culture-bound. A concern voiced in this book is how empirical paradigms
can be used in widely divergent cultural groups and how cultural factors can
be separated from other effects on research findings. As was evident by the
submissions received for the conference, many researchers are employing
subcultural groups as models for studying cultural differences.

This collection of chapters is not meant to provide strong conclusions,
but instead to raise questions and, hopefully, to point out some directions
for future research. In that sense we viewed this undertaking as an
exploration of a new field, whose development will need to keep pace with
the rapid changes occurring in international economic, political, and
cultural realities. These changes should provide a range of interesting and
challenging opportunities for practitioners and academics.

This volume is divided into four sections. The first deals with the broad
issues of values and culture and how these are conceptualized and interre-
lated. The second section examines subcultural groups as models for the
study of cultural influences on advertising audiences and for studying the
assumptions made by advertisers when they target different cultural groups.
The third section deals with cross-cultural issues. These chapters all focus
on advertising in the international media community. Finally, section four
explores different methodological approaches relevant to consumer re-
search with diverse cultural groups.

In the first chapter of Part I, Ellie Lester argues that international
advertising research needs to be placed theoretically within the broader
context of international communication research. She provides a critique of
current international advertising research as often being ill-informed re-
garding the status of theory in international communication. Theoretically
informed research should prove both more interesting and more viable to
advertising researchers and practitioners alike. The major paradigms of
international communication are reviewed in an effort to provide an
alternative to both the older "dominant paradigm" and the new "cultural
imperialism thesis."

In the next chapter John McCarty takes up the issue of cultural values.
He argues that although there has been a great deal of interest in recent
years in the relationship of consumer values to consumption, most of this
work has dealt with personal values. McCarty argues that cultural values
are of primary importance in international marketing efforts. He shows
how cultural value orientations (e.g., individualism vs. collectivism) can
profoundly affect the way products are used in a culture. McCarty stresses

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