Identifying Pan-European Value Segments With a Clusterwise Rank-Logit Model

Human values are a particularly promising basis for cross-national segmentation, given their universality, centrality, and temporal stability. In this paper, we propose a methodology for cross-national value segmentation research which is based on Rokeach’s notion of value systems. The model allows incomplete rankings and incorporates both Instrumental and Terminal values. It yields estimates of segment sizes, distribution of segments across countries, and the relative importance of each value in each segment. The methodology is applied in an empirical study involving three major EC countries, viz. U.K., Italy, and (West) Germany. These data are used to assess the validity of the cross-national segmentation results, and to test three research propositions.