Ashok Lalwani
Associate Professor of Marketing | Indiana University, Kelley School of Business
Bloomington, IN, UNITED STATES
Ashok Lalwani is an expert in business administration, with a focus on the science of marketing.
Spotlight
Industry Expertise (7)
Market Research
Management Consulting
Writing and Editing
Research
Education/Learning
International Affairs
Advertising/Marketing
Areas of Expertise (5)
Price Perceptions
Cultural Orientation and Price Perceptions
The Role of Cultural Orientation in Consumers’ Judgments and Responses
International Business
Cultural Psychology
Accomplishments (5)
Individual Research Award (professional)
2016 Awarded by Institute for Advanced Study, Indiana University, Bloomington
Collaborative Fellowship Award (professional)
2016 Awarded by Institute for Advanced Study, Indiana University, Bloomington
Eli Lilly and Company Faculty Fellow (professional)
2015 Awarded by Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, Bloomington
Trustees Teaching Award (professional)
2014 Awarded by Indiana University, Bloomington
Innovative Teaching Award (professional)
2012 Awarded by Indiana University, Bloomington
Education (4)
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign: Ph.D., Business Administration 2006
University of Florida, Gainesville: M.S., Marketing 2002
National University of Singapore: M.S., Management 1998
Indian Institute of Technology: B.Tech., Engineering 1994
Links (2)
Articles (5)
Does a Dollar Get You a Dollar’s Worth of Merchandise? The Impact of Power Distance Belief on Price-Quality Judgments
Journal of Consumer Research
2016 The role of cultural factors in influencing price perceptions is not understood well in the literature. The present research seeks to fill this gap by examining the link between power distance belief—the acceptance and endorsement of power disparities in society—and the tendency to use the price of a product to judge its quality, the underlying processes, and boundary conditions. Three studies show that consumers high (vs. low) in power distance belief have a greater tendency to use price to judge quality because they have a greater need for structure, which makes them more likely to discriminate between brands and rank them based on price. The relationships held regardless of whether the price-to-quality relation was assessed using a standard self-report scale or via actual product judgments, and whether power distance belief was measured or manipulated. The effect was found to be independent of self-construal, holistic thinking, and risk aversion, was mediated by a need for structure, and disappeared when the tendency to order was facilitated (impeded) by making price more (less) salient. Theoretical implications are discussed.
You Get What You Pay For? Self-Construal Influences Price-Quality Judgments
Journal of Consumer Research
2013 How does cultural self-construal influence consumers’ tendency to use price to judge quality? Seven experiments designed to address this question revealed that people with a more interdependent (vs. independent) cultural self-construal—operationalized by ethnicity, nationality, measured self-construal, or manipulated salient self-construal—have a greater tendency to use price information to judge quality. This difference arises because interdependents tend to be holistic (vs. analytic) thinkers who are more likely to perceive interrelations between the elements of a product. These effects were observed regardless of whether the price-quality relation was assessed with a standard self-report scale or via actual product judgments, and whether thinking style was measured or manipulated. However, cultural differences only emerged in situations that afforded interdependents (vs. independents) a relational processing advantage. These findings shed light on the mechanisms underlying the effects and identify novel boundary conditions for the influence of self-construal and thinking style on consumer judgments.
The Distinct Influence of Cognitive Busyness and Need for Closure on Cultural Differences in Socially Desirable Responding
Journal of Consumer Research
2009 Research suggests that cognitive busyness and need for closure have similar effects on a host of consumer phenomena, leading some researchers to treat the two variables as substitutes. We propose that cognitive busyness and need for closure have distinct roots and can have different effects. We examine their distinction in the context of cultural differences in the two types of socially desirable responding – impression management and self-deceptive enhancement. Our findings indicate that high (vs. low) cognitive busyness weakens the relationship between culture and impression management, but not that between culture and self-deceptive enhancement. In contrast, high (vs. low) need for closure strengthens both relationships. The article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of these findings.
The "Me" I Claim to Be: Cultural Self-Construal Elicits Self-Presentational Goal Pursuit
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
2009 In 12 studies, respondents with an independent (vs. interdependent) self-construal showed an increased tendency and readiness to present themselves as skillful and capable and a decreased tendency and readiness to present themselves as socially sensitive and appropriate. This emerged in the form of differential scores on direct measures of self-presentation-self-deceptive enhancement and impression management (Study 1), differential social sensitivity in a gift-giving scenario (Study 2), differential performance on questions assessing general knowledge (Studies 5-6) and etiquette (Studies 7-8), and different choices between tests purportedly measuring one's self-reliance versus social-appropriateness (Studies 9A and 9D). These relationships were observed when participants focused on their own self-presentational concerns but disappeared when participants focused on others' outcomes (Study 3) or when they had a prior opportunity to satisfy their goals via self-affirmation (Studies 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9B, 9D). Finally, self-construal effects were eliminated or reversed when participants were led to doubt their ability to achieve their self-presentational goals (Study 9C).
Does Audiovisual Congruency in Advertisements Increase Persuasion? The Role of Cultural Music and Products
Journal of Global Marketing
2009 Given increasing advertisement clutter, advertisers are increasingly trying unconventional means to attract consumers' attention. One such method involves the use of incongruent ads, which are believed to attract viewers' attention. This research was conducted to ascertain the impact of audiovisual congruency in ads and the moderating role of product involvement on three facets of consumer response: attention to the ad, attention to the brand, and purchase intentions. Participants were shown one of eight TV ads for 30 seconds, following which they were asked to rate the ad on several dimensions. Results indicated, as expected, that congruent product and music type elicited favorable consumer responses. However, contrary to earlier findings that congruency in ads affects consumers in both high- and low-involvement conditions, we find that that the level of involvement moderated this effect on some consumer persuasion measures. In particular, participants under high-involvement conditions were found to be less influenced by congruent product–music situations. Implications for advertisers are discussed.