A state-of-the-art review

To be cross-cultural, the marketing research project must be conducted across nations or culture groups, rather than across provinces or ethnic groups (Berry, 1980). For the purpose of this review, international marketing research (research dealing with international issues), foreign research (research conducted in a country other than the country of the research-commissioning organization), or multinational research (research conducted in all or all important countries where the company is represented), and other similar terms, will be subsumed under the rubric of cross-cultural research. We do not deny the fine distinctions that can be made among these concepts (e.g. Terpstra and Sarathy, 1990). However, it is not necessary to make these distinctions as the methodological issues we consider apply in varying degrees to all of these types of research. In recent years cross-cultural marketing research has assumed great importance in the academic and business worlds. Academically, cross-cultural research has gained wide acceptance both in international business journals and in specialized journals. A recent review identified 720 articles on the subject that were published in various academic journals between 1980 and 1990 (Aulakh and Kotabe, 1993). Businesswise, the USA accounts for only 39 per cent of the marketing research expenditures worldwide. About 40 per cent of all marketing research is conducted in Western Europe and 9 per cent in Japan. Most of the research in Europe is done in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain (Demby, 1990). With the globalization of markets, marketing research has assumed a truly international character and this trend is likely to continue (e.g. Malhotra et al., 1994). Despite its burgeoning growth in recent years, further expansion and development of cross-cultural marketing research is being hampered by

[1]  Cynthia M. Webster.  Hispanic and Anglo Interviewer and Respondent Ethnicity and Gender: The Impact on Survey Response Quality , 1996 .

[2]  R. Peterson,et al.  A Meta-Analysis of Country-of-Origin Effects , 1995 .

[3]  Michael R. Mullen.  Diagnosing Measurement Equivalence in Cross-National Research , 1995 .

[4]  Jagdip Singh,et al.  Measurement Issues in Cross-National Research , 1995 .

[5]  P. Green,et al.  Alternative approaches to cluster-based market segmentation , 1995 .

[6]  B. Schlegelmilch,et al.  Lessons for pan‐European marketing? The role of consumer preferences in fine‐tuning the product‐market fit , 1995 .

[7]  Michael R. Mullen,et al.  An International Marketing Application of Outlier Analysis for Structural Equations: A Methodological Note , 1995 .

[8]  J. Gentry,et al.  Consumer acculturation processes and cultural conflict: How generalizable is a North American model for marketing globally? , 1995 .

[9]  J. Swait.  A structural equation model of latent segmentation and product choice for cross-sectional revealed preference choice data☆ , 1994 .

[10]  Saeed Samiee,et al.  Cross-cultural research in advertising: An assessment of methodologies , 1994 .

[11]  Imad B. Baalbaki,et al.  International Services Marketing: A Comparative Evaluation of the Dimensions of Service Quality between Developed and Developing Countries , 1994 .

[12]  Tomoaki Sakano,et al.  The Exercise of Interfirm Power and Its Repercussions in U.S.-Japanese Channel Relationships , 1993 .

[13]  Imad B. Baalbaki,et al.  EC:: One Market or Many? An Assessment of the Degree , 1993 .

[14]  J. Farley,et al.  Corporate Culture, Customer Orientation, and Innovativeness in Japanese Firms: A Quadrad Analysis , 1993 .

[15]  N. Malhotra.  Designing an International Marketing Research Course , 1992 .

[16]  N. Malhotra.  Shifting perspective on the Shifting Paradigm in Marketing Research: A new paradigm in marketing research , 1992 .

[17]  Ugur Yavas,et al.  Global Consumer Segmentation versus Local Market Orientation: Empirical Findings , 1992 .

[18]  Robert E. Kleine,et al.  Contextual Influences on the Meanings Ascribed to Ordinary Consumption Objects , 1991 .

[19]  Donald R. Lichtenstein,et al.  A Cross-National Assessment of the Reliability and Validity of the CETSCALE , 1991 .

[20]  N. Malhotra.  Administration of Questionnaires for Collecting Quantitative Data in International Marketing Research , 1991 .

[21]  D. Jain,et al.  Cross-National Analysis of Diffusion of Consumer Durable Goods in Pacific Rim Countries , 1991 .

[22]  Barbara Mueller,et al.  An Analysis of Information Content in Standardized vs. Specialized Multinational Advertisements , 1991 .

[23]  Keith F. Otterbein,et al.  Sampling in Cross-Cultural Research , 1991 .

[24]  David K. Smith,et al.  The Perceived Veracity of PIMS Strategy Principles in Japan: An Empirical Inquiry , 1991 .

[25]  U. Yavas,et al.  The Perceived Risk-Brand Loyalty Relationship: , 1990 .

