Volume 12 - Issue 62
/ February 2023
45
http:// www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.62.02.3
How to Cite:
Robul, Y., Lytvynenko, K., Lytvynenko, O., Bokshan, H., & Popovych, I. (2023). Marketing in the digital age: cultural values as
agents of socially responsible marketing in the digital economy. Amazonia Investiga, 12(62), 45-55.
https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.62.02.3
Marketing in the digital age: cultural values as agents of socially
responsible marketing in the digital economy
Маркетинг у цифрову епоху: культурні цінності як агенти соціально
відповідального маркетингу в цифровій економіці
Received: February 14, 2023 Accepted: March 14, 2023
Written by:
Yuriy Robul1
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7299-9648
ResearcherID: B-6018-2015
Kateryna Lytvynenko2
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5057-4991
ResearcherID: HTR-1648-2023
Olga Lytvynenko3
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2757-5261
ResearcherID: AAT-2598-2020
Halyna Bokshan4
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7430-8257
ResearcherID: DUS-6934-2022
Ihor Popovych5
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1663-111X
ResearcherID: F-3030-2019
Abstract
The purpose of the article is to determine the
relationship between the characteristics of social
marketing stakeholders and the degree of
development of marketing systems in the digital
economy. The results of the study are based on a
critical analysis of the tools and processes of
functioning of marketing systems in the context of
digitalisation, and the changes it causes in
marketing systems at basic and extended levels due
to specific features inherent in the digital economy.
The concept of cultural dimensions by Hofstede
(2010) is applied to determine the collective
behavioural characteristics of the most numerous
stakeholders of social marketing, which are
members of society in selected countries. A positive
statistically significant correlation between the
share of online shoppers against the indulgence
1
Doctor of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor, Full Professor of the Chair of Marketing and Business Administration, Odesa
I. I. Mechnikov National University, Odesa, Ukraine.
2
PhD in Economic Sciences, Associate Professor of the Chair of Marketing and Business Administration, Odesa I. I. Mechnikov
National University, Odesa, Ukraine.
3
Doctor of Psychological Sciences, Full Professor, Full Professor of the Department of General Psychology and Personality
Development Psychology, Odesa National I. I. Mechnikov University, Odesa, Ukraine.
4
Ph. D., Associate Professor of Department of Tourism, Hotel and Restaurant Business and Foreign Languages, Kherson State
Agrarian and Economic University, Kherson, Ukraine.
5
Doctor of Psychological Sciences, Full Professor, Full Professor of the Department of Psychology, Kherson State University,
Kherson, Ukraine.
46
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index (R=.77) and the individualism index (R=.73)
was found. There is a negative statistically
significant correlation between the share of online
shoppers against uncertainty avoidance (R=-.76),
power distance (R=-.67), gender culture type (R=-
.27) and long-term orientation (R=-.27). In general,
a significant part of the expected impact of
uncertainty avoidance is taken over by mechanisms
that guarantee the protection of personal data from
unauthorised use and security from fraud and crime
committed in cyberspace.
Key words: social marketing, macro marketing,
marketing systems, socially responsible marketing,
social stakeholders, digital economy, cultural
values.
Introduction
In a post-industrial society, consumption is
becoming particularly important for
socioeconomic development, and marketing is
becoming an important factor in dominating the
global space. Along with the satisfaction of basic
consumer needs, there is a fundamental change
in their content and nature. Consumption is
beginning to be seen as a process of not only
economic but also social interaction between
members of society. In this regard, since the 60s
of the XX century, social marketing has been
actively developing, and the concept of social
interaction, and social responsibility in
marketing, their components and factors have
been studied. This research continues to this day.
The development of digital technologies at the
present stage has reached a level where the
technological structure is changing – economy
4.0 is developing, based on the processes of
dating, digitalisation, virtualisation, and
generativity. Under their influence, traditional
activities and social interaction ways are
changing, which affects marketing and
consumption. In marketing, there are
fundamental changes associated with the transfer
of market power to users of information
networks, the ability of consumers to create and
distribute their content, organise the interaction
with other consumers, the possibility of targeted
multilateral interactive interaction, and the use of
a consumer’s digital footprint. At the intersection
of the evolution of the marketing concept
towards a greater consideration of the social
component and technological opportunities
arising from modern information and
communication technologies (ICT), there is a
need to study the impact of digital technologies
on certain components and types of marketing,
including social marketing, to understand its
tasks and identify implementation tools.
