Unpacking collective materialism: how values shape consumption in seven Asian markets

Abstract

We study how collectivism, religion-tradition, thriftiness, and status/materialist consumption values jointly shape consumption preferences in seven Asian markets. These markets are diverse but relatively small, so identifying similarities should help companies implement standardized marketing strategies. Using data from 3000+ consumers, we find the effects to be largely similar. Collectivistic values directly and indirectly increase both religious and thriftiness values, both of which negatively affect status consumption values. However, the direct positive effect of collectivistic values on status consumption values is so strong that it dominates all of these countervailing negative effects, which explains the paradoxical affinity of Asian consumers towards luxury consumption while endorsing the moral virtues of thriftiness. We identify the effects these values have on preference towards symbolic (style, prestige, overseas origin) and utilitarian (durability, and value for price) attributes. Our results have implications for international marketing theory by highlighting the role of values in Asian consumption, and for practice by helping marketers arrive at more informed standardized brand/product strategies in these rapidly growing Asian markets. In particular, they support earlier findings that high and increasing luxury consumption in Asia may not be due to increasing individualism nor Westernization, but because collectivists have their own reasons for valuing status consumption.