Consumer cultural values and ethnicity
Cross-cultural studies often assume cultural differences
exist at an ethnic-group level, rather than directly measure
and demonstrate these differences (Laroche et al., 2002).
By contrast, the current study provides empirical evidence
to confirm the popular assumption. It also further validates
the CVSCALE and shows its flexibility. This, in fact, might
be a more relevant scale with which to work in consumer
research than Hofstede’s (even where his dimensions are
being used).
The message here for product managers is it is important to
appreciate the clear differences in cultural values that may
exist among consumers at an ethnic-group level. As we have
found, mean scores between Anglo-Australians and Chinese-
Australians are significantly different from each other across
all-but-one cultural dimension (the exception being
uncertainty avoidance).