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Intercultural Differences in the Purchase and Information Behaviour of Young Consumers
Pressures in the contemporary marketing environment are getting bigger and companies and marketers are required to know consumers and their purchase and information behaviour. In this article we studied the behaviour of consumers and the factors of purchase and information behaviour of young consumers when choosing clothes. We found out about the meaning of individual clothing characteristics having impact on the purchase decision making (price, trademark, fitting of clothing, design, quality, etc.). Consumers receive and look for information at different sources (radio commercials, TV commercials and shows, fashion magazines, catalogue sales, social networks, friends and acquaintances, etc.). With the empiric research we wanted to find out to what measure individual sources influence the purchase decision of an individual. We studied young people aged from 15 to 24 in the countries of the EU (Slovenia, Austria and Germany) and the United States of America. We especially focused on characteristic differences. Knowing intercultural differences is important for global companies of the clothing industry for forming their marketing strategies. On the sample of 440 young people who took part in the survey we found out that intercultural differences exist regarding the influence of individual information sources and regarding the factors of purchase decision making. Considering the stated we propose companies operating in global markets on both continents to prepare differentiated marketing strategies.

The socio-pragmatic phenomenon of academic conflict (AC) is here addressed from a cross-cultural and diachronic perspective, and is examined by combining a quantitative approach and a qualitative discoursal analysis of its salient rhetorical features in a corpus of Spanish, French and English medical articles published between 1930 and 1995. The speech acts that conveyed AC were recorded in each paper and classified into 2 categories according to their level of commitment (direct author's involvement) or detachment (hedginess and AC responsibility shifting). The quantitative results were analyzed by means of the Chi-square test. Our overall findings indicate that French and Spanish scientists tend to be not only more critical, but also more authoritarian and passionate in the formulation of their AC than their Anglo-Saxon counterparts. However, when analyzed diachronically, our results indicate that from the 1990s on, the rhetorical behavior of Spanish AC (though still somewhat blunt and personal) quite abruptly distinguishes itself from that of French and starts adopting the more veiled and "politically correct" tone of English AC. By contrast, the discursive pattern of French AC did not substantially change over time, although its indirectness slowly and continuously increased over the period studied. By placing the above results within their broader educational, political, historical and socio-economic context, it can be claimed that the behavioral changes observed in the framing of AC reflect the evolution of an increasingly promotional, competitive, professionalized, collegial and pragmatic end-of-20th-century scientific research which tends to compel scientists to progressively change their vision of science, although certain cultures seem to be more vulnerable to external penetration than others. ; 223-247 ; frmeyer@cantv.net ; ariza@ua.es ; nzambrano@ula.ve

This book proposes a new theoretical and methodological approach to the investigation and explanation of intercultural differences in conflict management strategies and relational (politeness) strategies in workplace settings, taking the Chinese workplace as its focus.

In this paper, I put into question the idea that there is an essential difference between intercultural communication and intracultural communication. After considering dominating assumptions and ideas leading to this dichotomy, I argue that communication should be explored in terms of particular instances of human action and reaction that are embedded in concrete life situation, and that culture should not be taken as a seamless whole which can be absolutely isolated from each other as abstract entities. Moreover, invoking Wittgenstein's notion of language-game, I show that the so-labeled intercultural communication and intracultural communication are not far from each other radically as is commonly assumed. Almost all academic writings on the topic of intercultural communication have treated it as essentially different from intracultural communication. This assumption suggests not only that these are two different types of communication, but also that this difference is a qualitative one, as distinct from a difference of degree in terms of the pragmatic success of communicative interaction between persons. The presupposition of a qualitative difference between the two finds its expression in the fact that intercultural communication is presented in the relevant literature almost unanimously as necessarily more difficult than intracultural communication. This idea is far from being justified. In this paper, I consider dominating assumptions leading to the general outlook according to which intercultural communication is regarded as categorically different from intracultural communication. Then I demonstrate that the issue of interpersonal communication should be explored in terms of particular instances of human action and reaction that are embedded in concrete life situation, and that cultures are not seamless wholes which can be absolutely isolated from each other and abstract entities. Finally, by a thought experiment which extends Wittgenstein's language-game of the builders, I show that the so-labeled intercultural communication and intracultural communication are not far from each other radically as is commonly assumed.

Intro -- Acknowledgments -- Praise for Applied Theatre and Intercultural Dialogue -- Contents -- About the Author -- A Note on Images -- List of Figures -- Chapter 1: Introduction -- Applied Theatre and Intercultural Dialogue -- Play -- The Case Studies -- A Facilitator, an Ethnographer, a White American Man -- Works Cited -- Chapter 2: "Stepping Out": The Physical Play and Incorporeal Dialogue of Applied Theatre Processes -- Moment #1: On the Alterity of the Duel -- Moment #2: The Incorporeality of Image-Making -- Moment #3: The Collective Play of Viewpointing -- Moment #4: The Creative Intimacy of the Audible Circle -- Conclusion -- Works Cited -- Chapter 3: Role-Play: Performing Variability, Embracing Communitas, and Obfuscating Racial Tension -- From Physical Play to Role-Play: The Arc of the Drama Program -- Creative Intimacy as a Roadblock to Dialogue -- A Gentle Nudge -- Final Thoughts on the "Big House" -- Works Cited -- Chapter 4: It's Personal: Autobiographical Stories as Catalysts for Playful Dialogue -- Subterranean Dialogue: An Introduction -- Cultivating Play at Central High School -- The Pursuit of "Authenticity" -- "Genuine Dialogue" -- The Push -- Privileging the Personal (over the Systemic) -- Reaching for the Systemic -- Works Cited -- Chapter 5: Mythical Play: Embodying the Epic -- Sustaining Tension in Abraham's House -- Shielded from Scrutiny -- Beyond the Abraham Story: A Pattern of Identifying Inequity -- Pivoting Back -- Conclusion -- Works Cited -- Chapter 6: Punctured Play: A Dramaturgy of Absorption, Interruption, and Interrogation -- Introduction: Stumbling into Forum Theatre, Discovering an Impassioned Voice -- A Forum for Interrupted Play -- Playful Transformations -- An Interruptive Discussion -- A Dramaturgy of Absorption, Interruption, and Interrogation -- Works Cited -- Chapter 7: Epilogue: Beyond Theatre.

In this article we present quantitative data collected in Italy for the CHILD-UP project, funded by the EU Horizon 2020 programme in the period 2019–2022.

The aim of this work is to focus on a specific topic which emerged during the analysis of the questionnaires collected within schools. This topic is the perceptions of professionals and parents on the issues of integration, cultural differences and the intercultural.

Starting from a theorization of these concepts, we focus on quantitative data collected in the first part of the project by means of questionnaires distributed in a number of schools in Modena, Reggio Emilia and Genova. These questionnaires were given to professionals, students, and parents in kindergartens, primary schools and lower and higher secondary schools. However, here we only focus on data collected from professionals and parents.

This data shows how participants express ambivalence and disorientation concerning representations of hybridization, celebration of cultural differences, understanding of problems related to intercultural differences and assimilation. Moreover, significant differences exist between professionals (teachers, mediators and social workers) and between professionals and parents, who seem more frequently interested in assimilation.