from Section 3 - Cognitive and Social Factors
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 July 2020
Extensive research has examined gender differences across various domains, providing evidence on how men and women consume differently. While biological sex has been commonly used in the investigation of gender effects, how gender and culture interactively influence consumption is less known and has recently gained more attention. In this chapter, we review the role of psychological gender in consumption. Specifically, social and cultural factors such as gender roles contribute to shape the individual´s gender identity, in terms of masculinity and femininity, which underlie consumption patterns in a wide range of contexts from information processing and responses to marketing messages to consumption of appearance-enhancing products and gendered brands, gift-giving, and altruistic behavior. We identify significant gaps in the current literature that need greater attention and propose several key areas for future research to further extend our understanding of the influence of gender and culture on consumption.
Sharon Ng is Associate Professor of Marketing at Nanyang Business School, Singapore. She is currently the Head of Division for Marketing and International Business. Ng received her PhD from the University of Minnesota. She has published in the top marketing journals, such as Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, and Journal of Consumer Psychology. She was named a MSI Young Scholar by the Marketing Science Institute (USA) in 2009, which selects 30 scholars globally whose work suggests they are potential leaders of the next generation of marketing academics. Ng is the Area Editor of the International Journal of Research in Marketing and sits on the editorial board of Journal of Business Research and Australasian Marketing Journal. She is also the co-editor of the Handbook of culture and consumer behavior published by Oxford University Press in 2015. Growing up in Singapore, she has been always been fascinated by how culture influences people’s behavior. Singapore’s multiculturalism provided an early introduction to the importance of being sensitive to cultural differences and this also shapes her research interest.
Mehak Bharti is a PhD student in Marketing at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Prior to this, she did her MBA and spent four years working in the areas of digital strategy and research. Her research interests lie in understanding online consumer behavior, consumer mindsets, cultural background, and gender. Though originally from India, her experiences of living in different countries like India, France, and Singapore have shaped her understanding of the influence of culture in various aspects of our everyday life and behavior.
Natalie Truong Faust is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at NOVA School of Business and Economics, Portugal. She received her PhD in Marketing from the Norwegian School of Economics and was a postdoctoral research fellow at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her work focuses on consumer behavior, in which her main topics of investigation include beauty/aesthetics, gender, and implicit theories. Originally from Vietnam, Natalie’s experience of living in different cultures has provided much insight into how cultural factors contribute to shaping gendered meaning across various consumption contexts.
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