Consumer World-Mindedness, Social-Mindedness, and Store Image

As advances in communications technology shrink the impact of geographic distance, consumers are likely to become more aware of and familiar with products and services in other parts of the world, as well as global social and ethical issues. Retailers have responded to these trends (termed here “consumer world-mindedness” and “consumer social-mindedness”) by adapting their positioning and product assortment. The authors develop measures of consumer world-mindedness and social-mindedness and examine their relationship to exposure to other cultures and store image using a survey of 191 consumers in the Netherlands. The authors examine images of three types of stores: the Body Shop, fair-trade stores, and a grocery store with an imported food products section. The results confirm that consumers’ exposure to foreign cultures increases consumer world-mindedness and social-mindedness and that both have a significant impact on store image. The authors conclude with a discussion of implications for retail and international marketing management.

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