Different Englishes? Investigating Equivalency of the Affective-Response-to-Consumption (ARC) Scale amongst Geographically Disparate Groups of English Speaking Adults

Abstract

Satisfaction surveys conducted in global industries frequently have respondents fill in questionnaires in English, even though respondents are a mix of native and nonnative English speakers. Using Kachru's (1985) concentric circles representing the cultural embeddedness of the English language, this study investigates whether such a mix of respondents consistently interpret emotional terms used to describe evaluations of their consumption experience. Affective-Response -to -Consumption (ARC) includes a variety of terms that can be used to describe feelings about the favorable/unfavorable evaluation of a consumption experience. The concept is applied to examine whether different groups of respondents, ranging from native English speakers of different origin (e.g. U.S.A. or UK) to those from countries where English is a foreign language, assign consistent meaning to emotional terms included in the ARC. Rasch Modeling, particularly useful and convenient when investigating sub-groups within a dataset, is used to examine whether results from subjects with different English backgrounds can be meaningfully integrated. The investigation finds that there are differences in the meaning of emotional terms between different English speaking groups, emphasizing the importance of investigating data equivalence when administering surveys in an international setting.