Loading...Loading...

Consumer behavior under patriotic sentiment: Do purchase preferences vary from collectivism versus individualism culture?

Zhang, Yanfei

(2023)

Details

Supervisors

Nicolas Kervyn de Meerendré

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences de gestion, à finalité approfondie

Abstract

Although patriotic marketing is commonly regarded as an effective and prevalent tool and is widely used in the marketplace and advertising. However, the influence of culture (specifically, individualism-collectivism) on the effectiveness of patriotic marketing remains largely unexplored. Based on the individualism-collectivism theory, this study examined the effects of different cultures (individualism-collectivism) on patriotic marketing, as well as the underlying mechanism and boundary conditions, by means of a (Belgium vs. China) × 2 (patriotism label vs. no label) subject- between design (N = 357) in China and Belgium, respectively. Surprisingly, it was found that different cultural backgrounds were not able to influence consumers' purchasing behavior under patriotic marketing. In other words, patriotic marketing has a significant effect on consumer purchasing behavior in collectivist countries, while its impact is only marginally significant in individualistic countries. Hence, it is concluded that patriotic marketing has a positive impact on consumers' purchasing intention of local chocolate, irrespective of cultural background. However, the degree of influence varies. furthermore, this positive effect of patriotic marketing on the evaluation of native chocolates is moderated by consumers' level of patriotism. Specifically, when consumers' level of patriotism is high, patriotic marketing can enhance their evaluation of local chocolates; however, for those consumers with a low level of patriotism, this effect on the evaluation of local chocolates will be weakened. The findings of this study not only contribute to the theoretical research on patriotic marketing and culture (individualism-collectivism) but also provide valuable managerial insights for marketing managers and marketing strategies.