How culture matters in children’s purchase influence: a multi-level investigation

Michel Laroche, Zhiyong Yang, Chankon Kim, Marie-Odile Richard

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science · 2007 · Volume 35 · Issue 1

Abstract

Children’s purchase influence (CPI) is an important factor in understanding family consumption behavior. The present study investigated the effects of cultural adaptation, including the role of acculturation and ethnic-identification, on children’s role in family purchase decisions. By conceiving of CPI as a family context-dependent phenomenon, we hypothesized that parent–child cultural dissonance/consonance within the family influences CPI through a cross-level process. The hypotheses were tested on data collected from 99 Hong Kong Chinese immigrant family triads, i.e., father, mother, and a teenage child. The results showed that: (1) acculturation positively and ethnic-identification negatively influenced CPI for most products, (2) the interaction between acculturation and ethnic-identification had a positive influence on CPI, and (3) generational dissonance/consonance had significant moderating effects on CPI through a cross-level route.

Keywords

Acculturation, Ethnic-identification, Children’s purchase influence (CPI), Generational dissonance/consonance, Chinese immigrant families, Multi-level analysis

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