“Do You Like Familiar or Bizarre Experience?”: The Effect of Proximal vs Far Cultural Psychological Distance on Brand Preference

Abstract

Goal construal theory has it that special distance time distance and psychological distance influence individuals’ decision in that they relying on high versus low level of knowledge in decision making None of the study has applied the construal theory in cross-cultural consumption study Based on the notion of goal construal level theory this study examines the effect of psychological distance in a cross-cultural context proximal versus far cultural distant on the consumption pattern of Taiwanese and Indian consumers This study also investigates the moderating effect of cosmopolitanism and nostalgia in brand choice This study finds that people of far cultural distant are influenced by high construal level product knowledge Their attitudes personal skills knowledge towards other culture are more related to abstract value These people generally relying only on high level construal values i e hedonic values to make decision On the other hand people of proximal cultural distant are influenced by both high construal level knowledge and low construal level knowledge which includes details and fact related information in their decision making This study also finds that cosmopolitanism influences consumers choice but it does not moderate the relationship of knowledge construal’s influence on brand choice Also contrarily to previous studies nostalgia is found to have no effect in consumption choice

Date of Award	2015 Feb 9
Original language	English
Supervisor	Ju-Faye Kao (Supervisor)