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.
AndersonW. ThomasJr., and CunninghamWilliam H. (1972), “The Socially Conscious Consumer,”Journal of Marketing, 36(July), 23–31.
2.
AugerPat, DevinneyTimothy M., and LouviereJordan J. (2007), “Using Best-Worse Scaling Methodology to Investigate Consumer Ethical Beliefs Across Countries,”Journal of Business Ethics, 70(3), 299–326.
3.
BeckmannSuzanne, BotschenGunter, BotschenMartina, DouglasSusan P., FrieseSusanne, and NijssenEdwin J. (2001), “The Worldminded Consumer: An Emic Exploration,” in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 28, MaryC. Gilly, and Meyers-LevyJoan, eds. Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 138.
4.
BellengerD.N., SteinbergE., and StantonW.W. (1976), “The Congruence of Store Image and Self Image, as It Relates to Store Loyalty,”Journal of Retailing, 52(1), 17–32.
5.
CannonHugh M., and YaprakAttilla (2002), “Will the Real-World Citizen Please Stand Up! The Many Faces of Cosmopolitan Consumer Behavior,”Journal of International Marketing, 10(4), 30–52.
6.
CannonHugh M., YoonSung-Joon, McGowanLaura, and YaprakAttila (1994), “In Search of the Global Consumer,” paper presented at the 1994 Annual Conference of the Academy of International Business, Boston (November).
7.
ChinW.W. (1998), “The Partial Least Squares Approach to Structural Equations Modeling,” in Modern Methods for Business Research, MarcoulidesG.A., ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 295–336.
8.
CraigC.S., and GinterJ.L. (1975), “An Empirical Test of a Scale for Innovativeness,” in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 2, SchlingerM.M., ed. Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 555–62.
9.
De PelsmackerPatrick, DriesenLisbeth, and RaypGlenn (2005), “Do Consumers Care About Ethics? Willingness to Pay for Fair Trade Coffee,”Journal of Consumer Affairs, 39(2), 363–85.
10.
DoaneDeborah (2001), Taking Flight: The Rapid Growth of Ethical Consumerism.London: New Economics Foundation.
11.
DonthuNaveen, and GillilandDavid (1996), “Observations: The Infomercial Shopper,”Journal of Advertising Research, 36(2), 69–76.
12.
DouglasSusan P., and NijssenEdwin J. (2003), “On the Use of ‘Borrowed’ Scales in Cross-National Research: A Cautionary Note,”International Marketing Review, 20(6), 621–42.
13.
FergusonEamonn, and PattersonFiona (1998), “The Five Factor Mode of Personality: Openness a Distinct but Related Construct,”Personality and Individual Differences, 24(6), 789–96.
14.
GrewalDruv, KrishnanR., BakerJudy, and BorinNorm (1998), “The Effect of Store Name, Brand Name and Price Discounts on Consumers’ Evaluations and Purchase Intentions,”Journal of Retailing, 74(3), 331–51.
15.
HannerzUlf (1990), “Cosmopolitans and Locals in World Culture,” in Theory, Culture and Society, FeatherstoneMichael, ed. London: Sage Publications, 237–51.
16.
Kunst-WilsonWilliam R., and ZajoncRobert B. (1980), “Affective Discrimination of Stimuli That Cannot Be Recognized,”Science, 207(4430), 557–58.
17.
LeeJulie Anne, and HoldenStephen J.S. (1999), “Understanding the Determinants of Environmentally Conscious Behavior,”Psychology & Marketing, 16(5), 373–92.
18.
MalonisChris, KeepWilliam W., JoyceMary L., and LambertDavid R. (1994), “Testing the Underlying Structure of a Store Image Scale,”Educational and Psychological Measurement, 54(3), 628–45.
19.
McCraeR.R., and CostaP.T. (1997), “Personality Trait Structure as a Human Universal,”American Psychologist, 52(5), 509–516.
20.
MertonRobert K. (1957), Social Theory and Social Structure.New York: The Free Press.
21.
NijssenEdwin J., and DouglasSusan P. (2004), “Examining the Animosity Model in a Country with a High Level of Foreign Trade,”International Journal of Research in Marketing, 21(1), 23–38.
22.
RawwasMohammed Y.A., RajendranK.N., and WuehrerGerhard A. (1996), “The Influence of Worldmindedness and Nationalism on Consumer Evaluation of Domestic and Foreign Products,”International Marketing Review, 13(2), 20–38.
23.
RobertsJames A. (1996), “Green Consumers: The Subtle Relationships Between Environmental Concern and Ecologically Conscious Consumer Behaviors,”Journal of Business Research, 36(3), 217–31.
24.
SampsonDonald F., and SmithHoward P. (1957), “A Scale to Measure World-Minded Attitudes,”Journal of Social Psychology, 45(1), 99–106.
25.
ShimpTerence A., and SharmaSubhash (1987), “Consumer Ethnocentri-cism: Construction and Validation of the CETSCALE,”Journal of Marketing Research, 24(August), 280–89.
26.
SinghapakdiAnusorn, VitellScott J., RallapalliKumar C., and KraftKenneth L. (1996), “The Perceived Role of Ethics and Social Responsibility: A Scale Development,”Journal of Business Ethics, 15(11), 1131–40.
27.
SteenkampJan-Benedict E.M., and WedelMichel (1991), “Segmenting Retail Markets on Store Image Using a Consumer-Based Methodology,”Journal of Retailing, 67(3), 300–320.
28.
StonesGeorge, BarnesJames H., and MontgomeryCameron (1995), “ECOSCALE: A Scale for the Measurement of Environmentally Responsible Consumers,”Psychology & Marketing, 12(7), 595–612.
29.
ThompsonCraig J., and TambyahSiok Kuan (1999), “Trying to Be Cosmopolitan,”Journal of Consumer Research, 26(December), 214–41.
30.
TreiseDebbie, WeigoldMichal F., ConnaJenneane, and GarrisonHeather (1994), “Ethics in Advertising: Ideological Correlates of Consumer Perception,”Journal of Advertising, 23(3), 59–72.
31.
VassilikopoulouA., and RigopoulouE. (2006), “Consumer Willingness to Pay More for Ethical Products: Some Empirical Evidence,” paper presented at the European Marketing Academy Conference, Athens (May).
32.
WebsterFrederick E.Jr., (1975), “Determining the Characteristics of the Socially Conscious Consumer,”Journal of Consumer Research, 2(3), 188–96.
33.
YoonSun-Joon, CannonHugh M., and YaprakAttila (1996), “A Cross-Cultural Study of the Cosmopolitan Construct: Validation of a New Cosmopolitanism Scale,” paper presented at the 1996 Annual Conference of the Academy of International Business, Banff, AB (September).
