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Cultural variations in the use of marketing signals: a multilevel analysis of the motion picture industry

  • Original Empirical Research
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Abstract

Movies are experiential products that include a myriad of cultural cues, and their box office performance varies across countries with different cultural backgrounds. The profusion of studies on the motion picture industry notwithstanding, this aspect has been largely ignored in the literature. Drawing on signaling theory, this study examines how a country’s cultural fabric moderates the impact of movie-related signals on the opening weekend box office performance. We test our hypotheses using a multilevel model and a comprehensive dataset of 1,116 movies released in 27 countries between 2007 and 2011. Results reveal that the impact of star power on box office performance is amplified in high uncertainty avoidance and indulgent cultures, while it is attenuated in high power distance cultures. Moreover, the positive relationship between sequels and performance wanes in individualist cultures. Movies with high production budgets perform better in culturally open countries, while critics’ reviews are more instrumental in high uncertainty avoidance cultures.

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Notes

  1. http://hyundaiamerica.us/an-american-success-story/u-s-demand-sales-market-share/

  2. Masculinity and long-term orientation are excluded from this study for the following reasons. Masculinity involves two components: attitudes toward gender roles and quality of life. Given these components—similar to the previous studies in the literature on the effects of marketing signals in different countries (e.g., Erdem et al. 2006)—it is not plausible to directly hypothesize how this dimension can moderate the effect of marketing signals used in this study. In a similar vein, the dimension of long-term orientation focuses on the preference of future-oriented values over past- and present-oriented values (Hofstede et al. 2010). As such, it is not possible to generate any straightforward hypotheses as to how this dimension might influence the affects of movie-related signals on box office performance. Moreover, long-term orientation scores are available for only a small subset of countries included in this study; hence, including it would decrease cross-cultural variation of the findings.

  3. For countries in southern versus northern hemisphere, seasonality codes vary in the dataset.

  4. The values for SEATS j , LMOVIES j , POPULATION j , TOTGDP j vary annually.

  5. With 47 parameter estimates, the average relative effect size is 0.021.

  6. In 2011, international box office revenues surged 7% to $22.4 billion, more than double the North American receipts, which fell 4% to $10.2 billion (MPAA 2011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marketing, Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, 03824, USA

    M. Billur Akdeniz

  2. Department of Management, Manning School of Business, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, 01854, USA

    M. Berk Talay

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  1. M. Billur Akdeniz
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Correspondence to M. Billur Akdeniz.

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Akdeniz, M.B., Talay, M.B. Cultural variations in the use of marketing signals: a multilevel analysis of the motion picture industry. J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. 41, 601–624 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-013-0338-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-013-0338-5

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