2005-07-12

Moviegoers’ Consultation of Film Reviews in the Search for Information

A Multi-country Study

A cross-cultural study was conducted with Austrian, Canadian, Colombian and Italian moviegoers. Based on Hofstede's well-known value framework as well as some findings in the consumer information search literature, seven research hypotheses were put forward and tested.

These hypotheses were based in part on presumed differences between the four countries on three cultural values: power distance, uncertainty avoidance and individualism. As predicted by Hofstede's framework, Canadian moviegoers appreciated significantly more movie genres than Austrian, Colombian and Italian moviegoers. Along with Austrians, they were more susceptible to value-expressive social influence as regards cinema than Colombian and Italian moviegoers.

In addition, the impact of susceptibility to value-expressive social influence was stronger in the Austrian and Canadian samples than in the other samples. Although not all research hypotheses were entirely supported by the results, this study shows the value of using a theoretical framework to predict consumer behaviour differences attributable to varying cultural orientations.

source: http://www.hec.ca/ijam/734.htm

an article by Alain dAstous, Antonella Carù, Oliver Koll & Simon Pierre Sigué in: International Journal of Arts Management (Spring 2005)