Adoption of Novel Consumer Durable Goods in Less Developed Countries

Abstract

This is an empirical study which investigates the impact of three socioeconomic factors (i.e., education, occupation, and income) and four attitudes (i.e., activism, low community stratification, mass media participation, and consumer modernism) on the acquisition of novel technological consumer durable goods. Path analysis is used to test the significance of these variables on innovativeness (i.e., the adoption of novel consumer durable goods). The findings support four of the seven hypotheses, namely, that the impact of socioeconomic factors such as education, occupation, and income in developing countries are expected to be positively related to innovativeness; and that consumer modernism in developing countries is positively related to innovativeness. The findings do not support hypotheses concerning the relationships of activism, low community stratification, and mass media participation to innovativeness. A discussion of findings is given and implications for marketing practitioners, marketing academicians, and policy makers of less developed countries are drawn.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jose F. Medina

José F. Medina (Ph.D. from the University of Alabama) is presently an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Texas at San Antonio, in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Medina’s research interests are currently focused on international marketing in less developed countries and cross-cultural research. His publications have appeared in journals such as the Journal of International Consumer Marketing and the Journal of Mid-west Marketing, and conference proceedings of various professional organizations.

Pavlos Michaels

Pavlos Michaels (Ph.D. from the University of Alabama and J.D. from Birmingham School of Law) is currently an associate professor of international marketing at Morgan State University, in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Michaels’ research interests are presently focused on International Marketing, Cross-Cultural Marketing, and Sales Management. He has published numerous research works, some of which appeared in the Journal of International Consumer Marketing, the Journal of International Research in Business Disciplines, the Journal of Business and Society and others.