National differences in materialism - Using alternative research strategies to explore the construct

One of the core objectives in cross-national marketing research is to establish research results which are comparable across national entities. Nevertheless certain national idiosyncrasies (unique meaning of constructs, distinctive expressions) may hamper these cross-national research endeavors. Two different approaches have been introduced in the social sciences, in order to cope with this comparability-dilemma. The "emic" and the "etic" school of thought. These can be seen as two extremes on the continuum of cross-national research methodology. The paper tries to illustrate advantages and potential shortcomings of the etic (mostly quantitative) vs. the emic (mostly qualitative) research approach. A combination of alternative, qualitative and quantitative research strategies was used to explore national differences in materialism. A questionnaire was developed comprising both both qualitative and quantitative sections on materialism. The materialism scale, as operationalized by Richins and Dawson (1992) was used, for the quantitative section. The research findings call for the use of 'alternative research strategies' to overcome the emic - etic duality in cross-national research. Comparative text analysis and graphical representations of consumers statements can help to explore the reasons for conceptual differences

Antecedents to export information generation: a cross-national study

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal International Marketing Review and the definitive published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IMR-05-2011-0125Purpose ─ The objective of this study is to examine the factors that enhance export decision-makers’ generation of export information, using a non-linear approach and a multi-country context, and so provide export decision-makers with empirically-based guidelines on how to maximize their information acquisition efforts. Design/methodology/approach ─ A broad perspective on export information generation is adopted, including marketing research, export assistance and market intelligence. The model of antecedents to information generation is tested in three studies (US, Austria, New Zealand, respectively) using structural equation modeling techniques. Multigroup and hierarchical analysis is performed to assess cross-national invariance of relevant measures, and quadratic effects. Findings ─ The findings show that the predictors of export information generation vary across the three countries studied, and that many of the relationships are non-linear. Research limitations/implications ─This study contributes to the export marketing literature by developing our understanding of how exporters can develop greater knowledge of information sources on which to build export decisions, and the conditions necessary for enhanced export information acquisition activity. The findings highlight that future research should consider non-linear relationships and the examination of the outcomes of export information generation in a cross-national setting. Practical implications ─ The study findings advocate that practitioners (exporters and advisers) tailor their export information generation efforts to the different country needs. Originality/value ─ This research responds to a call for more theoretically-based studies on antecedents to export information generation, concurrent with the use of more robust statistical methods

Food packaging cues influence taste perception and increase effort provision for a recommended snack product in children

Food marketing research shows that child-directed marketing cues have pronounced effects on food preferences and consumption, but are most often placed on products with low nutritional quality. Effects of child-directed marketing strategies for healthy food products remain to be studied in more detail. Previous research suggests that effort provision explains additional variance in food choice. This study investigated the effects of packaging cues on explicit preferences and effort provision for healthy food items in elementary school children. Each of 179 children rated three, objectively identical, recommended yoghurt-cereal-fruit snacks presented with different packaging cues. Packaging cues included a plain label, a label focusing on health aspects of the product, and a label that additionally included unknown cartoon characters. The children were asked to state the subjective taste-pleasantness of the respective food items. We also used a novel approach to measure effort provision for food items in children, namely handgrip strength. Results show that packaging cues significantly induce a taste-placebo effect in 88% of the children, i.e., differences in taste ratings for objectively identical products. Taste ratings were highest for the child-directed product that included cartoon characters. Also, applied effort to receive the child-directed product was significantly higher. Our results confirm the positive effect of child-directed marketing strategies also for healthy snack food products. Using handgrip strength as a measure to determine the amount of effort children are willing to provide for a product may explain additional variance in food choice and might prove to be a promising additional research tool for field studies and the assessment of public policy interventions