Hypothesis. The authors suggest that depending
on the value characteristics of society, the
development of marketing systems, including
those in the digital economy, reaches different
levels. In other words, there is a connection
between the ultimate level of social marketing –
corporate citizenship, stakeholder orientation,
and social/environmental sustainability – and the
indicators of the development of marketing
systems in the digital economy. The same level
of social marketing effectively limits the
progress and implementation of digital
technologies in marketing: they acquire
opportunities for further development if the
development of society’s value system takes
place, which is reflected in the next level of social
marketing development.
The purpose of the study is to determine the
relationship between the characteristics of social
marketing stakeholders and the degree of
development of marketing systems in the digital
economy, which will determine the need to
reframe marketing as a social construct in the
digital age. Achieving this goal will make it
possible to identify tools for influencing the
formation and functioning of marketing systems
in the digital age, which, in turn, will make it
possible to instrumentalise the consistency of the
purpose and nature of their development with the
interests of society as a whole.
Robul, Y., Lytvynenko, K., Lytvynenko, O., Bokshan, H., Popovych, I. / Volume 12 - Issue 62: 45-55 / February, 2023
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Literature Review
The development of social marketing is a natural
continuation of the classical concept of
marketing management, which dates back to the
50s of the XX century. Already in the theory of
stages of economic development, W. Rostow
(1959) considers marketing as a powerful force
that transfers society to mass consumption and
leads to the next level – post-industrial society,
which was later called the quality-orientated
economy. Through mutually beneficial exchange
processes between producers and consumers, not
only is the efficiency of market activity increased
but its effectiveness is also enhanced by the
increase in the number of resources at the
disposal of producers, achieved through better
exchanges and more efficient localisation of
resources in activities with the highest potential
for return and higher added value.
The act of consumption is changing the consumer
(Baker & Sinkula, 2005), and consumer
experience increasingly includes social
interaction and influences one. Accordingly,
since the 1960s of XX century, marketing has
gradually recognised its social significance
(Alderson, 1964), which can be traced to the
impact of collective interaction of exchange
participants and influence groups, ties with
interest groups, individual communities, and
society as a whole, the impact of consumption on
behaviour, and the use of consumption as a factor
of social identification. The scope of marketing
is gradually expanding to include non-profits and
governmental organisations (Kotler & Levy,
1969), and it is beginning to be seen as a driver
and instrument of social change (Kotler &
Zaltman, 1971). The concepts of social and
societal marketing emerged (El-Ansary, 1974),
where the former covers marketing of non-profit
needs, and the latter – marketing activities of all,
primarily commercial organisations, aligned
with the interests of society. Such an expanded,
systemic vision of marketing emphasises the
need to ensure benefits not only for the parties to
the exchange – the seller and the buyer, as is
inherent in classical marketing management –
but also for society as a whole and the
communities concerned in particular.
Consequently, there is a need to develop a
marketing research apparatus at different levels
of the socio-economic system. This is how
macromarketing emerges, the subject of which is
the study of the preconditions, mechanisms, and
results of the functioning of marketing systems
under the influence of society and the impact of
these systems on society (Hunt, 1981; Hunt et al.,
2021), and the object is marketing systems
(Layton, 2007). J. Mittelstaedt et al., (2006)
consider marketing activity as quintessence and
one of the agents of the social life of certain
communities, drawing a parallel between the
market in the modern economy and the ancient
Greek agora as the core of the functioning of
society (Mittelstaedt et al., 2006; Mittelstaedt et
al., 2015). A great contribution to the study of
systemic aspects of marketing and its
relationship with other elements of the
socioeconomic system belongs to R. Layton
(2009), who showed the role of marketing
systems in the socioeconomic development of
society (Layton, 2009) and defined
macromarketing as a social discipline (Layton,
2016). In the same direction, D. Kadirov (2018)
defines the marketing system as a public good.
