Applying Cultural Consensus Analysis to Marketing David M
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Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2007 Applying Cultural Consensus Analysis to Marketing David M. Horowitz Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF BUSINESS APPLYING CULTURAL CONSENSUS ANALYSIS TO MARKETING By DAVID M. HOROWITZ A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Marketing in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2007 Copyright © 2007 David M. Horowitz All Rights Reserved The members of the Committee approve the dissertation of David M. Horowitz defended on March 28th, 2007. ____________________________________ Michael K. Brady Professor Directing Dissertation ____________________________________ William A. Christiansen Outside Committee Member ____________________________________ Michael D. Hartline Committee Member ____________________________________ Charles F. Hofacker Committee Member Approved: ___________________________________ Caryn L. Beck-Dudley, Dean, College of Business The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation and my experiences in and outside of the Marketing Ph.D. program at The Florida State University would not have been possible without the support of my family, friends, and academic colleagues. I would like to thank the following people for supporting me along this journey. First, I would like to thank my San Diego State professor Dr. Matt Aistrich who told me not to pursue a Ph.D. in Marketing, and then provided me with letters of recommendation. Second, I would like to thank my parents Steve and Debby, my sister Elaine, and my grandmother Middy for supporting my decision to attend The Florida State University and for providing me with moral and financial support along the way. Once longitudinally adjusted to Tallahassee, Florida I met many people who became an important part of my academic life. All of The Florida State University faculty and staff were helpful and supportive. My advising professor and Dissertation Committee Chairman Dr. Michael Brady supported me throughout my entire time at The Florida State University, and I will be forever grateful for this support, the research opportunities you provided me with, and the valuable feedback you gave me on my writing during my time at The Florida State University. Also in the College of Business, I would like to thank my other Dissertation Committee Members. Thank you Dr. Hofacker for helping me decipher the consensus analysis algorithms and thank you Dr. Hartline for supporting my research and helping me through the job interview process. Outside of the College of Business, my Support Area Advisor Dr. Michael Uzendoski introduced me to seminal and contemporary anthropology literature that I enjoyed reading. Shortly after the completion of my Support Area coursework, my former Outside Committee Member Dr. Clarence Gravlee introduced me to my dissertation topic. Without the help of both of these anthropologists, my dissertation would not have been possible and I thank both of you. Finally, I would like to thank all of the Doctoral Business Student Association and Florida State University Men’s Rugby Club members, past and present, who befriended me and provided me with countless memorable experiences. Last but not least, I must thank my Outside Committee Member Dr. William Christiansen for his involvement in my dissertation and for the enjoyable exchanges about the San Francisco Giants that we iii shared throughout my time at The Florida State University. I promise that I’ll go to some Giants games in the future. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………...x List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………….xi Abstract……...…………………………………………………………………………...xii 1. INTRODUCTION………………..…………………………………………………….1 2. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE…………………………………………………….8 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY……………………………………………………..49 4. ADDRESSING THE LIMITATIONS OF CONSENSUS ANALYSIS..……….......101 APPENDICES…..….……………………………………………………………..……108 REFERENCES….…………………………………………………………………...…111 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH………………………………………………………...…125 v LIST OF TABLES 1. Folk Medicine Applications of Consensus Analysis.………………..…….…….........31 2. Folk Biology Applications of Consensus Analysis.………….….....…...….………....35 3. Gender Studies Applications of Consensus Analysis.……………….…….……..…...37 4. Cultural Consonance Applications of Consensus Analysis……………………….......39 5. The Cultural Domain of Disney World………………..………….………………......53 6. Regression Results………………...…………………………………………………..58 7. The Culturally Appropriate Responses to the Disney World Domain Among Florida Undergraduates…………..