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What is political culture? What political subcultures exist in the United States? Which political subculture(s) is (are) dominant in the state of TX?

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Boots, bulls and barbecue: development of the State Culture Attitude (SCA) scale.

Journal of Academy of Business and Economics

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March 1, 2007 | Wysong, Scott; Munch, James; Kleiser, Susan

ABSTRACT

While a number of researchers have examined various aspects of culture, very few have investigated the culture of a state. To explore this issue, 189 respondents living in Texas were asked about their attitudes toward the Texas economy, Texas traditions, and the superiority of Texans. The results reveal that an individual's attitudes toward the state affect their intensity of affiliation with the state indicating that consumers can and do identify with a state's culture at different levels. Using the State Culture Attitude (SCA) scale developed herein, future researchers can investigate consumer attitudes toward other state cultures, further strengthening our understanding of culture and marketing.

Keywords: Culture, Subculture, Consumer Attitudes

1. INTRODUCTION

With diverse nations such as the United States, it is important to examine the cultures within the culture. While a number of previous researchers have investigated many of the subcultures that make up America, very few, if any, have looked at the culture of a state. Do residents of a state identify with that state's culture? If so, what are the antecedents of this affiliation?

To illustrate the importance of a state's culture, take the case of Ford Motor Company. Ford sells more pick-up trucks in the U.S. than any other automaker using their national advertising campaign "Built Ford Tough." However, for one state, Texas, the company has introduced a special product (The F-150 Texas Edition), issued national press releases about Ford being awarded "The Truck of Texas" by Texas auto writers, developed TV campaigns specifically for the state (e.g., 'God Blessed Texas' Campaign) and hired a brand manager just for Texas. The result: one out of every seven trucks Ford sells is sold in Texas. Why? Is Texas just a large state surrounded by Mexico, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico? Or, is it a distinctive subculture within the United States?

To further investigate the culture of Texas, 189 respondents living in the state were given a self-administered questionnaire which measured their intensity of affiliation with the state's culture and their attitudes toward the state on several dimensions. The results of this study reveal that some respondents had significantly different attitudes toward the Texas culture and these attitudes affected one's intensity of affiliation with the state. Hence, consumers can and do identify with a state's culture at different levels (i.e., differing levels of intensity of affiliation). Using the State Culture Attitude (SCA) scale developed herein, future researchers can investigate consumer attitudes toward other state cultures, further strengthening our understanding of culture and marketing.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

Wallendorf and Reilly (1983) define culture as "a set of socially acquired behavior patterns common to the members of a particular society or on-going, large-scale human group. Thus, all societies have a culture comprised of their language, traditions, customs, shared meanings and institutions" (p. 292). Much of the previous cultural research in marketing has examined a national culture (e.g., the American culture, the Japanese culture, etc.). For instance, some researchers (Thelen and Honeycutt 2004, Carvalho 2003, Paswan, Kulkarni and Ganesh 2003, Cui and Adams 2002, Pecotich and Rosenthal 2001, Maronick, 1995) have looked at the effects of attitudes toward a home country (i.e., national identity or patriotism) and their relationship with consumer purchase behaviors. Other researchers (Shannon and Mandachitara 2005, Cho and Cheon 2005, Waller, Fam and Erdogan 2005, Overby, Gardial and Woodruff 2004) have compared marketing variables in two or more cultures (nations).

However, using a nation as a "surrogate" for a culture can be flawed according to Samiee and Jeong (1994). With this approach, researchers make the assumption that the dominant cultural symbols, norms and customs represent the entire nation. To Samiee and Jeong (1994), this may be appropriate for relatively homogenous nations such as Japan, but this is not an optimal way to study the culture of heterogeneous nations such as the United States; they write," ... using a nation-state as a surrogate for a culture tends to neglect the existence of within-country differences that potentially can be greater than between-country differences along certain dimensions" (p. 208). Given this perspective, there seems to be a real need for marketers to further their understanding of the cultures that make up a nation.