The consideration of macromarketing, and
therefore partly marketing as a social discipline,
raises several specific issues related to values,
models, and norms of behaviour in society. In
this direction, research is developing on the
moral aspects of marketing (Hunt, 2012), the
relationship of marketing to public welfare (Luo
& Bhattacharya, 2006) and the specific interests
of certain social groups; its role in social progress
and sustainable development (Mittelstaedt et al.,
2014). S. Hunt notes the need for a more detailed
study of the dynamic relationship between
marketing systems and society: “...this chapter
argues for the importance in marketing academy
of studying marketing systems and society... for
the study of dynamic marketing systems and for
the use of brand equity strategies in such
systems” (Hunt, 2015: 70). This implies, among
other things, clarifying the system of social
values and creating an appropriate system of
meanings that simultaneously supports
consumption and development of society. The
creation of such a system of meanings requires
alignment of marketing activities, especially
from the strategic perspective, with the
peculiarities of consumers and, in a broader
context, national culture (de Mooij & Hofstede,
2011). Accordingly, any significant change
either in the mechanisms or ways of functioning
of marketing systems or in the relations observed
in society means the need to actualise the
relationship of marketing and its components
with the socioeconomic system.
The social nature of marketing has made the
process of managing it more and more
complicated. The complex nature of the basis,
tools and effects of marketing, the combination
of individual and collective interests, and various
forms of interaction between market participants
are reflected in the concept of relationship
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marketing (Grönroos, 2006; Palmatier &
Steinhoff, 2019), which forms the theoretical
basis of marketing in modern realities.
Implementing the principles of relationship
marketing at the organisational level involves
modifying established approaches and methods
of managing marketing activities. First, it is
about the expansion of the classical marketing
complex, which is reflected in the holistic
approach to marketing management, which
involves the allocation of internal, integrated,
productive marketing, and relationship
marketing as separate but interrelated elements
of marketing policy (Keller & Kotler, 2015). The
practical implementation of the holistic approach
requires an understanding of the goals and
objectives of each element, but both its content
and the interrelationships between them remain
controversial. This uncertainty is exacerbated by
the development of modern information and
communication technologies, when, in
particular, the technology-driven ability to
provide interactive interaction with an individual
consumer on a massive scale blurs the line
between the usual marketing approach to
interaction with groups of anonymous consumers
(productive marketing) and with known
individual loyal consumers (affiliate marketing).
The management of relationships with internal
and external stakeholders, in general,
significantly changes the usual ways of
implementing marketing policy. It can no longer
be limited to the classical marketing complex, as
there is a need to interact not only with buyers
and consumers but also with other communities
and society as a whole. It is the information
interaction between an organisation and its
various audiences that allows it to “stay on the
radar” of stakeholders, making them known to
each other and creating a positive experience of
information interaction, which is an important
prerequisite for success in transactional
interaction.
At the same time, there is a noticeable lag
between marketing practice and the development
of its theoretical concepts. One of the main
problems in this way is that issues related to the
implementation of social responsibility, socially
responsible marketing, consideration, and
implementation of sustainable development
principles do not have established tools, often
remaining at the level of declarations and
intentions, while the implementation of the
commercial component of exchanges is ensured
by the natural desire to obtain benefits. There is
no common understanding of the tools that will
help social responsibility become a regular
habitual part of marketing policy. S. Hunt and S.
J. Vitell (2006), G. R. Laczniak and P. E. Murphy
(2019) emphasise that marketing requires not
only the description and systematisation of
related phenomena and tools but also the
definition and adherence to a certain norm, which
determines the need to apply normative ethics to
macromarketing. Therefore, the author
emphasises the need to define the norms related
to the interaction of marketing and society and
the tools by which social marketing will be
implemented in practice in the activities of all
market participants, which can be used to
institutionalise social responsibility. In this
regard, it seems important to distinguish between
the concepts of social and societal marketing, as
is done in (Vrublevska et al., 2022). In the
following, socially responsible marketing and
social marketing will be used synonymously,
while social marketing refers to marketing
activities initially aimed at achieving a social
effect.
Laczniak and Shultz (2021) defined the structure
of modern socially responsible marketing as a
combination of three elements: corporate
citizenship, stakeholder orientation, and
social/environmental sustainability, postulating
an expanded understanding of the concept of
sustainable development. The development of
digital technologies and the digital economy
affects all three of these elements, creating
elements of uncertainty in each of them, aspects
of concern in terms of social welfare, and issues
that need to be addressed. This article is
concerned with the study of the relationship
between the value orientations of individual
members of society and the degree of
development of marketing systems in the digital
economy. In our opinion, ensuring social
responsibility involves, but is not limited to,
considering the value orientations of society
members. These values should be the basis for
“... the use of brand equity strategies in such
systems” (Hunt, 2015: 70). Without
understanding the value orientations, it is
impossible to talk about the application of the
normative approach.
