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Cross-Cultural Variations in Consumer Behavior: a Literature Review of International Studies

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Cross-Cultural Variations in Consumer Behavior: a Literature Review of International Studies South East European Journal of Economics and Business Volume 13 (2) 2018, 49-71 DOI: 10.2478/jeb-2018-0012 CROSS-CULTURAL VARIATIONS IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOR: A LITERATURE REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES Timokhina Galina, Taylan Urkmez, Wagner Ralf Abstract This study presents a review of 85 peer-reviewed publications of cross-cultural variations in consumer behav- ior. The objectives of this study are to systemize conceptual and methodological approaches to research of cross-cultural variations in consumer behavior; to present an extended understanding of consumer behavior in related industries; to identify conceptual and methodological gaps and empirical issues in these studies; and by fulfilling the objective of this paper to develop an agenda guiding further research in a systematic manner. This literature review reveals the lack of a unified conceptual approach to defining cross-cultural variations and the absence of a unified terminology related to cross-cultural research. It also highlights methodological areas susceptible to common method bias, which hinders the establishment of equivalence in studies of cross-cultural variations in consumer behavior. This review accentuates the “cross-cultural vari- ations” concept in consumer behavior research, covering both the differences and similarities that are the subject of cross-cultural studies. Furthermore, the current study outlines relevant contributions for theoreti- cal and potentially managerial implications based on the study’s insights. Keywords: Cross-cultural variations, consumer behavior, data equivalence, measurement equivalence. JEL: M0, M31, M39 INTRODUCTION Galina Timokhina, PhD The timeliness of studying the behavior of consum- Associate Professor ers from different cultures in an increasingly fragment- Ural State University of Economics ed world is demonstrated by the dynamic growth of E-mail: [email protected] the number of published cross-cultural studies and the rise of special issues of consumer behavior-related Taylan Urkmez, PhD journals. Researchers challenging consumer behavior Corresponing Author variations from a cross-cultural standpoint encoun- Assistant Professor ter substantial challenges, including issues that arise Solbridge International School of Business from the diversity of domains and interdisciplinary Daejeon/Korea approaches, such as the variety of methods for the E-mail: [email protected] collection, processing, analysis and interpretation of data, and issues related to method biases and scale Ralf Wagner, PhD equivalence (Steenkamp et al. 1998). Professor, Chair of International Direct Marketing In order to mitigate these challenges for cross-cul- University of Kassel tural research and to define future research streams, E-mail: [email protected] Copyright © 2018 by the School of Economics and Business Sarajevo 49 CROSS-CULTURAL VARIATIONS IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOR: A LITERATURE REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES and emphasizing the growing body of research in a interest increases the importance of reflecting on cross-cultural context in accordance with previous re- cross-cultural variations in research activities covering searchers (Perfetto 2010; Kipnis et al. 2014), this study a wide scope of industries. Both international practi- as a literature review attempts to systemize the theo- tioners and researchers have had problems in inter- retical lenses used to study cross-cultural variations in preting findings or deriving implications (Mooij 2015). consumer behavior and propose key questions rele- This literature review sheds light on intercultural stud- vant to the development of a cross-cultural marketing ies in order to identify procedures for coping with the strategy. It complements the contributions of Sin et al. lack of a unified approach used in cross-cultural re- (1999), Malhotra et al. (1996) and McCort et al. (1993), search on consumer behavior. We raise alerts for ma- who review methodological issues at all stages of the jor method biases in studies and critically review the marketing research process, and recent cross-cultural interpretation of results. consumer studies providing guidelines for address- ing these issues and expanding the body of scientific The objectives of this research are: methodological literature in cross-cultural research. – Objective 1: Systemizing conceptual and methodo- Other reviews, covering periods of more than 10 logical approaches to consumer behavior research years, classified studies according to conceptual and in cross-cultural domains; methodological criteria. Engelen et al. (2011)—in a 1990–2008 study—and Salciuviene et