frequently used strategies for developing cross-cultural competence, as well as additional strategies that we have devised (such as diversity audits, self-awareness and ‘other’-awareness tools, student-generated cases and virtual linkages). We explain how this approach uses cultural diversity inherent in the classroom as a basis for students' awareness and understanding of cultural differences, knowledge of other cultures and the application of skills.     

The customer compatibility scale: measuring service customers' perceptions of fellow customers

Customers forced to share the service environment may not react favourably to one anothers' behaviour or presence-possibly jeopardizing customer satisfaction with the overall service experience and thereby risking future patronage. This study introduces a 19-item customer compatibility scale that measures the extent of interaction between customers within a business's physical environment and whether it leads to satisfaction or dissatisfaction. An overview of the scale's development is presented, including evidence indicating the reliability and validity of the scale. Recommendations are made for future research, and practitioner applications of the scale are discussed.     

Consumer entitlement theory and measurement

Previous studies of personality observe that a healthy individual maintains a level of entitlement. Consumer entitlement concerns the extent to which a customer expects special treatment in retail environments. To date, marketing scholars have not investigated consumer entitlement at the buyer–seller interface. This article represents an initial attempt to examine this construct in a retailing context. The development of a scale, the consumer entitlement inventory (CEI), is reported. The scale's psychometric properties were examined, with the use of an undergraduate sample ( N = 410). Antecedents and implications for consumer entitlement are discussed. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A cross-cultural examination of the aetiology of attitudes towards money

Few cross-cultural studies have been conducted on the aetiology of attitudes toward money. Such research becomes more important with increased international economic exchange. This study compares attitudes towards money in Great Britain and the U.S.A. The purpose was to replicate Furnham's British study made in 1984 using the Money in the Past and Future Scale (MPFS) with an American sample to provide a cross-cultural comparison. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to determine which of the sociodemographic variables were related to respondent attitudes toward money in the past and future. Differences in the MPFS were found between the two countries. The origin or aetiology of these differences in attitudes towards money can be, in part, attributed to cultural differences that begin in the context of the family and are reinforced by society.     

Measuring childhood materialism: Refining and validating Schor's Consumer Involvement Scale

This paper examines the measurement of childhood materialism using Schor's ( 2004 ) Consumer Involvement Scale. Schor treated consumer involvement empirically as a unidimensional construct, though she suggested that conceptually it may be multidimensional. Using confirmatory factor analysis procedures on data collected from children in the U.S. and U.K., the psychometric superiority of a three‐factor structure is established, comprising dissatisfaction, consumer orientation, and brand awareness components. Additional analyses demonstrate distinct associations between each of these components and other constructs, including self‐esteem, outside school activities, and child–parent relations. The scale's generalizability across boys and girls is also confirmed. The results suggest that Schor's Consumer Involvement Scale will be useful for researchers interested in studying the important topic of materialism in children. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Diagnostic Screener for Compulsive Buying: Applications to the USA and South Korea

Compulsive behavior is an important topic for social scientists. One form of this behavior is compulsive buying. Using data sets from two countries, the USA and South Korea, the Diagnostic Screener for Compulsive Buying (DSCB) (Faber and O'Guinn 1992) is tested with specific emphasis on the scale's cross‐cultural transferability. We find evidence that the DSCB is unidimensional in the USA and bi‐dimensional in South Korea, suggesting a lack of transferability. Potential cultural reasons for the findings are discussed in detail as well as the implications for public policy and future research.     

Cross-Cultural Sensitivities of Young Americans

This pilot study measures levels of cross-cultural understanding and ethnocentricity of college students and tests the hypothesis that students exhibit increased levels of cross-cultural understanding and lower levels of ethnocentricity after taking a university course in international business. Two matched-demographic groups of students are surveyed, one before taking the course, and t l' e other following completion of the course. The findings indicate some tendency to change in ,a positive direction with increased exposure to international business issues. The study also uses a factor analytical approach to examine the underlyin structures of attitudes relating to cmss-cultural understanding andethnocentricity. In this respect, differences in cross-cultural understanding and ethnocentricity are found to exist among sub-groups of the research population, with women and cosmopolitans scoring higher in terms of cross-cultural understanding and lower in ethnocentric- . Practical implications and suggestions for further research are a '7 so offered.     

Hermes Revisited: A Replication of Hofstede's Study in Hong Kong and the UK

Hofstedes' well-known study of cross-cultural values has come to be regarded as among the most influential in the field, and the subsequent extensive citation of a study, which involved the measurement of international differences in cultural values within IBM or ‘Hermes’, is testimony to its seminal status. Unfortunately, this success has not been matched by increased co-operative research amongst social scientists into cultural issues, namely through an ‘intersubjective’ approach which was one of Hofstede's hopes for subsequent development. Hofstede's approach, based on the comparative explanation of work-related values, is categorized and labelled variously and using different typologies, thus re-emphasizing that his approach is not the only perspective.     