Materials and methods
The realisation of the research objective is based
on a critical analysis of the tools and processes of
marketing systems through the prism of social
interaction based on S-D logic (Vargo et al.,
2017), in the context of digitalisation
development, and the changes it causes in
marketing systems at the basic and extended
level (Robul, 2020) due to the specific features
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inherent in the digital economy. To achieve this
goal, we applied Hofstede’s concept of cultural
dimensions (Hofstede et al., 2010) to determine
the collective behavioural characteristics of the
most numerous social marketing stakeholders,
which are individual members of society. The
model of cultural values defines the areas along
which the interests of society members related to
ensuring well-being are concentrated. As the
practice of applying this methodology shows, it
is quite good at describing the behavioural
differences of members of different communities
through the definition of value orientations and
attitudes toward themselves, others, and society
as a whole. Following de Mooij and Hofstede
(2011), we applied this methodology to
consumer behaviour and consumption in the
digital economy. As an indicator of the
effectiveness of the use of the marketing system
in society, we use the share of consumers who
make purchases in digital channels (on virtual
platforms on the Internet). The search for the
relationship was carried out through the study of
spatial correlation for a certain group of
countries, which includes the following:
1. The leading group of ten countries that,
according to UNCTAD, have the highest
level of development of marketing systems
in the digital economy: The Netherlands,
Switzerland, Singapore, Finland, the United
Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Ireland,
Germany, and Australia. This group is
complemented by the world’s leading
economies that were not included in the
leading group: the USA, France, Japan, and
China.
2. Central, Eastern European, and Baltic
countries, which are EU members: Estonia,
Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary,
Romania, Bulgaria.
3. European countries that emerged in the post-
Soviet space: Ukraine, Russia, Belarus,
Moldova, and Georgia.
Fundamental empirical studies that outline the
transformations of social change and
sociocultural vectors of the present are studied.
The reviewed works are related to the societal
direction and were considered when building the
strategy of our empirical research. The reviewed
works present the explication of
axiopsychological factors (Hulias & Hoian,
2022), axiogenesis of value contradictions
(Halian et al., 2021; Halian, 2022), corporate
value and motivational components (Bazilenko
et al., 2019; Kalenchuk, 2019; Pinkovetskaia et
al., 2020; Popovych et al., 2020), studies of
anticorruption mechanisms in social processes
(Nosov et al., 2020; Plokhikh et al., 2021;
Popovych et al., 2021b) and some modern studies
of economic practise (Arbeláez-Campillo et al.,
2019; Lytvynenko, 2020; Popovych et al.,
2021a).
Statistical Analysis. Statistical analysis was
carried out using the IBM SPSS Statistics
software package version 29.0.0.0 (241).
Spearman’s correlation coefficient (R) was used
to determine statistically significant differences
and trends. Data at the level of p<.050 and
p<.010 were considered reliable.
Results and discussion
The state of digital technologies in modern
dimensions is a technological transformation, a
transition to a new technological mode of
production, consumption, and interaction
between members of society. It refers to
fundamental transformations in the
implementation of important social functions,
such as the functioning of the society’s
infrastructure, logistics, labour, distribution, and
consumption processes. Technological
transformation involves not only technological
changes but also changes in elements such as
consumption, regulation, supply chains,
infrastructure, and symbolic meaning. However,
technology does not work on its own. It only
produces results through people, social
structures, and institutions (Schumpeter & Opie,
1934).
Digital technologies are inherently generative,
and their potential remains largely unrealized,
which means that the market is constantly
unstable and the ways of creating, consuming,
and using goods and services are constantly
evolving. In general, the technological
transformation associated with the introduction
and use of digital technologies is more of an
evolutionary process that is gradually being
implemented and has existed for some time
simultaneously with the processes that preceded
it. In this regard, objects and relations that
emerge or change under the influence of digital
technologies will certainly be evaluated and used
following the value models and benchmarks
developed earlier. Thus, there are prerequisites
for the emergence and spread of concerns about
new technologies and practises, regardless of
their content and objective significance for
human well-being and the nature of the
relationships between people.
