Marketing communication strategies and consumer financial decision making: The role of national culture

Consumers frequently make important financial decisions that have short- and long-term impacts on their welfare. The authors expect that these financial decisions are a function of consumers' past experiences and interactions with a financial services firm as well as consumers' long-term priorities (e.g., national culture). They determine how three cultural dimensions (long-term orientation, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity) and marketing communication type (promotion focused vs. prevention focused) affect three key consumer financial decisions: (1) savings rate, (2) use of credit, and (3) spending pattern. To do so, they empirically test both the direct effect of national culture on consumer financial decision making and its moderating effect on the link between a firm's marketing efforts and consumer financial decision making. Drawing on regulatory focus theory, the authors develop and empirically test their hypotheses using a customer database from a multinational financial services firm based in the United Arab Emirates, with customers originating from 34 countries. They find that national culture directly affects consumer financial decision making and moderates the impact of marketing efforts by the financial services firm, which suggests that financial services firms should account for national culture when managing customers.