Independent Self-concept Research Articles

The influence of host characteristics on impulsive online purchases by consumers: Examining the effects of flow experience and independent self-construal

Purpose: The professional integrity of e-commerce livestream hosts is crucial, as they function as intermediaries connecting businesses and consumers. The research investigates how the characteristics of e-commerce livestream hosts influence the mechanisms behind consumers’ impulsive motivations for online purchases. The goal is to propose targeted managerial insights for the e-commerce livestreaming sector, fostering robust and sustainable growth. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research targets Chinese consumers engaged in online livestream shopping, utilising a quantitative research methodology through a questionnaire survey. Data was collected through the dissemination of online questionnaires on e-commerce platforms, resulting in 683 valid sample responses collected between July and August 2023. Findings: Analyzing the data reveals that anchor characteristics positively impact consumers’ impulsive online purchases and, concurrently, positively influence the consumers’ level of flow experience. Conversely, the consumers’ flow experience level positively impacts their impulsive online purchases, with the flow experience serving as a partial mediator. Additionally, the independent self-concept moderates the process where anchor characteristics positively influence consumers’ tendencies for impulsive online purchases, augmenting its effectiveness. Conclusion: Anchor characteristics directly impact consumers’ impulsive online purchases and can also indirectly boost consumers’ impulsive online purchases by enhancing their flow experience. Practical Implications: The present study explores which e-commerce livestream hosts impact consumers’ impulsive online purchasing behaviours, offering insights for future research. Additionally, by exploring the impact factors of e-commerce livestream hosts’ characteristics on consumers’ impulsive online purchasing behaviours, this research provides theoretical suggestions for livestream hosts, offers guidance for consumers, and serves as a reference for businesses to enhance their livestreaming strategies.

Independent self-concept promotes group creativity in a collectivistic cultural context only when the group norm supports collectivism.

Independent self-concept promotes group creativity in a collectivistic cultural context only when the group norm supports collectivism.

Developing High Affect-Based Trust in U.S.-China Business Negotiations

Through an empirical study of 60 Chinese executives in the U.S. and Hong Kong, Chinese executives hired by American corporations are found to develop high affect-based trust with their Chinese counterparts through appropriate monitoring processes and four key tactics according to their shared interdependent self-concepts. They seldom transfer their affect-based trust to the relationships between American and Chinese negotiators unless they perceive themselves as having more power over the entire negotiation process and more accountability for the implementation of the project after the negotiation. These executives prefer to compartmentalize themselves and develop high cognitive-based trust with their American teammates. American corporations must understand the importance of establishing affect-based trust through appropriate monitoring processes according to the interdependent self-concepts. They must expect to change their routine American practices that are grounded in independent self-concepts if they want to see higher levels of success in U.S.-China business negotiations.

Crossing back over the Rubicon: Collectivistic value orientation and independent self-concept jointly promote effective goal revision in task groups

When the ultimate goal of the group is found to be unattainable via the chosen means (i.e., a subgoal), effective goal management requires group members to disengage from that failing subgoal and reengage with a feasible alternative. The present study investigated the combined role of group members’ value orientation and their self-concept in collective goal revision in task groups. In a laboratory experiment involving 55 three-person groups, we induced either a collectivistic or individualistic value orientation and made salient either an independent or interdependent self-concept. As expected, groups that combined a collectivistic value orientation and an independent self-concept were less likely to be entrapped in a failing subgoal and more likely to reengage with the ultimate group goal via an available alternative. Also as expected, this effect was mediated by the degree of goal-related reflection among the members during group interaction. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Rebound Effect, Fast Adaptation to Social Change or Cultural Continuity among Two Generations of Hungarians

The aim of the present research was to reveal what kind of values, self-conceptualisation and beliefs of personhood characterize two generations of Hungarians, almost three decades after the socio-political changes from socialism to capitalist market economy. Participants were high school students (N = 239) and adults (N = 122). Value-orientation was measured using the Portrait Value Questionnaire (PVQ, Schwartz et al, 2001), beliefs of personhood were measured by the Lay Contextualism Scale (Owe et al., 2013). Self-construals were measured in case of the high school students by using 23 items from Gudykunst et al. (1996) self-construal scale and in case of the adults a modified version of it (Owe et al., 2013). Results indicate that in the post-socialist Hungary, individualistic values and independent self-concept strongly characterize both the high school students and the adults, but the younger generation displays higher tendency towards individualism.

