Thèses sur le sujet « Chinese Gen Y consumers »

The purpose of this study was to find the main drivers of brand avoidance behavior among Chinese female's cosmetics consumers. Based on Lee et al. (2009) and Knittel et al. (2016) model to do the research. Research was conducted based on existing literature. The results show that Chinese female consumers have common driving force in brand avoidance behavior, namely political positioning and animal test in moral avoidance. According to the existing theoretical framework, the cultural differences are used to create a brand avoidance model to suit Chinese female consumers.

Luxury consumption is more and more common in China with the rapid economic development today. Chinese consumers are becoming a main purchasing power of the fashion luxury brands.Chinese women accounted for 45 percent of Chinese luxury goods consumption at the end of 2012. There is no denying that the female Chinese consumers are playing an increasingly important role in the global luxury goods market. Chinese female luxury consumers between 30 and 50 are considered to be called Chinese Dama. The influences of this group of people on fashion luxuries market is becoming more significant. However, no research seems to have noticed the middle aged female luxury consumers group named Chinese Dama.The purpose of our research is to find out the reasons why this group of people, who are so called “Chinese Dama”, are consuming fashion luxuries. We want to define and identify this special fashion luxury consuming group. Hopefully, the findings in our thesis can inspire some fashion luxury companies to notice this new purchasing power and to come up with better sale and product strategies for Chinese Dama.A qualitative research method was developed to meet the purpose of collecting relevant data. Interviews were made with Chinese Dama we met in Gothenburg airport and a Munich fashion luxury shopping mall. We also made a content analysis on articles collected that explain the issue of who are Chinese Dama and the features and lifestyle of Chinese Dama for the empirical study.The findings of our research can provide information for marketers in the luxury market, which concludes that Chinese females have different type of attitudes and motivations including those found by other scholars and the new motivations and attitudes that were discovered in our investigation towards purchasing fashion luxuries, which are brand awareness, materialism, social comparison for attitudes and guanxi, saving face and reselling to make profit. We not only confirm common acknowledge about Chinese Dama, which is known by everyone in China, but also obtain a better understanding of Chinese Dama. We also concluded that the expression Chinese Dama is no longer appropriate.

The aim of this research is to find out what’s attitude Swedish consumers have to Chinese food. The questionnaires based on the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) are handed out to 100 Swedish respondents in order to investigate their motivation on Chinese food choice. 78 questionnaires which were filled completely were selected for this study. Eleven factors involved in the questionnaire are labeled health, mood, convenience, sensory appeal, natural content, price, weight control, familiarity, image of China, culture and safety. The information from two semi-structured interviews with Chinese food suppliers showed Swedish consumers’ attitude to Chinese food in another angles. The ABC model and Balance Theory are seen as the theoretical basis for empirical research analysis. The eating habits of Swedish and Chinese are compared to show their difference which influence consumers on food choice more or less. According to the result of the questionnaire survey, Swedish consumers have positive attitude to Chinese food on factors of health, sensory appeal, natural content, safety, price and mood and relative negative attitude on factors of convenience, familiarity and image of China. This outcome is confirmed by the information collected from interviews. Most Swedish consumers choose Chinese food from information processing perspectives; few of them are from behavioral learning processing; some of them are from hedonic consumption perspective. The relationship among Swedes, Chinese food and China is unstable at present time. Swedes do not know much about China and they are not familiar with Chinese food either. Competitors of Chinese food in Sweden such as Thai food, Japanese sushi and west fast food are important aspects which disperse people’s attention and enlarge their food choice range.

When translating musicals from one culture to another, a translator’s role is to convert the text for its stage representation in a different context. However, during the process from this translated text to it finally being performed on stage, changes are inevitable. Issues surrounding the nature of such changes, the reasons for which they are made, and their resulting effects, have hitherto been little researched. The present study seeks to explore such issues through an examination of the ways in which the development of the translated text is shaped by interactions between the various stakeholders including professional translators, fans and production team members, i.e. the director and actors, as well as the audience themselves. Employing some of the major concepts of Actor Network Theory as the principal theoretical framework, together with a case study approach combining textual analysis and empirical studies, this project focuses on Putonghua translations of Western musicals on the Chinese mainland. More specifically, through investigating three of the most recent and professionally translated and performed Western musicals: I love you, you’re perfect, now change (USA), Spin (Finland), and Mamma Mia! (UK), it intends to show how differing stakeholder perspectives on issues of performability and reception are negotiated to produce a commercially successful translation product.

Since the improved people’s living standard, luxury buying has increasingly spread in popularity, especially in developing countries. Conspicuous consumption has resulted in this luxury buying among consumers. This mentality leads to consumers to achieve their own goal through luxury goods, such as reflecting their status, showing the uniqueness and so on. In order to buy their favorite luxury goods, consumers try different channels and overseas buying is the main channel for them. Under this situation, China as the second-biggest luxury market, the demand for overseas luxury among Chinese consumer has credit raised. It is therefore important for conducting consumer behavior research to analyze this phenomenon and identify corresponding factors that lead consumers buying luxury abroad. The purpose of the research is to understand the phenomenon of the consumers buying luxury goods overseas and to identify the corresponding factor for the luxury shop or the company which could conduct managerial implication to encourage consumers buying domestically. Since the improved people’s living standard, luxury buying has increasingly spread in popularity, especially in developing countries. Conspicuous consumption has resulted in this luxury buying among consumers. This mentality leads to consumers to achieve their own goal through luxury goods, such as reflecting their status, showing the uniqueness and so on. In order to buy their favorite luxury goods, consumers try different channels and overseas buying is the main channel for them. Under this situation, China as the second-biggest luxury market, the demand for overseas luxury among Chinese consumer has credit raised. It is therefore important for conducting consumer behavior research to analyze this phenomenon and identify corresponding factors that lead consumers buying luxury abroad. The purpose of the research is to understand the phenomenon of the consumers buying luxury goods overseas and to identify the corresponding factor for the luxury shop or the company which could conduct managerial implication to encourage consumers buying domestically.

