Blodgett Article 1 - Cross-National Differences in Complaint Behavior: Cultural or Situational?
Research Gap
To determine the extent to which cross-national differences in complaint behavior are due to cultural vs.
situational factors. - In China, India, Mexico and USA
LOS: Likelihood of success
REDRESS: probability that they would ask for a refund or try to exchange the item
NWOM: engage in negative word-of-mouth
EXIT: never shop there again
Findings/Discussion
- Situational factors have a large impact on consumer complaint behavior and the effects of cultural are
minor - Refund, return and exchange policies more restricted in USA than China, India and Mexico
- Masculinity small impact on REDRESS o HOWEVER, no effect of cultural variables on neither NWOM nor
EXIT
- Individuals living in China, India and Mexico – as compared to USA –less likely to seek REDRESS when
dissatisfied o not because of cultural orientation, but because they perceive that the retailer will not
allow them to return or exchange. More likely NWOM and/or EXIT
- Practical implication: concern to all retailers: “shown that the manner of managing customer
dissatisfaction impact on customer loyalty, sales, and profits.
o Guarantee satisfaction and offer consumer-friendly return and exchange policies gain
competitive advantage.
Research limitations/implications -
No control for:
o all socio-demographic (e.g. social class),
o personal (e.g. consumer confidence, assertiveness) and
o situational factors (e.g. product importance, time and effort required to complain, price and
product quality) Which might affect one’s behavior - No consideration of:
o Country of origin
o retailer locally or part of a large chain
Influence on expectations
- Product vs. service context
- Respondents tended to be more highly educated and affluent “global consumers” o
- Future studies: whether national culture has a stronger influence on consumers from other socio-economic
levels. Particularly relevant in emerging markets, with increasing numbers of middle-class consumers - Did
not account indirect effect of culture
- Future research: complaint behavior using other cultural frameworks, such as Schwartz, GLOBE
, Wilken Article 2 Cultural Influences on Preferences Consistency: Consistency at Individual and Collective Level
Research gap: “To expand the understanding of cultural influences on preference consistency in two ways”:
1.By examining preference consistency over time
2.and by examining it not only at individual level but also at the collective level. In this case they study the
differences between Americans (individual) and Japanese (collective)
Importance
-Problem can arise when inferences about the group-level characteristics are drawn from individual-level characteristics
(or vice versa), a phenomenon termed the ecological fallacy.
-Individuals do not always aggregate into group-level due to the presence of a third factor. → It is possible that cultural
differences in preference consistency found at the individual level may not be observed at the collective level,
potentially due to societal factors such as the need to be unique.
Hypotheses
1.“It is known that Americans value uniqueness. Given that the need to distinguish the self from dissimilar others can
facilitate the abandonment of preferences, the US cultural emphasis on uniqueness may lead to less collective level
preference consistency, in opposition to the preference consistency among Americans at the individual.”
2.Americans will be more consistent than Japanese in their collective level preference.
Set up: Study 1: Individual Study 2: Collective Study 3: Collective preference trends for cultural products time.
Findings and Implications
Study 1:
Finding: “Initial evidence for cultural differences in preference consistency over time.” (while other studies shown
differences in the consistency of individuals’ self-concepts across situation) → “American maintain their preferences
across time for longer than do Japanese”
Implication: study 1 based on individual level → unclear as to whether or not Americans and Japanese differ in
preference consistency at the collective level (study 2).
also manifest in collective level preference trends, because items are more likely to be chosen and preferred based on
their expressive value (stable over time across individuals within a society)
Study 2:
Finding: data from two separate samples over time confirms the second hypothesis. That is, Americans not only report
that they are more consistent in their collective preferences than Japanese, but this is also the actual cultural reality
reflected by trend reports from a new sample one year later.
Study 3:
Finding: Combined, all four analyses show that at the collective level, actual cultural product trends in America decline at
a slower rate than do preference trends in Japan.5 Therefore, these findings provide additional support for the assertion
that Americans are more consistent in their collective preferences over time.
General findings
-These findings illustrate that Westerners' consistency can be observed in the consistency of their preferences over time
at both the individual and collective levels.
-The present research showed that Americans are more consistent than Japanese in their preferences over time.
Further, it was found that Americans' preference consistency at the individual level can aggregate into consistency of
collective preferences in the form of societal trends. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence of cultural differences in
both individual and collective level preferences
-Such dialectical thinking among East Asians may in fact influence how consistent individuals are in their preferences and
provides strong support for the present findings of preference consistency across time.
General implications
• Future research could examine other factors to disentangle the processes underlying collective level differences.
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