Consumer acceptance of different types of cultural borrowing and its internal mechanisms

Abstract

Abstract In cross-regional cultural interactions, the frequent and controversial practice of cultural borrowing has attracted attention. According to the different relative statuses and comparative directions of the cultural subjects, cultural borrowing can be divided into strong-to-weak (weak-to-strong) cultural borrowing between subjects with strong (weak) status and subjects with weak (strong) status in cultural interactions, as well as equal cultural borrowing between subjects with equal status in cultural interactions. After the concept and types of cultural borrowing are defined, a multisituation experimental method is used to confirm the internal mechanisms and effect boundaries of consumers’ cultural borrowing acceptance. The results of five experiments based on over a thousand subjects indicate that different types of cultural borrowing (strong-to-weak, equal, weak-to-strong) arouse consumers’ perceived cultural threat, thereby reducing their acceptance of cultural borrowing to varying degrees. The influence of different types of cultural borrowing on perceived cultural threat is moderated by the degree of incongruent use and reality of the presentation of the borrowed culture; the influence of perceived cultural threat on cultural borrowing acceptance is moderated by the positioning of the borrowing subjects and the degree of identity in the relationship. By exploring cultural borrowing and consumer acceptance issues in the field of consumption through a series of experiments, this study effectively reveals the differentiated impacts and underlying mechanisms of different types of cultural borrowing on consumers’ acceptance responses.