The Global Consumer

Introduction

Insights from Cross-Cultural Research, an SCP boutique conference, Singapore, now 29-101 Jul 2021; Deadline 10 Jan

INTEREST CATEGORY: CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
POSTING TYPE: CALLS: CONFERENCES
Author: Ashok K. Lalwani

Call for Papers

Submit your work to the

SCP Boutique Conference on The Global Consumer: Insights from Cross-Cultural Research

in the beautiful island nation of Singapore on

July 29 – 31, 2021

Conference theme and objective:

With increasing globalization, the need to understand how consumers’ cultural background and values shape their judgments, choice, and behaviors has never been more important for firms. For example, more than 70% of sales of US companies come from outside the country. Coca-Cola earns 75% of operating income and two-thirds of profit outside of North America. The figures for some other countries like Japan and Germany are even higher at 90% and 94%, respectively.

Not surprisingly, a great deal of research in the last few decades has focused on the role of culture in consumer behavior. For instance, in the persuasion domain, extensive research has clearly established that the content of and responses to advertising appeals are culturally influenced. Some cultures are more likely to use certain kinds of ad appeals than are other cultures (e.g., Alden, Hoyer, and Lee, 1993; Choi and Miracle, 2004; Han and Shavitt, 1994; Hong, Muderrisoglu, and Zinkhan, 1987; Kim and Markus, 1999).

However, nearly all of the evidence accumulated so far has dealt with the distinction between individualist (IND) and collectivist (COL), or independent and interdependent, cultural classifications. Recognizing this limitation, Shavitt et al. (2006) issued a call to researchers to go beyond the individualism-collectivism dichotomy and examine alternate dimensions of culture, given the limitations of studying a single dimension to explain vast and multifaceted phenomena associated with culture. Paying heed to this call, researchers have recently begun to examine the role of alternate dimensions of culture, such as power distance belief (e.g., Han, Lalwani, and Duhachek 2017; Lalwani and Forcum 2016; Zhang, Winterich, and Mittal 2010; Winterich and Zhang 2014), local-global identity (e.g., Gao, Zhang, and Mittal 2016: Zhang and Khare 2009; Yang, Sun, Lalwani, and Janakiraman 2019), and tight versus loose cultures (Li, Gordon, and Gelfand, 2017). Furthermore, in the Handbook of Culture and Consumer Behavior, Ng and Lee (2015) also called for more research on the impact of culture on other aspects of marketing that have received minimal attention in the literature (e.g., pricing, consumer well-being, financial decision making)

This proposed conference aims to showcase the latest research on cross-cultural consumer behavior. The conference will be open to those with a serious interest in understanding how culture shapes consumers’ judgments, choices, responses, and behaviors through high rigorous theoretical and empirical research. In addition, specific researchers engaged in research in the area will be encouraged to participate and share insights regarding the antecedents, consequences, processes, and boundary conditions relating to the role of culture. A unique highlight of the conference will be a keynote speech by a world-renowned scholar who can give a good perspective on recent developments in cross-cultural consumer behavior and topics needing more work.

Some topics/questions this conference hopes to explore include (but are not limited to):

  • What is the role played by under-researched dimensions of culture (e.g., power distance belief, local-global identity, tightness-looseness) in consumer behavior? How do these other cultural variables differ from or are similar to self-construal in terms of influencing consumers?
  • What are the antecedents and consequences of various cultural variables?
  • How do chronic cultural variables interact with primed cultural variables to influence consumer behavior?
  • How does culture influence consumers’ response to price discrimination, financial decision making, religiosity, fake news and other aspects of marketing that has received minimal attention in the literature?
  • How can managers leverage insights from cross-cultural consumer research?
  • What are the public policy implications of recent developments in cross-cultural consumer research?

Important Dates and Deadlines

Submission Deadline: January 10, 2021
Notification Date: March 10, 2021
Conference Dates: July 29-31, 2021

Submission format:

Please submit a 1,000 word abstract that summarizes the motivation, conceptualization, methodology, and major findings. References do not count against the word limit.

Submissions should include:

  • The title of the paper
  • The name and affiliation of the author(s)
  • The contact information (email addresses) of all the authors.
  • For multi-author papers, please underline the presenter.

Please submit papers to Ms. Jacqueline Cheong at jymcheong@ntu.edu.sg. Please write “SCP Boutique conference submission” in the subject of your email.

Conference format:

The conference will begin with an evening reception on July 29, 2021, followed the next day by research presentations during the day and a second evening reception. In keeping with the boutique nature of the conference and to ensure high quality discussions, the conference will have a limit of 50 attendees.

Conference organizers: