Tightness-looseness: Implications for consumer and branding research

This commentary highlights the importance of the tightness-looseness distinction to provide a more nuanced understanding of cross-cultural consumer behavior (Li, Gordon & Gelfand, this issue). We provide guidelines to integrate the tightness-looseness distinction into existing cross-cultural models of consumer behavior, and suggest how doing so can help to refine predictions about the persuasiveness of message appeals. We also discuss how the tightness-looseness distinction can enrich branding research, by suggesting future research opportunities in the domains of brand extension research and brand protection.