Ng Sharon (editor) - Handbook of culture and consumer behavior

Handbook of Culture and Consumer Behavior

FRONTIERS OF CULTURE AND PSYCHOLOGY

Series Editors

Michele J. Gelfand

Chi-yue Chiu

Ying-yi Hong

Books in the Series

Culture and Group Processes

Edited by Masaki Yuki and Marilynn Brewer

Handbook of Culture and Consumer Behavior

Edited by Sharon Ng and Angela Y. Lee

Handbook of Culture and Consumer Behavior

EDITED BY SHARON NG

AND

ANGELA Y. LEE

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the Universitys objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

OxfordNew York
AucklandCape TownDar es SalaamHong KongKarachi
Kuala LumpurMadridMelbourneMexico CityNairobi
New DelhiShanghaiTaipeiToronto

With offices in
ArgentinaAustriaBrazilChileCzech RepublicFranceGreece
GuatemalaHungaryItalyJapanPolandPortugalSingapore
South KoreaSwitzerlandThailandTurkeyUkraineVietnam

Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries.

Published in the United States of America by
Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016

Oxford University Press 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above.

You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Handbook of culture and consumer behavior / edited by Sharon Ng and Angela Y. Lee.
pages cm. (Frontiers of culture and psychology)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 9780199388516 (hbk.) ISBN 9780199388523 (pbk.) eISBN 9780199388547
1. Consumer behaviorCross-cultural studies.2. ConsumersCross-cultural studies.3. Consumption (Economics)Cross-cultural studies.I. Ng, Sharon.II. Lee, Angela Y.
HF 5415.32.H3635 2015
658.8 342dc23
2014025871

CONTENTS

Nidhi Agrawal

Foster School of Business

University of Washington

Seattle, Washington, USA

Rohini Ahluwalia

Department of Marketing Carlson School of Management

University of Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Hans Baumgartner

Department of Marketing Smeal College of Business

Penn State University

State College, Pennsylvania, USA

Russell Belk

Department of Marketing

York University

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Tonya Williams Bradford

Department of Marketing Mendoza College of Business

University of Notre Dame

Notre Dame, Indiana, USA

Cathy Yi Chen

Department of Marketing

Singapore Management University

Singapore

Shirley Y. Y. Cheng

Department of Marketing

Hong Kong Baptist University

Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong

Louise Chim

Department of Psychology

Stanford University

Stanford, California, USA

Chi-yue Chiu

Nanyang Business School

Nanyang Technological University

Singapore

Zeynep Grhan-Canli

Neely School of Business

Koc University

Istanbul, Turkey

Michael J. Houston

Department of Marketing Carlson School of Management

University of Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Ryan P. Jacobson

Department of Organizational Studies Anderson School of Management

University of New Mexico

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Minkyung Koo

Department of Business Administration, College of Business

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Champaign, Illinois, USA

Robert Kreuzbauer

Nanyang Business School

Nanyang Technological University

Singapore

Virginia S. Y. Kwan

Department of Psychology

Arizona State University

Tempe, Arizona, USA

Angela Y. Lee

Kellogg School of Management

Northwestern University

Evanston, Illinois, USA

Dongmei Li

Hang Seng Management College

Hong Kong

Yexin J. Li

Department of Psychology

Arizona State University

Tempe, Arizona, USA

Durairaj Maheswaran

Department of Marketing and International Business Stern School of Business

New York University

New York, New York, USA

Sharon Ng

Division of Marketing and International Business Nanyang Business School

Nanyang Technological University

Singapore

Akshay Rao

Department of Marketing Carlson School of Management

University of Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Glen Sarial-Abi

Department of Marketing

Universita Commerciale Luigi Bocconi

Milan, Italy

Prashant Saxena

Associate Director

Agility Research & Strategy

Singapore

Sharon Shavitt

Department of Business Administration, College of Business

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Champaign, Illinois, USA

Tamara Sims

Department of Psychology

Stanford University

Stanford, California, USA

Carlos Torelli

Department of Marketing Carlson School of Management

University of Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Jeanne L. Tsai

Department of Psychology

Stanford University

Stanford, California, USA

Jie Wei

Department of Marketing

National University of Singapore

Singapore

Bert Weijters

Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School

Ghent University

Gent, Belgium

Andrew E. White

Department of Psychology

Arizona State University

Tempe, Arizona, USA

Robert S. Wyer, Jr.

Department of Marketing

Chinese University of Hong Kong

Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong

SHARON NG AND ANGELA Y. LEE

Research on the influence of culture on consumer decision making and consumption behavior has witnessed tremendous growth in the last decade. Rigorous investigations that make important theoretical advances and offer managerial relevance are being presented at major conferences and appearing in top marketing and psychology journals. These are exciting developments and signal a broad-based recognition that culture mattersthat new theories should be forged and existing frameworks revalidated with the awareness and sensitivity that norms, values, and thinking styles may differ across different cultures and, in turn, drive different psychological processes and consumption behaviors.

This increased momentum in culture and consumer behavior research can be attributed to two factors. First, industry concerns and interests are driving the need for more rigorous research that is motivation and process driven rather than phenomenon based. With increasing globalization, managers are becoming increasingly aware that operating in multiple markets is crucial for firms survival and growth. As the worlds growth engine shifts from Europe and North America to Asia and Latin America, it has become apparent that an inward looking and domestic focus strategy would not be sustainable in the long run, and success in foreign markets requires marketers to understand not just what consumers in these markets need, but also how they think, behave, consume, and purchase. The popular press is laden with stories of firms failing to enter a foreign market, with many of these firms being important players in their domestic markets, including major multinational conglomerates. Despite their dominance in the domestic market, they did not manage to transfer their success to the emergent markets. For example, eBay was not able to make significant inroads into China. It remained a distant second in the global marketplace to its China-based competitor Taobao, and eventually was forced to relinquish its operations in China. Although part of the reason for the lack-luster performance of many foreign companies may be attributable to unfavorable regulatory constraints imposed by these emergent markets, a major reason for the failure is the lack of insight by these foreign investors into the local consumers psyche.