Executive Summary
It is no secret that differences between cultures in consumer preferences, buying habits, and spending patterns generate difficulties for retail service providers across borders. In the past, many retailers attempting international expansion have encountered difficulties because of differences in cultures. For example, Wal-Mart blames its troubles in Germany largely on cultural clashes and a perception that the American way of doing business is not well received. Although many studies recognize the importance of cultural characteristics in explaining the differences in consumers’ attitudes and perceptions in buyer–seller relationships, only a few investigate the importance of relationship quality and service quality for behavioral intentions (e.g., likelihood to recommend, positive word of mouth, repurchase intentions) across different levels of collectivism.
Ozdemir and Hewett’s study is the first to investigate the circumstances under which collectivist influence plays a significant role. In addition to demonstrating the influence of collectivism on customers’ service and relationship quality perceptions, the authors investigate the salience of collectivism in high- and low-social-interaction retail contexts across multiple countries (i.e., the United States, Turkey, Thailand, Austria, and Peru). They conclude that collectivism influences customers’ intentions only in high-social-interaction contexts, implying that retailers may standardize some strategies for certain services industries as they expand internationally.
The relationships studied in this article are of particular importance for multinational retailers seeking to develop a customer relationship strategy that will be successful in their home country as well as across borders. For example, if a retailer such as Apple Retail were considering entering a collectivist market such as Turkey, this study would provide guidance in designing the customer retail experience according to the cultural tendencies of consumers in that market relative to less collectivist markets such as the United States, where Apple Retail already has a presence. Anticipating how the importance of relationship quality and service quality for behavioral intentions may change across countries will assist managers in decisions regarding where to channel investments such as training service delivery personnel.
Biography
Kelly Hewett is a Senior Vice President at Bank of America where she works in customer experience marketing research, providing insights based on research into customers’ experiences and behavior. She is also a Research Affiliate with the Center for Future Banking at MIT, working with faculty and students in the Media Lab on research related to banking issues. She has published numerous articles in areas such as the impact of national culture on buyer-seller relationships, the strategic use of marketing information, and the ability of global firms to leverage marketing experiences of sub units worldwide. She has published her research in refereed journals including the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of International Business Studies, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the Journal of International Marketing and the Journal of Management Studies among others.
V. Emre Ozdemir (emre@medallia.com) is a Client Services Manager at Medallia, Inc., a leading EFM technology and service provider. His research interests include buyer-seller relationships, consumer behavior in retail contexts, goal and action identification theories, international services marketing, and national culture. Since joining Medallia, Emre has worked on a wide range of projects, primarily in the retail, financial, and e-commerce sectors and led implementations of a wide array of tracking solutions including global brand performance, brick-and-mortar store-level customer experience, and customers’ online shopping behavior. He holds an M.S. from The Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina and a B.A. from the Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Journal International Marketing, Volume 18, Number 1, March 2010
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