A cross-cultural examination of the effects of social perception styles on store image formation

Journal of Business Research 60 (2007) 222 – 230

A cross-cultural examination of the effects of social perception styles on store image formation ☆ Haiyan Hu a,⁎, Cynthia R. Jasper b,1 a

Department of Business Administration, College of Business, Utah State University, 3510 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322-3510, USA b Department of Consumer Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1300 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA Received 1 April 2005; received in revised form 1 March 2006; accepted 1 September 2006

Abstract This study involves a cross-cultural examination of the effects of social perception styles on consumers' store image formation. A matched student sample and a matched women sample from the U.S. and China were compared. A 2 (conforming vs. autonomous societies) by 2 (high vs. low socially oriented graphic displays) by 2 (high vs. low personalized customer service) by 2 (student vs. adult woman sample) between-subject experiment design was conducted. The results showed that as hypothesized, Chinese students were more significantly affected by the social cues that are embedded within the store environment than American students were. Unlike American women, Chinese women formed a favorable impression of a store with low social orientation. Implications on how international retailers should develop a retail mix that is effective across cultures were discussed. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Social perception styles; Social cues; Store image; Personalized service; Graphic display; Cross-cultural comparison

1. Introduction Today, globalization has become one of the most important trends within the retail industry. Many forces drive retailers to expand globally including a saturated domestic market, the economic growth in the developing countries, and the benefit of global sourcing and global economies of scale (Webb, 2002). Industrial analysts suggested one way to achieve success in international market is to develop a store image that is consistent and also caters to the local culture (Woodard, 1996). According to Lindquist (1974/75), store image is the overall impression that consumers have of a retail store. It is usually composed of both cognitive and affective components. ☆ This manuscript is based on the first author's doctoral dissertation. The authors wish to thank committee members Professors David Mick, Robin Douthitt, Linda Roberts, and Letecia N. McKinney for their helpful comments. We appreciate the help from Jikyeong Kang, Irena Vida, and all the participants of the Royal Bank International Research Seminar. ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 435 797 1571; fax: +1 435 797 2634. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (H. Hu), [email protected] (C.R. Jasper). 1 Tel.: +1 608 262 2384; fax: +1 608 265 6048.

0148-2963/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2006.09.027

The cognitive component consists of consumers' perception of the functional qualities of the store (Lindquist, 1974/75). Affect refers to the ways consumers feel about a store (Darden and Babin, 1994). Previous studies have found that there is a positive relationship between consumers' perception of store image and their likelihood to shop in the store again. (Donovan et al., 1994; Finn and Louviere, 1996; Hildebrandt, 1988; Sherman et al., 1997). Consumer perception of a store is vital to a store's performance and retailers should ensure they are instilling the image that they are hoping to establish in consumers' minds. In addition to the functional store attributes, the social factors or social cues in the store environment and their impacts on perception of store image were also explored. Studies have shown that consumers show more satisfaction toward merchandise and service quality when there were more social cues. Their perception of the store also improved when high-personalized service was given (Baker et al., 1994; Hu and Jasper, 2006). Unfortunately, the above findings have not been validated in a cross-cultural setting. Cross-cultural psychology has revealed that individuals from different cultures (i.e. conforming vs. autonomous cultures) would demonstrate different social