A number of marketing researchers have looked at subcultural identification and its effects on consumer behavior. While most of these studies have examined ethnic (Simpson, Snuggs, Christiansen and Simples 2000, Donthu and Cherian 1994, Deshpande, Hoyer and Donthu 1986), religious (McDaniel and Burnett 1990, Wilkes, Burnett and Howell 1986), and consumption or brand loyalty (Kozinets 2001 and Schouten and McAlexander 1995) subcultures, very little research has explored another type of subculture: a state's culture.

3. HYPOTHESES

It is hypothesized that there are three attitudinal dimensions that affect an individual's overall intensity of affiliation with a state's culture: economic-based, superiority-based and tradition-based attitudes. Each of these relationships and specific hypotheses are presented below.

3.1 Intensity of Affiliation

With any group or culture, it is important to measure each member's intensity of affiliation. For instance, Deshpande, Hoyer and Donthu (1986)found that Hispanics could be classified into Strong-identifiers and Weak-identifiers. More importantly, these two groups had different attitudes toward business, Spanish media, advertising and brand loyalty. Yet, as the authors point out, it is important to have respondents identify (or categorize) themselves with regard to their intensity of affiliation (versus researchers making assumptions). For instance, in their study, Deshpande, Hoyer and Donthu (1986) discovered that people with Hispanic surnames did not necessarily consider themselves to be Hispanic. Thus, in this research, one's intensity of affiliation (self-identified) with a state's culture will be examined.

3.2 Attitudes

There are three types of attitudes that we believe to influence one's intensity of affiliation with a state's culture. The first type of attitude is economic-based. Shimp and Sharma (1987) developed the CETSCALE to measure consumer ethnocentrism. According to the authors, those who score high on the scale feel that Americans should support other Americans by not buying products made in other countries. In contrast, those who are not ethnocentric will evaluate each product based on its benefits regardless of where it is made. In summary, Shimp and Sharma believe that consumer ethnocentrism "gives the individual a sense of identity, feelings of belongingness, and ... an understanding of what purchase behavior is acceptable or unacceptable to the ingroup" (Shimp and Sharma, 1987, p. 280). Similarly, some consumers may feel strongly about supporting their state's products, economy, workforce, etc. Thus, it is hypothesized;

H1: Economic-based attitudes toward a state will positively influence a consumer's Intensity of Affiliation with that state.

Superiority-based attitudes are also believed to influence one's intensity of affiliation with a state's culture. Previous psychology and sociology researchers have discovered that certain groups do have a sense of superiority. For instance, Shifman and Katz (2005) took an ethnographic look "at the jokes told by Eastern European old-timers at the expense of well-bred German Jews (Yekkes) who migrated to Palestine/Israel beginning in the mid-1930s" (p. 849). They found that the intent of the jokes was for Eastern European old-timers to establish superiority. In addition, Boster and Maltseva (2006) discovered that individuals from European countries viewed other countries with varying levels of superiority. Lastly, Lee and Yoo (2004) concluded that Asian-American university students felt a sense of pride and superiority for their original ethnic heritage. Similarly, some members of a state may take the stance that "We're better than other states." Thus, it is hypothesized;

H2: Superiority-based attitudes toward a state will positively influence a consumer's Intensity of Affiliation with that state.

A third type of attitude that is hypothesized to influence intensity of affiliation with a state is tradition-based attitudes. Researchers such as Hofstede (1991) have asserted that culture is comprised of various layers. Often included in these layers with values and beliefs are traditions. Gentry, Jun and Tansuhaj (1995) looked at the role traditions played in a culture when immigrants tried to assimilate to that culture. They found that respect for the culture's traditions was a key component of acculturation. Similar to a nation, individuals may respect a state's cultural traditions in an effort to acculturate. Thus, it is hypothesized;

H3: Tradition-based attitudes toward a state will positively influence a consumer's Intensity of Affiliation with that state.

