Providing more or providing less?: Accounting for cultural differences in consumers' preference for variety

International Marketing Review

Volumn 23, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 7-24

  Herrmann, Andreas ^a   Heitmann, Mark ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ST GALLEN   (Switzerland)

Author keywords

Consumer behaviour; Cross cultural studies; International marketing; Standardization

Indexed keywords

EID: 33644555552     PISSN: 02651335     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1108/02651330610646278     Document Type: Article

References (99)

1. Aaker, J., Benet-Martinez, V. and Garolera, J. (2001), “Consumption symbols as carriers of culture: a study of Japanese and Spanish brand personality constructs”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 81 No. 3, pp. 492-508.
2. Agarwal, M.K. (1995), “Review of 40-year debate in international advertising”, International Marketing Review, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 26-48.
3. Anderson, C.J. (2003), “The psychology of doing nothing: forms of decision avoidance result from reason and emotion”, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 129 No. 1, pp. 139-67.
4. Aronson, E. (1968), “Dissonance theory: progress and problems”, in Ed. Abelson, R., Ed. Aronson, E., Ed. McGuire, W., Ed. Newcomb, T., Ed. Rosenberg, M. and Ed. Tannenbaum, R. (Eds), The Cognitive Consistency Theories: A Source Book, Rand McNally, Chicago, IL, pp. 5-27.
5. Au, T.K. (1983), “Chinese and English counterfactuals: the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis revisted”, Cognition, Vol. 15 No. 2, pp. 155-87.
6. Bellah, R.N., Madsen, R., Sullivan, W.M., Swidler, A. and Tipton, S.M. (1985), Habits of Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life, Harper & Row, New York, NY.
7. Bettman, J.R. and Park, C.W. (1980), “Effects of prior knowledge and experience and phase of the choice process on consumer decision processes: a protocol analysis”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 234-48.
8. Bettman, J., Luce, M.F. and Payne, J.W. (1998), “Constructive consumer choice processes”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 25 No. 3, pp. 187-217.
9. Bettman, J.R., Abrams, I.J., Frank, R.E., Green, P.E., Kadushin, C., Montgomery, D. and Warwick, K.M. (1970), “Information processing models of consumer behavior”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 370-6.
10. Biswas, A., Olsen, J. and Carlet, V. (1992), “A comparison of print advertisements from the United States and France”, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 21 No. 4, pp. 73-81.
11. Bloom, A. (1981), The Linguistic Shaping of Thought, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.
12. Broniarczyk, S.M., Hoyer, W.D. and McAlister, L. (1998), “Consumers' perceptions of the assortment offered in a grocery category: the impact of item reduction”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 35 No. 2, pp. 166-76.
13. Chernev, A. (2003), “When more is less and less is more: the role of ideal point availability and assortment in consumer choice”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 30 No. 2, pp. 170-83.
14. Chu, P.C. and Spriles, E.E. (1999), “Cross-cultural differences in choice behavior and use of decision aids: a comparison of Japan and the United States”, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Vol. 77 No. 2, pp. 147-70.
15. Connolly, T., Ordóñez, L.D. and Coughlan, R. (1997), “Regret and responsibility in the evaluation of decision outcomes”, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Vol. 70 No. 1, pp. 73-85.
16. Crawford, M.T., McConnel, A.R., Lewis, A.C. and Sherman, S.J. (2002), “Reactance, compliance, and anticipated regret”, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 38 No. 1, pp. 56-63.
17. Deci, E.L. and Ryan, R.M. (1985), Intrinsic Motivation and Self-determination in Human Behavior, Plenum Press, New York, NY.
18. Drolet, A. (2002), “Inherent rule variability in consumer choice: changing rules for change's sake”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 29 No. 3, pp. 293-305.
19. Geertz, C. (1975), “On the nature of anthropological understanding”, American Scientist, Vol. 63 No. 1, pp. 47-53.
20. Gilmore, J.H. and Pine, J.I. (1997), “The four faces of mass customization”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 75 No. 1, pp. 91-101.
21. Gilovich, T. and Medvec, V.H. (1995), “The experience of regret: what, when and why”, Psychological Review, Vol. 102 No. 2, pp. 379-95.