H. Hu, C.R. Jasper / Journal of Business Research 60 (2007) 222–230

perception styles. This has led to the research questions that this article focuses on: Will consumers from cultures with different social perception styles form images of stores in a similar way? If not, how do social perception styles affect perception of store image? This article first introduces the social cues embedded in store environments. Then differences in social perception styles across cultures are discussed. Hypotheses regarding the crosscultural comparison of store image due to the effects of different social perception are proposed. The research method is discussed and this is followed by data analyses results and discussion. 2. Social cues in store environment The store environment is socially constructed using both physical and social cues. Retailers are aiming to create a socially pleasant environment by ingraining social cues throughout the store environment. Social cues can include the lifestyle, attitude, and demographic information of clientele in addition to the social interactions the customers have in the store (Akhter et al., 1987, p. 68). Social cues also include design elements that convey social meanings, such as color, texture, lighting, mannequins, fixtures, graphics, and signage. Given the large number of social cues present in the store environment, this study examined two types of social cues: personalized customer service and in-store graphics with social meanings. Personalization of service means that the sales associate and customers have a meaningful, mutually satisfying relationship. Personalization is manifested through an employee's politeness and courtesy, attempts to get to know customers as individuals, and engagement in friendly conversation (Mittal and Lassar, 1996). Mittal and Lassar (1996) found that when an employee personalizes their service, it increases the customer satisfaction with the service. They also found that consumers seek familiar, friendly retail salespeople. For instance, casual conversation with salespeople in stores is often viewed as a form of personalized service. In-store graphics often send consumers the message that they are welcome to enter a store and purchase a product (Pegler, 1998). In addition, social influence theory suggests that if a consumer views a product being promoted by an idealized person such as a model portrayed in the graphic display, they will be more apt to purchase the product. This is believed to be because consumers identify with the model based on the belief that they may hold similar values to the model. On the other hand, meaning movement theory suggests that socio-cultural meaning is drawn from the celebrity endorser via advertising devices such as in-store graphics and then it is transferred to an individual consumer through rituals (McCracken, 1989). 3. Differences in social perception styles: conforming vs. autonomous societies A society's position can be arranged along a continuum from “conformity” to “autonomy”. Social conformity relates to the degree of hierarchical structure amongst sociocultural elements

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in a society (Witkin and Goodenough, 1981). Societies at the conforming end of the conformity-autonomy continuum are characterized by an elaborate social structure and considerable role diversity. In these societies, children are reared to achieve the results favored by the society through strict adherence to parental authority as well as to religious and political authority outside the family. These social powers exert strong social control over individual behavior and thus place a high level of pressure on the individual to conform (Witkin and Goodenough, 1981). Societies at the autonomous end of the continuum, in contrast, are characterized by minimum role diversity and a less elaborate social structure. In these societies, there are fewer social pressures, allowing for a high degree of self-control (Oltman, 1986; Witkin and Berry, 1975). As a result, people from conforming societies will demonstrate different social perception styles compared to people from autonomous societies. Specifically, individuals in a conforming society (1) are more attentive to the social cues or stimuli in the task situation (Ruble and Nakamura, 1972), (2) are more likely to be affected in their task performance by the social stimuli (Konstadt and Forman, 1965), and (3) demonstrate better incidental memory of socially-oriented information in terms of recall and recognition (Eagle et al., 1969), and therefore are more socially-oriented than task-oriented. The two cultures compared in this study represent different values on the theoretical continuum of conformity: Chinese represent the consumers in a conforming society and Americans represent the consumers in an autonomous society. Ethnographic studies in both cultural anthropology and sociology, as well as studies in consumer research have provided sufficient evidence (ranging from child-rearing style to social value orientation) to support this choice, making the two societies ideal for use in a comparative study of consumers' perception of differences in store image (Hsu, 1981; Pan et al., 1994). Thus, Chinese consumers, who regard social conformity as essential to their social existence, should be more responsive to social cues than their American counterparts in general. 4. The effects of social perception styles on store image formation The following hypotheses are formulated to investigate the effects of social perception styles on store image between two cultures: Chinese and Americans. H1. Consumers in a conforming society have a more favorable attitude toward merchandise quality when merchandise is displayed with more socially-oriented posters than when fewer of such posters are present. Whereas consumers in an autonomous society will have a less favorable attitude toward merchandise quality when merchandise is displayed with more socially-oriented posters than when fewer of such posters are present. H2. The presence of higher-level personalized customer service more significantly affects the perception of service quality among consumers in a conforming society than among consumers in an autonomous society.

