European Journal of Scientific Research - EuroJournals

European Journal of Scientific Research
ISSN 1450-216X Vol.20 No.2 (2008), pp.249-254
© EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2008
http://www.eurojournals.com/ejsr.htm
The Input of Psychology in Methodological Considerations of
Cross Cultural Marketing Research
Christina Giannakopoulou
Psychologist, St. Thomas Hospital, U.K
E-mail: Christina_giannakopoulou@yahoo.co.uk
George Siomkos
Professor of Marketing, Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece
E-mail: gsiomkos@aueb.gr
Aikaterini Vassilikopoulou
Research Associate, Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece
E-mail: katva@aueb.g
Abstract
This paper investigates the potential input of social psychology in cross cultural
marketing research. More specifically, the study addresses the methodological
considerations in designing the market research study, carrying out the study and
interpreting the marketing research findings.
Introduction
In the era of global communications, during which the world is becoming one market place (i.e., global
village), products have become global in nature and companies are increasingly trying to intervene in
foreign markets all over the world (Mattelart, 1991). In light of the accruing business internationalism,
development of cross-cultural marketing strategies is imperative. Cross-cultural marketing has been
characterised as the extension of a company’s home country’s marketing strategy into the global
marketplace (Roberts, 2001). As business internationalism globalization increases, companies should
better utilize cross-cultural marketing research approaches (Young and Javalgi, 2007). Interestingly,
cross-cultural marketing research has to compete with the integration of different cultures on a
common global scale.
Psychologists, as well as marketing researchers often have tended to select persons who are
conveniently available to be subjects in their experiments or informants in their empirical work. It
would be, however, a mistake to assume that the findings from studies in Europe and North America
can be applied on people from other parts of the world. That is why the study of cross-cultural
psychology in marketing research may be useful to broaden corporate vision and deepen business
insights by crossing the boarders (Segall et al., 1990).
More specifically, cross-cultural research in psychology has been defined as "the explicit,
systematic comparison of psychological variables under different cultural conditions in order to specify
the antecedents and processes that mediate the emergence of behaviour differences" (Eckensberg,
1972, p. 100).
Cross-cultural research was primarily of interest to anthropologists up until the World War II,
when experimental psychologists became interested in groups outside the urbanised and literate