Thesis

Investigating consumer confusion from a cultural perspective : evidence from the Saudi Arabian smartphone market

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Awarding institution
  • University of Strathclyde
Date of award
  • 2019
Thesis identifier
  • T15424
Person Identifier (Local)
  • 201268122
Qualification Level
Qualification Name
Department, School or Faculty
Abstract
  • With the increase of digital media, there is an excess of information about productsand services in the marketplace. In addition, products are becoming more complex.These factors are contributing to consumer confusion, which is an uncomfortablepsychological experience caused by exposure to marketing information that could besimilar, misleading, ambiguous, or unnatural. Such a problem could increase in thefuture, as rapid developments in technology are contributing to multiply sources ofinformation. In recent years, many studies have concluded that consumer confusionproneness, as it has several influences on behavioural outcomes, is a topic in need ofongoing investigation. With this in mind, the present study seeks to shed light on thephenomenon of consumer confusion in the Saudi Arabian smartphone market byidentifying and analysing the cultural factors contributing to consumer confusion.The overall aim of this thesis is to explore the impact of cultural dimensions onconsumer confusion in the Saudi Arabian smartphone market. Furthermore, theresearch objectives of this study are fourfold: (1) to explore the aspects of consumerconfusion influencing consumers in the Saudi Arabian smartphone market; (2) toinvestigate the effect of consumer confusion proneness on three behaviouraloutcomes: customer satisfaction, word-of-mouth behaviour, and brand loyalty amongconsumers in the Saudi Arabian smartphone market; (3) to examine the moderatingrole of cultural dimensions on the relationship between consumer confusionproneness and its consequences; and (4) to identify the main strategies forminimising consumer confusion based on cultural factors. A conceptual model based on consumer confusion and the culture literature was developed in order to formhypotheses to predict the causality between the selected variables.A quantitative research approach was adopted in this research, reflecting a postpositivistphilosophical framework. A self-administrated questionnaire was generatedto collect the data, and the analysis technique employed to test the researchhypotheses was structural equation modelling (SEM). As one of this first studies in this area to examine a Middle East society, it was found that incertitude confusion (overload/ambiguity) is the most influential aspect on consumer confusion for consumers purchasing smartphones in Saudi Arabia. The findings also highlight that customers in Saudi Arabia do not perceive the similarity of smartphones as contributing towards confusion. In addition, customers prone to incertitude confusion are likely to be dissatisfied and engage less in word-of-mouthbehaviour, but they are more likely to display brand loyalty. The findings outline arole for previously unexplored cultural variables, i.e. social interaction, languagebarriers, and risk aversion, and their probable moderating influences on consumerconfusion proneness and its behavioural consequences. This study has responded toprevious calls for research to explore the cultural elements impacting on theconstruct of consumer confusion (Shukla, Banerjee and Adidam, 2010; Walsh et al.,2016) and to establish the cultural variables influencing consumers proneness toconfusion while purchasing smartphones. By exploring the role of culturaldimensions in consumer confusion and its consequences, this research provides keymanagerial implications as well as theoretical contributions by extending theunderstanding of consumer confusion in relation to the role of cultural variables, thusenriching the construct of consumer confusion. Consequently, a number of theoretical, marketing, and consumer implications have been identified from this study’s empirical results. This thesis also opens the door for fellow researchers to expand upon the concept of consumer confusion by calling for future consumer confusion-based research from the perspective of other cultural dimensions, B2B consumer confusion, or the impact of social media.
Advisor / supervisor
  • McLean, Graeme
  • Gounaris, Spiros
Resource Type
Note
  • This thesis was previously held under moratorium from 3rd December 2019 until 3rd December 2021.
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