China has shown an increasing demand for luxury in the global market; for example, Louise Vuitton, Dior, Prada, Gucci. Previous research regarding Chinese consumers has mainly focused on wealth and social status for luxury branding. However, in recent years we have witnessed significant changes in political (e.g., Brexit) and economic (e.g., Covid 19) forces that suggest that globalization might be stalling, and new opportunities are emerging for local (i.e. Chinese) luxury brand to develop more rapidly based on unique local consumer culture. One of the Chinese luxury brand Chow Tai Fook was ranked as top 10 on the Global Powers of Luxury Goods Top 100. Thus, despite the fact that Chinese consumers showed a strong desire towards Chinese values and aesthetics of Chinese luxury brands, there are specific gaps in the existing literature. Firstly, empirical research still lacks theoretical foundations to understand Chinese consumers’ perceptions, attitudes, motivations, purchase intentions of domestic brands and domestic luxury brands. Secondly, the literature on whether Chinese consumers take into consideration similar to different luxury values when choosing between domestic luxury brands and foreign luxury brands and whether these values will influence their purchase intention remains unconsolidated. Thirdly, there are very few luxury branding studies that examine the relationship between value perceptions, special occasions and demographic characteristics on purchase intention of domestic or foreign luxury brands by Chinese consumers. This thesis draws on the model of consumer-based brand equity, consumer culture theory, self-determination theory and complexity theory to explore Chinese consumers’ perceptions, attitudes, motivations, and examine the purchase intentions of Chinese brands, and Chinese luxury brand as opposed to the global luxury brand. The model and these theories have not been widely applied in branding research, and existing research primarily supports the importance of foreign brands and foreign luxury brands among Chinese consumers in China’s market. This thesis extends this understanding by further investigating the significance of domestic brands and domestic luxury brands within a Chinese consumers context. To answer the overall aim of this thesis, six research questions were formulated to support the theoretical foundation and guide the overall direction of the research. This PhD thesis fills a knowledge gap between domestic brands, in particular, domestic luxury brands consumption and Chinese luxury consumers in the branding and luxury branding literature. This thesis is framed within a pragmatism paradigm and employed a mixed-methods approach, using an exploratory sequential research design, combining the constructivist paradigm (qualitative) and the positivistic paradigm (quantitative), which involved focus groups, in-depth interviews, and online self-completed questionnaire. The first phase of the study included a qualitative study as a preliminary study to explore the perceptions and attitudes towards Chinese brands from Chinese consumers’ perspective. This preliminary study was significant as it informed and guided the following empirical study in the second and third phase of this research. To meet the requirements and objectives of this research, this PhD thesis uses a “thesis with publication format” and is presented as a series of published and unpublished papers to provide direct evidence that the current work is of a publishable standard. This PhD format was also selected for the mentoring and experience gained through the exposure to the peer-review process and the efficiency to increase publications during candidature. Therefore, this thesis’s results are presented in three separate papers, which form the core chapters of this thesis. Two papers have been published, and one is currently under review with A ranked journals in the ABDC listing. ABDC refers to the Australian Business Deans Council Journal Quality List, which is a widely recognized journal-ranking list in Australia. Paper one presents the results from the qualitative (preliminary) study, which involves two phases of the research, including focus groups and in-depth interviews to explore Chinese brands’ perceptions from the point of views of young Chinese consumers. By adopting consumer-based brand equity, the result of this study demonstrates that symbolic values (such as pride, lifestyle, feeling of home and being happy) constitute one of the primary motivations for young Chinese consumers’ purchase of domestic brands. The results of this study challenge the traditional view that Chinese brands are perceived negatively in the Chinese market. This is one of the very few studies investigating how young Chinese consumers perceive brands from their home country rather than foreign brands. This research provided a better understanding of how young Chinese consumers perceive Chinese domestic brand, which has significant implications for marketing and branding management. Based on paper one’s findings, the results indicated the Chinese brands were perceived positively by Chinese consumers. However, the results of paper one limited only to a very broader view of the research topic. To gain more specific knowledge on Chinese brands’ topic, we argue that the research topic should be focus on a specific category of Chinese brands: Chinese luxury brands. Thus, paper two presents the results from a mixed study, which explored the meanings and uniqueness of Chinese luxury brands and the differences and similarities between Chinese and global luxury brands from the perspective of Chinese consumers. At the first stage of this research, the qualitative results identified the uniqueness of Chinese luxury brands was mainly focused on cultural symbols, Guanxi, Collectivism and self-brand image congruity. At the second stage of the research, the quantitative results suggest that the glamorous and high-end appeal of global luxury that appeals to consumers’ senses and contributes to their personal experience could be the main reason for making a purchase. By contrast, Chinese consumers tend to consider both luxury brand values, including functional, financial, individual, and social and luxury brand experience to be the main reasons for purchasing Chinese luxury brands. Additionally, counterfeit luxury purchases and ownership seem to be a bigger and more serious issue for global luxury brands than for Chinese luxury brands. Paper three presents the results from the second empirical enquiry, which tested a proposed model which was underpinned by the self-determination theory and complexity theory to examine the relationship