Special issue on cross-cultural and cross-national consumer research: psychology, behavior, and beyond

Citation

(2013), "Special issue on cross-cultural and cross-national consumer research: psychology, behavior, and beyond", International Marketing Review, Vol. 30 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/imr.2013.03630baa.002

Special issue on cross-cultural and cross-national consumer research: psychology, behavior, and beyond

Article Type: Call for papers From: International Marketing Review, Volume 30, Issue 2.

Guest edited by: Dr Nina Michaelidou, Dr Louise Hassan, Professor Nina Reynolds and Dr Luke Greenacre

The objective of this special issue is to extend the debate on the role of culture in consumer decision making and examine psychological influences on consumer behavior in cross-cultural and cross-national contexts.

While globalization and multiculturalism affect markets and societies there is also the suggestion that consumers’ needs and attitudes are converging. This convergence is leading marketing practitioner to standardize their marketing practices. New trends in global consumer markets and the technological advances of online and social media marketing increase the similarity of consumers of different nations. This emergence of a ‘‘global consumer culture’’ (Cleveland andLaroche, 2007; Zhou et al., 2008) allows companies to standardize their branding and communication strategies. Albeit, consumers’ perceptions of ‘‘globalness’’ (Steenkamp et al., 2003) are influenced by psychological characteristics (e.g. ethnocentrism, Akaka and Alden 2010). The extent to which a ‘‘global consumer culture’’ exists versus the notion that some consumer behavior is culture-bound (Craig and Douglas, 2006; De Mooij, 2011) has implications for consumers’ acceptance of marketers’ practices.

Consumers from different countries and cultures may be similar on some dimensions but differ on others. This provides researchers with the opportunity to explore how changes in multiple aspects of the cultural and national context can influence consumer theory. Crosscultural and cross-national consumer research helps marketers to understand how the process of marketing to consumers, and the facilitation of marketing exchanges, must be re-examined when entering new national contexts. Are there cultural and/or national contexts in which our base assumptions of consumer behavior may no longer hold? If so, what impact do such contexts have on our understanding of consumer theory? Many authors have found differences in consumer behavior across cultures and nations, which impact marketing practices (De Mooij and Hofstede, 2010; Sengun and Townsend, 2003). Extant literature has found numerous dimensions on which nations differ including cultural characteristics, regulatory and social policy, market conditions, and communications. Examining the impact of these, and other, factors onconsumers leads to the expansion of consumer theory. In some cases entirely new areas of theory have emerged in response to the discovery of cross-cultural and cross-national differences in how consumers think and act.

The guest editors invite theoretical and empirical papers on crosscultural and cross-national consumer research (please refer to Cadogan, 2010). Papers submitted to this special issue could consider issues associated with the theories we use to understand consumers, how consumers’ interact with marketing actions, or how we can improve our study of consumers across multiple cultures/nations. Topics might examine, but are not limited to, the following:

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  Differences in consumers’ psychology including perceptions, values, needs and motivations across cultures and nations

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  Self-identity and personality traits across cultures, and nations including variety and novelty seeking, consumer innovativeness andopinion leadership

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  Cross-cultural and cross-national comparisons of attitudes, and attitudinal theories and models including the theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behaviour

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  Acculturation or other similar changes in consumers associated with changes in nationality or migration

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  Consumers’ information processing, categorization and responses to marketing contexts and environments, including emotions and cognitions across cultures and nations

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  Consumer’s perceptions of global brands and brand personality across-cultures

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  Customer engagement behaviors, including complaining and co-creation across cultures and nations

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  Interaction between cultural- and/or national-specific variables, such as examination of covariates (e.g. language) and how they influence cross-cultural and cross-national consumer psychology and behavior

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  Methodological issues in cross-cultural and cross-national consumer research including problems and solutions related to sampling, data collection and/or analysis.

Submissions

Manuscript submissions must follow the guidelines of the International Marketing Review. Instructions for authors can be found at:www.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/author_guidelines. htm?id=imr

Papers must be submitted online via the ScholarOne Manuscripts system (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/imrev). All papers will undergo a standard double-blind review process with three reviewers. Informal queries regarding guest editors’ expectations or the suitability of specific research topics can be directed to either Dr Nina Michaelidou (N.Michaelidou@lboro.ac.uk) or Professor Nina Reynolds (n.reynolds@soton.ac.uk).

The closing date for submissions is: 30 September 2013.