Research on the influence of culture on consumer decision-making and consumption behavior has witnessed tremendous growth in the last decade. With increasing globalization, managers are becoming increasingly aware that operating in multiple markets is crucial for firms' survival and growth. As the world's growth engine shifts from Europe and North America to Asia and Latin America, it has become apparent that an inward-looking and domestic focus strategy will not be sustainable in the long run. And success in foreign markets requires marketers to understand not just what consumers in these markets need but also how they think, behave, consume, and purchase. Numerous studies have documented cultural differences in values and beliefs, motivational orientations, emotions, self-regulation, and information-processing styles, and the effects of these cultural variations on consumer behavior such as brand evaluation, materialism, and impulsive consumption. In this volume, experts from a variety of disciplines and perspectives trace the historical development of culture research in consumer psychology and examine the theoretical underpinnings that account for these findings and the current state of the field. Collectively, the chapters provide a forum for researchers to engage in thoughtful debates and stimulating conversations and offer directions for future research.
Sharon Ng is Associate Professor of Marketing in Nanyang Business School at Nayang Technological University (NTU) and a fellow in the Institute on Asian Consumer Insights. She received her PhD from the University of Minnesota and has published in the top marketing journals, such as the Journal of Marketing Research and Journal of Consumer Research. Her research focuses on culture, branding, and sustainability issues. She was named the 2009 MSI Young Scholar by the Marketing Science Institute and was also awarded the Nanyang Excellence in Teaching Award in 2009 and Researcher of the Division Award in 2006, 2008, and 2010 by NTU. She sits on the editorial board of the Australasian Marketing Journal and reviews regularly for the top marketing and psychology journals.
Angela Y. Lee is a consumer psychologist and the Mechthild Esser Nemmers Professor of Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Her expertise is in consumer learning, emotions, and goals, and her research focuses on the conscious and nonconscious influences of memory, consumer motivation, and cross-cultural consumer psychology. Her publications appear in leading journals in marketing as well as in psychology, and she is the coeditor of
Kellogg on China (Northwestern University Press, 2004). She was the recipient of the 2006 Stanley Reiter Best Paper Award for her research on self-regulation and persuasion, and the 2002 Otto Klineberg Award for the best paper on international and intercultural relations. She was formerly the president of the Association for Consumer Research and currently serves on the board of the American Marketing Association as well as on the editorial boards of the
Journal of Consumer Research and the
Journal of Marketing Research.
