Abstract

The role of adolescents in family purchase decision making was explored by means of a survey and related instruments administered to a sample of teenagers in India, South Korea, and Taiwan. The findings suggest that adolescents’ characteristics (such as the perceived importance of a product to the adolescent) may be more predictive of their self-perceived influence on family purchase decisions than the tactics they use with their parents. This effect may be more pronounced as a function of composites of cultural values. Specifically, the more a society can be characterized as uncertainty accepting and masculine in nature, the greater the role that adolescent predictors of adolescents’ influence may play in family purchase decisions.

Key words: Adolescent influence, Asia, family purchase, societal masculinity, uncertainty avoidance.