The convergence of value (quality) recognition approaches

This paper aims to answer the following question: do the customer behaviors in evaluating a product's quality converge in terms of low‐ and high‐context culture? The paper is designed to examine how customers in different cultural contexts recognize the quality of a product according to three quality recognition approaches; these are exchange, sign, and experience approaches.

In order to verify whether the worldwide quality recognition methods were converging or diverging, almost 300 exchange students in South Korea were surveyed. The survey examined how the 20s perceive quality of a laptop, analyzing each approach individually in order to observe whether the quality recognition methods were converging. Especially, when examining the experience approach, the value was segregated into two parts: extrinsic and intrinsic value.

It is found that only the experience approach is converging, which indicates that even within different degrees of cultural context, there are still cultural differences in quality recognition approaches.

Limitations such as limited product uses, dividing the nations simply into two groups which are Western and Eastern are evident in the study. More elaborative future studies are suggested including, dividing nations in terms of cultural context and using more products.

This paper shows that the value recognition approaches are heterogeneous across cultures, and therefore more cultural‐based knowledge is required in cross‐cultural management.