Cultural and symbolic aspects related to the use
of digital technologies are produced in the
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interaction between users, media, and social
groups. User practices emerge from different
user groups’ daily use of digital endpoints.
Industry structures are the result of the mutual
positioning and strategies of hardware and
software manufacturers, sellers, and suppliers.
The technological knowledge embodied in
devices, websites, digital platforms, and
networks is created by various IT workers,
engineers, and researchers; hardware and
software manufacturers create these objects. The
activities of these different groups are aligned
and coordinated.
The competencies, skills and knowledge
acquired and shared by the bulk of the system’s
participants are a form of intellectual capital.
Acquiring and applying new knowledge and
building competencies takes a long time.
Established firms and organisations often find it
difficult to develop or move to a new level of
competence, which is a barrier to the penetration
of most innovative ideas into everyday practice.
Learning is cumulative, building on and
improving existing knowledge (Kotter, 2012).
Thus, learning is the main factor of path
dependence in the diffusion of innovations, and
the time required for learning is a factor that
slows down the introduction of new tools and the
spread of new practices. Therefore, technological
transformations can occur at a rate that is slower
than the actual rate of innovation production.
This is evidenced by the data in Tabl. 1.
It is noteworthy that informational interaction is
many times more prevalent than commercial
interaction: the share of consumers in the
surveyed countries who use digital technologies
for buying/selling is much lower than the share
of those who use digital tools for non-
commercial purposes.
Table 1.
Prevalence of different purposes of using digital technologies for communication and shopping for a set of
selected countries
Country
The share of the population (%) that does:
Private
correspondence
Communication
in social media
Search for
information
about products
and services
Search and
reading news
Search for
reference
information
Uploading own
content
Buying and
selling goods
and services
United Kingdom
89.23
73.13
n. a.
70.36
n. a.
37.78
31.00
Denmark
93.57
80.76
85.02
82.19
60.62
52.20
27.67
Estonia
82.38
65.14
77.93
80.57
55.14
36.12
18.20
Israel
69.3
76.8
n. a.
n. a.
n. a.
n. a.
n. a.
Ireland
76.68
63.58
76.54
66.77
26.36
37.25
18.92
China
22.45
n. a.
40.94
53.91
n. a.
n. a.
n. a.
Latvia
71.86
64.66
61.88
67.58
22.11
24.41
8.85
Netherlands
92.79
66.91
89.36
75.48
57.20
52.91
36.49
Germany
86.29
52.50
85.56
70.76
65.55
35.41
29.70
Norway
94.11
86.31
90.30
91.28
72.54
43.70
33.38
Poland
64.82
53.04
62.24
60.49
29.79
21.07
13.68
Russia
36.67
68.10
n. a.
20.10
n. a.
30.56
26.50
Slovakia
70.95
59.24
59.85
59.76
35.82
20.30
21.98
United States
74.88
62.12
n. a.
n. a.
n. a.
14.31
12.71
Hungary
72.01
68.86
69.26
67.14
43.58
28.10
13.23
Ukraine
58.00
61.00
n. a.
56.00
71.00
17.00
n. a.
Finland
90.44
66.68
86.56
81.33
70.71
26.89
31.71
France
79.40
42.32
61.54
53.78
26.75
22.99
22.32
Switzerland
90.52
53.26
80.93
76.36
n. a.
39.48
25.29
Sweden
90.67
72.22
83.13
79.58
60.55
37.50
25.17
Japan
80.60
60.70
66.70
63.80
25.80
n. a.
14.00
Source: compiled by the author on the basis of OECD and individual country data: data for Ukraine: [412];
data for Russia: [413]; data for China: Statista*.
Note: n. a. – no data available; * – Internet Usage in China:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/277352/online-activities-in-china-based-on-number-of-users/
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As is known, in the theory of cultural values by
Hofstede et al., (2010), the following indicators
are used to describe culture: 1) power distance
(DIS), 2) degree of individualism (IDV),
3) gender type of culture (MAS), 4) attitude to
uncertainty (AOU), 5) long-term orientation
(LTO) and 6) indulgence (IND). The indicators
are measured on a scale from 0 (minimum value)
to 100 (maximum value). The LTO and IND
indicators have not been determined for all
national cultures, and research in this area is
ongoing. Indicators of cultural values are neither
multiplicative nor additive: it makes no sense to
define a generalized indicator, a typical or
average value for them. Therefore, the impact has
to be determined separately for each cultural axis
by calculating the corresponding pairwise and
multiple correlation coefficients with the selected
outcome indicators.