……………………………………………………………59 8. Cultural Domain Items……………………….………………………………………..73 9. Material Goods Cultural Domain Items……………………...…...……………….…..91 10. Activities Cultural Domain Items..……………………….…………...……………..91 11. Answer Key Estimates………………………………..…..…………...……………..92 12. Correlation Table of the Variables in the Study……..…..…………...……………...96 vi LIST OF FIGURES 1. A Graphical Representation of a Sample That Does Exhibit Consensus…………..…19 2. A Graphical Representation of a Sample That Does Not Exhibit Consensus………...20 3. Free Listing Results for the Cultural Domain of Disney World………………..…......52 4. Non-Metric MDS Results for the Pile Sort Data……………………..……………….55 5. PROFIT Analysis Results……………..…………………….………………………...56 6. Sources of Intracultural Variation .………...................................…………………….58 7. Answer Key Estimates for the Documentary Viewers……………………...………...75 8. Consensus Analysis Results.………………………….………………..……………...76 9. Answer Key Estimates for the Negative First Factor Loading Group……………...…77 10. Respondent Partitions…………………….……………………………………..…...78 11. Answer Key Estimates for the Neutral and Anti-Wal-Mart Cultural Groups....…….79 12. Cultural Consonance in College Lifestyle Research Model………...……………….88 13. Free List Results for College Lifestyle Material Goods and Activities..…………….90 vii ABSTRACT Consensus analysis methods are commonly used by anthropologists to study cultural knowledge. Consensus analysis has been used to study intracultural variance, intercultural variance, and cultural consonance across a variety of contexts. However, the cultural consensus model and other consensus analysis methods have not become methods that are commonly used by marketing researchers to study cultural knowledge. This dissertation reviews the theoretical and methodological foundations of the cultural consensus model in order to shed light on a method that marketing researchers could use to statistically estimate various aspects of cultural knowledge. In addition, this dissertation reviews how the cultural consensus model has been applied by anthropologists and discusses how the cultural consensus model could be applied to study consumer culture, organizational culture, and national culture. In order to illustrate how consensus analysis can be used to study intracultural variance, intercultural variance, and cultural consonance three original empirical studies are performed. Finally, based on methodological issues encountered during the three empirical studies, this dissertation identifies important considerations a researcher should bear in mind when performing an ethnographic study that uses consensus analysis methods. viii CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION “Consensus analysis answers what may be the single most important question of ethnography: Who agrees with whom about what and to what degree (Handwerker and Borgatti 1998, p. 569).” Over the course of many years anthropologists have developed and adopted various consensus analysis methods to study cultural knowledge (Borgatti 1994; D’Andrade 1995; Dressler et al. 2005b; Handwerker 2002; Romney, Batchelder, and Weller 1987; Romney, Weller, and Batchelder 1986; Ross 2004; Weller 1987, 1998; Weller and Romney 1988). These consensus analysis methods help anthropologists answer fundamental ethnographic questions in a systematic and objective manner. For example, ethnographers are faced with questions such as what are the beliefs that a cultural group shares? To what extent do the individuals in a cultural group share the group’s cultural beliefs? Furthermore, what are the backgrounds, life experiences, or other variables that lead people to share a group’s cultural beliefs? The consensus analysis methods used by anthropologists to answer these questions (Handwerker 2001, 2002; Handwerker and Borgatti 1998; Romney, Batchelder, and Weller 1987; Romney, Weller, and Batchelder 1986; Weller 1987) offer marketing researchers new tools that can be used to study cultural knowledge in a systematic and objective manner (Romney 1999; Weller and Romney 1988). If marketing researchers find these new tools as helpful as anthropologists have (as alluded to in the opening quote), then this research will offer a valuable contribution to the marketing literature. Cultural research has received a great deal of attention in marketing recently in the areas of consumer culture (Arnould and Thompson 2005), organizational culture (Webster 2005), and national culture (Steenkamp 2005). However, consensus analysis is rarely used in these areas of marketing (Schwartz and Bardi 2001; Sirsi, Ward, and Reingen 1996). The consensus analysis methods developed by anthropologists offer marketing researchers the ability to examine consumer