al. (2005)—in – Objective 2: Covering different industries in the B2C a 1990–2003 study—did not limit their examinations market and to present an extended understanding to a specific industry, whereas Zhang et al. (2008)— of consumer behavior in related industries in a 1996–2006 study—examined only the services – Objective 3: Highlighting conceptual and methodo- market. We focus on theoretical, methodological and logical areas, particularly equivalence-related is- conceptual variations by doing a systematic literature sues; and review and focusing on content analysis. The number of studies that use a cross-cultural re- – Objective 4: Developing an agenda to guide further search designs in management-relevant domains has research in a systematic manner. been increasing steadily. However, the previous ma- This paper is structured as follows: First, we de- jor reviews referred to cover the period up to 2003, scribe the methodology of collection, analysis, and 2006 and 2008. The period after 2008 has not been interpretation of data. Second, we systemize concep- covered by any major studies covering the theoretical tual and methodological approaches to consumer and methodological aspects in international market- behavior research in cross-cultural domains. Third, we ing. This study, which covers papers published in 50 explore research methodologies, concentrating on re- marketing and business journals, elaborates on the search validity issues and method biases. Finally, we conceptual and methodological aspects of an analyti- assemble the results and propose potential areas for cal review of 85 international studies of cross-cultural future research. variations in the behavior of end-consumers. We con- ducted research over a 17-year period from 2000 to 2016. Among the 85 target studies, 10 studies are of METHODOLOGY a theoretical nature. The remaining studies are empiri- cal, based on secondary or primary data. Considering the broad range of international stud- By contrasting many cross-cultural studies empha- ies on cross-cultural variations in consumer behavior, sizing the divergences in behavior and differences in we used the following search limitations to identify the considered markets, this review accentuates the our initial set of relevant studies: “cross-cultural variations” concept in consumer be- 1. The theoretical, methodological, or empirical na- havior research covering both differences and simi- ture of the study. larities, which are the subject of cross-cultural studies. However, a conceptual understanding of the subject 2. Focus on end-consumer and consumer behavior in of this research was not found in the literature. In re- a B2C market. cent decades migration became an essential point in 3. Focus on the comparative analysis of cultures/ creating globalization both politically and economi- subcultures. cally (Askegaard et al. 2011; Zeugner-Roth et al. 2015; 4. Focus on detecting variations/differences in the Sandikci et al. 2016; Kotorri 2017). This explains prac- behavior of consumers from different countries/ titioners’ and scholars’ interest in understanding dif- cultures/subcultures. ferent cultures and consumers from subcultures. This 50 South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Volume 13 (2) 2018 CROSS-CULTURAL VARIATIONS IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOR: A LITERATURE REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES 5. Pertinence to the marketing domain. and focus of comparison, definition of cross-cultur- 6. Publication in scholarly journals from 2000 to 2016. al variations in consumer behavior, cross-cultural dimensions, cross-cultural models, cross-cultural 7. Written in English. theories, cross-cultural constructs, and revealed The methodology of this literature review com- cultural variations in consumer behavior. bines the proceedings of Seuring et al. (2012) and 6. Qualitative content analysis of results interpreta- Aliyev et al. (2017) in a sequential manner and presents tions and conclusions. similarities in prominent content analysis and system- Preliminary search queries showed that compara- atic methodological approach (Gaur and Kumar 2017; tive studies across cultures use one of the four terms Rajeev et al. 2017; Elo et al. 2014; Vaismoradi et al. stated above as a focus of the study. These resulted in 2013): the already selected 75 studies plus another 17 arti- cles, bringing the total number to 92 relevant studies 1. Definition of research objectives: classification of As a result, 92 articles were identified and addition- studies according to conceptual and methodologi- ally reviewed for conformability with the given crite- cal criteria. ria. Seven articles were discarded due to their focus 2. Development of search criteria resulting in three on a B2B market or cross-cultural management issues sets of keywords. We paired with one of the fol- with a lack of marketing focus. Therefore, 85 studies lowing: «cross-cultural», «intercultural»,
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