THE EFFECTS OF HOFSTEDE’S DIMENSIONS OF CULTURE ON CONSUMER PURCHASE DECISIONS AMONGST THE KIPSIGIS COMMUNITY: A CASE STUDY OF BOMET COUNTY
Abstract
The rapidly increasing complexity and dynamics of consumers has led marketers, practitioners and academics alike, to seek a deeper understanding of how consumers and markets differ in their ways of making purchase decisions. There are numerous studies concerning behavioural differences in consumer decision making across nations, however much these studies have made significant contributions towards understanding differences between nations, there appears to be a gap in the literature about sub-cultural differences within national boundaries. This study therefore, sought to fill the gap by contributing to the understanding of the research on how intra-national cultures such as the Kipsigis culture influence purchase decisions. The general objective of the study was to establish the influence of Hofstede’s dimensions of culture on consumer purchase decisions amongst the Kipsigis community. The scope of the study was limited to a set of two independent variables i.e. individualism/collectivism and uncertainty avoidance, which was measured against consumer purchase decision which was the dependent variable. Data for the study was collected from a selected sub-location in Bomet County where respondents were drawn from adult household members from the sub-location. Theoretical literature related to the study was reviewed to link influences of Hofstede’s dimensions of culture on consumer purchase decisions. A descriptive research design was adopted to carry out the study. The study targeted a population of the Kipsigis people. Purposive sampling was employed to select the Kipsigis community of Bomet County as the respondents. The researcher used multi-stage sampling to select a sub-location and simple random sampling to select the respondents. Questionnaires were administered to collect the data. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences computer software version 22. Multiple regressions were also used in measuring the effect of Hofstede’s dimensions of culture on consumer purchase among the Kipsigis community. From the results Hofstede’s dimensions of culture on consumer purchase behaviour manifested in Individualism or Collectivism aspect of members of the society was observed to have influence on the purchasing decision making. The results demonstrate that most of the expected relationships were present in the data. The multiple regression model of Consumer Purchase Decision on the two independent variables showed positive significant effect of Individualism/Collectivism, on Consumer Purchase Decision. However the impact of uncertainty avoidance was not significant in the model.
Key Words: Individualism, Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance, Kipsigis Community Consumer Purchase decisions
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.61426/sjbcm.v2i1.83
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