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The Influence of Culture on Consumers: Exploratory CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Universidade do Minho: RepositoriUM THE INFLUENCE OF CULTURE ON CONSUMERS: EXPLORATORY AND RISK TAKING BEHAVIOUR A thesis submitted to the University of Minho in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management Supervisors: Minoo Farhangmehr Aviv Shoham 2004 Acknowledgements This document is proof that this particularly difficult stage of my life is drawing to an end. Without the support of my family, supervisors, friends and colleagues this would not have been made possible. Looking back over this period of my life, I wish to thank all those who contributed in some way to this work. First of all, I wish to thank Prof. Minoo Farhangmehr who has believed in me from the outset of my academic career, and for having invited me to join the Strategic and Marketing Group. From that day on, her warm, wise and optimistic support has been an inspiration which has contributed in many ways to my achievements. A word of appreciation must also go out to Professor Aviv Shoham who, despite the physical distance between us, lent his direction and support through various phases of this project. I am truly indebted to his immediate guidance, positive attitude and confidence in me. Several colleagues and friends deserve a special mention. They were always available with a word of encouragement and assisted me in various ways throughout the whole project. A special thanks goes out to Isabel Macedo, Susana Marques, José Carlos Pinho, Teresa Pereira, Vasco Eiriz, José Crispim, Anabela Carvalho, Jarle Brinchman, Maria José Sá, Cláudia Simões and Luis Filipe Lages for their suggestions and encouragement. This was a period of intensive research during which I initiated and maintained contacts with a number of scholars, many of whom I may never meet face to face. They were kind enough to respond to my emails and comment on my PhD proposal: Olivier Furrer, now at the University of Nijmegen, for his suggestions on measuring culture at the individual level; Massoud Saghafi, San Diego State University, for listening to my ideas at an early stage of the project; Naveen Donthu, Georgia State University for sharing the Cultural Values Scale (CVSCALE); David A. Griffith, The i University of Hawaii, for his ideas on the measurement of culture; Shalom Schwartz, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Greg Rose; Adel Al-Wugayan, Kuwait University; Christopher Hodkinson, the University of Queensland; D. Sudharshan, University of Illinois at Urbana; Yvonne van Everdingen, the Erasmus University Roterdam; Jan-Benedict Steenkamp, Tilburg University and Peter Smith, University of Sussex. Also, for their insights in conferences where I presented papers, I wish to acknowledge scholars who made thoughtful remarks and contributions to my work: Susan Douglas, New York University; Tim Ambler, London Business School and Luis Filipe Lages, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. In fact, the international nature of this project allowed me the opportunity to experience different cultural realities. This proved to be especially useful when I reached the data collection stage, which was a particularly difficult task. My deepest thanks go out to Robert Townsend, University of Luton; Angelika Flynn and Julie Glover, from the University of Teesside; Susana Marques, University of Strathclyde for their contribution to data collection in the UK and Cláudia Simões; Filomena Campo and Elisabete Sá from the University of Minho in Portugal for their assistance. In addition, I want to acknowledge the support and encouragement of the then Dean of the School, Prof. Cadima Ribeiro, at various stages of this process. Finally, a word to my beloved family: my husband Joaquim and my children Inês, João and Nuno. It is over now. This work is dedicated to all of you. Thank you for making it all worthwhile! ii Abstract The rapidly increasing importance of International Marketing has led marketers, practioners and academics alike, to seek a deeper understanding of how consumers and markets differ around the globe. The pendulum of studies in this area has swung between the need for adaptation and the pragmatics of standardisation. International consumer behaviour has, therefore, been influenced by this polarisation of the question leading researchers to focus either on revealing differences, or similarities within various consumer behaviour domains. This project aimed to make a contribution to this discussion by adopting a cultural perspective of consumer behaviour. Risk related issues were identified as constituting a culturally sensitive consumer behaviour dimension (Hofstede, 1984; Steenkamp, 2001; Clark, 1990). Moreover, Exploratory and Risk Taking Behaviour constitutes an important dimension of consumer behaviour across a broad range of products and situations. Consequently, the research question centered on understanding the influence of culture on Exploratory and Risk Taking Behaviour as well as understanding risk and exploratory behaviours and their dimensions. The present project was, thus, designed as a theoretical study focusing on the examination of structured hypotheses relating the variable of Culture with that of Exploratory and Risk Taking Behaviour. Hofstede’s (1984, 1991, 2001) framework and Nationality were adopted to operationalise the concept of Culture. First, cultural values were used to identify Portugal and the UK as two countries with opposite scores along these dimensions. Second, cultural values were measured at the individual level to overcome the limitations of this research framework at the micro level of analysis (Dorfman and Howell, 1988; Yoo, Donthu and Lenartowicz, 2001). The classification of each country in each cultural dimension was hypothesized to have consequences in terms of consumer Optimum Stimulation Level, and Exploratory and Risk Taking Behaviour and Product-Specific Perceived Risk and a nomological net of hypotheses relating these constructs was proposed. A quantitative approach based on a survey was adopted and data was collected in Portugal and the UK. Overall, results lend support to proposed conceptual framework for Culture, Optimum Stimulation level, Exploratory and Risk taking Behaviour and Product-Specific iii Perceived Risk. Evidence was found for the influence of culture on Exploratory and Risk Taking Behaviour. Culture, both in terms of Nationality and Cultural values, impacted all subsequent layers of constructs such that: - Nationality had an impact on Cultural Values, a partially mediated impact on Optimum Stimulation Level, a fully mediated impact on Exploratory and Risk Taking Behaviour and a partially mediated impact on Product-Specific Perceived Risk; - Cultural values had a direct impact on Optimum Stimulation Level, a partially mediated impact on Exploratory and Risk Taking Behaviour and a fully mediated impact on Perceived Risk; - Optimum Stimulation Level served as a general predictor of risk attitudes since it impacted Exploratory Consumption Behaviour and Exploratory Risk Taking. Furthermore, Optimum Stimulation Level had a fully mediated impact on perceived risk. These facets of Exploratory and Risk Taking Behaviour, furthermore, were predictors of Product-Specific Perceived Risk. Optimum Stimulation Level, as seen previously, was not directly related to Perceived Risk. Thus, Optimum Stimulation Level and Exploratory and Risk Taking Behaviour appear to capture different aspects of an individual risk-taking attitude. These conclusions provide an insightful contribution to an understanding of cross- cultural consumer behaviour. In parallel to a growing body of research stressing the impact of culture consumer behaviour in different national and cultural settings, support was found to the view that cultural differences should be a springboard for cross- cultural studies. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgments...............................................................................................................................................i Abstract .....................................................................................................................................iii Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................... v List of Tables.............................................................................................................................ix List of Figures ...........................................................................................................................xi List of Abbreviations................................................................................................................xii Chapter 1 Introduction............................................................................................. 1 1.1 – Research Background........................................................................................................ 1 1.2 - Research Problem and Hypothesis..................................................................................... 3 1.3 – Research Justification........................................................................................................ 6 1.4 - Methodology...................................................................................................................... 8 1.6 – Thesis Structure................................................................................................................. 9 Chapter 2 Literature Review:
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