A study of Japanese consumers' cognitive hierarchies in formal and informal gift-giving situations

In recent years, academicians have shown an increasing interest in Asian gift-giving behavior. Yet studies investigating Asians' cognitive hierarchical structures in the gift-giving context have been limited. Additionally, the literature suggests that Asian consumers' cognitive structures are particularly affected by situational contingencies. Thus, this study examines Japanese consumers' cognitive hierarchies, in a gift-giving context, in formal and informal situations utilizing a most-abstract to least-abstract cognitive hierarchical framework. Data were collected through a mail survey of Japanese consumers in the greater Tokyo area and six other major metropolitan cities. As hypothesized, structural-equation modeling results revealed that the Japanese consumer's cognitive hierarchical flow from most- to least-abstract cognitions remained intact regardless of the situation. In contrast, as expected, differing situations were found to influence intercognitive dimensional relationships. Implications of these findings are discussed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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