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From a cross-cultural point of view, the degree to which social cues will impact customers' affect towards a store will differ between consumers of conforming societies and consumers of autonomous societies. If a store is composed of social cues, it will probably be viewed as more novel and active. Thus, the following hypotheses were proposed: H3. The social orientation of a store environment more significantly affects arousal or pleasure among consumers in a conforming society than among consumers in an autonomous society. The following hypothesis regard the effects of cognitive style of social perception on perception of overall store image: H4. The social orientation of a store environment more significantly affects store image among consumers in a conforming society than among consumers in an autonomous society. Finally, a prior study showed in a culture that emphasizes conformity, such as Korea, subjective norms are more important than consumers' own attitudes towards behavior in predicting their patronage intention. It was further argued that this finding “reflects the strong social pressures put on Korean consumers, such as those associated with face saving and group conformity” (p. 301). For the U.S. sample, however, a consumer's own attitude toward behavior is the primary determinant of patronage intention (Lee and Green, 1990). Therefore, the following hypothesis was proposed. H5. Consumers in a conforming society exhibit a greater degree of shopping intention when exposed to a high sociallyoriented store environment than when exposed to a low socially-oriented store environment; whereas consumers in an autonomous society will exhibit a greater degree of shopping intention when exposed to a low socially-oriented store environment than when exposed to a high socially-oriented store environment. 5. Research method 5.1. Samples This study uses a matched consumer sample and a matched student sample. By using this technique, this study is able not only to enhance the external validity of the research but also to examine the different results between using a student sample and a consumer sample in cross-cultural research. In the U.S., the student participants were undergraduate students of a large public university in the Midwest; in China, students were recruited also from a large public university. Extra course credits were offered as an incentive for American students to participate in the study. No monetary incentives were provided to Chinese students, only the notion of helping friends. The matched consumer samples were composed of female adults, aged 25 years and older. The residence area is matched in that both are the capital city of a province or state. Furthermore, both samples were composed of middle-class women (measured

by household income level). While the average income of Chinese women was definitely much lower than that of American women, this study focused on their relative economic status in their own country. Chinese students were hired to collect surveys from a convenience sample including women from their own families (sisters, in-laws, mothers, etc.), from the neighborhood, or from their parents' workplaces. American females were recruited from local churches, work places, local chapters of women's organizations, and the university family housing community. No monetary incentives were provided to the American and Chinese women who participated in the study. 5.2. Study design A 2 (conforming vs. autonomous societies) by 2 (high vs. low socially-oriented store displays) by 2 (high vs. low personalized customer service) by 2 (matched student sample vs. matched woman sample) between-subject experimental design was conducted to achieve the research objective. 5.2.1. Choice of retail format In retail research, store image can be studied via different retail formats, such as discount stores, specialty stores, or supermarkets. Due to the limited access to these modern retail formats in a developing country like China, it is important to study store image through a store format that is common to both Chinese and Americans. The department store format was chosen for various reasons: (1) in both countries, department stores have a long-standing reputation for quality and value; (2) department stores have contributed to a significant share of both nations' total retail sales; and (3) of foremost importance to this comparative study, the layout and function of department stores in both countries are very similar (Sternquist, 1998). 5.2.2. Stimulus design As no department store retailer operates in both the Chinese and the American market, the researchers decided to simulate a department store by using a loose-leaf photo album that contained both text and graphic information about a department store, following the method developed by Mazursky and Jacoby (1986). Respondents were told that an international retailer is opening a department store and that the retailer was interested in consumers' perception of the new store. The photo album was designed to simulate an actual store after consulting with retailing professionals. The photos were taken by a professional photographer. A graphic designer then edited and refined the layout of the album. To simulate a real shopping trip, respondents could go to any page. The album also included other information necessary for forming a store image, such as the store location and operation hours and return/exchange policies. About 200 photos, representative of departments within stores, were taken at department stores in the U.S. However, only those photos with goods or settings similar to retail stores in China were included in the study. To create a Chinese version of the stimuli, photos were electronically edited to correctly represent a Chinese shopping experience. For example, Chinese