22. Gilovich, T., Wang, R.F. and Regan, D. (2003), “Regrets of action and inaction across cultures”, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Vol. 34 No. 1, pp. 61-71.
23. Greenleaf, E.A. and Lehmann, D.R. (1995), “Reasons for substantial delay in consumer decision making”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 186-99.
24. Greenwald, A.G. and Ronis, D.L. (1978), “Twenty years of cognitive dissonance: case study of the evolution of a theory”, Psychological Review, Vol. 85 No. 1, pp. 53-7.
25. Hamaguchi, E. (1985), “A contextual model of the Japanese: toward a methodological innovation in Japan studies”, Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 289-321.
26. Harvey, M.G. (1993), “Point of view: a model to determine standardization of the advertising process in international markets”, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 33 No. 4, pp. 57-64.
27. Heine, S.J. and Lehman, D.R. (1997), “Culture, dissonance, and self-affirmation”, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 389-400.
28. Heine, S.J. and Lehman, D.R. (1999), “Culture, self-discrepancies, and self-satisfaction”, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 25 No. 8, pp. 915-25.
29. Heine, S.J., Lehman, D.R., Markus, H.R. and Kitayama, S. (1999), “Is there a universal need for positive self-regard?”, Psychological Review, Vol. 106 No. 4, pp. 766-94.
30. Hoch, S.J., Bradlow, E.T. and Wansink, B. (1999), “The variety of an assortment”, Marketing Science, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 527-46.
31. Hofstede, G. (2001), Culture's Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations across Nations, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
32. Hsee, C. and Weber, E.U. (1999), “Cross-national differences in risk preference and lay predictions”, Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 165-79.
33. Huber, O. (1980), “The influence of some task variables on cognitive operations in an informations-processing decision model”, Acta Psychologica, Vol. 45 Nos 1/3, pp. 187-96.
34. Huffman, C. and Kahn, B.E. (1998), “Variety for sale: mass customization or mass confusion?”, Journal of Retailing, Vol. 74 No. 4, pp. 491-513.
35. Iyengar, S.S. and Lepper, M.R. (1999), “Rethinking the value of choice: a cultural perspective on intrinsic motivation”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 76 No. 3, pp. 349-66.
36. Iyengar, S.S. and Lepper, M.R. (2000), “When choice is demotivating: can one desire too much of a good thing?”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 79 No. 6, pp. 995-1006.
37. Jacoby, J., Speller, D.E. and Kohn, C.A. (1974), “Brand choice behavior as a function of information load”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 63-69.
38. Ji, L., Yates, J.J. and Oka, T. (2000), “Are Americans more decisive than Japanese and Chinese?”, poster presented at the Society for Judgment and Decision Making Conference, New Orleans, LA.
39. Johnson, E.J. and Payne, J.W. (1985), “Effort and accuracy in choice”, Management Science, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 394-414.
40. Kahn, B.E. (1995), “Consumer variety-seeking among goods and services: an integrative review”, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol. 2 No. 3, pp. 139-48.
41. Kahn, B.E. (1998), “Dynamic relationships with customers: high variety strategies”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 45-53.
42. Kahn, B.E. and Lehmann, D.R. (1991), “Modeling choice among assortments”, Journal of Retailing, Vol. 67 No. 3, pp. 274-89.
43. Kahneman, D. and Miller, D.T. (1986), “Norm theory: comparing reality to its alternatives”, Psychological Review, Vol. 93 No. 2, pp. 136-53.
44. Kahneman, D. and Tversky, A. (1979), “Prospect theory: an analysis of decision under risk”, Econometrica, Vol. 47 No. 2, pp. 263-91.
45. Kanwar, R. (1993), “The influence of perceived risk and advertising copy claims on the consumption behavior of Asian Indian consumers”, Journal of International Consumer Marketing, Vol. 5 No. 4, pp. 7-28.
46. Kim, H.S. and Drolet, A. (2003), “Choice and self-expression: a cultural analysis of variety-seeking”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 85 No. 2, pp. 373-82.
47. Kim, H.S. and Markus, H.M. (1999), “Deviance and uniqueness, harmony or conformity? A cultural analysis”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 77 No. 4, pp. 785-800.