[26]  S. C. Grunert,et al.  Consumer values in West Germany underlying dimensions and cross-cultural comparison with North America , 1990 .

[27]  Michael Harris Bond,et al.  On the Empirical Identification of Dimensions for Cross-Cultural Comparisons , 1989 .

[28]  Russell W. Belk,et al.  Becoming a Consumer Society: A Longitudinal and Cross-Cultural Content Analysis of Print Ads from Hong Kong, the People's Republic of China, and Taiwan , 1989 .

[29]  L. Golden,et al.  Psychological meaning: Empirical directions for identification and strategy development , 1989 .

[30]  S. Tuncalp,et al.  The Marketing Research Scene in Saudi Arabia , 1988 .

[31]  Mary C. Gilly,et al.  Sex Roles in Advertising: A Comparison of Television Advertisements in Australia, Mexico, and the United States , 1988 .

[32]  N. Malhotra.  A METHODOLOGY FOR MEASURING CONSUMER PREFERENCES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES , 1988 .

[33]  Naresh K. Malhotra,et al.  Validity and Structural Reliability of Multidimensional Scaling , 1987 .

[34]  Attila Yaprak,et al.  A Cross-National Comparison of Consumer Research Measures , 1987 .

[35]  Naresh K. Malhotra,et al.  Analyzing Marketing Research Data with Incomplete Information on the Dependent Variable , 1987 .

[36]  Naresh K. Malhotra,et al.  An Approach to the Measurement of Consumer Preferences Using Limited Information , 1986 .

[37]  R. Kanfer,et al.  Equivalence of psychological measurement in heterogeneous populations. , 1985, The Journal of applied psychology.

[38]  C. Keown,et al.  Foreign Mail Surveys: Response Rates Using Monetary Incentives , 1985 .

[39]  Israel D. Nebenzahl,et al.  Alternative Questionnaire Formats for Country Image Studies , 1984 .

[40]  R. Rohner,et al.  Toward a Conception of Culture for Cross-Cultural Psychology , 1984 .

[41]  Naresh K. Malhotra,et al.  The Use of Linear Logit Models in Marketing Research , 1984 .

[42]  Uma Sekaran,et al.  Methodological and Theoretical Issues and Advancements in Cross-Cultural Research , 1983 .

[43]  L. Phillips.  Assessing Measurement Error in Key Informant Reports: A Methodological Note on Organizational Analysis in Marketing , 1981 .

[44]  J. P. Peter.  Construct Validity: A Review of Basic Issues and Marketing Practices , 1981 .

[45]  Alvin J. Silk,et al.  Measure Unreliability: A Hidden Threat to Cross-National Marketing Research? , 1981 .

[46]  J. P. Peter.  Reliability: A Review of Psychometric Basics and Recent Marketing Practices , 1979 .

[47]  S. Nerlove,et al.  THE PROBLEM OF ESTABLISHING VALIDITY IN CROSS‐CULTURAL MEASUREMENTS * , 1977 .

[48]  R. Green,et al.  Methodological Considerations in Cross-National Consumer Research , 1976 .

[49]  James Jaccard,et al.  Cross-cultural model testing: Toward a solution of the etic-emic dilemma. , 1976 .

[50]  L. Kanuk,et al.  Mail Surveys and Response Rates: A Literature Review , 1975 .

[51]  T. Rao,et al.  Cross Cultural Surveys and Interviewing , 1975 .

[52]  Lee Sechrest,et al.  Problems of Translation in Cross-Cultural Research , 1972 .

[53]  F. Goodenough.  THE MEASUREMENT OF MENTAL FUNCTIONS IN PRIMITIVE GROUPS1 , 1936 .

[54]  Erwin K. Scheuch,et al.  The cross-cultural use of sample surveys : problems of comparability , 1993 .

[55]  H. Markus,et al.  Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. , 1991 .

[56]  Dong Hwan Lee.  Symbolic Interactionism: Some Implications For Consumer Self-Concept and Product Symbolism Research , 1990 .

[57]  M. Holbrook.  Seven Routes to Facilitating the Semiological Interpretation of Consumption Symbolism and Marketing Imagery in Works of Art: Some Tips For Wildcats , 1989 .

[58]  Naresh K. Malhotra,et al.  Some observations on the state of the art in marketing research , 1988 .

[59]  C. Tan,et al.  An Individual Analysis Approach to Cross-Cultural Research, in Anderson P F and Wallendort M (Eds.) , 1987 .

[60]  H. Triandis.  A theoretical framework for the more efficient construction of culture assimilators , 1984 .

[61]  O. Billig.  Projective techniques. , 1956, Psychiatric research reports.