Nancy D. Albers-Miller

Business Advertising Appeals as a Mirror of Cultural Dimensions: A Study of Eleven Countries

Abstract Across cultures, do systematic differences in advertising content mirror predictable differences in the cultures themselves? The authors designed a study to shed light on that question, using Hofstedes cultural model as a tool for analyzing cultures and using advertising appeals identified by Pollay. After coding advertisements in business publications from 11 countries for the appeals employed, they computed correlation coefficients relating the proportional use of each appeal and Hofstedes cultural dimensions: individualism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, and masculinity. The culture-reflecting quality of advertising was supported for 10 of 30 hypothesized relationships, and for an additional eight after removal of outliers from the data.

Consumer misbehavior: why people buy illicit goods

Trade in contraband amounts to billions of dollars each year, and yet the buyers of these products are still a mystery. The purpose of this study was to model the decision to purchase illicit goods, using four predictor measures: product type, buying situation, perceived criminal risk, and price. Part‐worth conjoint analysis was used to obtain individual weights of main effects and selected interaction effects on the willingness to purchase. Individual respondents evaluated the purchase of illicit goods differently. Cluster analysis was used to segment the respondents. Discriminant analysis was used to assess variable importance. The overall model was shown to be significant. Although the results varied by cluster, the main effects of product type, buying situation and price were all significant predictors of willingness to buy. The interactions of risk with product type and price with product type were also significant predictors for some clusters.

An international analysis of emotional and rational appeals in services vs goods advertising

The growth of international business, combined with an increase in the number of service offerings, underscores the importance of understanding effective promotional strategies for services versus goods in international markets. The current study examines advertising appeals for services and goods across four different countries: Brazil, Taiwan, Mexico and the USA. Results of a content analysis indicate that the use of rational and emotional appeals differs across both product type and country. It is suggested that culture plays a role in the use of the appeals and that the product type × country interaction is strongly reflected in Taiwanese and US advertising.

An international investigation of cultural and demographic effects on domestic retail loyalty

Noting the lack of research on cultural effects on retailing, the present study uses the cultural framework developed by Hofstede as the foundation for an investigation of loyalty to domestic retailers. A multi‐country survey of consumer attitudes about domestic versus international retailers explored the effects of two cultural variables (individualism and uncertainty avoidance), two individual‐level demographic variables (age and sex), and one country‐level demographic variable (the ratio of imports to GDP). Results indicated that cultural individualism is negatively correlated with loyalty to domestic retailers, uncertainty avoidance is positively related to loyalty to domestic retailers, the ratio of foreign imports to GDP is negatively correlated to loyalty to domestic retailers, and men exhibit greater loyalty to domestic retailers than women do. Age was not a significant predictor. A procedure is presented for extending these findings to more than 45 additional countries. Implications of these findings for international strategic planning by retailers and directions for future academic exploration are discussed.

Designing cross‐cultural advertising research: a closer look at paired comparisons

Notes that more than 20 years of cross‐cultural comparative research results have suggested that advertising content varies between countries which are culturally dissimilar. Tests the proposition that paired comparisons of countries will yield statistically significant differences for most country pairs. Reports that of the 55 country pairs used in this study, 100 per cent of the pairs resulted in statistically significant differences on at least nine of the 29 values examined and that subsequent analysis found that insignificant results can largely be attributed to cultural similarity. Points out, however, that even when countries are culturally similar, statistically significant results may still be found. Suggests that research which tests for between‐country differences may not be insightful without theoretical support for the comparisons.

International services advertising: an examination of variation in appeal use for experiential and utilitarian services

Examines differences in emotional and rational advertising appeal use across experiential and utilitarian services for 11 culturally diverse countries. Pooled across countries, rational appeals were found to be more dominant in utilitarian service advertising, while emotional appeals were used more heavily in experiential service advertising. On a country by country basis, utilitarian service advertisements consistently used a larger number of rational appeals, and experiential service advertisements contained more emotional appeals. Finally, culture appeared to influence the use of appeals more when the appeals were important to the service selling premise. That is, more variation across cultures was observed for emotional appeal use in experiential service advertising, and more variation was observed for rational appeal use in utilitarian service advertising.

Financial services advertising in eight non‐English speaking countries

Although services, in general, have increased in significance worldwide, financial services face a less encouraging future. Market saturation has led to a search for growth opportunities. One approach has been to utilize traditional marketing techniques such as advertising. Another approach has been to expand into international markets. Managing the international advertising efforts of financial service firms is incredibly complex. This nine country study looks at consistency between advertising content and points of emphasis from financial strategy research. The comparison yields similarities and differences between critical managerial dimensions and themes in international financial service advertisements. Discussion of these findings and implications are provided.

Exploring Innovative Teaching among Marketing Educators: Perceptions of Innovative Activities and Existing Reward and Support Programs

This study examined the perceptions of innovative teaching activities and critical support and extrinsic reward mechanisms among marketing academicians. A review of the marketing education literature and exploratory research yielded 21 specific types of educational innovation, 4 types of support for innovation, and 2 types of extrinsic rewards for innovation. Analysis of data collected from an Internet questionnaire indicated that the specific forms of innovation can be adequately described by six dimensions. Faculty adoption of innovation is positively associated with both support and extrinsic rewards. A comparison of the perceived and desired levels of credit for the six dimensions of innovation show incongruence between the levels of support and reward faculty see as desirable and those provided by their respective institutions. More specifically, faculty perceive the reward and support systems to be lacking. A discussion of the key research findings and some suggested directions for future research are provided.

Student Perceptions of Study Abroad Programs: A Survey of US Colleges and Universities

This study examined 656 students’ perceptions of international education and study abroad programs. Respondents included business students from seven universities, both public and private, across the United States. The research addressed four issues: general perceptions of international course work; general perceptions of study abroad programs; perceptions of study abroad program costs in both time and money; and desired program characteristics. The results indicated that many of the students were misinformed regarding their university’s programs. The research offers insight for developing and modifying study abroad programs that will encourage student participation.

Marketing Education Research: Credit for the Advancement of our Own Profession?

While the relative emphasis on teaching and research clearly differs from university to university, pressure from a variety of sources has raised questions as to whether these should be treated as mutually exclusive dimensions. One way to combine these activities is to conduct research on business education. Questions have been raised regarding the legitimacy of marketing education as a research field. If such concerns are prevalent, the professional credit researchers receive for conducting education research should reflect the concerns. This research examines three key questions. First, is research appearing in education journals rewarded to a lesser extent than research appearing elsewhere? The results show less credit is awarded to research appearing in education journals. Second, is education research rewarded to a lesser extent than non-education research appearing in the same or comparable journals? The results show less credit is given to education studies relative to other research in similar journals. Finally, does the reward system provide motivation for education researchers to target higher tier journals? The results suggest that while researchers do receive more credit for education research in top tier journals, the incremental gain for such research is significantly less than the incremental gain for non-education research. Discussion of these findings and directions for future research are offered