Cross-cultural Measurement Invariance Research Articles

Consumer ethnocentrism: Reconceptualization and cross-cultural validation

Consumer ethnocentrism (CE) is a popular construct in international marketing research and is generally measured using the CETSCALE, a reliable scale with proven predictive validity but with limited evidence about its construct validity, dimensionality and cross-cultural measurement invariance. This note addresses these gaps by reconceptualizing CE as an attitude construct consisting of three dimensions: (1) affective reaction, (2) cognitive bias and (3) behavioral preference. A revised CE scale (CES) is developed and tested using two empirical studies with adult consumers from four different countries (China, India, UK and USA), showing that CES is a reliable, valid and cross-culturally invariant scale and it explains greater variance than the CETSCALE and other similar scales, in customer evaluations and behavioral intentions for a wide range of products and services.

Looking beyond impulse buying

Purpose – This paper aims to conceptualize consumer impulsiveness (CI) as a global trait to explore its influence on a wider range of consumer behaviours and also presents a revised CI scale. Prior research on CI focuses on the impulse buying context and does not establish the cross-cultural invariance of the CI scale. Design/methodology/approach – Two studies with undergraduate and MBA students in Singapore, UK and USA were used to develop the revised CI scale and to test its cross-cultural measurement invariance and predictive validity. Findings – CI is a three-dimensional construct with cognitive (imprudence), affective (self-indulgence) and behavioural (lack of self-control) dimensions. However, self-indulgence and lack of self-control positively (do not) correlate for consumers with independent (interdependent) self-concepts. These three dimensions also vary in their influence on different types of self-regulatory failures. Research limitations/implications – The student participants used in all the studies may be relatively younger and better educated compared to average consumers. Hence, there is a need to test the revised CI scale with diverse consumer populations. Practical implications – The revised CI scale would help future researchers study the influence of CI across diverse cultures and self-regulatory failures in a reliable and rigorous manner. Social implications – Our findings may help control the onset and spread of self-regulatory failures among young consumers by early identification of their psychological origins. Originality/value – This paper extends the scope of CI beyond impulse buying to study its impact on self-regulatory failure across five diverse behavioural domains (driving, eating, entertainment, shopping and substance abuse).

Factor Structure of the Korean Version of Wong and Law’s Emotional Intelligence Scale

This study reports the factor structure of a Korean version of the 16-item Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) for a sample of 161 Korean university students. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the four-factor model of the WLEIS: (1) self-emotional appraisal, (2) others' emotional appraisal, (3) use of emotion, and (4) regulation of emotion. However, improvement of the model fit after removing three items suggests the need for future research on the cross-cultural measurement invariance of the WLEIS.

Cultural Values Predict Coping Using Culture as an Individual Difference Variable in Multicultural Samples

Three studies establish the relations between cultural values and coping using multicultural samples of international students. Study 1 established the cross-cultural measurement invariance of subscales of the Cope inventory Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989) used in the article. The cultural value dimensions of embeddedness versus autonomy and hierarchy versus egalitarianism predicted how international students from 28 (Study 2) and 38 (Study 3) countries coped with adapting to living in a new country. Cultural values predicted coping by religion, and this relation was only partly mediated by personally valuing tradition, cultural norms, and perceived difficulty of adapting. Cultural values predicted emotion-focused/avoidant coping beyond neuroticism and seeking social support beyond extraversion. Mediators to the relations between cultural values and these coping strategies were also found. The results demonstrate the power of cultural values to predict coping and bring to the forefront the use of multicultural samples as an important method in cross-cultural research.

Cross-Cultural Invariance and Gender Bias when Measuring ‘Fear of Crime’

The persistent questioning within the ‘fear of crime’ literature of its own conservative measurement, has resulted in a growing tendency towards using scaling techniques, as a far better way of measuring a complex and multidimensional concept like ‘fear of crime’. Choosing more complex measures, however, gives rise to a number of ‘new’ issues related to measurement error, which have remained mostly undiscussed in the ‘fear of crime’ literature. Cross-cultural measurement invariance is such an issue; in order for cross-cultural comparisons of fear of crime to be meaningful, the instruments used to measure the theoretical constructs have to exhibit adequate cross-cultural equivalence. Gender bias is another potential danger to measurement invariance; a substantial part of the ‘fear of crime’ literature has empirically found and discussed different ‘fear of crime’ levels between men and women. Without testing the assumption of measurement invariance it is unclear whether these gender differences in ‘fear of crime’ are a reflection of true differences, or the result of a different understanding of the central concept between men and women. Using exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, both cross-cultural invariance and gender equivalence will be assessed in this contribution, based on the 1999 General Election Study of Belgium (N = 4239).