Collective action against sexism in Germany, Turkey, and Japan: The influence of self-construal and face concerns

We suggest that self-construal and face concerns influence individuals’ collective action intentions against sexism. We examined female students from Germany ( N = 105), Japan ( N = 112), and Turkey, ( N = 111), exposed them to a benevolent and a hostile sexism scenario, and compared their collective action intentions and indirect conflict management styles (avoiding, outflanking) within countries. As predicted, German and Turkish female students’ collective action intentions against sexism surpassed their intentions for indirect conflict management styles, whereas the reverse was true for Japanese female students. However, Japanese female students had an unaccomplished desire for collective action, suggesting that they wish to act but decide against open confrontation to maintain ingroup harmony. The higher individuals’ independent self-concept and the less they value face, the higher their collective action intentions against hostile sexism in all three countries. We discuss culturally appropriate ways of collective action.

The impacts of self-concept on brand image and loyalty with mediating role of the consumers' need for uniqueness theory

The main purpose of this study is evaluating the impacts of self-concept on brand image and loyalty, with regard to the mediating role of the consumers' need for uniqueness theory in three dimensions (avoidance of similarity, unpopular choice counter-conformity and creative choice counter-conformity) in luxury branding. For this research, 87 questionnaires were gathered from luxury goods buyers. The collected data were analysed by partial least square (PLS) method. The results indicate that there are positive relationship between independent self-concept with avoidance of similarity, creative choice counter-conformity and unpopular choice counter-conformity. Also, the positive impact of avoidance of similarity on brand loyalty and creative choice counter-conformity on brand image and brand loyalty confirmed. The results of this study help luxury brands managers to understand luxury buyer's intentions, for developing their markets better than before.

Exploring the impact of self-construal and cultural intelligence on alcohol consumption: implications for social marketing

There is enormous cross-cultural variation in alcohol choices and drinking behaviour. Because of the inherent differences in historical drinking culture, as well as differences in alcohol policy globally, similarities and differences in drinking patterns have long been a focus of interest among public health and social marketing researchers. Thus, the purposes of this study are (1) to explore differences between groups (Australian and non-Australian-born respondents) on self-construal, cultural intelligence and alcohol consumption and (2) to investigate the impact of self-construal and cultural intelligence on alcohol consumption in Australia. Data for this study were collected through a large public university in Australia (N = 669). The paper found that people with interdependent self-concept were less likely to drink alcohol than people with independent self-concept and cultural intelligence was not significantly related to hazardous alcohol use, harmful alcohol use and dependence symptoms. Variations between Australian-born and overseas-born groups were evident. Limitations of the current study and an agenda for future research are outlined. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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).

Moderating Role of Consumer Self-Concept on the Effectiveness of Two Nostalgia Appeals

Existing empirical studies suggest that evoked nostalgia about a brand is positively related to attitude toward the brand. However, it is unlikely that nostalgia appeals are universally effective. Therefore, this research investigates two types of consumer nostalgias—individualistic nostalgia and collectivistic nostalgia— and examines how the relative effectiveness of these two nostalgia appeals is moderated by consumer self-concept (independent versus interdependent). Based on a two-phase study with time-honored Chinese brands, we reveal that, for consumers with an independent self-concept, an individualistic nostalgia appeal is more effective than a collectivistic nostalgia appeal, whereas for consumers with an interdependent self-concept, a collectivistic nostalgia appeal is more effective than an individualistic nostalgia appeal.

Why do Caucasian advertising models appeal to consumers in Taiwan?

To test the influence of model ethnicity on advertising effectiveness in East Asia, this research proposed a cue-triggered value-expressive model, according to which positive attitudes towards western models help consumers with independent self-concepts express themselves. Western models generated more favourable ad responses (ad credibility, diagnosticity and attitudes), promoted stronger self–brand connections and led to more favourable brand attitudes than did Asian advertising models among independent respondents in Taiwan. In contrast, consumers with interdependent self-concepts did not exhibit such differences. Independent self-concepts also consisted of two sub-dimensions: horizontal individualism focused on the desire to be different, and vertical individualism centred on the desire to be superior. The former dimension accounted for the enhanced effects of western models. Three experiments confirmed that expressing positive attitudes towards these advertising models served value-expressive functions among consumers with uniqueness self-concepts when they read ads promoting products that were publicly (Study 1 and 3) or privately (Study 2) consumed.

Outside advantage: Can social rejection fuel creative thought?

Eminently creative people working in fields as disparate as physics and literature refer to the experience of social rejection as fuel for creativity. Yet, the evidence of this relationship is anecdotal, and the psychological process that might explain it is as yet unknown. We theorize that the experience of social rejection may indeed stimulate creativity but only for individuals with an independent self-concept. In 3 studies, we show that individuals who hold an independent self-concept performed more creatively after social rejection relative to inclusion. We also show that this boost in creativity is mediated by a differentiation mind-set, or salient feelings of being different from others. Future research might investigate how the self-concept--for example, various cultural orientations-may shape responses to social rejection by mitigating some of the negative consequences of exclusion and potentially even motivating creative exploration.

