CULTURE’S CONSEQUENCES ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Ah Keng Kau and Kwon Jung
National University of Singapore and
KDI School of Public Policy and Management, Korea

January 2004

ABSTRACT
Culture is a powerful force in regulating human behavior. Although many researchers have sought to understand the influence of culture on consumer behavior, most of their attempts were made in a piecemeal basis (i.e. examining effects of certain aspect of culture on a specific aspect of consumer behavior). Relatively little attempt has been made to develop a general framework of cultural influence on consumer behavior that examines effects of various aspects of culture on various aspects of consumer behaviors at the same time.
In this study, conceptual relationships pertaining to cultural effects on consumer behavior are explored based on Hofstede’s (1980) four dimensions of cultural differences. Various aspects of consumer behaviors are identified and linked to each of the four cultural dimensions, and then propositions which relate the cultural dimensions to the consumer behaviors are developed based on the reviews of their relationships