Pragmatism as a novel cultural construct
Previous cross-cultural research has primarily used Hofstede's five cultural dimensions (e.g. collectivism-individualism) to explain the behavioral differences observed in different countries. Although these dimensions have contributed much to knowledge about international marketing, they cannot explain many anomalies in global consumer patterns (e.g. a greater preference for STEM courses in Asia). This stream of research identifies idealism-pragmatism as a cultural dimension that is not captured by existing cultural values frameworks. The first part of the research aims to develop a scale to measure the pragmatism-idealism mindset. The second part of this research identifies cross-cultural differences in pragmatism and show that Asians' higher pragmatism is partly due to a greater salience of resource scarcity, as the economic development of Asian countries is a relatively recent phenomenon compared to Western countries. Overall, our findings show that idealism and pragmatism represent a new cultural dimension that is relevant to international marketing.
Sharon Ng is Deputy Dean and Professor of Marketing at Nanyang Business School (NBS). She is currently the co-editor of the International Journal of Research in Marketing (IJRM) and is also the founding director of the Nanyang Center for Marketing and Technology. Sharon holds a PhD from the University of Minnesota (USA). She has published in leading marketing journals such as the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Consumer Psychology. She also serves on the editorial boards of the leading journals in the field (such as the Journal of Consumer Research and Journal of Marketing Research). Sharon's research focuses on understanding how culture influences the way consumers think and purchase. In recent years, she is also interested in examining how technology such as Artificial Intelligence changes consumption behavior. Sharon co-edited the Handbook of Culture and Consumer Behavior, published by Oxford Press in 2015. In 2009, she was named a Marketing Science Institute (USA) Young Scholar. In 2006, 2008 and 2010, she was awarded Researcher of the Division by NBS; in 2009 she received the college-wide Nanyang Excellence in Teaching Award, in 2017 Teacher of the Division and in 2021 Teacher of the Year (MSc Marketing and Consumer Insights).