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Cultural Differences in Opportunity Cost Consideration
Two studies were conducted to investigate cultural differences in opportunity cost consideration between Chinese and Euro-Canadians. Opportunity cost is defined as the cost of a benefit that must be forgone in order to pursue a better alternative (Becker et al., 1974). In both studies, participants...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2017
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5266717/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28184202 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00045 |
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author | Zhang, Ning Ji, Li-Jun Li, Ye |
author_facet | Zhang, Ning Ji, Li-Jun Li, Ye |
author_sort | Zhang, Ning |
collection | PubMed |
description | Two studies were conducted to investigate cultural differences in opportunity cost consideration between Chinese and Euro-Canadians. Opportunity cost is defined as the cost of a benefit that must be forgone in order to pursue a better alternative (Becker et al., 1974). In both studies, participants read about hypothetical purchase scenarios, and then decided whether they would buy a certain product. Opportunity cost consideration was measured in two ways: (1) participants' thoughts pertaining to other (nonfocal) products while making decisions; (2) participants' decisions not to buy a focal product (Study 1) or a more expensive product (Study 2). Across both indexes, we found that after controlling for individual difference variables and amount of pocket money, Chinese participants in China considered financial opportunity cost more than Euro-Canadians in Study 1. Similar results were observed in Study 2 when comparing Chinese in Canada with Euro-Canadians However, the cultural effect on opportunity cost consideration was confounded by family income in Study 2. Implications for resource management, limitations of the current research and directions for future research are discussed. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5266717 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-52667172017-02-09 Cultural Differences in Opportunity Cost Consideration Zhang, Ning Ji, Li-Jun Li, Ye Front Psychol Psychology Two studies were conducted to investigate cultural differences in opportunity cost consideration between Chinese and Euro-Canadians. Opportunity cost is defined as the cost of a benefit that must be forgone in order to pursue a better alternative (Becker et al., 1974). In both studies, participants read about hypothetical purchase scenarios, and then decided whether they would buy a certain product. Opportunity cost consideration was measured in two ways: (1) participants' thoughts pertaining to other (nonfocal) products while making decisions; (2) participants' decisions not to buy a focal product (Study 1) or a more expensive product (Study 2). Across both indexes, we found that after controlling for individual difference variables and amount of pocket money, Chinese participants in China considered financial opportunity cost more than Euro-Canadians in Study 1. Similar results were observed in Study 2 when comparing Chinese in Canada with Euro-Canadians However, the cultural effect on opportunity cost consideration was confounded by family income in Study 2. Implications for resource management, limitations of the current research and directions for future research are discussed. Frontiers Media S.A. 2017-01-26 /pmc/articles/PMC5266717/ /pubmed/28184202 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00045 Text en Copyright © 2017 Zhang, Ji and Li. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychology Zhang, Ning Ji, Li-Jun Li, Ye Cultural Differences in Opportunity Cost Consideration |
title | Cultural Differences in Opportunity Cost Consideration |
title_full | Cultural Differences in Opportunity Cost Consideration |
title_fullStr | Cultural Differences in Opportunity Cost Consideration |
title_full_unstemmed | Cultural Differences in Opportunity Cost Consideration |
title_short | Cultural Differences in Opportunity Cost Consideration |
title_sort | cultural differences in opportunity cost consideration |
topic | Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5266717/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28184202 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00045 |
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