Cultural Differences in Consumer Behavior: A Comparison of China and Britain using Hofstede's Model

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Name:
Institution:
Course:
Tutor:
Date:

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Introduction
In every aspect of the business, there are is always an interaction between business and
the customers. The business interaction always determines the nature of how consumers make
purchases and how the consumers react to such first initial purchases to determine the future
trend. The behaviors are always influenced by a number of factors, differ in different countries
and regions, and can also be understood using different models and theories such as Hofstede’s
Models. Therefore, this paper identifies and explores the significant difference of Chinese and
British cultural consumer behavior in reference to Hofstede’s Model.
Consumer behavior refers to the process of choice, purchase, and ingestion of products
and services for the satisfaction of wants(Seungsin et al 2018, p.456). The process involves
different stages such as identification of the likable product and services that have greater utility
and market the product with the amount of disposable money available, after which makes the
best selection of the product and service most preferable. However, the other factors that also
influence consumer’s behavior include cultural, personal, psychological, and social are not
identical across the globe, therefore each and every country has different behaviors.
Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior
Social factors refer to the group of values, lifestyles, interest, and behavior that belong to
the specific class of people and determine the nature of products and services consumed as
compared to another group of different personality values, lifestyle, and behavior (Hou, Hsiao &
Tsai 2018, p.19). For example, a consumer from a lower social class focuses more on price than
quality unlike a consumer from a higher class that focuses on quality rather than class.
Psychological factors such as emotions for luxury, motivation, and perception of a brand

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
determines the purchasing nature of a product by a customer. a positive perception assures
continuous purchasing and consumption trend while negative perception breaks the purchasing
trend of a customer (Zhang et al 2017, p.40) . Personality tends also to signify the inner
psychological nature of consumers to react to products and services. The individual likes and
dislikes resulting from occupation, age, lifestyle, economic conditions among others are the
major determinant co consumer behavior finally the cultural aspect such as taboo gained during
the childhood influence the liking or disliking of a product.
Hofstede's Model Cultural Dimension
Cultural factors such as taboos, customer, beliefs, and rituals that an individual learn and
adopt during childhood influence or inhibit the consumption of products and services. The
culture is further divided into subcultures such as religion, status, and gender (Morrow 2013).The
cultural consumer behavior can be explained using different models such as Hofstede's model of
the cultural dimension, developed by a Dutch social psychologist known as Geert Hofstede. The
cultural theory based upon the ideology that value is placed upon six different cultural
dimensions: power, collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, temporal orientation, and
indulgences, all determine the nature of consumption of a product and services.
Power Distance Index
Power distance refers to the percentage level of inequalities that exist in decision making
and accepted by individuals with and without power. The power of community determines the
consumer behavior of the community (Tan 2017, p.441). In China, the family tends to live
together as extended with a structured power from the head of the group. The head always
determine the feeding program; thereby the individuals with low rank have no say in the choice

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
of the product consumed. However in British people tend to be modest where the consumption of
a product is determined by individual preferences, rather than power.
Collectivism Versus Individualistic
These refer to the degree of the strength that people have within a community and family,
and how the strength tends to affects one another choices. Community with strong bond tends to
make decisions as one while those that have weak bond tend to make decisions on an individual
level (Rinne, Steel &Fairweather 2013, and p.130). The china culture is shaped up with about 56
ethnic groups with each having different cultural values, hence the consumers construct
heterogeneous consumption trend other hand Britain is made up of different people from
different nations such as England Scotland and few from other parts of the worlds.
Product decision making in China is based on the reference from the family and friends
as they live in collectiveness. About 66.5% of Chinese consumers know about a product and
services tend to rely on the word of mouth communication that is considered seven-timer
credible than other sources such as television adverts(Vandrei 2014,p.681). On the other hand,
the British family tends to be of nuclear, making the purchase on decision making to be on the
individual level.
Uncertainty Avoidance Index
Refers to the degree of which individuals accept and cope up with anxiety. The UAI
differs in countries, those societies with high UAI tend to make life more predictable and able to
control the results, however, tend to stop trying to control if they fail and put their fate in the”
hands of God”. China tends to have high UAI as Yuan refers to a destiny that makes
predetermined things to be beyond human control, thus making Chinese to relate to a product