Cultural and identity antecedents of market mavenism: Comparing Chinese at home and abroad

Marketers recognize the vital role played by market mavens in terms of their broad marketplace knowledge and ability to persuade others. Theorists have advanced that normative pressures explain the influence of market mavens, and have urged researchers to consider cultural values and social identities as antecedents of market mavenism. We submit that vertical and horizontal dimensions of individualism-collectivism inform consumers' strength of identification with ethnicity and identification with global consumer culture which, in turn, affect market mavenism. These relationships are contrasted for Chinese living in China (n = 502) with those born in China but living abroad in France (n = 229). Our findings demonstrate that individualism-collectivism affects mavenism primarily indirectly, via identification with global consumer culture.