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text replaced signage originally in English, and Asian persons were substituted for persons with Anglo-Saxon characteristics. Scenarios were designed to represent high and low sociallyoriented store displays. For the high socially-oriented store displays, photos of merchandise displayed with graphics full of social images were included. For the low socially-oriented store displays, the social images in the photos were replaced with a department name. For example, in the high socially-oriented display conditions, the “Bedding and Bath” department was decorated with posters which showed either: a half-naked man sitting comfortably by the tub, a bag full of white towels, a young couple holding a cute little baby surrounded by many colorful towels, or a young mother holding a smiling baby wrapped in towels. In the low socially-oriented displays, everything was the same except that two of the posters described above were replaced with signs that read, “Department of Bedding and Bath.” This approach enabled us to create two contrasting conditions (high vs. low socially-oriented displays) with a similar amount of information load. Within the photo album, the following two scenarios were created to describe service encounters that represent high vs. low personalized service (Mittal and Lassar, 1996). The scenario of a highly personalized customer service was created as follows: Last Sunday, I went to Kelly's Department Store to buy a dress shirt. As soon as I walked into the department, a sales associate greeted me with a smile and offered her assistance. After I described what I was looking for, she quickly showed me several dress shirts in varying colors, fabrics, and styles. She listened very attentively when I told her about my color preferences, described occasions where I might wear such a shirt, and so on, and suggested several shirts. Each time I tried a shirt on, she offered her opinion as to whether the shirt suited me. I decided on one shirt and she told me how to properly care for it and explained the store's return policy. After carefully folding the shirt and placing it in a bag along with the receipt, she offered a ‘Thank you, I hope you like the shirt' as she handed the bag to me… The scenario of a low personalized customer service is created as follows: Last Sunday, I went to Kelly's Department Store to buy a dress shirt. I walked into the department, and a sales associate greeted me with a smile. I looked around and studied the colors, fabrics and styles of the shirts while the sales associate was shelving merchandise at the other side of the department. I found one that seemed to fit me and took it to the checkout counter. After waiting for a while, the sales associate came. She made the transaction, put the shirt and receipt in a bag and said good-bye to me…

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Table 1 Factor Loadings and Reliabilities of Measurement Scales Name of the measure

(1) Perception of merchandise quality The merchandise would be reliable. The workmanship would be high. The merchandise would be durable. The merchandise would be dependable. The merchandise would be of high quality. (2) Perception of service quality Customers would be treated well. Employees would be willing to help customers. Employees would give personal attention. Employees would not be too busy to respond. The store would offer high-quality service. Returning purchase would be easy. The store would have fast check-out. (3) Store affect: pleasure Happy/unhappy Pleased/annoyed Satisfied/unsatisfied Relaxed/bored Store Affect: arousal Aroused/unaroused Frenzied/sluggish Stimulated/relaxed Excited/calm (4) Overall perception of store image Good/bad Like/dislike Favorable/unfavorable Intention to shop I would shop. I would be willing to buy. I would recommend to my friends. I would avoid shopping. I would try this store first. I would feel comfortable shopping here. (6) Manipulation check: social information (fsocial1)⁎ (7) Manipulation check: social function (fsocial2)⁎

Matched student sample

Matched woman sample

Factor loading

Factor loading

Reliability 0.89

0.86

0.86

0.83

0.85

0.82

0.92

0.88

0.90

0.92

0.87

0.85 0.90

0.85

0.84

0.79

0.90

0.87

0.84

0.87

0.81

0.74

0.86

0.86

0.66

0.62

0.65

0.68 0.85

0.83 0.89 0.81 0.75

Reliability

0.87 0.84 0.82 0.82 0.81

0.77 0.66 0.80 0.86 0.79

0.80 0.64 0.70 0.86 0.87

0.91 0.92 0.93 0.92

0.92 0.83 0.91 0.84

0.85

0.82

0.87 0.84 0.90

0.88 0.85 0.85

0.62 0.70 0.74

0.64 0.76 0.70 0.80

0.82

0.83

0.90

5.3. Measurements

⁎ Measurement scales are available upon requested.

The measurement scales used in this study are presented in Table 1. We used back translation and a decentering technique to achieve translation equivalence (Brislin, 1970). This study

compares a number of variable means between Americans and Chinese, such as consumers' affective and cognitive responses toward the store, overall perception of store image, and

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Table 2 Comparisons of selected demographic characteristics between matched samples

6. Results

Demographic variables

Matched student sample

Matched women sample

American (n = 113)

American (n = 102)

Mean age (standard) Marital status Never married Married Divorced Separated Educational level High school Associate Bachelor's Master's Ph.D's Professional Employment Full-time Half-time Not working

21.39 (1.06) 21.17 (1.78) 39.54 (11.44) 37.03 (11.26)

The pretests of the study were conducted to check the implementation of manipulations and to develop a Chinese version of the questionnaire and stimuli that convey the same meanings as the English versions. The usable surveys include 113 American students and 110 Chinese students in the matched student sample, and 107 American women and 115 Chinese women in the matched women sample.

