How does national culture impact on consumers’ decision-making styles? a cross cultural study in Brazil, the United States and Japan

Abstract

This empirical article investigates the relationship between national culture and consumer decision-making styles in the purchase of cell phones, a product category that appears to be required by consumers independent of their nationalities. To make the research measurable, we used Hofstede's four cultural dimensions (power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, and masculinity) and Sproles and Kendall's Consumer Style Inventory framework (quality conscious, brand conscious, innovative, recreation, price conscious, impulsive, confused and brand loyal), and tested nine hypotheses through MANOVA in a sample of 108 buyers of the product in Brazil, 104 in the USA, and 107 in Japan, countries ranked in the top ten of the world's largest cell phone market. Factor Analysis via Principal Component Analysis was conducted to examine the suitability of the eight-factor model in observations from each country. The three nationalities and the eight decision-making styles were treated as independent and dependent variables, respectively. Findings showed mixed evidence for the application of Hofstede's cultural dimensions to decision-making styles. Managerial implications and suggestions for future research are presented to help understand the relationship between national culture and consumer decision-making styles.

Differences in consumer decision-making styles among selected south-east European countries

“…However, Hypotheses 5, 5a and 5b, related to price consciousness, and Hypotheses 6, 6a and 6b, related to impulsiveness, were not tested due to a lack of reliability amongst items. The same issue was found in the study of Leng and Botelho (2010) in the sample from Brazil, Japan and the USA. The reliability for the impulsive factor was also found to be very low in India (Lysonski et al, 1996).…”

“…Previous studies suggest that Hofstede's dimensions of cultural differences might explain the differences in some, but not in all CDMS (Durvasula et al, 1993;Leng & Botelho, 2010;Leo et al, 2005;Lysonski et al, 1996), while some differences may exist due to the different stages of economic development, the level of income and the standard of quality of goods and services, and different consumer perceptions as well (Anić, Piri Rajh, & Rajh, 2014;Leo et al, 2005;Zeithaml, 1985). Hofstede's typology of culture includes five dimensions (Hofstede, 1980): (1) Power distance (PDI, i.e., the degree of equality among people in society that deals with inequality in prestige, wealth and power); (2) Individualism vs. collectivism (IND, i.e., the degree to which people act as a group or as individuals); (3) Masculinity vs. femininity (MAS, i.e., the degree to which masculine and feminine values are distinct); (4) Uncertainty avoidance (UAI, i.e., the degree to which people are able to tolerate ambiguity); (5) Long-term orientation (LTO, i.e., the degree to which people delay gratification of their material, social and emotional needs).…”

“…In order to be successful, companies should carefully analyse consumers' characteristics and their motivations and adjust marketing activities to the specifics of each culture (Leng & Botelho, 2010).…”

“…Previous studies were mostly exploratory and were focused on testing the applicability of CSI instrument in various countries to establish its cross-cultural generalisability, while fewer studies explored the similarities and differences in CDMS among countries (Leng & Botelho, 2010;Leo, Bennett, & Härtel, 2005).…”

Qonsequences of Cultural and Behavioral Difference of Tourist: Study of Australian and Indonesian Tourist Who Visit Lombok Island, West Nusa Tenggara

“…The studies related to national cultural differences and tourist behavior has been widely based on the Horstede's cultural dimensions [13][14][15][16]. According to Hofstede [7], many Asian countries have a culture that is both collectivist and degree of a version to high uncertainty.…”