4. METHODOLOGY

4.1 Context for Scale Development

To measure the relationship between State Culture Attitudes (SCA) and Intensity of Affiliation, Texas was selected as the state culture of interest. The state of Texas was primarily selected because it seems to have such a distinctive culture that can be seen throughout American pop culture. Hollywood movies, television shows, and radio songs often reinforce the idea that Texas is a separate culture within the American culture. Moreover, a number of firms, including Ford (as previously mentioned), Jack in the Box, and Miller Brewing have created separate advertisements and promotions for the Texas market. In these promotional messages, Texas symbols, music, slogans, etc. are used throughout. According to Gregory Curtis, editor of Texas Monthly, the Texas culture serves marketers well; "There is not only a real history, but a real historical myth- and people identify with it. This myth has various icons: a horse, a hat, boots and jeans.... From a marketing point of view, a customer recognizes these icons and identifies with them"(Schwartz, 1989, p. 48).

4.2 Survey

In developing the State Culture Attitude (SCA) measure, this multidimensional construct was defined to incorporate one's economic-based attitudes, tradition-based attitudes, as well as superiority-based attitudes of the state's culture. Shimp and Sharma's (1987) CETSCALE was used as the basis for the economic attitudes. While it was not intended to measure a specific subculture, the CETSCALE has been found to exhibit reliability and validity in a variety of contexts since its construction (Bailey, de Pineres and Amin 1997, Durvasula, Andrews and Netemeyer 1997, Hult, Keillor and Lafferty 1999, Nielsen and Spence 1997, Supphellen and Rittenburg 2001). To measure tradition-based attitudes, Gentry, Jun and Tansuhaj's (1995) Attitudinal Cultural Index (ACI) was applied. This scale was used to measure the acculturation process for the Muslim and Chinese subcultures living in Thailand, and was found to have acceptable reliability (Cronbach alpha > .60).

Although both the ACI and CETSCALE may not be applicable to a state's culture, we used them as a starting point to develop the economic-based and tradition-based dimensions of our SCA measure given the lack of existing state culture scales. Similarly, after searching the existing literature for a scale on superiority-based attitudes, it was determined that creating a scale specifically for this dimension would be optimal.

Following Gerbing and Anderson's (1988) updated paradigm for construct measurement, we began by generating fifteen items to represent the economic, tradition and superiority dimensions of attitude towards the Texas culture (see Appendix A). In developing the economic dimension, the six items generated were direct adaptations from the original CETSCALE. However, each item was modified to reflect the Texas culture. For instance, the CETSCALE scale item that reads "Americans should always buy American-made products instead of products made in other countries" was changed to read "Texans should always buy Texan-made products instead of products made in other states." Responses were measured on a 7-point Liked scale (Strongly Disagree = 1 to Strongly Agree = 7). Similar to the CETSCALE, the ACI was modified to reflect the Texas culture (e.g., "You are proud of the Texas culture"). Five items, each on a 7-point scale (Not at All = 1 to Very Much So = 7), were included from and modified from the ACI to measure the tradition dimension. For the superiority dimension, items were generated from phrases throughout Walraven's (1991) book on the Texas culture. While his book is anecdotal in nature, respondents in a pretest indicated that the four phrases selected for this research would capture feelings of superiority with the state of Texas, providing evidence of face validity. For example, one of the scale items was "It's hard to be humble when you're from Texas," while another read "Welcome to Texas. This is God's country." Responses were measured on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly Disagree to 7 = Strongly Agree). Lastly, each respondent's Intensity of Affiliation was measured by simply asking "Do you consider yourself a Texan?" Responses ranged from 'Not at All' to 'Very Much So' on a 7-point Liked scale.

4.3 Sample

One hundred and eighty-nine undergraduate students at a large public university in Texas were randomly selected and given a self-administered questionnaire. The sample was roughly 54% male (46% female), with ages ranging from 18 to 54 (median = 25). Course credit was offered as an incentive to provide thoughtful responses.

