Culture-dependent Assimilation and Differentiation of the Self: Preferences for Consumption Symbols in the United States and China

Jennifer L. Aaker is Associate Professor of Marketing and Fletcher Jones Faculty Scholar at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University ([email protected]). Bernd Schmitt is Professor of Business, Graduate School of Business Columbia University, 510 Uris Hall, New York, NY, 10027, and the BAT Chair of Marketing at CEIBS in Shanghai (China). This research was funded by the Center for International Business, Education and Research (CIBER) at UCLA and by CEIBS. We wish to thank Ivy Fei and Sally Lee for their assistance in data collection and Susan Chiu, Ho-Ying Fu, Heejung Kim, Loraine Lau, Michael Morris, the reviewers and the Associate Editor for very useful comments on the research. CULTURE-DEPENDENT ASSIMILATION AND DIFFERENTIATION OF THE SELF: PREFERENCES FOR CONSUMPTION SYMBOLS IN THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA