Does culture affect evaluation expressions?

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to look at product reviews from a cross-cultural perspective. Product reviews are potentially an influential form of marketing communication, as well as a predictor of sales performance. With Hofstede's typology as a backdrop, the basic proposition of this study is that collectivistic cultural values place more emphasis on giving face to others, even in impersonal social environments, resulting in them giving more positive product reviews than their individualistic counterparts. Design/methodology/approach -The paper uses content analysis of Chinese and American computer game reviews to test the hypotheses. Findings -The results showed that Chinese reviews use fewer negative comments and give higher final ratings for the same set of products than their American counterparts. In addition, Chinese reviews showed a lower consistency between their evaluative comments and their final ratings. Also confirmed is a common belief that final ratings are a summary of the evaluative comments of the review-texts. Research limitations/implications -Future research is invited. Practical implications -Theoretically, the study refines the understanding of differences between individualistic and collectivistic cultures. Practically, it is suggested that if consumers' cultural values are reflected in product reviews, international marketers should weigh and balance possible cultural bias when they decode evaluations of their products from reviews published in other countries' media. Originality/value -Product reviews are a rich but ignored resource with high marketing value. It is hoped that the study can stimulate both marketing researchers and practitioners to make better use of product reviews to further understand marketing phenomena and make better marketing decisions.

Cultural Influences on Consumer Behaviour

“…Evaluative criteria for high involvement products or automobile purchases are the various features that consumers consider such as brand (Lockshin, Spawton, & Mcintosh, 1997), price (Lichtenstein, Block, & Black, 1988), quality (Prendergast & Wong, 2003), brand loyalty (Bloemer & Kasper, 2003), prestige (Vigneron & Johnson, 1999) and innovation (Raju, 1980). Consumers' evaluation and selection processes may be the result of their emotional desires, which drive consumers to select products that fulfil specific and particular needs (Tsang & Prendergast, 2009). …”

National cultures and their impact on electronic word of mouth: a systematic review

“…Specifically, collectivists provide less negative eWOM (Fang et al, 2013), give higher ratings (Banerjee and Chai, 2019), and are more aligned with the general consensus (Koh et al, 2010). Noticeably, although the ratings are generally high, their true experience can be reflected in the eWOM content, which was found to be inconsistent with ratings (Tsang and Prendergast, 2009). Their eWOM also does not include much emotions (Hong et al, 2016).…”

“…Furthermore, collectivists tend to provide more global assessments of their product or service experiences, rather than product details. They are more likely to jump around the bush and include non-product statements in their eWOM, compared to their individualist counterparts (Tsang and Gerard, 2009). As collectivists care about their mianzi (i.e.…”

“…Apparently, these consumers might be more susceptible to social approval and avoid putting their self-esteem in danger by deviating from the general consensus of the in-group. Even though these types of eWOM are perceived by other consumers as less helpful (Hong et al , 2016), they do provide the company or brand with generally higher ratings (Tsang and Prendergast, 2009). In contrast, individualists are often more negative, provide lower ratings (Banerjee and Chai, 2019), deviate from the average or general consensus (Leon, 2019), be more emotional (Zhu et al , 2017), and display more extreme feedback when highly dissatisfied (Koh et al , 2010).…”

“…First, how cultural values affect the content of eWOM should be examined across different platforms and groups. Previous studies show that individualists share more information, especially detailed product experiences, than do their collectivist counterparts (Tsang and Gerard, 2009). However, such a difference appears to be observed in public contexts such as online reviews.…”