48. Kitayama, S., Matsumoto, H., Markus, H.R. and Norasakkunkit, V. (1997), “Individual and collective processes in the construction of the self: self-enhancement in the United States and self-criticism in Japan”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 72 No. 6, pp. 1245-67.
49. Kitayama, S., Snibbe, A.C. and Markus, H.R. (2004), “Is there any ‘Free’ choice? Self and dissonance in two cultures”, Psychological Science, Vol. 15 No. 8, pp. 527-33.
50. Kreps, D.M. (1979), “A representation theorem of preference for flexibility”, Econometrica, Vol. 47 No. 3, pp. 565-77.
51. Langer, E.J. (1975), “The illusion of control”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 32 No. 2, pp. 311-28.
52. Lehmann, D.R. (1998), “Customer reactions to variety: too much of a good thing?”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 62-5.
53. Levav, J. and Ariely, D. (2000), “Sequential variety-seeking in group settings: taking the road less traveled and less enjoyed”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 279-90.
54. Levitt, T. (1983), “The globalization of markets”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 61 No. 3, pp. 92-102.
55. McAlister, L. and Pessemier, E.A. (1982), “Variety-seeking behavior: an interdisciplinary review”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 311-22.
56. McConnell, A.R., Niedermeier, K.E., Leibold, J.M., Eil-Alayli, A.G., Chin, P.P. and Kuiper, N.M. (2000), “What if I find it cheaper someplace else? Role of prefactual thinking and anticipated regret in consumer behavior”, Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 281-98.
57. McDaniels, T.L. and Gregory, R.S. (1991), “A framework for structuring cross-cultural research in risk and decision making”, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 103-28.
58. McFadden, D. (1986), “The choice theory approach to market research”, Marketing Science, Vol. 5 No. 4, pp. 275-97.
59. McSweeney, B. (2002), “Hofstede's model of national cultural differences and their consequences: a triumph of faith – a failure of analysis”, Human Relations, Vol. 55 No. 1, pp. 89-118.
60. Malhotra, N.K., Jain, A.K. and Lagakos, S.W. (1982), “The information overload controversy: an alternative viewpoint”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 46 No. 2, pp. 27-37.
61. Mann, L., Radford, M., Burnett, P., Ford, S., Bond, M. and Leung, K. (1998), “Cross-cultural differences in self-reported decision making style and confidence”, International Journal of Psychology, Vol. 33 No. 5, pp. 325-35.
62. Markus, H.R. and Kitayama, S. (1991), “Culture and the self: implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation”, Psychological Review, Vol. 98 No. 2, pp. 224-52.
63. Markus, H.R. and Kitayama, S. (2003), “Culture, self, and the reality of the social”, Psychological Inquiry, Vol. 14 Nos 3/4, pp. 277-83.
64. Onkvisit, S. and Shaw, J.J. (1999), “Standardized international advertising: some research issues and implications”, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 39 No. 6, pp. 19-24.
65. Ordonez, L.D. and Connolly, T. (2000), “Regret and responsibility: a reply to Zeelenberg et al.”, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Vol. 81 No. 1, pp. 132-42.
66. Ratner, R.K., Kahn, B.E. and Kahneman, D. (1999), “Choosing less-preferred experiences for the sake of variety”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 1-15.
67. Reinschauer, E.O. (1977), The Japanese, Tuttle, Tokyo.
68. Russo, E.J. and Dosher, B.A. (1983), “Strategies for multiattribute binary choice”, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 676-96.
69. Ryans, J.K., Griffith, D.A. and White, S.D. (2003), “Standardization/adaptation of international marketing strategy”, International Marketing Review, Vol. 20 No. 6, pp. 588-603.
70. Schwartz, B. (2000), “Self-determination: the tyranny of freedom”, American Psychologist, Vol. 55 No. 1, pp. 79-88.
71. Schwartz, B., Ward, A., Monterosso, J., Lyubomirsky, S., White, K. and Lehman, D.R. (2002), “Maximizing versus satisficing: happiness is a matter of choice”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 83 No. 5, pp. 1178-97.
72. Schwartz, S.H. (1994), “Beyond individualism/collectivism: new cultural dimensions of value”, in Ed. Kim, U., Ed. Triandis, H.C., Ed. Kagitçibas, Ç., Ed. Choice, S.C. and Ed. Yoon, G. (Eds), Individualism and Collectivism: Theory, Methods and Applications, Sage, London, pp. 85-119.
73. Shugan, S.M. (1980), “The cost of thinking”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 99-111.
74. Shweder, R.A. and Sullivan, M.A. (1993), “Cultural psychology: who needs it?”, Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 44 No. 1, pp. 497-523.
