Date: May 30, 2011 Program: MIMA – International Marketing Course name: Master Thesis (EFO 705) Title: Consumer behavior towards private label brands: A study of  Thai undergraduate students' experience Method: Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. Quantitative method was used to collect the primary data for this research. Moreover, qualitative method was also used to support the results from questionnaires. Conclusion: The research attempts to examine the different factors that influence consumers' purchasing intentions of private label brands among Thai undergraduate students. Five important factors were identified; there are collectivist culture, perceived risk, price, quality and store loyalty. Collectivist culture and perceived risk were found out to be important background factors which affect the other three factors. Furthermore, the result shows that price and quality of private label brands are highly related as most of the target consumers tend to associate expensiveness with high quality and vice-versa. However, the effect of store loyalty on consumers' (Thai undergraduate students)purchasing intention was found out to be insignificant.

Theory of mind (ToM) refers to a cognitive ability that enables one to attribute mental states (such as desires, emotions, beliefs) to self and others. In recent years researchers have identified cultural variations in the onset of ToM understanding in collectivist and individualist cultures. However, the findings of cross-cultural studies regarding these variations are inconsistent. The major aim of this innovative research was to investigate differences in the acquisition of ToM in children from a collectivist culture (Pakistan) and an individualist culture (UK). The second aim of the study was to assess the specific association between ToM and social competence in a culturally diverse sample. An additional aim of the study was to investigate the universality of various correlates of ToM such as executive functioning (EF), parenting styles, and maternal mental state talk. The findings of the studies demonstrated a significant delay in the acquisition of ToM in Pakistani children, when compared with Western children from individualist societies. These findings were corroborated by the results of novel cross-cultural study that compared the performance of White British, British Pakistani, and Pakistani children on a ToM scale. White British children outperformed both Pakistani and British Pakistani children on measures of ToM, EF, and social competence. The current findings also provide support for the association of mental state understanding with EF, social competence, parenting styles, and maternal mental state talk. These findings have important implications for the role of general (collectivist vs. individualist cultures) as well as specific cultural practices (such as parenting and education) in the acquisition of mental state understanding.

This dissertation explores how family and marriage relationships vary according to the culture in which they occur. Based on the individualism/collectivism framework about cultural variations in familial beliefs across countries, I study three topics of family and marriage relationships across cultures. In the first study, I examine how 17 member countries of Organisation of Economic and Co-operation and Development (OECD) differ culturally in older adults' preference for family elder care. I find that older adults from countries with more traditional values that emphasize the importance of a strong parent-child tie are more likely to prefer family care rather than formal care than those from more secular-rational countries with less emphasis on the parent-child tie; the cultural difference gets smaller at a higher level of individual family income. In the second study, I select China as a representative of the collectivist culture, and look into how the collectivist culture and older parents' filial beliefs shape the intergenerational relationship in China. I find that patrilocal and patrilineal traditions are still prevail in China. A highly cohesive intergenerational relationship people idealize in the collectivist culture is more common between older parents and married sons, and least common between older parents and married daughters. In the third study, I compare an individualist society, the U.S., and China, a collectivist society to test whether marriage also isolates people from their informal social network in China as observed in the U.S. I find that marriage does not isolate but integrates people into their informal social network in China, while marriage isolate people in the U.S. The three studies present new evidence on how marriage and family experiences differ due to different cultural beliefs about family, and under what conditions the cultural influences are weakened or reinforced. / Ph. D. / People tend to think and behave according to their individual cultural beliefs and value system and influenced by the cultural environment they live in. Three studies in this dissertation examine how the macro cultural environment and individual beliefs about the family and family relationships influence 1) the preference for family elder care in 17 countries in Europe, North and South America, and East Asia; 2) the intergenerational relationship in China; and 3) the marriage effect on socializing with friends, neighbors, and relatives in the collectivist China and the individualist U.S. In the first study, I find that the preference for family elder care is stonger among older adults from more traditional countries that value family traditions and strong parent-child ties than those from countries with less emphasis on family traditions and the parent-child tie. The cultural influence gets weaker as older adults’ family income increases. In the second study, I find that intergenerational relationship is still very traditional in China. A highly cohesive relationship idealized in the collectivist culture is more common between older parents and their married sons, and least common between older adults and married daughters. In the third study, I find that, compared to the never married and the previously married, married Chinese do not socialize less often with friends, and tend to socialize more often with neighbors and relatives. However, married Americans socialize less often with all these three groups of people in their informal social network than the unmarried. All three studies present new evidence on how marriage and family experiences differ due to different cultural beliefs about family, and how the cultural influence would change according to individuals’ social conditions.