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This paper explores the impact of internet subscription on two critical values dimensions, Self-Enhancement and Self-Transcendence, in India, a country that experienced explosive growth in internet subscription from 2004 – 2014. We compare the impact of the internet versus traditional media on the evolution of these values amongst Indian youth. While values are purported to be stable and slow to change (e.g., Rokeach, 1973, p.5), our study finds that important values have indeed changed significantly among Indian youth in the span of merely one decade, a rate of change far more rapid than heretofore measured, almost belying established “values” theory. Equally significant is that this value evolution was triggered largely by the internet, more so than traditional media. Since no prior studies have investigated the impact of the internet on changing values, perhaps because slow-changing values necessitate an inter-temporal data investigation (such as the decade-wide data span of this research), the results of this study are particularly novel.
This paper focuses on two overarching value dimensions, Self-Enhancement and Self-Transcendence (Schwartz et. al. 2001), that closely align with the more commonly used terms of Individualism and Collectivism, because they have substantial importance for businesses. The impact of the internet and media on these value systems is important because consumers often buy products and brands that reflect these values (Beatty et al., 1985; Chen et al., 1999; Hawkins and Mothersbaugh, 2010; Johnson, 2014; Wansink, 2000). Indeed, these values differentiate between various groups based on religion, age, as well as cultural, economic, and political variables (Braithwaite and Law, 1985), distinguish between various consumer behaviors (Beatty et al., 1985), and link to specific brand attributes and benefits (Wansink, 2000). In fact, these value dimensions influence consumer relationships with service providers (Patterson and Smith, 2001; Mattila and Patterson, 2004), consumer innovation (Steenkamp, Hofstede, and Wedel 1999; Yaveroglu and Donthu, 2002), consumer self-concept (Hawkins and Mothersbaugh, 2010), acceptance of foreign products (Gurhan-Canli and Maheswaran, 2000), reactions to marketing communication (Pornpitakpan and Francis, 2001; Choi, Lee, and Kim, 2005), preferences for various sources of information (Money, Gilly, and Graham, 1998), and consumption symbolism (Robinson 1996; Erdem, Swait, and Valenzuala, 2006; Sun, Horn, and Merritt, 2004). Further, self-enhancement and transcendence values, embodied in individualistic and collectivist traits respectively, affect innovativeness and the cross-cultural adoption of products (e.g., Forlani and Parthasarathy, 2003; Parthasarathy et al., 1995).