The Institution of Advertising: Predictors of Cross-National Differences in Consumer Confidence

Abstract

The institution of advertising depends upon customer confidence. From both a managerial and a public policy perspective, it is important that customers have confidence in advertising as a reliable source of information about the marketplace. Here, we explored the cultural factors which affect customer confidence in advertising. Using a sample of sixteen European nations, we tested Hofstede's theory of cross-national values. In particular, we found that Hofstede's dimensions of uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and individualism are important predictors of advertising confidence.

French versus American Consumers' Attachment of Value to a Product in a Common Consumption Context: A Cross-National Comparison

“…The intention of this article is not to review each of these authors' findings but to employ their research in order to generate hypotheses at the national culture level. There is some precedent for this, as the cultural research approach most frequently adopted in the literature has been that of national culture (e.g., Clark 1990;de Mooij and Hofstede 2002;Jeon and Beatty 2002;Lynn, Zinkhan, and Harris 1993;Nakata andSivakumar 1996, 2001;Zinkhan and Balazs 1998).…”

Consumer Communications, Media Use, and Purchases via the Internet: A Comparative, Exploratory Study

“…Level of Risk Avoidance and Degree of Individuali.sm. According to Zinkhan and Balazs (1998), consumers in high risk-avoidance cultures have more confidence in advertising than those in low risk-avoidance cultures. As advertising is often perceived to be an important source of consumer information, prudent consumers may tum to advertising to gather relevant infonnation to avoid uncertain or unknown situations.…”

Türkiye’de Reklama Yönelik Genel Tutumun Değerlendirilmesi

“…Research provides that more education may lead to an increase in the level of skepticism about advertising. As the education level of consumers increase, so does their likelihood to question social institutions such as advertising (Zinkhan, 1998). Similarly, the enjoyment of advertising is greater in less educated consumers and their buying decisions tend to rest more on advertising as compared to their more educated counterparts (Shavitt et al, 1998).…”

“…In recent years, questions concerning the crossnational applicability of these belief measures and attitude models were raised by various researchers (Durvasula et al, 1993;Andrews et al, 1994;Zinkhan and Balazs, 1998;Bush et al, 1999;La Ferle and Lee, 2003;Ashill and Yavas, 2005;Petrovici and Marinov, 2007;Truong et al, 2009;Ling et al, 2010;Millan and Mittal, 2010). Durvasula et al (1993) found that opinions about advertising show diversity across countries.…”

“…Although previous research took into account different public attitudes including adult consumers (Zanot, 1981;Mittal, 1994;Shavitt et.al., 1998;Millan and Mittal, 2010) and student samples (Haller, 1974;Larkin, 1977;Andrews, 1989;Pollay and Mittal, 1994;Beard, 2003;Jin and Lutz, 2013) and revealed various aspects of the subject at hand, majority of the data was limited to the population in the North American-European mainstream. To close this gap, recent studies also emphasized crosscultural variations (Durvasula et al, 1993;Andrews et al, 1994;Zinkhan and Balazs, 1998;Bush et al, 1999;Ashill and Yavas, 2005;Petrovici and Paliwoda, 2007). In that respect, the erosion of the American public opinion toward advertising may not hold relevance for other geographic regions.…”