The Role of Social Environment and Personality: Validation of Antecedents of Intercultural Communication Competence and its Effects on Customer Satisfaction

Abstract

The article aims to better understand the impact of intercultural communication, social environment and personality on customer satisfaction and loyalty in grocery retailing. In this endeavour, the study illustrates the unique context of intercultural communication, to highlight several improvements in the literature, and to encourage the advancement of the intercultural communication in the literature. To initiate the research, a survey approach was taken. 681 questionnaires were returned out of 1100 that were distributed within selected grocery retailers in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The measurement of the constructs and their interrelationships are examined based on partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings validate the proposed framework with statistically significant relationships among all constructs. Furthermore, it exposes additional insights into some practical and conceptual solutions for addressing the intercultural communication of culturally diverse encounters in the Malaysian grocery retail industry. These contributions postulate an impetus for future research in various service settings. Based on the theories, the study assesses the role of the social environment of grocery retail consumers and their personalities on intercultural communication competence (ICC) and its impact on inter-role congruence and interaction comfort. It is anticipated that by filling this knowledge gap, the research will assist in strengthening retail communication strategies, which require intercultural communication adjustments in a multicultural business environment. The ICC is expected to improve the retail industry competitiveness when it positively influences inter-role congruence and interaction comfort among customers.

Muslim customer’s shopping experiences in multicultural retail environment

“…For example, an individual in a multicultural team who has a foreign accent was frequently more culturally distant than another who can speak the official language fluently (Hill and Tombs, 2011). The same study also found that the call-centre employee (with American, British and Indian accent) influenced customers’ perceptions and interpretations during shopping experience (Ihtiyar and Shannon, 2016). Thus, the process of clarifying and decoding interactions during ISEs is crucial to understand the consequences of service experiences.…”

“…Malaysia stands in contrast to its Asian counterparts of homogenous societies, such as Japan, South Korea and China. Therefore, marketers require a unique understanding of diversity regardless of whether the business operations remain local or go global (Ihtiyar and Shannon, 2016).…”

Cultural Dynamics and Sustainable Consumption: a Perception of Brazilian Students in Germany

“…It occurs in a physical and social context, in which factors such as time, location, and intensity of social relations among its participants, in addition to the influence of competing messages, should be considered (Ihtiyar, 2018). Members of a culture share a common key to interpret their social environment and establish rules to govern interactions (Craig & Douglas, 2006).…”