between value perceptions, special occasions, and demographic characteristics on Chinese luxury brands and foreign luxury brands purchase intentions. The results showed that the financial value (i.e. price worthiness and economic value) and the overall luxury value perception (i.e. a sense of luxury) were essential antecedents of the purchase of domestic luxury brands. By contrast, hedonic value (i.e. brand emotion) and individual value (i.e. mood lifting) were significant predictors of the purchase intent of foreign luxury brands. It was noted that social value (i.e. social symbol, social acceptance), although extensively discussed in the luxury brand literature, was not consistent between symmetrical (regression) and asymmetrical (fsQCA) analyses as a significant factor that influenced Chinese consumers’ intention to purchase luxury brands (domestic and/or foreign). Also, it is worth noting that special occasions and demographics were not important key drivers of domestic luxury brand purchase as compared to foreign luxury brands. Moreover, the interviews revealed that Chinese consumers favour domestic luxury brands mainly due to the social and cultural meanings embedded in those brands. The results indicated that Chinese luxury brands were not perceived as being less important than foreign brands. Therefore, the findings of this study suggest a holistic picture on consumers’ purchase decisions and behaviours. This thesis makes theoretical and practical contributions, which are reflected in each of the three papers. Theoretically, paper one contributes to existing knowledge in Chinese brands and Chinese consumers studies by unravelling Chinese brands’ meaning to young Chinese consumers, specifically, the functional, experiential and symbolic values of Chinese brands. This study challenges the traditional view that Chinese brands are perceived negatively in the Chinese market. Paper two to the best of our knowledge is the first to explore the uniqueness of Chinese luxury brands, and then examine differences between global and local (i.e. Chinese) luxury brand consumption. This is against the background that many local or domestic luxury brands now have greater opportunities and greater potential to grow in the global luxury market, and local consumer culture is also on the rise due to a downward trend in globalization. This research responds to the previously identified call for research on identifying opportunities for developing China-specific luxury brands from the perspective of Chinese consumers. Paper three contributes to three bodies of knowledge. Firstly, it extends luxury branding literature by examining not only the mainstream global luxury brands, but also domestic brands that are endogenous to the Chinese market. Secondly, this research provides a new perspective by removing the boundary between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations in relation to the purchase of luxury brands. Thirdly, this research contributes to the branding literature by drawing upon the complexity theory and incorporating a novel asymmetrical method (fsQCA) into Chinese consumer decision making for luxury brands. Overall, this thesis presents empirical evidence to support the application of Keller’s model, consumer culture theory, theory of consumption value, self-determination theory, and complexity theory to Chinese brands and Chinese luxury brands studies. Practically, this study first contributes to managerial implications by recommending that Chinese marketers need to aware of the importance of symbolic meanings of Chinese brands and the image of the brand’s Chinese origin. Secondly, China is still a country of ancient traditions and Chinese consumers still purchase and use Chinese luxury brands that are less well known to their global or Western counterparts. Chinese luxury brands may not have to go global partly due to the fact that they were tailored to the taste of the Chinese. However, for global luxury brands targeting Chinese consumers, they need to be sensitive to the way the Chinese culture is held in everyday life as consumers are using products and brands whether they are mundane or luxurious. In particular, for local luxury marketers, Chinese luxury brands should emphasize the unique cultural and social meanings to convey these messages to Chinese local consumers. Also, it is an important implication for domestic luxury brand managers to adopt a social media marketing strategy with a local endorsement to enhance the brand awareness of Chinese luxury brands and the meanings attached to the consumers in the luxury market. Thirdly, there is a need to shift marketing and advertising of luxury brands away from the emphasis on wealth, status, and conspicuous consumption. Instead, Chinese consumers may be attracted to promotional and communication strategies that focus on enjoyment, mood lifting, and enhancing feelings and emotions through sensory experiences in relation to foreign luxury brands. Domestic luxury brands will also appeal to Chinese consumers when they are considered to provide economic value and offer an overall luxury value perception.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Dept of Marketing
Griffith Business School
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Zhejiang Geely holding Co. succeeded in purchasing Ford Motor Co’s Volvo unit, which was the hottest news in the world in 2010. Volvo needs the Chinese potential car market; Geely needs Volvo cars’ advanced technology. Such purchase arouses our interesting to conduct a research study on Chinese consumers’ attitude and intentions toward Volvo cars.   Our aim with this study was to identify the most important attributes of Volvo for Chinese consumers; to analyse how Chinese consumers were influenced by other people’s opinions and to explore how Chinese culture factors such as face concern and group conformity influence consumers’ attitudes  towards Volvo.   In order to find the result, we used online self-completion questionnaires and choose customers from a life insurance company in Shanghai as our sample group. From the survey result we found that Volvo is the second most favourable brand that Chinese consumers want to own in the near future. The top three car attributes for the Chinese consumers when they were going to choose a car were quality, safety and fuel economy. But they had less knowledge or beliefs that Volvo car has an advantage with those attributes. Besides that, we find that Chinese consumers’ behavioural intention of buying Volvo is influenced by family, friends, perceived behaviour control and group conformity, but there is no relationship between face concern and buying behaviour.

