The impact of western culture adoration on the coffee consumption of Taiwan: A case study of Starbucks

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of western culture adoration on coffee consumption in Taiwan. A series of three studies was performed. In study 1, content analyses of customer interviews were used to obtain topics of value-related issues, including gathering places for western foreigners, foreign drinks and culture experience, popularity and value perception of residents from upper society, brand image, and well-developed western countries. A questionnaire survey was used in study 2, and results indicated that there exists a positive relationship between the desirability of foreign culture and the adoring of foreign value in coffee consumption. Study 3 employed a 2 × 2 field experiment design to explore the impact of product-of-origin and country-of-origin dimensions on the product preferences. From the results, it was found that the impact of foreign brands on the consumer preferences for coffee and green tea was higher than the impact of local brands. In addition, the strengths of foreign brand are superior to the local ones in coffee consumption. The results of this study indicated that western culture adoration was one of the key factors in determining the consumer decisions and preferences in drink consumption.