SCP Boutique Conference

With increasing globalization, the need to understand how consumers’ cultural background and values shape their judgments, choice, and behaviors has never been more important for firms. For example, more than 70% of sales of US companies come from outside the country. Coca-Cola earns 75% of operating income and two-thirds of profit outside of North America. The figures for some other countries like Japan and Germany are even higher at 90% and 94%, respectively.

Not surprisingly, a great deal of research in the last few decades has focused on the role of culture in consumer behavior. For instance, in the persuasion domain, extensive research has clearly established that the content of and responses to advertising appeals are culturally influenced. Some cultures are more likely to use certain kinds of ad appeals than are other cultures (e.g., Alden, Hoyer, and Lee, 1993; Choi and Miracle, 2004; Han and Shavitt, 1994; Hong, Muderrisoglu, and Zinkhan, 1987; Kim and Markus, 1999).

However, nearly all of the evidence accumulated so far has dealt with the distinction between individualist (IND) and collectivist (COL), or independent and interdependent, cultural classifications. Recognizing this limitation, Shavitt et al. (2006) issued a call to researchers to go beyond the individualism-collectivism dichotomy and examine alternate dimensions of culture, given the limitations of studying a single dimension to explain vast and multifaceted phenomena associated with culture. Paying heed to this call, researchers have recently begun to examine the role of alternate dimensions of culture, such as power distance belief (e.g., Han, Lalwani, and Duhachek 2017; Lalwani and Forcum 2016; Zhang, Winterich, and Mittal 2010; Winterich and Zhang 2014), local-global identity (e.g., Gao, Zhang, and Mittal 2016: Zhang and Khare 2009; Yang, Sun, Lalwani, and Janakiraman 2019), and tight versus loose cultures (Li, Gordon, and Gelfand, 2017). Furthermore, in the Handbook of Culture and Consumer Behavior, Ng and Lee (2015) also called for more research on the impact of culture on other aspects of marketing that have received minimal attention in the literature (e.g., pricing, consumer well-being, financial decision making).

This proposed conference aims to showcase the latest research on cross-cultural consumer behavior. The conference will be open to those with a serious interest in understanding how culture shapes consumers’ judgments, choices, responses, and behaviors through high rigorous theoretical and empirical research. In addition, specific researchers engaged in research in the area will be encouraged to participate and share insights regarding the antecedents, consequences, processes, and boundary conditions relating to the role of culture. A unique highlight of the conference will be a keynote speech by a world-renowned scholar who can give a good perspective on recent developments in cross-cultural consumer behavior and topics needing more work.