Chinese (n = 110)

Chinese (n = 108)

98.2% – 0.9% 0.9%

98.2% 1.8% – –

29.9% 46.7% 15.0% 8.4%

24.3% 74.8% .9% –

98.2% 1.8% – – – –

95.4% 4.6% – – – –

19.6% 16.8% 35.5% 21.5% 4.7% 1.9%

50.9% 24.1% 22.3% 2.7% – –

3.7% 1.8% 94.5%

0.9% 67.3% 31.9%

44.9% 22.4% 32.7%

82.9% 2.7% 14.4%

shopping intention. To make such comparisons valid, levels of measure invariance such as metric and invariance are required (Steenkamp and Baumgartner, LISREL 8 was used to test for measure invariance in scales used in the study.

6.1. Characteristics of the samples

higher scalar 1998). all the

In Table 2, the Chinese students collectively have a profile similar to that of the American students in terms of age, marital status, and education level. However, they do vary regarding employment status. The American students tend to work parttime (67.3%), while most of the Chinese students do not work at all (94.5%), relying instead upon their parents to support their school and living expenses. In contrast to the student sample, the women sample had more variations in all aspects of demographic characteristics except age (see Table 3, 37.03 for Chinese women and 39.54 for American women, F = 2.568, p N 0.10). The mismatches such as those in education, employment status, and marital status are considered to be consistent with the overall societal differences between the two countries.

Table 3 Summary of the four-way ANOVA results Main and interaction effects

Main effects Culture Sample type Display Service 2-way interaction Culture × sample Culture × display Culture × service Sample × display Sample × service Display × service 3-way interaction Culture × sample × display Culture × sample × service Sample × display × service Culture × display × service 4-way interaction Culture × sample × display × service Covariates Consumer loneliness Consumer shopping expertise Social conformity: legal Social conformity: traditional Social conformity: media/peer ⁎p b .10. ⁎⁎p b .05. ⁎⁎⁎p b .01.

