Culture as a moderator of cognitive age and travel motivation/perceived risk relations among seniors

Abstract

Purpose This study contributes to greater understanding of the senior market and the cultural differences regarding aging in Western and Asian cultures. The review of the literature highlights the cultural differences toward the concept of aging in Asian and Western countries and describes a useful age concept for investigating senior consumers, namely, that of subjective age. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of subjective age dimensions on seniors’ behavior and to assess the role of culture as a moderator of this influence. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected in France and Mainland China and consisted of answers to 300 questionnaires for the French seniors and 264 questionnaires for the Chinese seniors. Two dimensions of subjective age were measured: cognitive age and ideal age, along with travel motivations and travel perceived risk. Findings The study provides valuable information regarding the Western and Asian senior markets. Subjective age dimensions prove to be related with seniors’ behaviors (perceived travel risks). The present study also demonstrates that nationality has a moderating role on this relation. This theoretical contribution will have to be confirmed by other studies in Asian and Western countries; it opens the door to new research on Chinese/Asian seniors involving these age variables. Originality/value The study gives academics and managers insights on the influence of subjective age on seniors’ behaviors in European and Asian cultural contexts.

The Effect of Online Shopping Experience on Risk P erception and Trust for Building Online Repurchase Intention

“…Risks such as insecurity reduce their intention to shop online (Matic and Vojvodic, 2014). This condition is very different from the empirical results that, subjective perception of age has a positive influence on the formation of risk perception (Le Serre et al, 2017). As people get older or get older, people will consider the risks more.…”

Information processing by elderly consumers: a five-decade review

“…Teller et al (2013) analyzed elderly consumers' grocery store patronage and showed that product range, maneuverability and atmosphere within the store are considered critical factors for individuals with a high cognitive age. Le Serre et al (2017) found that subjective agei.e. a concept similar to cognitive age, defined as individual's self-evaluation as belonging to a "young," "middle-aged" or "old" age group (Moschis, 2012) was related to perceived risk in the context of travel-related behavior.…”

Cognitive structures of Iranian senior tourists towards domestic tourism destinations: A means-end chain approach

“…Following the comprehensive study of Nielsen (2014), the senior tourist market has encouraged researchers to investigate in this field and examine various topics, especially in relation to constraints (Huber, Milne, & Hyde, 2018); accommodation (Anuar, Musa, Khalid, & Anderson, 2017;Losada et al, 2017); length of stay and frequency of travel (Alén, Nicolau, Losada, & Domínguez, 2014;Losada, Alén, Domínguez, & Nicolau, 2016);motivation and spirituality (Alén, Losada, & de Carlos, 2015;Moal-Ulvoas, 2017;Moal-Ulvoas, 2016;Patuelli, & Nijkamp, 2016); and cognitive age (Le Serre et al, 2017).…”

“…Cognitive age, such as cognitive structure, stems from the field of cognitive psychology and is often used in senior consumer behavior research. The cognitive age is connected to self-perception of the individual and determines what age the person feels regardless of his/her calendar age (Le Serre et al, 2017). Barak (1987) (Sudbury & Simcock, 2009) and the motivations of tourists (González et al, 2009) have been investigated before.…”

“…In most of these studies, the cognitive structure of destination image is based on attributions of the destination and is examined for various types of tourists. The number of senior tourists are increasing due to the global rise in aging population (Le Serre, Weber, Legohérel, & Errajaa, 2017).…”