Indicators of the development of digital
marketing systems and indicators of the
respective national cultures according to the
latest stable data are presented in Tabl. 2.
Table 2.
National culture parameters in the Hofstede model and the degree of development of digital marketing
systems for a selected group of countries
Country
Share of the
population that makes
purchases online, %.
DIS
IDV
MAS
AOU
LTO
IND
Australia
63.00
38
90
61
51
21
71
Belarus
30.00
95
25
20
95
81
15
Bulgaria
20.00
70
30
40
85
69
16
United Kingdom
83.00
35
89
66
35
51
69
Georgia
4.00
65
41
55
85
38
32
Denmark
84.00
18
74
16
23
35
70
Estonia
61.00
40
60
30
60
82
16
Israel
44.00
13
54
47
81
38
n. a.
Ireland
57.00
28
70
68
35
24
65
China
39.00
80
20
66
30
87
24
Latvia
45.00
44
70
9
63
69
13
Moldova
18.00
90
27
39
95
71
19
Netherlands
80.00
38
80
14
53
67
68
Germany
75.00
35
67
66
65
83
40
Norway
79.00
31
69
8
50
35
55
Poland
47.00
68
60
64
93
38
29
Russia
26.00
93
39
36
95
81
20
Romania
18.00
90
30
42
90
52
20
Singapore
63.00
74
20
48
8
72
46
Slovakia
57.00
100
52
100
51
77
28
United States
70.00
40
91
62
46
26
68
Hungary
40.00
46
80
88
82
58
31
Ukraine
21.00
92
25
27
95
86
14
Finland
70.00
33
63
26
59
38
57
France
66.00
68
71
43
86
63
48
Switzerland
63.00
34
68
70
58
74
66
Sweden
77.00
31
71
5
29
53
78
Japan
42.00
54
46
95
92
88
42
Source: compiled by the authors based on data from the World Bank and https://www.hofstede-
insights.com/country-comparison/
The correlation between national culture
parameters and digital marketing systems’ degree of development (Table 3) is statistically
significant, p<.010.
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Table 3.
Correlation of indicators of national cultural development and the degree of development of digital
marketing systems
Share of the population that makes
purchases online
1
DIS
-.6725
1
IDV
.7237
-.7469
1
MAS
-.1094
.1311
.0518
1
AOU
-.7046
.4576
-.3376
.0585
1
LTO
-.2820
.5387
-.5511
.0678
.2591
1
IND
.7770
-.7415
.7074
-.0040
-.6382
-.5901
1
Source: calculations by the authors.
There is a statistically significant (p<.01) positive
correlation between the share of the population
that makes online purchases against indulgence
(R=.77) and the individualism indexes (R=.73).
At the same time, there is a statistically
significant negative correlation of the share of the
population that makes online purchases against
uncertainty avoidance (R=-.76), power distance
(R=-.67), gender culture type (R=-.27) and long-
term orientation (R=-.27).
The high positive correlation between the level
of indulgence and the share of the population that
makes online purchases, in our opinion, is related
to the nature of demand in modern, postmodern
markets, which is characterised by an ever-
increasing level of individualism and hedonism.
According to Hofstede et al., (2010), indulgence
broadly refers to the limits of acceptable
behaviour in society, which can still be
considered acceptable, while simultaneously
deviating from the dominant model of behaviour
and, in our case, standard consumption. In
consumption and marketing, this cultural
parameter is related to the breadth and
heterogeneity of consumer demand (de Mooij &
Hofstede, 2011). The higher it is, the greater is
both the probability of consuming atypical,
unusual goods for a given consumer group or
individual consumer, and the volume of such
consumption, of course, provided that there is a
sufficient level of resource provision. Indulgence
is directly related to hedonistic consumption. The
close correlation with a high value of the
individualism index is not surprising, as online
consumption is the most individualised form of
consumption, and thus it is becoming more
widespread in consumer cultures where it is
customary to make consumption decisions on
one’s own.