75. Simonson, I. (1990), “The effect of purchase quantity and timing on variety seeking behavior”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 150-62.
76. Sirisagul, K. (2000), “Global advertising practices: a comparative study”, Journal of Global Marketing, Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 77-97.
77. Slovic, P. (1995), “The construction of preference”, American Psychologist, Vol. 50 No. 5, pp. 364-71.
78. Snyder, M. and Fromkin, H.L. (1980), Uniqueness: The Human Pursuit of Difference, Plenum Press, New York, NY.
79. Solberg, C.A. (2000), “Standardization or adaptation of the international marketing mix: the role of the local subsidiary/representative”, Journal of International Marketing, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 78-98.
80. Steele, C.M. (1988), “The psychology of self-affirmation: sustaining the integrity of the self”, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 21 No. 2, pp. 261-302.
81. Steele, C.M. and Liu, T.J. (1983), “Dissonance processes as self-affirmation”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 45 No. 1, pp. 5-19.
82. Szymanski, D.M., Bharadwaj, S.G. and Varadarajan, R.P. (1993), “Standardization versus adaptation of international marketing strategy: an empirical investigation”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 57 No. 4, pp. 1-17.
83. Taylor, S.E. and Brown, J.D. (1988), “Illusion and well-being: a social psychological perspective on mental health”, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 103 No. 2, pp. 193-210.
84. Tian, K.T., Bearden, W.O. and Hunter, G.L. (2001), “Consumers' need to uniqueness: scale development and validation”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 50-66.
85. Triandis, H.C. (1995), Individualism and Collectivism, Westview Press, Boulder, CO.
86. Trout, J. and Rivkin, S. (2000), Differentiate or Die – Survival in our Era of Killer Competition, Wiley, New York, NY.
87. Tse, D.K., Lee, K., Vertinsky, I. and Wehrung, D.A. (1988), “Does culture matter? A cross-cultural study of executives' choice, decisiveness, and risk adjustment in international marketing”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 52 No. 4, pp. 181-95.
88. Tsiros, M. and Mittal, V. (2000), “Regret: a model of its antecedents and consequences in consumer decision making”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 401-17.
89. Tversky, A. (1972), “Elimination by aspects: a theory of choice”, Psychological Review, Vol. 79 No. 4, pp. 281-99.
90. Wathieu, L., Brenner, L., Carmon, Z., Chattopadhyay, A., Drolet, A., Gourville, J.T., Novemsky, N., Ratner, R.K., Wertenbroch, K. and Wu, G. (2002), “Consumer control and empowerment: a primer”, Marketing Letters, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 297-305.
91. Wierzbicka, A. (1994), “Emotion, language, and cultural scripts”, in Ed. Kitayama, S. and Ed. Markus, H.R. (Eds), Emotion and Culture: Empirical Illustrations of Mutual Influence, American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, pp. 133-96.
92. Wright, P. and Barbour, F. (1975), “The relevance of decision process models in structuring persuasive messages”, Communication Research, Vol. 2 No. 2, pp. 246-59.
93. Wright, G.N., Phillips, L.D., Whalley, P.C., Choo, G.T., Ng, K., Tan, I. and Wisudha, A. (1978), “Cultural differences in probabilistic thinking”, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Vol. 15 No. 2, pp. 239-57.
94. Yavas, U., Verhage, B.J. and Green, R.T. (1992), “Global segmentation versus local market orientation: empirical findings”, Management International Review, Vol. 32 No. 3, pp. 265-72.
95. Zeelenberg, M. (1996), “On the importance of what might have been: psychological perspectives on regret and decision making”, PhD Dissertation, University of Amsterdam.
96. Zeelenberg, M. (1999a), “Anticipated regret, expected feedback and behavioral decision making”, Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 93-106.
97. Zeelenberg, M. (1999b), “The use of crying over spilled milk: a note on the rationality and functionality of regret”, Philosophical Psychology, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 325-40.
98. Zou, S. and Tamer, C.S. (2002), “The GMS: a broad conceptualization of global marketing strategy and its effect on firm performance”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 66 No. 4, pp. 40-56.
99. McAlister, L. (1982), “A dynamic attribute satiation model of variety-seeking behavior”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 141-50.