Effect of culture on sensory and consumer research: Asian perspectives

- Cross-cultural studies deal with different aspects of culture depending on research goals.
- Roots and dimensions of culture are missing in most of recent cross-cultural studies.
- Eastern vs. Western dimension is limited to elucidate cultural effects in sensory research.
- Culture-as-situated cognition provides a new perspective on research methodology.
- Paradigm shifts in cross-cultural research accounting for the rise of internet were also discussed.

Cross-cultural sensory and consumer research (SCR) involves both consumer psychology and the dynamic interaction between consumer, situation and food. Unraveling the complexity of cultural effects on sensory perception and consumer behavior, requires the development of theories and measures that are valid cross culturally and specific to the research goals of cross-cultural studies. In this paper, we classify several goals of cross-cultural SCR, and address the theoretical/methodological issues in each goal. We introduce recent studies involving Asian culture but found lacking in defining operating definition of culture. We also propose future research directions from Asian perspectives while highlighting the following two aspects: (1) the context-dependency of cultural mindsets and its implication on affective measurements for product testing, and (2) the rise of the internet and its implication on cross-cultural research.