Cross‐Cultural Generalizability of a Scale for Profiling Consumers' Decision‐Making Styles

Abstract

Most studies that have developed and validated models and instruments in consumer affairs research have used U.S. samples. As a result, their cross-cultural generalizability remains unknown. This study reports a cross-cultural examination of a scale for profiling consumers' decision-making styles using a New Zealand sample. Examination of the scale's psychometric properties (i.e., dimensionality and reliability) offers general support for the scale's applicability to a different culture. Some differences were detected, however. The paper concludes with a discussion of these differences and the implications of the findings.Profiling consumers' decision-making styles has been the focus of a multitude of consumer interest studies (e.g., Bettman 1979; Sproles 1985;Thorelli, Becker, and Engeldow 1975;Westbrook and Black 1985). Consumer affairs specialists use such profiles to understand consumers' shopping behavior, while advertisers and marketing researchers use them to segment the consumers into various niches for product positioning. Until this point, most of the empirical research investigating consumer styles used U.S. samples for developing and validating the measuring instrument. However, such research may be inapplicable to other cultures, unless cross-cultural psychometric properties of the measures (i.e. , dimensionality and reliability) are shown to exist (Douglas and Craig 1983;Hui and Triandis 1985). Further, if the psychometric properties of the measures of consumer decision-making styles vary widely across countries, conclusions based on the scale may actually be attributed to measure unreliability (Green and White 1976; Parameswaran and Yaprak 1987). As a result, evidence of the generalizability of consumer styles research and related instruments to other cultures is needed.

Consumers' decision-making style as a basis for market segmentation

“…Indeed, Sproles and Kendall 22 requested that 'to establish generality further, [the CSI] must be administered to other populations'. Several authors have responded and replications have been carried out in South Korea, 23 New Zealand, 24 Greece, the USA, India and New Zealand, 25 Great Britain 26 and China. 27,28 The original structure of decision-making style, by and large, was confirmed in all seven countries.…”

The Role of Gender Differences in Determining the Style of Consumer Decision-Making

“…However, they formed two different factors in our study and it can be said that this may have resulted from cultural differences. This can be seen from other studies in which different consumer styles have been obtained in various countries and cultures (Hafstrom, et al, 1992;Durvasula et al, 1993;Lysonski, et al, 1996;Fan and Xiao, 1998;Hiu et al, 2001;Walsh et al, 2001).…”

“…In these studies, some characteristics have been found to be similar while others have been found to be different in various countries (Hafstrom et al, 1992;Durvasula et al, 1993;Lysonski et al, 1996;Fan andXiao, 1998, Hiu et al, 2001;Walsh et al, 2001;Tai, 2005). In a study carried out by Bauer, Sauer and Beeker in 2002, consumer styles with respect to convenience goods and shopping goods were examined.…”

“…These eight styles describe the most basic mental characteristics of a consumer's decision-making process, which are directly linked to consumer choice behavior. Consumer's decision-making styles have been investigated across several countries and cultures (Hafstrom et al, 1992;Durvasula et al, 1993;Lysonski et al, 1996;Fan andXiao, 1998, Hiu et al, 2001;Walsh et al, 2001;Tai, 2005), convenience and shopping goods (Bauer, et al, 2002;Wang, et al, 2004), and gender differences (Mitchell and Walsh, 2004). In this study, we first investigated whether there are any differences in the purchasing styles of males and females.…”

Apparel shopping behaviour – Part 1: Towards the development of a conceptual theoretical model

“…Several researchers (Durvasula, Lysonski & Andrews, 1993;Visser & Du Preez, 1998;Visser, Du Preez & Du Toit, 1996) have emphasised that data and models that were developed in the United States cannot be accepted as valid in other countries. This issue is addressed in the present research project by using universal consumer behaviour models and applying them to a South African context.…”