Organic food has drawn attention of more and more consumers. As a result, many researchers have attempted to explain the motivations and marketing issues relevant to the topic. The previous studies provide some conflicting results and could not produce a comprehensive understanding of organic food consumers in China. Given the present research, this paper attempts to conduct a comprehensive study of organic food consumption by examining a variety of factors influencing the consumption of organic food and provide some marketing implications through a survey of young consumers in a large metropolitan area in China. The results have shown that the revised TRA model has been successfully applied in this study. The research has concluded that “food safety”, “nutrition”, and “environmental friendly” are significant factors to impact the purchase of organic food while considering the demographical variables. In addition, the study found that consumers prefer vegetables, fruits, grain and beans, milk, meat and eggs to be organic, which are ranked according to the degree of preference. Moreover, the research suggests that the main barriers bringing about the gap between attitudes and behaviors are price, the distrust on certifications of organic food, and unavailability. These findings have implications for marketing communications to consumers and potentially for organic product development.

This study examines the economic, cultural and environmental complexities of wine tourism between China and Australia. It presents an interpretation, in the context of larger social and political influences, of wine consumption and tourism by Chinese consumers/tourists and its links to culture, capital, gender, generation and sustainability. The project uses qualitative research and analyses fieldwork data in the Australian wine regions, interviews with Australian wine experts, tourism professionals and Chinese consumers/tourists. It is a data-based, culturally-engaged and economically-concerned approach, exploring the present and considering the extent to which Australian wine and tourism will look to the Chinese market in the future. The objective of the study is to examine how cultural, political, social and sustainable values and behaviours are revealed in interactions in wine tourism, and to explore these through Bourdieusian concepts (habitus/taste/capital) and from traditional Chinese culture (mianzi/guanxi/renqing), as well as terroir (an important notion in wine culture). The literature review engages with and unpacks the similarities and the differences that are evident when Chinese and Western cultural concepts and realities encounter each other. The arguments and discussions on mass tourism, wine tourism, niche tourism and sustainable tourism theoretically ground this research. It argues that ‘sustainable mass tourism’ is the future for China’s tourism, focusing on how to guide mass tourists to travel in a more responsible way. The study considers the role of gender and emphasises the dimension of generation when conceptualising wine/sustainable tourism. The thesis also investigates how the Australian bushfires and worldwide COVID disrupted Chinese tourism to Australia, and the huge economic impact of China’s imposition of 116.2%-218.4% tariffs on Australian wine in March 2021. This research explores the multiple challenges facing wine and tourism as well as opportunities for sustainable economic and environmental development. It claims it is the responsibility and commitment of destinations and local communities to preserve and care for nature by reducing climate change induced risks and enriching sustainable attributes when guiding tourists to enjoy sustainable tourism. The research findings reveal that the economic importance of the Chinese market has deeply impacted the Australian wine sector and its tourism; Chinese women have played a rising role in wine consumption and outbound tourism, and are called the ‘purchasing muscle’, showing their independence in the economy, their taste for wines and for outbound tourism; and the different generations of Chinese consumers/tourists displayed both similarities and differences in their behaviour and attitudes to Western wine culture and outbound tourism. The study proposes three possible trends for industrial practices in sustainability and points out possible future research directions.

Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2007.
"A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, June 30, 2007." Includes bibliographical references (p. 28-30). Also available in print.

Recent years have witnessed the increasing popularity of second-hand clothing (SHC) worldwide. In the developed countries, consumers show more willingness to accept SHC and the SHC market is relatively mature. In China, consumers’ attitudes towards SHC is always somewhat negative for many reasons. However, nowadays more Chinese young consumers have intentions to buy SHC partly because they want to follow the global fashion trend or to sustain the environment. To recycle and reuse waste textiles, some regulations have been issued by the Chinese government, but restrictions are still put on trading SHC and it is far from enough to formulate a perfect SHC market. The emergence of online platforms such as Idle Fish and Zhuan Zhuan stimulate the potential market and provide a new channel for trading SHC.As reducing clothing production and waste is one of the solutions to alleviate environmental burden in China, it is necessary to improve Chinese consumers’ buying behavior of SHC. This investigation is concentrated on Chinese young consumers, to gain an insight of how they think of SHC and what factors will influence their purchase behavior. A mixed method was applied in this investigation, which included the semi-structured interview and the self-completion questionnaire. Respondents are mostly from Shanghai and Shandong province, aged between 18 to 24 years old. Factors affecting Chinese young consumers’ buying behavior were assessed in three dimensions: perceived concerns, perceived values and subjective norm. When analyzing the data, comparisons between genders or districts were made. It could be observed that three words ‘unsanitary’, ‘cheap’ and ‘eco-friendly’ are used most by Chinese young consumers to express their views on SHC. Among all the factors, hygiene and safety problem is the biggest concern to a majority of Chinese young consumers. Although SHC is not prevailing in China now, it is likely for them to buy it in the future if platforms can be improved and trading SHC can be supported by the government. Since possible ways of improving buying behavior are only given through Chinese young consumers’ perspective, they should be examined from platform operators’ and government’s point of view in the future research.

Currently, the experience economy, as a new form of economy is developing and following the service economy. The experiential marketing is the product of experience economy and it is increasingly used by more and more enterprises. A good way of carrying out experiential marketing improves consumers’ user experience when they do shopping. Nevertheless, there are some issues regarding the existing marketing strategy that need to be looked into.The purpose of this thesis is to try to find out Chinese consumers’ attitudes towards experiential marketing. IKEA, a Swedish furniture retailer, has a large number of stores in China and IKEA is widely known for its experiential marketing. It seems appropriate for a case study on the Chinese consumers’ attitudes toward experiential marketing.The case study method has been chosen for doing this research, and the research is conducted from a consumers’ perspective. This thesis first introduces the background of this kind of marketing strategy and explains the basic theory of it and then, analyzed according to IKEA’s actual situation of implementing experiential marketing. How IKEA applies experiential marketing mode and makes full use of its characteristics is studied, especially from Chinese consumers’ perspective. The analysis is based on Chinese consumers who belong to different age groups.

