The Impact of Power Distance Belief on Consumers’ Brand Preferences: A Multimethod Investigation

The role of culture in consumers’ price search and behavior has received limited attention in the literature. In the present research, the authors examine how the cultural dimension of power distance belief (PDB)—the extent to which people accept and endorse hierarchy—influences consumers’ price sensitivity. The authors propose that consumers high (vs. low) in PDB are less price sensitive because they have a higher need for closure, which motivates them to “seize and freeze” on a current offer and quickly arrive at the final purchase decision rather than search for a better price. Accordingly, the relationship between PDB and price sensitivity is moderated by variables that alter consumers’ need for closure, such as social density. Six studies (and five more summarized in the Web Appendices) using a variety of operationalizations of the key variables provide robust support for the relationship between PDB and price sensitivity and shed light on the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

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EXPRESS: Heart or Mind? The Impact of Power Distance Belief on the Persuasiveness of Cognitive versus Affective Appeal in Education Marketing Messages

Journal of Marketing Research ◽

10.1177/00222437211002196 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 002224372110021

Author(s):

Lingjiang Lora Tu ◽

Jaehwan Kwon ◽

Huachao Gao

Keyword(s):

Global Education ◽

Power Distance ◽

Cultural Backgrounds ◽

Process Learning ◽

Wide Range ◽

Education Marketing ◽

Self Discovery ◽

The Impact ◽

Power Distance Belief ◽

Marketing Messages

One of the greatest challenges in education marketing is designing effective marketing messages, especially when targeting consumers with different cultural backgrounds. This research examines the impact of power distance belief (PDB) on the persuasiveness of affective appeal versus cognitive appeal in education marketing messages. The authors theorize that low-PDB consumers tend to prefer education products presented with affective appeal because of their process learning mindset that focuses on self-discovery and self-development. By contrast, high-PDB consumers tend to prefer education products presented with cognitive appeal because of their outcome learning mindset that focuses on acquiring skills and social/economic gains relevant to such skills. These effects were supported by converging results from four experiments, a field study, and a content analysis across 37 countries using a wide range of education products and services. This research contributes to the literature on PDB, education, and cross-cultural consumer behavior and provides guidelines for global education marketers.

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Moderating Effect of the Power–Distance Belief on the Relationship between Employees’ Service Failures and Customers’ Behavioral Outcomes in the Sport Service Industry

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18052488 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (5) ◽

pp. 2488

Author(s):

Hyunseok Song ◽

Kevin K. Byon

Keyword(s):

Critical Incident ◽

Service Failure ◽

Power Distance ◽

Moderating Effect ◽

Main Experiment ◽

Manipulation Check ◽

Fitness Center ◽

Service Failures ◽

The Relationship ◽

Power Distance Belief

This study was designed to examine the moderating effects of the power–distance belief (PDB) on the relationship between employees’ service failures and customers’ transactional and non-transactional outcomes in a fitness center context. To test the relationships among these variables, we employed two pretests and a main experiment. In Pretest 1, a critical incident technique (CIT) was used to identify the employees’ service failure situations in fitness centers. Then, in Pretest 2, we developed two written scenarios that described employees’ service failures according to low and high severity and confirmed the differences between these two scenarios with a manipulation check. In the main experiment, we employed scenarios to examine the relationships among service failures’ severity, PDB, and customers’ non-transactional and transactional outcomes. We used Hayes’ PROCESS macro to test the PDB’s single moderating effect on the relationship between the service failures’ severity and the customers’ responses. According to the results, the moderating effect on the relationship between the service failures’ severity and fitness center customers’ non-transactional and transactional behaviors was confirmed. We extended the understanding of fitness center customers’ reactions, depending upon individual PDB to service failures, by comparing low- and high-service failure situations. Our findings also suggest that segmenting fitness center customers may help managers recognize that their customers’ varying responses depend on PDB.

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The impact of organizational position level and cultural flow direction on the relationship between cultural intelligence and expatriate cross-border adaptation

Cross Cultural & Strategic Management ◽

10.1108/ccsm-01-2020-0012 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Ying Zhang ◽

Yuran Li ◽

Mark Frost ◽

Shiyu Rong ◽

Rong Jiang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cultural Intelligence ◽

Flow Direction ◽

Power Distance ◽

Cultural Adjustment ◽

Data Set ◽

Content Type ◽

Cross Border ◽

Organizational Position ◽

The Impact ◽

The Relationship

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the critical role played by cultural flow in fostering successful expatriate cross-border transitions.Design/methodology/approachThe authors develop and test a model on the interplay among cultural intelligence, organizational position level, cultural flow direction and expatriate adaptation, using a data set of 387 expatriate on cross-border transitions along the Belt & Road area.FindingsThe authors find that both organizational position level and cultural flow moderate the relationship between cultural intelligence and expatriate adaptation, whereby the relationship is contingent on the interaction of organizational position status and assignment directions between high power distance and low power distance host environments.Originality/valuePrevious research has shown that higher levels of cultural intelligence are positively related to better expatriate adaptation. However, there is a lack of research on the effect of position difference and cultural flow on such relationship. Our study is among the first to examine how the interaction between cultural flow and organizational position level influences the cultural intelligence (CI) and cultural adjustment relationship in cross-cultural transitions.

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What stops creative employees to implement ideas? Individual culture value orientation perspective

Journal of Organizational Change Management ◽

10.1108/jocm-10-2016-0199 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 30 (6) ◽

pp. 872-887 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Hongli Wang

Keyword(s):

Power Distance ◽

Value Orientation ◽

Value Orientations ◽

High Tech ◽

Content Type ◽

Individual Culture ◽

Two Factors ◽

The Individual ◽

Individual Value ◽

The Impact

Purpose Creativity itself does not necessarily lead to idea implementation. The purpose of this paper is to deeply understand the impact of the individual culture value orientation on employees’ motivation on whether they want to push creative ideas into implementation. Design/methodology/approach In this study, drawing on socially desirable responding (SDR) theory, the author reasons that individual value on power distance and superficial harmony and that these two factors interact to influence employees transform their creativity into implementation. The author argues that prevalence of the failure where creativity cannot be transformed into implementation results from the lack of understanding for two elusive individual culture value orientations: individual superficial harmony orientations (ISHO) and individual power distance orientations (IPDO). Data from 66 middle managers and 301 members of five high-tech firms provide a considerable support for the hypothesized model. Findings The results showed that individuals were able to improve the possibility of putting their creative ideas into practice when they are both lower in IPDO and ISHO. Originality/value Such findings help the author to understand how individual cultural value orientation complements each other to generate joint impact on the relationship between their creative ideas to idea implementation.

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