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Culture as a moderator of cognitive age and travel motivation/perceived risk relations among seniors

Delphine Le Serre (StudyWork, Paris, France)
Karin Weber (School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong)
Patrick Legohérel (Granem – UFR Tourisme, University of Angers, Angers cedex 01, France)
Karim Errajaa (Paris School of Business, Paris, France)

Journal of Consumer Marketing

ISSN: 0736-3761

Article publication date: 14 August 2017

1178

Abstract

Purpose

This study contributes to greater understanding of the senior market and the cultural differences regarding aging in Western and Asian cultures. The review of the literature highlights the cultural differences toward the concept of aging in Asian and Western countries and describes a useful age concept for investigating senior consumers, namely, that of subjective age. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of subjective age dimensions on seniors’ behavior and to assess the role of culture as a moderator of this influence.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected in France and Mainland China and consisted of answers to 300 questionnaires for the French seniors and 264 questionnaires for the Chinese seniors. Two dimensions of subjective age were measured: cognitive age and ideal age, along with travel motivations and travel perceived risk.

Findings

The study provides valuable information regarding the Western and Asian senior markets. Subjective age dimensions prove to be related with seniors’ behaviors (perceived travel risks). The present study also demonstrates that nationality has a moderating role on this relation. This theoretical contribution will have to be confirmed by other studies in Asian and Western countries; it opens the door to new research on Chinese/Asian seniors involving these age variables.

Originality/value

The study gives academics and managers insights on the influence of subjective age on seniors’ behaviors in European and Asian cultural contexts.

Keywords

Citation

Le Serre, D., Weber, K., Legohérel, P. and Errajaa, K. (2017), "Culture as a moderator of cognitive age and travel motivation/perceived risk relations among seniors", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 34 No. 5, pp. 455-466. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCM-02-2014-0869

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited

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