ABSTRACT China has gone through rapid change the last decade, which has opened up possibilities for many western companies. The consumer market is booming and consumers are getting more open to western brands and values, especially in the metropolitan regions. Due to the rapid change in today’s China, it is difficult to be enough updated. This is the main reason for why we have chosen this subject, to be able to contribute to a better understanding concerning western companies’ interaction with the dynamic contemporary urban China. This thesis investigates specific marketing tools used by two successful Swedish companies, IKEA and Absolut Vodka, in their quest to reach modern Chinese urban consumers. To answer this question we also found it necessary to examine how IKEA’s and Absolut Vodka’s brand values interact with the Chinese culture. A qualitative multiple-case study approach is used and has resulted in two separate cases: ”The creative vodka” (Absolut Vodka) and ”Design for the many people” (IKEA). The cases are mainly based on interviews with representatives from IKEA, Absolut Vodka and Eastwei in Shanghai. Documentation as well as observation has assisted in complementing and verifying the empirical findings we gathered from the interviews. The subject is introduced by a chapter that supplies relevant background information concerning China, in terms of the market, consumers and cultural aspects. Our theoretical framework consists of two interdependent areas: culture and global marketing, which include Chinese culture-, value- and branding theories. Our conclusions have mainly one focus, which we call ”educational marketing”. When entering the Chinese urban market, the companies have to learn about the Chinese culture and the consumers, but they do not have to fully adapt to the new environment. We found that when IKEA and Absolut Vodka market themselves on the Chinese market, they modify their marketing efforts slightly to be able to communicate with the Chinese consumers. This does not mean that they change their brand values in their adaptation, though, but rather that they use different communication tools to get the consumers to consume the brand with its original core values. With the information gained from marketing research, they learn what the consumers lack in terms of knowledge and then the educational process starts. They help the consumer to understand how to consume the brand. Absolut Vodka has to for example, teach the consumers how to make drinks, which is something that is rather new for Chinese people. Before gaining this knowledge, it is difficult for them to consume the product and furthermore the brand. In IKEA’s case, they help the Chinese consumers to understand the advantages of the concept of DIY (do-it-yourself), but they also teach them how to use interior design in their homes. Another conclusion concerns the dynamics of culture. When these companies enter the Chinese urban market and start to communicate with the consumers, something happens. Instead of fully adapting to the needs and demands of the Chinese consumer, they educate them and furthermore change them. The consumers start to consume in a somewhat different way with the values of the western companies, which in its turn contributes to a change in the values of the Chinese culture. Our empirical findings have resulted in a theory that explains this dynamic process of educational marketing on the contemporary Chinese urban market.

Social media is developing rapidly and China has become the largest market of social media usage. Due to numerous international social media platforms being unavailable in China, Chinese consumers have different usage and attitude of social media from those in other countries. According to previous studies, consumers’ usage and attitude of social media can be different due to their gender. Due to these two factors, it is interesting to study gender differences in attitudes toward social media in a Chinese context. By using questionnaires, data are collected from students in Shanghai, China. By applying SPSS, analysis of the results shows that Chinese online consumers basically have positive attitude toward using social media and positively think social media influence them. Most of Chinese respondents spend more than 1 hour on social media daily. Generally speaking, Chinese consumers use social media in order to communicate with others and search for different events. As to gender difference, Chinese women are more likely to follow a famous person by using social media than men. Both men and women use Wechat and Weibo the most frequently.

Abstract Date: 2020/06/09 Level: Master Thesis in Business Administration, 15 credits. Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University. Authors: Yi Wei (85/01/01) & Jiaying Zhu (95/10/27)  Title: Factors Affecting Consumers’ Purchase Intention towards The Smartphone of The Chinese Brands  Tutor: Professor Ulf R Andersson Keywords: Country-of-Origin, Perceived Brand Quality, Chinese Brands, Subjective Knowledge, Price Sensitivity Research Question: How do the factors of perceived brand quality on COO cues, price sensitivity, and subjective knowledge of product influence consumers’ purchase intention towards the smartphones of the Chinese brands?  Purpose: This study aims to investigate factors related to the purchase intention towards smartphone of the Chinese brands in the developed market and provide managerial suggestions for Chinese smartphone firms. Method: This empirical study is conducted by the quantitative research method with an online survey for data gathering. Conclusion: It concludes that the purchase intention of western consumers towards Chinese smartphones is positively influenced by two factors: perceived brand quality on COO cues and subjective knowledge of product. The price sensitivity has no impact on purchase intention. Therefore, the lower price strategy of smartphone should not be adopted by Chinese firms. The Focus should be on brand management to convey the superior quality performance of smartphone of Chinese brands.

Background: In fashion market, with the emergence of new brands and changing customer preference in style, competition is fierce nowadays. Brand is an intangible asset that fashion brands build and leverage to secure market position and customer loyalty, which leads to a competitive advantage. Among different brand building models and methods, co-branding alliance strategy is increasingly adopted between fashion brands in the past 20 years. Co-branding alliance refers to a marketing strategy that leveraging different brand names on a product or service, which suggests a strategic alliance between different brands. For fashion brands, either in fast fashion or luxury fashion, cobranding alliance with other brands is a popular trend.  Purpose: This research aims to investigate the factors that influence the perception of the Chinese millennial consumers to purchase co-branding fashion products. Method: Interpretivism philosophy and inductive approach are used in terms of methodology. Moreover, qualitative data are dominantly collected, and content analysis is conducted as analysis tool. A structured video interview is conducted through WeChat and open-end questions are asked to get empirical primary data.  Conclusion: Chinese millennial consumers prefer the co-brand between LV and Supreme, compared with H&M and Moschino. It is noticed that currently Chinese young consumers have highly preference towards collaboration which has perfect fit of two brand images and perfect connection connecting the co-branded image with consumers’ self-image.

