Effect of culture on sensory and consumer research: Asian perspectives

Cross-cultural sensory and consumer research (SCR) involves both consumer psychology and the dynamic interaction between consumer, situation and food. Unraveling the complexity of cultural effects on sensory perception and consumer behavior, requires the development of theories and measures that are valid cross culturally and specific to the research goals of cross-cultural studies. In this paper, we classify several goals of cross-cultural SCR, and address the theoretical/methodological issues in each goal. We introduce recent studies involving Asian culture but found lacking in defining operating definition of culture. We also propose future research directions from Asian perspectives while highlighting the following two aspects: (1) the context-dependency of cultural mindsets and its implication on affective measurements for product testing, and (2) the rise of the internet and its implication on cross-cultural research.