| One of the factors affecting consumer decision-making is the influence from other individuals or organizations. Consumer socialization is the process by which consumers acquire skills, knowledge, and attitudes relevant to their functioning as consumers in the marketplace. It is often viewed as social process by which these skills, knowledge, and attitudes are transmitted from specific sources, commonly known as socialization agents. Socialization agents are the persons or institutions directly involved in consumer socialization because of frequency of contact with the consumer, or control over rewards and punishment given to the consumer. The most common socialization agents are family (mostly parents), peers, the mass media, and the Internet. Socialization agents typically exert two types of influence on the consumer---normative influence and informative influence. Normative influence involves a desire to conform to the expectations of the people in a group, whereas informative influence involves a tendency to learn about products and brands by observing others and seeking information from others. Traditionally, researchers have focused on socialization of children and adolescence. Increasingly, it is recognized that consumers in other stages of life also experience socialization. For example, right after adolescence is another formative phase of human life---the emerging adulthood (18-25 years of age).;Culture, considered the collective mental programming of a group of people, can be argued to provide abstract, broad guidelines for individual conducts, including consumer socialization. Individualism, as an important aspect of culture, has received the most attention in the literature. However, the effect of this cultural characteristic on consumer socialization has not been explored. This research will examine the potential associations between individualism and consumer socialization in terms of normative and informative influence emerging adult consumers receive from the key socialization agents---parents, peers, the mass media, and the Internet. Data from the U.S. and China are used to test a number of hypotheses. |
