Technology within cultures: Segmenting the wired consumers in Canada, France, and the USA

This paper uses a state-of-the-art quantitative modeling approach to latent class analysis to analyze American, Canadian, and French consumers’ perception of technology-based products and their cultural values. It identifies hidden segments of consumers based on technology adoption propensity, cosmopolitan characteristics, and identification with the global consumer culture. The study emphasizes the diversity and variability between and among countries regarding localism, globalism, cosmopolitanism, and the global consumer culture. The framework provides a new way to evaluate modern consumers and reflects the combination of national/regional cultural characteristics and global culture elements while highlighting the relevance of modern technologies and communication methods in leveling consumer preferences and attitudes across cultures. From a theoretical viewpoint, this article provides a new framework incorporating technology adoption propensity and cultural elements in the empirical evaluation of modern consumers.