Intercultural Communication Competence as a Key Activator of Purchase Intention

The study presents an inclusive framework on key intercultural communication competence factors influencing personal interaction, customer satisfaction and purchase intention in grocery retail industry. The present study explored four major constructs specifically intercultural communication competence, customer satisfaction personal interaction and purchase intention. The measurement of the constructs and their interrelationships were examined based on structural equation modelling. Based on the proposed framework, a number of propositions were developed to facilitate empirical investigation on intercultural communication competence of the selected grocery retail outlets. This contributes to the development of a theory based path model that links the intercultural communication competence to service quality, purchase intention and customer satisfaction. While numerous scholars have considered the extensive subject of perceived service quality, purchase intention and customer satisfaction, however, none of those studies investigated on the critical role of intercultural communication competence and integrated the construct in their perceived service quality, customer satisfaction and purchase intention model. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.