On Rejection, Resilience, and Retraction

This issue of Photomedicine and Laser Surgery (PMLS) marks the first issue of the New Year. Our journal continues to evolve and improve, thanks to our authors, reviewers, editors, and staff who provide, assess, and produce the cutting edge material our discerning readers enjoy and demand. We also thank our readers without whose support we would not exist. This journal strives to publish high quality scientific information and we are quite fortunate to receive numerous manuscript submissions for our review. We continuously refine our process and announced changes in our editorial process coincident with our monthly publication in 2011. The manuscript acceptance rate is used by some as a measure of quality. PMLS has a 50% rejection rate at the present time. The rejection rate has steadily increased over time, which demonstrates an ongoing commitment to select only the highest quality work for publication. The editorial process is rigorous, with each manuscript being evaluated by three or more reviewers and with the submissions checked for plagiarism and duplication using iThenticate software in addition to copy editing for language and content clarity. Authors must also provide a disclosure of relevant conflicts of interest as pertains to their work. Such practices are consistent with the standards of other scientific publishers and are representative of a collective effort to present and publish material that adds significantly to the body of scientific knowledge and that meets standards for scientific and professional integrity. It is this scholarly publication process that forms the nucleus of this editorial. Most of us who have been involved with scientific research and discovery have had to deal with some form of rejection. Perhaps this came in the form of the manuscript that was rejected for publication or the grant that was not funded. The specific details for the negative outcome may vary and their basis might have been appropriate, or perhaps the decision might have stemmed from real or perceived bias on the part of the evaluators. It is abundantly clear that not every manuscript is accepted for publication, and that the authors’ selection of a target journal to which their manuscripts are submitted for consideration is an important process. Calcagno and colleagues investigated the prepublication process and uncovered some surprising findings. They had hypothesized that authors would initially submit their work to high impact journals and that low impact factor journals would receive and ultimately publish articles that were rejected by the high impact factor journals. They surveyed authors of scientific research papers published in 923 scientific journals in the biological sciences between 2006 and 2008. They were able to retrieve information for 80,748 articles. They sent an e-mail survey to 200,000 corresponding authors asking whether the paper had been sent to other journals before the one it was ultimately published in, and if so, which one immediately preceded the successful submission. Their data demonstrated that 75% of papers were submitted to the first journal that would publish them and that authors generally did an excellent job of targeting their work to an appropriate journal. To their surprise, however, Calcagno and colleagues found that high impact journals published proportionately more articles that had been resubmitted from another journal. Even the highly respected journals Nature and Science were publishing articles that had been rejected previously by the other. Stepping down to a journal with a lower impact factor after an initial rejection occurred in 25% of cases. Calcagno’s group found that within this 25% group, papers that were submitted more than once tended to be published in journals with a lower impact factor than the journal that was the initial target of submission. Another interesting and unexpected finding of Calcagno’s research was that the number of times a resubmitted paper was cited was higher than that of other papers in that journal, regardless of whether a paper was ultimately published in a higher or lower impact factor journal, with the exception of papers that were resubmitted to journals in a different field. They concluded that this phenomenon was a positive benefit of manuscripts having gone through multiple rounds of peer review and revision. Therefore, the manuscript’s authors and competing journals benefit from the initial rejection. Kim et al. investigated whether there is a psychological basis to support the concept often espoused by eminently creative people that the experience of social rejection is a fuel for creativity. They posited that for individuals with an independent self-concept, rejection may amplify feelings of distinctiveness and increase creativity by conferring the willingness to recruit ideas from unusual places and move beyond existing knowledge structures. They hypothesized that rejection will reinforce the desire for individuals with an independent self-concept to differentiate themselves from others and that mindset would lead to more creative outcomes. They conducted three studies of college students

Making unique choices or being like others: How priming self-concepts influences advertising effectiveness

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that priming independent and interdependent self-concepts affects responses to advertisements. In Experiment 1, for a privately consumed product, the influence of product assortment size on ad effectiveness was moderated by the accessibility of these self-concepts. Experiment 2 replicated this finding for a publicly consumed product and also examined an additional ad feature, consensus information. Ad effectiveness was enhanced by larger product assortment only when the independent self-concept was primed and by the presence of consensus information only when the interdependent self-concept was primed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Why are childlike portrayals appealing in East Asia?