To reduce food safety risks and prevent serious food safety incidents, and enhance consumer confidence in food safety, the Chinese government has undertaken various policy measures to improve the safety and quality of dairy products in recent years. The implementation of traceability systems could lead consumers to perceive a higher value and to be willing to pay a premium price for dairy products. This research contributes valuable information to the dairy product supply chain, providing insights to producers, distributors, and other actors of the dairy production chain. Results showed that the importance of information about food traceability for improving market demand for traceable dairy products. Further work will be needed to improve consumers' understanding of the potential benefits of traceable systems in the dairy product quality and security system. Moreover, encouraging producers to produce diversified traceable dairy products, decrease the production cost, decreasing the price of traceable dairy products may be the most effective way of increasing the traceable dairy food market share.

In this research consumer acculturation was investigated to explore the relationship between shopping orientations of ethnic consumers and their involvement in the acculturation process. A consumer acculturation model was proposed which described the entire process of learning consumer behavior across cultural boundaries and discovered the relationships among the variables. A survey was conducted among 400 Chinese consumers residing in Tucson. Factor analysis and multiple regression were employed to derive common factors and test hypotheses. The results suggested that most shopping orientations, as well as acculturation variables were influenced by individual characteristics such as individuals' ethnicness, language ability, lifestyle activities, length of stay in the U.S., and willingness to stay. Individuals' demographic characteristics such as sex, age, income, marital status, and student/employment status, however, had less influence on shopping orientations and acculturation variables.

An increasing number of foreign companies want to enter the Chinese market. Online advertising is one of the indispensable means of the company's operation and marketing, and foreign companies poorly understood the online advertising channels in China. Therefore, this study uses the AISAS model to study the preferences of Chinese millennial generation Taobao users for online advertising channels. And research through three dimensions are gender, city level and different product categories. Specifically, this research through online questionnaires and finally collected 150 samples, it was found that Chinese millennial generation Taobao users favored the promotion of WeChat public accounts, followed by Pre-movie adverts. Further, the study confirms that consumers do have preferences for online advertising choices and that they will change as they are placed on different e-commerce platforms. Based on the previous study's interpretation of preferences, the preferences are defined as five exact post behaviors to better evaluate consumers' choices for online advertising. Moreover, through data analysis, it is found that there are differences between male and female online advertising channels among Chinese millennial generation Taobao users. Females prefer online advertising channels that are interactive than males such as live streaming. Males prefer online advertising channels that are dominated by pictures/images for instance mini banners in App and Web. In addition, live streaming has an advantage in the household goods category.

[Truncated abstract] It has been argued that the demand for a product is largely dependent on price and quality (Dodds, Monroe & Grewal, 1991) and that it is possible to provide a global product with a universal brand, as consumers desire reliable and quality products at low prices (Levitt, 1983). As global companies extend their reach around the world and such “global” products become available world wide, it is important for marketers to understand if other factors play a significant role in consumers’ purchase processes, especially in Asia where cultural and social influences can be very different from Western societies . . . Since numerology is deeply rooted in Chinese culture, the present study was undertaken to examine the impact that two important numbers (4 and 8) had on Chinese consumers’ value perceptions when used in sub-brand extensions. These numbers were chosen as Ang (1997) had noted the numbers represented “death” (4) and “prosperity” (8) in Chinese numerology and, consequently, may have a negative or positive impact on the value Chinese consumers attach to a product. While there are many types of products available to consumers and possible juxtapositions of numbers are almost endless, the present study was restricted to examining the impact that the numbers 4 and 8 had on the value Chinese consumers attached to cars and mobile phones to ensure the study was manageable. The study was undertaken in Singapore, but it was hoped that the results could be translated to other Chinese markets so more cost-effective and efficient approaches could be developed for such markets.

With the dynamic growth of luxury consumption in China, understanding the Chinese consumers’ perceptions of luxury value is becoming important for luxury researchers and marketers. Although most studies conducted in developed countries have provided theoretical insight on luxury value perceptions, limited research has been carried out on Chinese consumers’ value perceptions of luxury products. This research explored the literature and evaluated multidimensional conceptual models to identify the factors that influence Chinese consumers’ self and societal luxury value perceptions. Thus, this research extends the understanding of why Chinese consumers buy luxuries, what does luxury mean to them and what variables influence their luxury value perceptions. Hence, from a theoretical point of view, the present study aims to fill the gaps in the research on luxury consumptions in China, and seeks to develop, propose and assess a conceptual model by explaining the key factors that influence Chinese consumers’ luxury value perceptions, based on the findings from existing literature and primary data collected from Chinese luxury consumers. The mixed methods research was selected for this study to develop and assess a conceptual model of Chinese consumers’ luxury value perceptions. To implement this, two stages of field research were conducted. The first stage of the field research used an inductive approach and selected 10 focus group interviews to explore, identify and clarify key variables which influence Chinese luxury consumers’ value perceptions. Based on the qualitative findings and literature, ten hypotheses were proposed and the study found that self and societal perceptions influence Chinese consumers’ luxury value perceptions. Moreover, self perception is influenced by societal perception. Hedonic pursuit value, uniqueness value and vanity value have a direct impact on self perception on luxury products. In addition, conspicuous value, social status value, conformity value and face saving value play an important role to influence Chinese consumers’ societal perceptions on luxury products. In the second stage of quantitative study, a survey questionnaire was designed to operationalise each of the hypotheses that developed the conceptual model. Based on 545 completed online survey responses collected from Chinese luxury consumers, data were analysed to test the reliability and uni-dimensionality of each of the constructs of the conceptual model. Each of the hypotheses of the conceptual model is tested through linear regression analysis. The test results confirmed that the independent variables positively and significantly impact on the dependent variables. This study provides a new theoretical insight into the phenomenon of luxury consumption by proposing a conceptual model of Chinese consumers’ luxury value perceptions. This research study would also help marketers to gain better understanding of consumer behaviours on luxury products to develop appropriate marketing strategies in the growing Chinese luxury market.

