Few are the efforts in Brazil directed towards the investigation of the relationship between consumers' behaviors, values, and social beliefs (i.e., axioms), although there is evidence that in the country, consumer values also explain part of the consumption decision process, enhancing the cultural validity of the Two Route Model (TRM). This study's objective was to evaluate the influence of cultural aspects in the buying decision, going beyond the TRM, and proposing the Consumer Cultural Influence Model (CCIM), which analyses the consumer choice based not only on values, but also on the social axioms construct, as proposed by Leung et al. (2002). To test the CCIM, the Brazilian higher education market was chose as study object. Participated in the study 2,483 students from the entire country, with an average age of 22.6 years old (SD = 6.9) and 59.2% of them female. They completed an importance of tangible attributes measure, the Schwartz Values Scale (SCHWARTZ, 1994), the Social Axioms Scale, the Services Meaning and Judgment Scale, and demographics questions. After checking whether the assumptions were met, and Factor Analyses procedures, binary logistic regressions, among direct and sequential, were accomplished using only values, only axioms, and finally, values and axioms as criteria variables. In general, results show the stability of the CCIM, its superiority towards the TRM, with an increase in prediction of up to 89.5%. Whilst values are transituational and prescriptive, axioms are descriptive, accomplishing instrumental functions of attitudes related to objects description. Cognitively, the description of a social object is more available to the person than its prediction, due to the proximity of the attributes to the object, allowing a better explanation of the consumer behavior. Results have implications to a more effective marketing positioning, as the survival in the market also depends on subjective aspects, such as those included in the CCIM.
Social axioms; Human values; Consumer choice; Attributes; Consumer cultural influence model
