权力距离信念如何影响消费者行为:研究述评与展望

The Impact of Power Distance Belief on Consumer Behavior:A Review and Prospects

权力距离作为霍夫斯坦德提出的首个国家文化维度,受到社会学、心理学、组织行为学和消费者行为学等领域学者的广泛关注。随着研究的不断深入,学者们发现在一个地区之内,不同个体关于权力距离的观点也常存在差异。在这一背景下,另一个新的学术概念“权力距离信念”出现,为学术界从个体文化价值观层面理解营销实践和消费者行为提供了全新的视角。权力距离信念特指个体对社会权力分配不平等的容忍程度,对消费者购买决策的不同阶段和亲社会行为等存在多重影响。近年来权力距离信念受到了营销学术界越来越多的关注,而学术界对其概念内涵和研究成果仍缺乏系统的梳理。鉴于此,本文系统回顾和梳理了权力距离信念在营销领域的研究成果,阐明了权力距离信念的概念内涵,归纳了权力距离信念的操控方法和测量方法,重点回溯了权力距离信念对消费者行为的影响及理论基础,并据此对未来研究方向进行了展望,旨在为未来的研究指引方向,并为企业制定科学精准的营销策略提供理论依据。

Power distance,as the first national cultural dimension proposed by Hofstede,has drawn much attention in the fields of sociology,psychology,organizational behavior,and consumer behavior.In the past,the research on power distance basically took the country or region as the unit.However,as the research on power distance gradually deepened,scholars found that within a culture,individuals often have different views on power disparity.In response to this,a novel academic construct“power distance belief”was born,which provides a new perspective for scholars to understand consumer behavior.In recent years,power distance belief has received more and more attention from the field of marketing,but these research findings have not been systematically and completely reviewed.In view of this,this paper systematically sorts out the relevant literature.Power distance belief specifically refers to the individual’s tolerance for the unequal distribution of social power.High power distance belief tends to promote the view that power disparity within a culture is normal,while low power distance belief believes that social power should be distributed equally,and it is normal for everyone to be equal.In general,people with high power distance belief are more likely to believe in inequality and are more accustomed to accommodating it than those with low power distance belief.The manipulation of power distance belief mainly includes sentence combination task,argument writing task and nationality manipulation.At the same time,a total of five different scales have been developed by scholars to measure power distance belief.The items and measurement of each scale are different.The impact of power distance belief on consumer behavior can be explained by four theories,such as system justification theory,compensatory control theory,cognitive dissonance theory and symbolic self-completion theory.In addition,power distance belief has multiple impacts on different stages of consumers’purchasing decisions and prosocial behaviors.Specifically,power distance belief affects consumers’information search stage,choice evaluation stage,purchase behavior stage and postpurchase behavior stage.At the same time,power distance belief can affect consumers’charitable behavior,green consumption and moral-related behavior.This paper clarifies the conceptual connotation of power distance belief,summarizes the manipulation and measurement of power distance belief,and reviews the impact and theoretical explanation of power distance belief on consumer behavior.Overall,this paper aims to offer a better guide for future research and provide a theoretical basis for marketing practice.