An Institutional Perspective on Modernization and Sex-appeal Advertising

UM > Faculty of Business Administration > DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING

Status	已發表Published
	An Institutional Perspective on Modernization and Sex-appeal Advertising
	Luk, C. L.; Chow, W. C.; Wan, W. W. N.; Lai, J. Y. M.; Fu, S. F.; Fong, P. S.
	2017-06-01
Source Publication	Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics
ISSN	1355-5855
Pages	220-238
Abstract	Purpose – Building on institutional theory, we propose a framework for analyzing how consumer attitudes toward nudity in ads change as a result of modernization. Modernization is driven by the currents of pluralism and rationalism. We highlight the inherent contradiction of these two pillars and how this contradiction results in an inverted-U pattern in the relationship between level of modernization and consumer attitudes toward sex appeals. Consumers’ sexual permissiveness and their perceived insufficiency of regulatory control over sexual content in the mass media are the individual-level mediators of the two pillars. Design/methodology/approach – Our data was collected from three Chinese cities at different levels of modernization. A total of 811 college students from the three cities participated in the study. Findings – The relationship between level of modernization and attitude favorability followed an inverted-U pattern. Female participants in the most modernized city possessed significantly less favorable attitudes to the ads than their male counterparts. Female and male participants were similar in their attitudes in the less modern cities. Sexual permissiveness mediated the relationship between modernization and male participants’ attitudes, but not with female participants’ attitudes. Perceived sufficiency of regulatory control over sexual content mediated the relationship between modernization and their attitudes among both male and female participants. Originality/value – Our paper makes an empirical contribution by testing our hypotheses regarding consumers responses to sex-appeal advertising with data collected from three Chinese cities at different levels of modernization. Additionally, it offers an institutional perspective on social attitude changes. Social attitude change is of great interest to researchers, but a systematic theoretical analysis is currently lacking.
Keyword	Modernization nudity sexual ads attitudes China
Language	英語English
The Source to Article	PB_Publication
PUB ID	27105
Document Type	Journal article
Collection	DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING
Corresponding Author	Chow, W. C.
Recommended Citation GB/T 7714	Luk, C. L.,Chow, W. C.,Wan, W. W. N.,et al. An Institutional Perspective on Modernization and Sex-appeal Advertising[J]. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 2017, 220-238.
APA	Luk, C. L.., Chow, W. C.., Wan, W. W. N.., Lai, J. Y. M.., Fu, S. F.., & Fong, P. S. (2017). An Institutional Perspective on Modernization and Sex-appeal Advertising. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 220-238.
MLA	Luk, C. L.,et al."An Institutional Perspective on Modernization and Sex-appeal Advertising".Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics (2017):220-238.

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