The strongest negative correlation is observed
between the prevalence of online trading and
uncertainty avoidance. Uncertainty avoidance
characterises the degree of perceived risk
associated with the implementation of an activity
under unknown conditions or in the future. In
general, high values of this indicator are
observed in societies where clear and detailed
regulation of various aspects of activity is
normal. In the case of e-commerce, the high
value of uncertainty avoidance is related to
concerns about the protection of personal
information and privacy in digital channels. The
more consumers use digital channels, the more
personal information they leave with them. Thus,
the development of consumers’ use of digital
channels reduces the level of personal data
protection. Resolving this situation requires an
institutional response in the form of regulating
access to personal data and strengthening its
protection against unauthorised interference and
misuse.
High power distance means that members of a
society or group take the inherited hierarchical
structure for granted and make efforts to find
their place in it, while low power distance means
that the value of achievements is recognised over
the value of inheritance, and, accordingly, that
the place of a community member is determined
by personal achievements, and the social distance
between influential and noninfluential is low.
Digital channels provide 24/7 accessibility and
help reduce social barriers. Thus, it is not
surprising that societies with lower power
distance have a higher share of people who shop
online.
A high value of long-term orientation means a
focus on achieving future long-term results,
which may sacrifice or delay short-term rewards
or emotional satisfaction. High scores on this
axis are observed in cultures that recognise
perseverance, frugality, and adaptability as
important social virtues. The correlation between
long-term orientation and the prevalence of
online shopping may indicate the association of
online shopping with immediate, instant
gratification (one of the symbolic meanings in
the socio-economic and technological system).
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In their study of the factors influencing the
development of marketing systems in the digital
economy, Ahluwalia and Merhi (2020) proposed
a comprehensive model of e-commerce adoption
at the country level, in which they examined
three main factors of influence, namely:
a) targeted government policy for the
development of the IT sector and
telecommunications; b) peculiarities of national
cultures, especially uncertainty avoidance; c) the
effectiveness of security institutions on the
Internet. The correlation analysis conducted by
the authors shows a statistically significant
correlation between government support for IT
development and the existence of effective
security institutions that protect marketing
systems from fraud, on the one hand, and the
development of e-Commerce, and the absence of
a significant relationship with the uncertainty
avoidance indicator. In this regard, the authors
note that a significant portion of the expected
impact of uncertainty avoidance is absorbed by
mechanisms that guarantee the protection of
personal data from unauthorised use and security
against fraud and crime committed in
cyberspace. In our opinion, it seems wrong to
reduce sociocultural factors to uncertainty
avoidance only, while in Hofstede’s
methodology, only a comprehensive
consideration of all cultural parameters makes it
possible to get an idea of the dominant values and
behavioural patterns.
Conclusions
The development of the operational resources
required for the development and proper
functioning of marketing systems in society is
ensured through consumer education: the
volume, content, and nature of the service they
provide to each other, including consumption,
depends on the availability of specific knowledge
and skills.
It is important to note that in this case, we are
talking about knowledge and skills related to
various subject areas, and not about those related
to the technical aspects of the functioning of
digital tools, software, and (or) hardware. In the
context of Industry 4.0, the development of
semantic networks, automated digital platforms,
and artificial intelligence, consumers are
increasingly relieved of the need to have and use
specialised technical knowledge to organise their
own consumption: the state of development of
modern technologies allows users with very low
levels of technical literacy to actively interact.
The consumer’s knowledge and special skills are
becoming important for content creation, for
filling the interaction with meaning and
significance.
Within the framework of the normative
approach, the focus on stakeholders in modern
social marketing, which is developing in the
digital economy, implies a focus on a low level
of power distance, a high level of leniency
(tolerance), and a level of individualism.
Contrary to the common stereotype, the indicator
of individualism refers to the degree of conscious
and accepted responsibility for one’s own life
and actions, rather than the level of selfishness in
behaviour or consumption. The harmonious
development of society, and respect for diversity
in it, are more closely associated with the gender
type of culture. In this regard, it is interesting to
note that, for example, in Scandinavian countries,
where the social responsibility of individuals and
businesses for maintaining harmony and social
well-being is highly recognised and widespread,
there is a combination of a high degree of
individualism and a high femininity index of
national culture. As for uncertainty avoidance, it
most often develops in conditions of high levels
of institutional distrust (Fukuyama, 2008), which
defines the development of institutional trust
between all market participants as a
fundamentally important goal of all components
of social marketing.
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