Cross‐national invariance of the effect of personal collectivistic orientation on brand loyalty and equity: The United States versus South Korean consumers

This study seeks to examine whether or not the effect of personal cultural orientation on brand‐related consumer behaviors functions invariably at the individual level in two culturally opposite countries (South Korea and the USA).

Data were collected from college students from South Korea and the USA. A total of 415 eligible questionnaires were collected: 212 South Korea and 203 USA. Data analysis was conducted using Multivariate analysis of variance.

It was found that personal collectivistic orientation had a significant effect on both brand loyalty and equity among both Americans and Koreans. Brand loyalty was higher among people of high collectivism than those of low collectivism across brands in both the US and South Korean samples. Likewise, brand equity was also higher among people of high collectivism than those of low collectivism across brands in both countries. These findings indicated that regardless of their national culture, collectivist consumers would show higher brand loyalty and equity than individualist consumers.

One limitation was that only one product category was examined in only two countries. Future research will need the validate the findings by including more product categories across more countries. In addition, other types of personal cultural orientation need to be investigated.

One major contribution of the study is that it examines the personal cultural orientation, not stereotyping consumers by their country or subculture membership. The other contribution is that the effect of personal collectivistic orientation holds regardless of country‐level culture.