The paper examines how culture and desire for status influence the consumption of luxury brands in two culturally dissimilar countries: Vietnam and USA. Based on survey data from the two countries, results confirm that desire for status is a key factor for the consumption of luxuries in both countries. The cultural context of collectivism reinforces the effect of desire for status. Of all the collectivist/individualist orientations, vertical individualism was found to increase desire for status.

The purpose of this paper is to (1) evaluate a proposed conceptual model based on integrated Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR); (2) compare the differences between Vietnam and South Korea regarding the effects of consumer perception of CSR activities and technology acceptance on intention to adopt mobile banking. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was conducted to analyze the data collected from the field survey questionnaires administered to a convenience sample of Vietnamese and Korean banking customers. The results showed that there is a difference between South Korea and Vietnam with regard to intention to use mobile banking services. While the effects of social responsibility and environmental responsibility on trust, trust on perceived usefulness, perceived risk on intention to use, perceived usefulness on intention to use were significant in the context of Vietnam but those effects were not significant in South Korea. Therefore, this study has attempted to fill this gap by empirically examining some of the important factors influencing the adoption of m-banking from the Vietnamese and Korean customers’ perspectives. Finally, practical and theoretical implications for both banks and researchers in the m- banking context are also discussed in the concluding section.