As consumers spend money, a personal power element, at local food stores, their shopping value may differ individually depending on what they perceive most important when visiting the stores. The goal norm of power use which is considered important in...
As consumers spend money, a personal power element, at local food stores, their shopping value may differ individually depending on what they perceive most important when visiting the stores. The goal norm of power use which is considered important in consumers' cultural orientation can determine which shopping value will be more essential.
The present study deals with consumers' attitudes toward local food stores. In this study, it is presumed that the cultural propensity of consumers could affect the goal norm of their power use and that such norm might determine the shopping value they consider important when shopping at local food stores. This is why attempts are made in this paper to examine the consumers' cultural propensity theoretically, to identify the use of power norm according to the cultural propensity of consumers and to categorize the shopping value that corresponds to the use of the power norm.
In this context, the types of shopping value which have been investigated in the previous studies and the degree of local food stores' social responsibility activity as well as that of their contributions to competitiveness of regional society are set in this study as factors that may affect consumers' attitudes to local food stores. It is also set as a hypothesis here that the types of shopping value and the degree of local food stores' social responsibility activity as well as that of their contributions to profit-making and competitiveness of regional society may affect consumers' attitudes to local food stores and that such degree may be moderated by types of consumers' cultural orientation. An empirical analysis was performed to prove the hypothesis to this end.
Based on the data collected from the survey to 130 undergraduates, salaried men and people at large, the group with cultural value orientation was divided further into the group of horizontal individualism and that of vertical collectivism by using SPSS 18.0 program. SPSS 18.0 regression analysis program was employed to empirically analyze the factors affecting consumers' attitudes to local food stores. The outcomes of the analysis could be summed up as follows:
First, it was made known from the analysis that, in the group of vertical collectivism, contribution to regional profits and competitiveness, economic value and service superiority can positively affect the attitude to local food stores while the social responsibility activity in the community can't. In the group of horizontal individualism, however, contribution to regional profits and competitiveness, social responsibility activity, economic value and service superiority were all found to positively affect the attitude to local food stores. It thus became evident that, without regard to the types of cultural orientation, such utilitarian shopping values of local food stores as economic value as well as service superiority could have positive influence upon the attitude to local food stores.
Second, the analysis found in both groups that the distinctive shopping value of local food stores such as escapism, entertainment value and prestige does not affect the attitude to local food stores.
Third, the positive effects that the local food stores' level of responsibility for the outgroup community can exercise on the attitude to local food stores turned out to be bigger in the group of horizontal individualism than in the group of vertical collectivism/
Fourth, the impact that the degree of local food stores' contribution to regional profits and competitiveness has on the attitude to local food stores was found to be positive in both groups. However, no difference existed in the degree of positive effects between them.
This research is believed to contribute to the theoretical progress in that it found there was no difference between the two groups in the degree of positive impacts which local food stores' contribution to the practical shopping value and to local communities' interests as well as competitiveness might have on the attitude to local food stores. Moreover, the research found that the level of local food stores' social responsibility for the outgroup local communities exercise more positive impact on the attitudes to local food stores in the group of horizontal individualism than in the group of vertical collectivism. This study also implies that marketing managers of local food stores should pay more attention to managing their contribution to practical shopping value and to interests as well as competitiveness of regional society, and to persuading consumers of the horizontal individualistic group by performing responsible activities for the outgroup of local society regardless of the types of consumers' cultural orientation.
Keywords: Cultural Orientations, Local Food Store, power,
Shopping Value, Social Responsibility.