Costumes, Commodities, and Culture : on Shaping Knowledge

Consumer behavior is driven by culture; and culture is contextual. Therefore, human behaviors such as those exhibited in consumption behavior should not be measured and compared cross-culturally by using cultural specific mea-sures or paradigms which assume a universal reality, time and context free. Since it is known that consumption behavior is influenced by culture, and cultures in the United States differ from those in Korea, the assumption of universal ‘truths’ which can be known is inappropriate. To employ a paradigm with invalid assumptions automatically leads to the lack of validity, a must for truth claims in the positivist paradigm. Thus, 'truths' in the research reported must be suspect.