The changing dynamic of consumer behavior: implications for cross-cultural research

Consumer researchers are increasingly exploring and comparing behavior and cognitions in diverse national environments. However, research in this area is fraught with conceptual and methodological pitfalls. This paper examines the critical issue of defining the appropriate unit of analysis in cross-cultural research and proposes a new definition. Three alternative research designs for cross-cultural studies based on this definition are discussed. Each design relates to a different type of research issue and provides a different approach to dealing with the increasingly problematic issue of isolating the culti-unit from cultural contamination to rule out alternative explanations.