| International marketers need to understand how cross-cultural differences will affect consumer decision-making styles. Several researchers that are exploring this issue are pursuing two schools of thought. One group sees the cross-cultural effect as real, and the other group suggests that the world has become a global culture because of globalization and new communication technologies. Hofstede dimensions of national culture classified society culture according to values and behaviors of its members. The objective of this study is to examine how far away from Chinese consumer behavior is the United States consumer behavior regarding those cultural differences and to investigate the effect of demographics such as age. This quantitative study was conducted to investigate the impact of national culture (individualism/collectivism) on consumer decision-making styles (quality and brand conscious). Most of all it examined the moderating effect of age on the link between individualism/collectivism and the two Sproles and Kendall's consumer styles. This quantitative study was conducted through survey questionnaire with 161 participants collected from China and the United States. The survey containing questions on quality and brand consciousness, and demographics were conducted on Survey Monkey online platform. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was conducted. Several indices such as chi-square statistic, the CFI, the RMSEA, the SRMR, the AIC, and the BIC were used to assess model fit. The findings indicate that individualism/collectivism significantly affects the level of brand conscious but does not affect the quality conscious. The findings also indicate the absence of significance in the moderating effect of age. The findings show mixed suggestion for the application of Hofstede framework regarding cultural dimensions. This study is limited to draw a conclusion to confirm or disconfirm how consumers' cultural background impacts their decision-making styles. Further study in the topic must be extended to all cultural dimensions and all eight Sproles, and Kendall's (1986) consumer style index (CSI), and including more countries before drawing any exhaustive conclusion. Other moderating studies were recommended. |