This study compares the effectiveness of childlike and adult-like portrayals in Taiwan and the US. It is argued that culturally shaped self-concepts affect responses to ads using these two types of portrayal. Childlike portrayals should exert a positive influence on ad evaluations in cultures where such images are generally relevant to and congruent with the self-concept. Findings of an experiment showed that, in both cultures, childlike portrayals were perceived as friendlier than adult-like portrayals. Taiwanese participants, however, whose interdependent self-concepts focus on interpersonal relations and harmony, reported more warm feelings and a stronger self–brand connection, as well as more favourable attitudes towards the ad and the brand, following exposure to the childlike portrayal. In contrast, American participants did not respond to the two portrayals differently, presumably because they found the childlike image to be less relevant to their independent self-concepts.

Black Female Sexual Identity: The Self Defined

The findings of a questionnaire survey distributed to 153 female university students in Barbados and Jamaica in 2008 reveal the attitudes to diverse female sexualities in the Caribbean. The participants in the survey discussed changing beliefs about sexuality in Caribbean society. The findings show that slowly, as a consequence of globalization and the mass media, people are increasingly open-minded about sex. Women are confidently expressing and increasingly asserting themselves as equal partners. There is greater debate in Caribbean society about female same-sex relationships, and deeper awareness of sexual harassment is evident. Nevertheless, for some respondents, the same degrading notions of women as sex objects and promiscuous beings continue to exist. Through the survey, the respondents appear to have created independent sexual self-concepts that counteract racist, sexist, heterosexist, and elitist myths. They describe the ways that Western stereotypes of Black Caribbean women as being promiscuous influence how Caribbean women perceive themselves, make sense of and give meanings to their own sexual identities, practices, and relationships. Participants maintain that they defy attempts to regulate their sexuality.

Integration of Multidimensional Self‐Concept and Core Personality Constructs: Construct Validation and Relations to Well‐Being and Achievement

Relations between multiple dimensions of self-concept, personality (Big Five), well-being, and academic outcomes (school grades, test scores, coursework selection) for a large (N=4,475) sample of German adolescents support the construct validity of a well-defined, multidimensional set of self-concept factors in relation to personality factors, and vice versa. Confirmatory factor analysis of a German adaptation of the Self Description Questionnaire III demonstrated 17 a priori, reasonably independent self-concept factors (M correlation=.14; SD=.17) that had a highly differentiated pattern of relations with the personality factors and academic outcomes. Consistent with theory and previous research, math and verbal self-concepts were negatively related to each other, and this extreme domain specificity was reflected in the systematic and substantial relations with academic criteria measures. Self-esteem, Big Five, and well-being factors explained only small amounts of variance in academic outcomes and support for their incremental validity after controlling for specific self-concept factors was weak.

Self‐Construal, Reference Groups, and Brand Meaning

We propose that consumers purchase brands in part to construct their self-concepts and, in so doing, form self-brand connections. We focus on reference groups as a source of brand meaning. Results from two studies show that brands with images consistent with an ingroup enhance self-brand connections for all consumers, whereas brands with images that are consistent with an outgroup have a stronger negative effect on independent versus interdependent consumers. We propose that this differential effect is due to stronger self-differentiation goals for consumers with more independent self-concepts. We also find greater effects for more symbolic than for less symbolic brands.

Self-Concept and Social Integration

This article evaluates the credo ‘integration while maintaining one’s identity’ with the help of psychological arguments. First, it explores the requirements of being a good citizen in a liberal democracy. Following Rawls, we state that justice is the cardinal liberal virtue and that this virtue includes having the disposition to respect the rights of all citizens equally. It then investigates psychological theories about identity and the relation between culture and identity. We focus on the distinction between collectivistic cultures and an interdependent self-concept on the one hand and individualistic cultures and an independent self-concept on the other. We come to the conclusion that the development into a good citizen of a liberal democracy cannot be combined with the full preservation of an interdependent self-concept. Further, we argue that the state has the right and the duty to offer civic education to all pupils, even if this means that the development of an inter-dependent self-concept of children from particular immigrant groups will be hampered.

Self-Concept, Aspirations, and Weil-Being in South Korea and the United States

The authors examined the similarities and differences between 3 dimensions that represent people's focus on self vs. other: individualistic vs. collectivistic nations, independent vs. interdependent self-concepts, and intrinsic vs. extrinsic aspirations. In samples of South Korean and U.S. college students, the authors found that each of these dimensions was interrelated in expected ways and that each also was independently associated with different aspects of participants' self-report of their own well-being (i.e., self-actualization, vitality, happiness, anxiety, and physical manifestations). The authors concluded that environmental circumstances and personality characteristics that focus on personal needs are more likely to provide experiences supportive of psychological well-being.