Perception of merchandise quality

Perception of service quality

18.72⁎⁎⁎ – 22.41⁎⁎⁎ 9.40⁎⁎⁎

Store affect

Overall store image

Intention to shop

Pleasure

Arousal

– – 9.34⁎⁎⁎ 23.67⁎⁎⁎

– – 5.53⁎⁎ –

5.91⁎⁎ – 7.07⁎⁎⁎ –

– 4.20⁎ 7.30⁎⁎⁎ –

– 2.90⁎ 2.83⁎ 7.34⁎⁎⁎

– – – 11.62⁎⁎⁎ – –

3.41⁎ – – 9.00⁎⁎⁎ 4.32⁎⁎ –

– – – 4.64⁎⁎ 3.21⁎ –

– – – – – –

– – 7.66⁎⁎⁎ 9.02⁎⁎⁎ 2.91⁎ 7.98⁎⁎⁎

– – – 8.78⁎⁎⁎ 2.84⁎ –

8.90⁎⁎⁎ 6.08⁎⁎ 4.53⁎⁎ –

5.49⁎⁎ 7.33⁎⁎⁎ – –

– 5.69⁎⁎ – –

10.99⁎⁎⁎ – – –

– 7.88⁎⁎⁎ – –

4.87⁎⁎ 8.07⁎⁎⁎ – 3.68⁎

–

–

–

–

– – – – –

– – – – –

– – – – –

– 4.45⁎ – 5.81⁎ –

– – – – – –

5.85⁎⁎ – – – 3.50⁎ –

H. Hu, C.R. Jasper / Journal of Business Research 60 (2007) 222–230

6.2. Comparison of social conformity This study uses the conformity scale developed and crossculturally validated by Zhang (1992) to measure if Chinese are more conforming than Americans. Among the three dimensions of conformity, traditional (e.g. parents), rational/legal (e.g. professors), and media/peer, it is found that Chinese, women and students, were more conforming than Americans in two dimensions: traditional (Δ X = 0.56; F(1,424) = 29.595, p = 0.000) and media/peer (ΔX = 0.1.029; F(1,424) = 140.351, p = 0.000), but less conforming than Americans to their professors (ΔX = 0.271; F(1,424) = 4.825, p = 0.029). 6.3. Manipulation check of the social orientation of a store Two types of social cues or information were manipulated in this study: in-store graphics with social meaning and personalized customer service. Pretests revealed the social orientation of a store can be represented as a 2-factor construct: fsocial1 (social information) and fsocial2 (social function). The results indicated that the manipulation worked as expected. Respondents of both cultures, regardless of whether they were students or women, rated high personalized service as more social than low personalized service (F(2,438) = 2.733, p = 0.066; F(1,439) = 5.465, p = 0.020 for fsocial1). Respondents also rated a store with a greater amount of socially oriented poster display as more social, compared to a store with a lesser amount of such display (F(2,438) = 16.466, p = 0.000; F(1,439) = 31.631, p = 0.000 for fsocial1 and F(1,439) = 3.301, p = 0.007 for fsocial2).

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interaction between culture and display was obtained, which indicated that the effect of socially oriented display on consumers' perception of merchandise quality does not differ between the two cultures. But when the factor of sample type was considered, the interaction between culture, display, and sample type had a significant effect on respondents' evaluation of merchandise quality (F(1,424) = 8.903, p = 0.003; see Table 3). Specifically, both Chinese and American students perceived higher merchandise quality but the Chinese seemed to be more affected than the Americans (ΔX = 1.180 for Chinese students and ΔX = 0.455 for American students). Unlike American women who perceive higher merchandise quality when more posters with social meanings were displayed (ΔX = 0.368), Chinese women perceived the opposite (ΔX = − 0.106). 6.4.2. Perception of service quality The matched student sample supports H2. Although students in both samples had a more favorable attitude toward service quality when a high-personalized service was provided, Chinese students are more affected than their American peers by levels of service personalization (ΔX = 0.934 for Chinese students and ΔX = 0.603 for American students). However, the matched women sample is a different story. American women perceived a higher service quality when a high level of personalized service was provided (ΔX = 0.743), whereas Chinese women perceived a higher service quality when the store provided a low level of personalized service (ΔX = − 0.122). Thus, women in both countries exhibited a different attitude toward personalized service, whereas students exhibited a similar perception.

6.4. Findings The data analyses were conducted with a 2 (conforming vs. autonomous culture) by 2 (high vs. low socially oriented display) by 2 (high vs. low personalized customer service) by 2 (student vs. adult woman sample) analysis of variance, except when testing the store affect, during which two related affect dimensions (arousal and pleasure) were tested simultaneously. In order to effectively examine the cross-cultural differences as hypothesized by the researcher and to check or control the effects of nuisance variables, including the within-group heterogeneity, three covariates were used in each analysis, consumer loneliness, consumer shopping expertise, and social conformity. None of the covariates were significant in the analyses as shown in Table 3. The tests of the scales' measure invariance were conducted for the matched adult woman sample separately from the matched student sample. The test results show that for both samples, the measures used in this study are cross-culturally valid, because for each scale, at least two items are scalar invariant, which according to Steenkamp and Baumgartner (1998) is the basis for making valid cross-cultural comparisons of factor means. Those items with any measure variance were not included in further hypothesis testing. See the reliability of the measures in Table 1.

