1. Sha Sa
Ruomeng Wu
& Mary Steffel
Marketing Department
University of Cincinnati
Cross-Cultural Differences in Choice
Delegation for Gifts and Non-Gifts
When are people most likely to delegate choices to salespeople?
Introduction
Scenario 1: choosing gifts
Scenario 2: choosing non-gifts
Scenario 3: choosing for oneself
Choose a bottle of wine as a gift for
your friend
Your friend gives you money and asks
you to buy him/her a bottle of wine
Choose a bottle of wine for yourself
When are people most likely to delegate choices to
salespeople?
This research explores whether delegation depends on
whether people are shopping for themselves or others,
whether they are shopping for a gift or non-gift, and their
cultural backgrounds.
People are more likely to delegate when choosing for others than
themselves.
People from China (collectivist country) are more likely to delegate
decisions than people from the US (individualist country).
When choosing for others, there is no significant difference between
choosing gifts and choosing non-gifts within these two cultures;
however, Chinese participants are equally likely to ask for advice but
US participants are slightly less likely to ask for advice when
selecting gifts for others than when selecting non-gifts for others.
Implications:
 I would make the decision
without the salesperson's
help
 I would prefer to ask the
salesperson to make the
decision
Choices
H1: People know their own preferences better than they
know others’ preferences, and so they may be less
likely to delegate when choosing for themselves than
for other people.
H2: Western (individualist) culture emphasizes being
independent and making one’s own decisions, while
eastern (collectivist) culture emphasizes being
interdependent and deferring to others when making a
decision.
Thus, people from eastern cultures may be more
likely to delegate than people from western cultures.
H3: Additionally, cultural norms for decision-making
may be especially important for gift decisions relative
to non-gift decisions: who chooses a gift may matter
more in western cultures than in eastern cultures,
whereas who the chooser is may be less important for
non-gifts.
The results of the research has important
implications for better understanding
consumers in different cultures:
It may be helpful for salespeople and
marketers to offer more advice in the
shopping context in eastern cultures.
However, it may be proper to respect and
encourage consumers' own thoughts in
the shopping context in western cultures.
Future Directions:
1. Test the cultural difference with
different product categories.
2. Test the cultural difference with
different advice givers (ex. family
members).
3. Test whether advertisements
featuring advice lead to higher
evaluations and purchase
intentions in collectivist cultures.
Conclusions: