Ljubljana to Tokyo: Understanding Drivers of Young-Adult Consumer Innovativeness and the Role of Regionalism in Eastern Europe and East Asia

Globalization has caused consumer behavior to transcend country borders, leading to often larger within-market consumer differences than between-market consumer differences. Yet, this is not at all the case among young-adult consumers (in their 20s) believed to be at the forefront of globalization and acculturation. Comparing drivers of consumer innovativeness in matched samples across four countries in Eastern Europe (Slovenia, Croatia) and East Asia (China, Japan), we find that consumer innovativeness is determined by quality consciousness, information utilization and price consciousness. Consumer ethnocentrism does not play a role. While country-level difference do not matter, regional differences do in driving consumer innovativeness of young-adult consumers. Further, gender does not have an impact on consumer innovativeness among young-adult consumers in our sample. However, some gender-based consumer decision-making differences do appear between the two regions providing evidence of gender-based consumer decision-making archetypes at the regional level. Our results hold important implications for international marketers and business people. We propose a specific two-step process for developing semi-global business strategies and discuss the role consumer innovation-based segmentation plays in their development.