The Chinese E-commerce market is the largest in the world and E-commerce takes up more of the retail market in China than in western countries. Why are Chinese consumers such big spenders online? This thesis examines the differences in consumer shopping behavior in China and Sweden in the aims to find some of the factors explaining the reasons. Based on a review of previous research on consumer behavior a theoretical framework was created which was the foundation for a survey. Survey responses were collected through two surveys, with the same questions, conducted in the native language of Sweden and China. While the generalizability of the survey have some limitations in regards to sampling, this thesis provide some key findings: Chinese consumers are more social shoppers, influenced by social media, family and friends. The social experience of shopping online enhance Chinese consumers experience and is a factor in increasing their expenditures online.  Chinese consumers shop more on international stores and shop more through their cell phones than Swedes.  Chinese consumers are also choosing online shopping out of convenience and usefulness.

The world is still recovering from COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences, posing major challenges to global economies and societies. The long struggle with the virus has affected the lifestyle and behavior of consumers worldwide. As concerns China, the COVID-19 outbreak has marked the shifting in priorities in people shopping habits. In this evolving context, brands have continually experimented with new strategies and business models to adapt to a new environment and keep up with changing customer needs. Lockdown measures have accelerated some key marketing drivers which are shaping brands’ sale strategies in the post-epidemic normality. A growing trend to stimulate consumer interest through collaborations with companies from totally unrelated industries is booming in the country. These unexpected partnerships lead to the creation of limited-edition collections, bringing fresh and creative products to the Chinese market. The aim of the thesis is to analyze this important means of brand development, understanding firstly the new mindset of Chinese consumers amplified by the pandemic and how brands have rethought routes to market for meeting their expectations. The dissertation also provides an insight of this unique strategy, outlining the advantages and disadvantages and explaining the relevant touchpoints to set up a successful crossover collaboration. Finally, this thesis ends up showcasing some of the most exciting and inspiring case studies in the past few years.

Rapid mobile technological evolution and the large economic stake in commercial development of mobile technological innovation make it necessary to understand consumers' motivations towards the latest advanced and updated technologies and services. 3G (the third generation of mobile communication technology) recently started its commercial development in the world‘s largest mobile communication market, China, after being delayed for a few years. Although China fell behind in commercially developing 3G, it is difficult to ignore studying this area, given the size of the market and promising future developments. This market deserves focused research attention, especially in terms of consumer behaviour towards the adoption of mobile technological innovation. Thus, the program of research in this thesis was designed to investigate how Chinese consumers respond to the use of this newly launched mobile technological innovation, with a focus on what factors affect their 3G adoption intentions. It aimed to yield important insights into Chinese consumers‘ innovation adoption behaviours and to contribute to marketing and innovation adoption research. Furthermore, it has been documented that Chinese consumers vary widely between regions in dialect, lifestyle, culture, purchasing power and consumption attitudes. Based on economic development and local culture, China can be divided geographically into distinctive regional consumer markets. Consequently, the results of consumer behaviour research in one region may not necessarily be extrapolated to other regions. In order to better understand Chinese consumers, the disparities between regions should not be overlooked. Therefore, another objective of this program of research was to examine regional variances in consumers' innovation adoption, specifically to identify the similarities and differences in factors influencing 3G adoption, contributing to intra-cultural studies. An extensive literature review identified two gaps: current China-based innovation adoption research studies are limited in providing adequate prediction and explanation of Chinese consumers' intentions to adopt 3G; and there was limited knowledge about the differences between regional Chinese consumers in innovation adoption. Two research questions therefore were developed to address these gaps: 1) What factors influence Chinese consumers' intentions to adopt 3G? 2) How do Chinese consumers differ between regional markets in the relative influence of the factors in determining their intentions to adopt 3G? In accordance with postpositivist research philosophy, two studies were designed to answer the research questions, using mixed methods. To meet the research objectives, the two studies were both conducted in three regional cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan, centred in the three regions of North China, East China and Central China respectively, with sufficient cultural and economical regional variances. Study One was an exploratory study with qualitative research methods. It involved 45 in-depth interviews in the three research cities to gain rich insights into the research context from natural settings. Eight important concepts related to 3G adoption were generated from analysis of the interview data, namely utilitarian expectation, hedonic expectation, status gains, status loss avoidance, normative influence, external influence, cost and quality concern. The concepts of social loss avoidance and quality concern were two unique findings, whereas the other concepts were similar to the findings in Western innovation adoption studies. Moreover, variances in 3G adoption between three groups of regional consumers were also identified, focusing on the perceptions of two concepts, namely status gains and normative influence. The conceptual research model was then developed incorporating the eight concepts plus the dependent variable of adoption intention. The hypothesized relationships between the nine constructs and hypotheses about the differences between regional consumers in 3G adoption were informed by the findings of Study One and the literature reviewed. Study Two was a quantitative study involving a web-based survey and statistical analysis procedure. The web-based survey attracted 800 residents from the three research cities, 270 from Beijing, 265 from Shanghai and 265 from Wuhan. They comprised three research samples for this study and consequently three sets of data were obtained. The data was analysed by Structural Equation Modelling together with Multi-group Analysis. The analysis confirmed that the concepts generated in Study One were influential factors affecting Chinese consumers' 3G adoption intention, with the exception of the concept external influence. Differences were found between the samples in the three research cities in the effect of hedonic expectation, status gains, status loss avoidance and normative influence on 3G adoption intention. The two Studies undertaken in this thesis contributed a better understanding of Chinese consumers' intentions to adopt advanced mobile technological innovation, namely 3G, in three regional markets. This knowledge contributes to innovation adoption and intra-cultural research, as well as consumer behaviour theory. It is also able to inform international and domestic telecommunication companies to develop and deliver more effective marketing strategies across Chinese regional markets. Limitations in the research were identified in terms of the sampling techniques used and the design of the two Studies. Future research was suggested in other Chinese regional markets and into consumer adoption of other types of mobile technological innovations.

