The role of retail price image in a multi-country context: France and the USA

This research examines the way retail price image develops and produces marketing outcomes in two nations that contrast in both cultural profile and market characteristics. Key Individual difference constructs include sugrophobia and risk aversion. Multi-group SEM analysis compares French and US respondents to allow an assessment of two competing theoretical explanations. The results prove somewhat surprising in that individual difference characteristics related to uncertainty avoidance are diagnostic for US respondents while price image plays a more important explanatory role in France. This pattern of results supports a theoretical conceptualization based on the retail competitive structure rather than one based solely on cultural differences.