Generation Y in the Global Market: A Comparison of South Korean and American Female Decision Making Styles

This study compares and contrasts the consumer decision-making styles (CDMS) of South Korean and American Generation Y females. A total of 117 American female and 206 Korean female consumers completed self-report survey questionnaires to assess their consumer decision making styles. Exploratory principal components factor analysis using varimax rotation was used to categorize the items into an underlying set of American and Korean decision-making characteristics. Two-tailed independent t-tests were conducted to examine the differences between the two groups when items appeared to have common factors. Factor analysis identified five common factors between the two samples (i.e., enjoyment, shopping aversion, price consciousness, brand consciousness, and quality consciousness). The t-test results report significant differences in the items reported in each factor between American and Korean females. Some of the factors are more indicative of American female Generation Y consumers than Korean female Generation Y consumers. For example, the American female sample seemed to enjoy shopping and prefer brand names more than the female Korean sample. Koreans females seem to have a higher aversion to shopping than Americans; in addition, Koreans females seem to be more accepting of discount and outlet stores, will wait until the price is low before buying a product, and prefer sales when shopping. Based on the findings, the instrument identified varying CDMS between the two samples used. Previous studies using the Sproles and Kendall (1986) instrument experienced the same issue (Bakewell & Mitchell, 2004, 2006; Bauer et al., 2006; Durvasula et al., 1996; Fan & Xiao, 1998; Hanzaee & Aghasibeig, 2008; Mitchell & Walsh, 2004; Siu et al., 2001; Walsh et al., 2001). The results support the idea that no single instrument can be used to examine CDMS in different cultures. This suggests that each country has a CDMS with internal characteristics. Limitations and research for future studies are also discusse.