The role of individualism and collectivism in low involvement purchase decisions

This study investigates the relationship between individualism-collectivism and consumer decision-making styles applied to low involvement product purchases. An adapted version of the widely used Consumer Styles Inventory (Sproles & Kendall, 1986) was used to measure consumer decision-making styles. Based on a sample of 207 respondents from individualist and collectivist backgrounds, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted on Sproles and Kendalls (1986) CSI adapted for low involvement purchases. Results showed that collectivist consumers scored significantly higher than individualist consumers on ‘confused by overchoice’, ‘rational buyer’, and ‘recreation-conscious’ decision-making styles. There were no differences in the ‘perfectionist’, ‘high quality conscious’, ‘brand conscious’, ‘careless-impulsive’, ‘habitual/brand loyal’, and ‘innovation conscious’ decisionmaking styles between these two groups.