An Assessment of Methodological Development in Cross-Cultural Advertising Research: A Twenty-Year Review

Abstract

The present study reviews the methodologies used in cross-cultural advertising studies. We examine published cross-cultural advertising studies in eighteen journals between 1980 and 1999 in terms of topic studied, countries/cultures selected, research design, data equivalence and reliability check, as well as analytical techniques used. Results show that although significant methodological improvements have been made in cross-cultural advertising studies over the past two decades, recent studies are still suffering from a number of methodological limitations, such as the lack of theoretical guidelines in selecting culture/country, non-representativeness in sampling, and problems in establishing construct and metric equivalence. Recommendations are suggested to advance the quality of cross-cultural advertising studies.