Are consumers' financial needs and values common across cultures? Evidence from six countries

Lan Guo, Dan Stone, Stephanie Bryant, Benson Wier, Alex Nikitkov, Chunyan Ren, Edson Luiz Riccio, Milton Shen, Samir Trabelsi, Lifang Zhang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

13 Scopus citations

Abstract

Are consumers' financial needs, and financial values, the same or different across cultures? Two studies, with student (Study 1; n=988) and non-student (Study 2; n=959) participants, explore the extent of equivalence, across six countries (Brazil, Russia, China, Taiwan, Tunisia and US), in financial need belief, and financial value, measurement models. The financial need beliefs, derived from self-determination theory (SDT) principles, include financial self-efficacy, financial autonomy, financial community trust and support; the financial values include materialism and financial altruism. Both the financial need and financial value constructs evidence configural invariance (similar factor structure), and factor invariance among student but not non-student samples. The financial need constructs evidence full, and the financial value constructs evidence partial, metric (factor loading) invariance. Factor covariance invariance obtains for the financial need beliefs constructs but not the financial value constructs. Finally, neither financial need nor financial value constructs evidence scalar (intercept) invariance. These results provide partial support for extending SDT's hypothesis of universal human needs to the financial domain. In contrast, the financial value constructs of altruism and materialism are largely instable across cultures, suggesting that consumer views of giving, and the role of wealth in social status, differ between countries.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)675-688
Number of pages14
JournalInternational Journal of Consumer Studies
Volume37
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2013

Keywords

  • Consumer attitudes
  • Consumer behaviour
  • Financial need beliefs
  • Financial values
  • Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis
  • Self-determination theory

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Applied Psychology
  • Economics and Econometrics
  • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
  • Marketing

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Are consumers' financial needs and values common across cultures? Evidence from six countries'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this