A cross-cultural comparison of consumer vanity in the People's Republic of China, South Korea and Thailand: an exploratory study

In response to calls regarding the applicability of marketing scales in other cultures, the current study re-examined the psychometric properties and measurement equivalence of the consumer vanity scale. The sample consisted of 723 undergraduate participants from China, South Korea and Thailand. Results revealed that the 21-item, four-factor (physical concern, physical view, achievement concern and achievement view) model of consumer vanity exhibited a satisfactory condition of psychometric properties across three samples. Multigroup analysis also revealed that the consumer vanity scales have partial factorial invariance. More specifically, the results as related to latent means comparison revealed that there are differences and similarities between the four dimensions of consumer vanity among Chinese, South Korean and Thai participants. Implications and future research directions are discussed.