The main purpose of this paper is to find the etic dimensions of beliefs towards comparative advertising (CA) and to test their relationship with global attitude and acceptance of CA in a cross-cultural setting. Samples from four linguistic and cultural different countries were used: Austria, Canada, China and Peru. The research instrument was an online questionnaire. Results uncovered three main etic belief dimensions: truthfulness and deceitfulness as societal (micro) variables, and product information as personal (micro) variable. Invariance tests indicate that the items comprising the scales proposed to measure CA beliefs, global attitude and acceptance of CA possess equivalence across the four countries. Our model shows that beliefs indirectly affect acceptance of CA, which is mediated by global attitude toward CA. Results reveal similarities and differences across countries on the magnitude and importance of the beliefs and global attitude total effects upon acceptance. Finally, results are analyzed vis-à-vis the Hofstede’s national cultural dimensions, which indicate that uncertainty avoidance and individualism/collectivism help to explain the main differences across the countries.

• José I. ROJAS-MÉNDEZ(Carleton University)
• Jutatip JAMSAWANG(University of Vienna)
• Gina M. PIPOLI(Universidad del Pacifico)