Cross-Cultural Consumer Behavior: A Review of Research Findings

Most aspects of consumer behavior are culture-bound. This article reviews the cultural relationships with the self, personality, and attitude, which are the basis of consumer behavior models and branding and advertising strategies. The Hofstede model is used to explain variance. Other consumer behavior aspects reviewed are motivation and emotions, cognitive processes such as abstract versus concrete thinking, categorization and information processing, as well as consumer behavior domains such as product ownership, decision making, and adoption and diffusion of innovations. Implications for global branding and advertising are included.