5. RESULTS

5.1 Scale Development

We performed the measurement purification process on the SCA scale using confirmatory factor analysis (Gerbing & Anderson, 1988). This analysis, conducted via LISREL 8.54, identified three scale items that failed to meet the standard fit requirements for retention (See Appendix A). After removal of these poorly fitting items, the final, twelve-item scale included four items representing the economic dimension, four for the tradition dimension and four for the superiority dimension (See Table 1). Fit values from the confirmatory factor analysis of the final scale indicated that the three-dimensional model adequately reflects the data ([[PI].sup.2] (51) = 120.6, p = .00; GFI = .90; Adjusted GFI = .85; RMSEA = .086). All factor loadings were significant providing evidence of convergent validity of the scale items.

Using the procedures recommended by Fornell and Larcker (1981), we assessed the discriminant validity between the three dimensions. The average variance extracted value for each factor was .55 for the economic dimension, .46 for superiority and .69 for tradition. The average variance extracted values, in most cases, exceeded the squared correlation between the pairs of dimensions (.50: economic-superiority; .15: economic-tradition; and .52: superiority-tradition). Although the superiority dimension may not adequately meet the standard of having more variance that is unique than that which is common to itself and another factor (Dillon & Goldstein 1984), we feel that further modifications to the dimension do not improve the discriminant validity, and, ultimately, sacrifice convergent validity, as well as reliability. Finally, coefficient alpha values were .83, .77 and .89 for the economic, superiority and tradition dimensions respectively, highlighting reliable measures (Nunnally & Bernstein 1994). Provisionally, our SCA scale seems to meet the criteria for valid measurement (Peter 1981).

5.2 Hypotheses

To test H1, H2 and H3, a multiple regression was run. An individual's INTENSITY OF AFFILIATION with Texas was the dependent variable while the independent variables were the three SCA dimensions: ECONOMIC, SUPERIORITY, and TRADITION. The overall model was significant ([F.sub.3,182] = 42.30, p < .001) with an adjusted [R.sup.2] = .40. The results indicate that the TRADITION (b = 0.87, p < 0.001) attitudes positively influenced INTENSITY OF AFFILIATION with Texas. On the other hand, the ECONOMIC (b = .12, p = .39) and SUPERIORITY (b = .13, p = .33) attitudes did not significantly influence INTENSITY OF AFFILIATION. Thus, there was support for H3, but not H1 and H2.

6. DISCUSSION, LIMITATIONS, AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

6.1 Discussion

The results of this research provide some interesting insights about consumer attitudes toward a state's culture. For one, the results indicate that only an individual's tradition-based attitudes are related to how strongly that individual considers himself or herself to be a Texan (intensity of affiliation). This is not surprising. Those who respect the traditions of a state's culture, or any culture for that matter, should be more likely to assimilate into that culture. On the other hand, economic and superiority-based attitudes were not significantly related to one's intensity of affiliation. Therefore, an individual may have respect for the traditions of a state's culture and even consider themselves a member of that culture without feeling the strong need to support the state's economy or feeling superior to other states.

The results of this research have managerial implications, as well. For instance, using slogans that reflect a state's culture (e.g., Texas) seems to be a great way to help build a brand's identity. However, as this research has illustrated, careful selection of these slogans is imperative. For instance, based on the results of this research, slogans which convey a tradition-based theme (e.g., "Buy ABC Cola. A Texas Tradition Since 1903") could be very effective. In contrast, an economic protection theme (e.g., "Buy ABC Cola and keep Texans Working") might not be successful.

6.2 Limitations

As with all research, there were several limitations to this study. For one, the sample consisted of undergraduate students. While students are not perfectly representative of the overall population, using undergraduates in this situation seemed appropriate in that they did have knowledge and experience with the topic of interest: Texas. Secondly, the CETSCALE and ACI were not intended to be used at the state level. Because scales that directly measured attitudes toward a state's culture were not readily available, the aforementioned scales were modified and used.