6.4.3. Store affect The omnibus test showed a significant 3-way interaction among culture, sample type, and display (F(2,416) = 5.624, p = 0.004) and a relatively weak interaction among culture, sample type, and service (F(2,416) = 2.942, p = 0.054). Further tests revealed that Hypothesis H3 was partly supported in the matched student sample: (1) both Chinese and American students felt aroused in a store where more socially oriented posters were present, although the Chinese students seemed to be more significantly affected by display than the Americans were (F(1,416) = 10.999, p = 0.001 on arousal only; ΔX = 0.708 for Chinese students and ΔX = 0.128 for American students); (2) Chinese students felt more pleased in a store where highpersonalized service was provided, whereas American students felt more pleased where low-personalized service was provided (F(1,416) = 5.690, p = 0.018 on pleasure only; ΔX = 0.233 for Chinese students and ΔX = − 0.028 for American students). On the other hand, unlike American women who were more stimulated by the presence of more posters (ΔX = 0.699) or in a high-personalized condition (ΔX = 0.106), Chinese women were less aroused by the presence of more posters (ΔX = − 0.286) or in a high-personalized condition (ΔX = − 0.732).

6.4.1. Perception of merchandise quality Data analysis results revealed a different picture from what was proposed in Hypothesis H1. As shown in Table 3, no

6.4.4. General store image Hypothesis H4 received weak support for the effect of personalized service from the matched student sample. Results

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indicated that both Chinese and American students had a more favorable image of the store when high-personalized service was provided and the effect of service personalization was only slightly more significant among Chinese students (ΔX = 0.187 for Chinese students and ΔX = 0.182 for American students). The same reaction was observed among American women (ΔX = 0.462), but not among Chinese women, who showed a strongly negative store image in the high-personalized service condition (ΔX = − 0.956). 6.4.5. Intention to shop Consistent with Hypothesis H5, consumers' intention to shop differed across the two cultures depending on the social orientation of a store, especially when sample type was taken into account. Specifically, the effect of service on the students' shopping intention in the two cultures differed from that on women in the two cultures (F(1,426) = 8.066, p = 0.005). Although both Chinese and American students were more likely to shop in stores where high-personalized service was provided (ΔX = 0.841 for Chinese students and ΔX = 0.164 for American students), service seemed to significantly affect the Chinese students' shopping intention more than it did the American students, thus supporting Hypothesis H5. On the other hand, unlike American women, Chinese women seemed to be more willing to shop in stores where low-personalized service was provided (ΔX = 0.428 for American women and ΔX = − 0.217 for Chinese women). Significant interaction was also found among culture, sample type, and display (F(1,426) = 4.872, p = 0.028). Both Chinese and American students were more likely to shop in stores where more posters with social meanings were displayed (ΔX = 0.761 for Chinese students and ΔX = 0.303 for American students). Note also that display had a more significant effect on Chinese students' shopping intention than on American students, also supporting Hypothesis H5. However, unlike American women who like to shop where more posters were present (ΔX = 0.128), Chinese women seemed to be more willing to shop in stores where fewer such posters were displayed (ΔX = − 0.424). 7. Summary and discussions 7.1. Social perception style as a useful tool for cross-cultural comparison This study explored the effect of social perception styles on consumers' store image formation. The results show that as hypothesized, the Chinese students were more significantly affected by the social cues than the American students were. In other words, the Chinese were more sensitive to the social cues in the retail environment than the Americans were. Thus, social perception styles seem to be an effective tool to account for some of the cross cultural variances in store image formation between a conforming culture like China and an autonomous culture like the U.S. Some of the widely used cultural constructs such as collectivism/individualism (C/I), have been criticized for being a high order abstraction that may obscure the more important and