What constitutes a “good assortment”? A scale for measuring consumers' perceptions of an assortment offered in a grocery category

This research investigates how consumers form subjective judgments of what constitutes “a good grocery assortment”. By conducting three exploratory focus groups and a field study, we develop a multi-item scale that reflects consumers' cue utilization processes in forming perceptions of a grocery assortment. Our findings suggest that consumers use only a limited number of informational cues to form perceptions about four higher-level assortment dimensions: (1) the assortment's pricing, (2) its quality, (3) its variety, and (4) its presentation. In line with the attitude theory, we found that consumers integrate these higher-level assortment dimensions into a summary evaluation of the grocery category's attractiveness. Accordingly, we derive the grocery assortment perception (GAP) scale as a second-order construct composed of four first-order factors. Significant positive relationships between the GAP scale and customer satisfaction as well as loyalty intentions provide empirical support for the scale's predictive ability and nomological validity. In the last section of this article, we discuss how the GAP scale will support category managers in their assortment decisions and provide directions for further research.     

An Investigation of People's Time Orientation,Attitudes, and Behavior Toward Advertising in an International Context

ABSTRACT

Past studies have indicated that there are cross-cultural/national differences among people's perception of time and how they use time available for them and what factors affect their time-related purchasing and consumption decisions. It is stated that each culture or subculture could have its own dominant construct of time. The present study examines time use and orientation and time attitudes toward different activities, including advertising in an emerging economy of Georgia. Study results indicate that present orientation and consciousness of future, planning orientation, time saving, realization of present in the light of past, and action orientation are salient factors channeling time orientations of Georgian consumers.     

A consumption emotion measurement development: a full-service restaurant setting

This article describes the development of a consumption emotion scale for use in the full-service restaurant industry. The current emotion measures utilized in consumer and marketing research are reviewed, along with the conceptualization of consumption emotions. The adequacy of employing a categorical approach to assess restaurant customers' emotional responses is discussed. Moreover, the appropriate procedure for a scale development is described. Based on quantitative analyses, a multi-item scale involving four dimensions of consumption emotions (excitement, comfort, annoyance, and romance) is developed. Further analyses provided strong evidence of the scale's unidimensionality, reliability, and validity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed with study limitations and recommendations for future research.     

An Empirical Study of Servqual's Dimensionality

This paper describes a scale, called SERVQUAL, which measures Service Quality. First, the scale's conceptual framework and the steps of its development are described. Second, criticisms arising from several replication studies of SERVQUAL are reviewed. The last part focuses on the dimensionality of the scale. Do the 22 items of the SERVQUAL scale clearly evoke, in the clients’ mind, the five Service Quality dimensions defined by Parasuraman et al. [1988]? An empirical study shows that one dimension, ‘Tangibles’, is clearly perceived followed by ‘Empathy’. The three other dimensions, ‘Reliability’, ‘Insurance’ and ‘Responsiveness ', are confused in the client's mind.     

Cross-Cultural Perceptions of Business Ethics: Evidence from the United States and China

A number of empirical studies have examined business ethics across cultures, focusing primarily on differences in ethical profiles between cultures and groups. When managers consider whether or not to develop a business relationship with those from a different culture, their decision may be affected by actual differences in ethical profiles, but potentially even more so by their perceptions of ethicality in the counterpart culture. The latter issue has been largely ignored in extant empirical research regarding cross-cultural ethical profiles. In this study, we employ a design that allows for a more complete analysis of cross-cultural perspectives, examining both the manner in which selected cultures view themselves and the manner in which those same cultures perceive the ethical profiles of others. To this end, we surveyed master’s students in business fields at several universities in the United States and China—two countries/cultures that engage in a significant amount of business transactions—and examined differences in personal ethical profiles across cultures, differences in one group’s ethical profile and the way it is perceived by the other group, and differences in perceived ethical profiles across cultures; that is, differences in how groups view each other. Findings suggest meaningful discrepancies in the ethical perceptions formed toward the counterpart culture. Results support a role for ethical perceptions in future research, and further examination and inquiry into the development and adaptation of ethical perceptions in cross-cultural business dealings.     

Contrasts in Moral Reasoning Capacity: The Fijians and the Singaporeans

The moral reasoning capacity of managementstudents in Fiji and in Singapore, twoculturally distinct nations, was examinedusing the Defining Issue Test (DIT). Statistical analyses of the data revealed amarked difference in the reasoning capacity of thetwo groups. In the Fiji sample, religion andrace were found to have a moderating effect onmoral judgment. In the Singapore sample, age,race and religion were found to have asignificant correlation with moral judgment. The data were subjected to paired-samplest-tests using p-score as a dependent variable. The results showed significant differences onthe p-score, recording a comparatively weakerreasoning capacity among the Fiji subjects. Theresults overwhelmingly confirms the assumptionthat culture plays a definite role indetermining one's moral judgment over andabove other variables. The implications offindings for cross-cultural management arediscussed.     

Internationalization of Organizational Behavior:

The global structure of today's business environment mandates that business students acquire an awareness of cultural issues that have an impact on the social and business components of organizational life. Emphasizing the need to develop cross-cultural competence, an integrated communication framework is presented as a model for restructuring collegiate organizational behavior to facilitate experiential learning. Consistent with Brislin's (1989) training model, revision of course content can be structured to provide students with opportunities to internalize a set of skills that may facilitate cognition, affect, and behavior to enhance multi-cultural interactions.