Measuring consumer vanity: A cross-cultural validation

Given the unmistakable trend toward a more integrated global economy and the tremendous impact of consumer vanity on demand for countless goods and services, there exists a need for more cross-cultural research on the important psychological construct known as consumer vanity (Netemeyer, Burton, & Lichtenstein, 1995). This article examines four components of the vanity construct: appearance concern, appearance perception, achievement concern, and achievement perception. To test the vanity construct cross-culturally, a survey was undertaken in the United States and China. This article illustrates the use of the comprehensive analytical framework proposed by Steenkamp and Baumgartner (1998) to assess measurement invariance in cross-cultural consumer research. The results provided a rigorous cross-cultural validation test of the vanity scale that has implications for both academics and practitioners in cross-cultural consumer research and marketing. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.