Consumer Lifestyle Forming Under the Influence of National Culture

Abstract

Research Question: This paper examines the influence of femininity and collectivism as a dimension of Serbian national culture on activities, interests and opinions, i.e., consumer lifestyle components. Motivation: Consumer lifestyle is largely shaped by the effects of the culture to which consumers belong. Starting from the relevant Kotler & Keller (2017) consumer behaviour model that demonstrates the previously given fact, as well as identified research gap related to investigating the influence of Hofstede's national culture dimensions on activities, interests and opinions as lifestyle components, the study gives useful insights into the importance of knowing and respecting cultural differences when defining marketing strategies that aim to shape or influence a particular consumer lifestyle. The study contributes to the existing literature by providing a new idea for developing a research framework that could be used in cross-cultural or consumer behaviour studies. Idea: The basic idea of this study is to empirically test the relationship between national culture dimensions and consumer lifestyle components. The study was conducted using collectivism and femininity as independent variables, and activities, interest and opinions, i.e., lifestyle components as dependent variables. Data: Empirical research was conducted on a sample of 251 consumers from central Serbia using a survey method during July and August 2020. Tools: Processing of primary data was performed using statistical software SPSS 20 and AMOS 20 utilizing descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. Findings: The study first confirms the presence of collectivism and femininity as Serbian national culture dimensions, and then indicates the existence of a statistically significant effect of observed national culture dimensions on consumer lifestyle components. Related to this, results indicate the existence of a statistically significant effect of femininity on activities and opinions, while collectivism determines only activities as a lifestyle component. Contribution: The paper provides an analysis of national culture influence on lifestyle as an important sociological determinant of consumer behaviour and also provides practical implications for marketers.