Multicultural Perspectives in Customer Behaviour

With globalisation taking centre stage in the business world and multiculturalism affecting markets and societies, there is a need to understand the ways that customers respond to the changing marketplace from international and multicultural perspectives. This book is timely in addressing important themes raised in the most recent marketing literature, such as: global consumer culture, and the impact of Western culture on consumer behaviour in other countries; consumer acculturation processes, and the impact on identity conflicts and the strategies people use to manage them; globalisation vs. localised strategies, and the interaction of local and global influences on customer behaviour; climate change and global warming, the impact on consumer behaviour, and the implications for social responsibility; and cross-cultural customer research, including important methodological questions around the application of sociological, group-level measures to psychological, individual-level phenomenon in marketing contexts. The papers in this edition address those themes, reporting on studies from a range of countries, including Germany, Greece, China, and Austria, and a number of cultural groups in the UK. These papers draw on quantitative and qualitative methodologies, reflecting the full range of methods employed in contemporary consumer research.

This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Marketing Management.

Maria G. Piacentini is Senior Lecturer in Consumer Research and Marketing at Lancaster University Management School in the UK. Her research focuses on the consumption behaviour of vulnerable consumers, with specific interest in the coping strategies employed by consumers in difficult situations. She has published her work in a number of journals, including the Journal of Business Research, the Journal of Marketing Management, Advances in Consumer Research, Sociology of Health and Illness, the Journal of Consumer Behaviour, the International Journal of Non-Profit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, and the International Review of Retailing, Distribution and Consumer Research.

Charles C. Cui is Senior Lecturer in International Management and Marketing at the University of Manchester, Manchester Business School in the UK. His research focuses on international marketing and consumer behaviour, with a special interest in managerial and consumer behaviours in cross-cultural contexts. He has published his work in international journals such as Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Industrial Marketing Management, International Marketing Review, Journal of Business Ethics, and R&D Management.