subtler cultural distinctions (Kagitcibasi, 1997) or being an allpurpose construct used to explain everything and which may eventually explain nothing. Therefore, some scholars recommend using a more fine-tuned middle-level construct, such as hedonism, achievement, self-direction, restrictive conformity, to capture cultural differences (Kagitcibasi, 1997; Schwartz, 1990). In this study, social perception style is based on cross-cultural social conformity theory. This concept is more finely tuned and does not make assumptions about behaviors based on a high-arching value system. In other words, it does not suggest that consumers in different cultures react differently to the social elements in the retail environment because they have different value systems, but rather, they react differently because they have differing levels of sensitivity or responsiveness to the social cues embedded in the environment. This construct could be applied in making crosscultural comparisons of consumers' responses to advertising, product packaging, and the retail environment. 7.2. The factor of renqing Nonetheless, our hypotheses were not supported in the matched women sample. Especially contrary to our presumptions, Chinese women respond more favorably to a low social oriented store environment. One plausible explanation could be the Chinese cultural value called renqing. Renqing is a social norm that Chinese abide by when engaging in social exchange and interaction in daily life. It is defined as an obligation to repay a social debt of gratitude sometime in the future and which can influence current exchanges (Hwang, 1987). Although renqing is ubiquitous in all societies, it is said to be more elaborated and more tightly bound up with reciprocity in relational societies such as China than in other cultures. For instance, Chinese conduct business by exchanging favors without signing any legal documents, believing that signing legal documents may harm the trusting and reciprocal relationship (Yau, 1988). Therefore, renqing can be a powerful marketing tool in the Chinese market when used appropriately. One such successful story involves the popularity of the direct selling of cosmetics by Avon. Because renqing involves a social debt that is almost impossible to repay, people often choose to evade the entanglement of renqing (Hwang, 1987). In the market place, renqing implies an obligation to repay the services received or visual pleasure in a retail setting with more purchases. As a result, as an action to evade renqing, consumers may choose to avoid or stop patronizing certain retailers or service providers. This could be the underlying rationale for the seemingly peculiar behaviors of Chinese women in our study. For instance, this study shows that the hypothesized high-level of personalized services seem “pushy” to Chinese women. They turn away because they feel they would be obliged to make a purchase. Consumers tended to perceive the store with more posters of social meaning as high-end. Some said, “I don't like it because I feel obliged to buy something I don't need or want.” Lee, Yau, Chow, Sin, and Tse (2004)'s description of traditionalist women further corroborated our theory. According to their typology of Chinese women, the Chinese women in our study are typical “traditionalists” who were born during the Cultural Revolution

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or between 1966 and 1976. This group of women strongly adheres to Chinese cultural values such as face and reciprocity. They are also very concerned with maintaining harmony within their social network and price-sensitive. Sociological work on Chinese demonstrated the relationships between well-known cultural concepts such as renqing, face, and guanxi. Specifically, it suggested that norms of renqing are heavily shaped by the hierarchically structured network of social relations (guanxi) by the public nature of obligations which are incurred through a self-conscious manipulation of face and related symbols (Hwang, 1987). Put differently, in a culture like China where social ties are pervasive, one can do the other a renqing to enhance the latter's face and expect a reciprocal favor. Otherwise, one can lose face if a request for favor or renqing is rejected. Since all retailer-consumer relationships involve reciprocity (Miller and Kean, 1997) and the concept of reciprocity is also central to relationship marketing (Bagozzi, 1995), it is essential for future research to build on the sociological work involving renqing, face, and guanxi, to empirically examine the effects of these cultural concepts as they may provide rich insights into understanding Chinese consumer behaviors. 7.3. Sample selection in cross-cultural consumer research With the above discussion, a question follows subsequently: why do Chinese students act differently from Chinese women? The Chinese students in this study are considered as moderns who were born in 1978 or later (Lee et al., 2004). With better education and higher income, moderns “desire to live for today” and show more individualistic traits. For example, they tend to choose products that meet their own personal needs rather than the family's (pp.20). This is rather different from the traditionalists, who have strong sense of family responsibility and consider family needs the most important factor when making purchase decisions. Future research should empirically probe the difference between Chinese college students and old consumers in the response toward the social orientation of a store. But it is certain that if only one sample had been used, a very biased conclusion would have been drawn. On the other hand, students across the world are more likely to be similar given the widespread use of the Internet and the availability of satellite television. For example, one study found that college students from five countries (i.e. New Zealand, Denmark, Greece, the U.S., and India) were no different in their attitudes toward advertising in general (Durvasula et al., 1993). As this study examined only business students who might “have stronger views toward advertising than that of the general population,” (p.635) the authors called for testing from more generalizable cultural samples (i.e. samples with greater within-group heterogeneity). Another task for future researchers is to determine whether women or students are more reflective of the Chinese consumers. This study is limited as it only used a matched sample from one sub-group of a population. Any results derived from this matched sample (e.g. a matched women sample or a matched student sample) should be applied to other groups of consumers with discretion. Despite its contribution to cross-cultural consumer research, this study is still subject to the limitations involving the use of

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