Résumé : La connaissance des comportements de choix en matière d’offre multicanal devient de plus en plus importante pour les entreprises internationales et les marketers, en particulier pour les entreprises et les distributeurs français en Chine. Contrairement aux autres études qui comparent ces différences concernant une ou deux dimensions et leurs liens. Le but de cette étude est double. Premièrement, il vise à explorer et à comparer les différences et les similitudes dans les déterminants et attitudes à l'égard des canaux et leur utilisation entre les marchés français et chinois des cosmétiques. Deuxièmement, elle montre les différents effets des facteurs culturels sur les déterminants de l'attitude à l'égard du multicanal pour mieux comprendre ces différences. Les résultats ont montré qu'il existe des différences remarquables et des similitudes dans ces concepts et leurs liens entre les deux cultures : les facteurs prédictifs d'attitude envers les magasins (l’achat plaisir, la confiance dans le magasin, moins d'acceptation de nouvelles marques, les attitudes envers l’achat en magasins) sont en général plus importants pour les Chinoises que pour les Françaises. En revanche, les facteurs prédictifs d'attitude envers l'achat à domicile (commodité, pression du temps, perception du risque moins élevé et attitudes envers l'achat à domicile) sont en général plus importants pour les Françaises que pour les Chinoises. Les différents effets des facteurs culturels sur les déterminants ont également été trouvés différents selon les cultures : de façon générale, l’orientation vers le passé a un effet plus fort sur la perception de l’achat plaisir que l'orientation vers le futur. Les individualistes ont également un effet plus important sur la commodité et la perception des risques que les collectivistes, et les "monochroniques" sont davantage liées aux contraintes de temps que les "polychroniques". Cette étude sur le comportement du choix du multicanal des consommateurs entre deux cultures dissemblables - la culture occidentale (France) et la culture orientale (Chine) - étant la première du genre. Nos résultats fournissent des contributions théoriques et managériales aux managers des entreprises et des distributeurs occidentaux et orientaux : en particulier, pour les Français en Chine afin d’améliorer leurs décisions marketing à long terme concernant l'entrée sur le marché chinois d’une part, et pour aider à prendre leur décision marketing à court terme face à la concurrence, d’autre part. Enfin, les limites de la recherche et des suggestions pour les recherches futures sont également fournies
Understanding the cross-national differences in consumer multi-channel choice behavior is becoming increasingly important for international firms and marketers, especially for French companies and retailers in China. Unlike other studies that compare these differences in one or two dimensions and their links. The purpose of this study is therefore twofold. First, it aims to explore and compare the differences and similarities in four predictors and attitude towards and the use of channels between the French and Chinese cosmetic markets. Second, based on these differences, it shows furthermore the different effects of cultural factors on the determinants of attitudes toward multichannel to better understand these differences. The findings showed that there are remarkable differences and similarities in the above research concepts and their links across both cultures: the predictors of attitude towards in-store shopping channels (i. E. Enjoyment, trust in the store, less acceptance of new things, attitudes towards in-store channels) are more important to the Chinese than to the French. By contrast, the predictors of attitude towards in-home shopping channels (i. E. Convenience, time pressure, risk perception, and attitudes towards in-home channels) are more important to the French than to the Chinese. The different effects of cultural factors on predictors were also found differ with cultures: In general, past time orientation has a higher effect on enjoyment than future time orientation, individualists also have a stronger effect on convenience and risk perception than collectivists, and “monochron” is related more to time pressure than “polychrons”. As the first study of such a comparative research term across two dissimilar cultures-Western France and Eastern China, this study provide both theoretical and managerial evidences for the managers of Western and Eastern retailers and firms. In particular, for those managers of French and Chinese: for their marketing long-term decisions about market entry or exit one part, and for their marking short-term decisions about marketing effort on competition advantages on the other part. Finally, the research limitations and suggestions for future researches are also provided

This thesis explores how perceived risk, which has been primarily developed in Western contexts, may help understand consumers' action in relation to the Chinese Internet banking services market. This market is new and acknowledged as having great potential, but there is insufficient information regarding potential consumers and their perceptions or decision-making. The theory of perceived risk is a key construct influencing Western consumers' decision making; whether it is applicable in the current context is unknown. A wider customer perspective is therefore important to improve both our understanding of perceived risk theory and its usefulness in the Chinese Internet banking services market. The thesis reviews the major research perspectives on perceived risk within consumer behaviour literature. It provides a comprehensive understanding of the concept itself, to identify research gaps, and also develops a research model to evaluate consumers' risk perception within the context of Chinese Internet banking services. This research is conducted through the application of a critical realist approach, utilizing mixed methods. This approach enables the research to address a main controversy in the perceived risk field by evaluating the two common measurement models. It also develops an understanding of Chinese consumers' risk perceptions and how consumers' perceptions are formed and influenced by considering a range of contextual issues. This approach highlights the importance of obtaining social and cultural meanings to understand the measurement of risk perception- this is seldom addressed in the majority of perceived risk research. Results are thoroughly analysed, compared and contrasted to relevant Western research. Perceived risk, as a construct, is meaningful in helping to understand potential Chinese Internet banking services users. The principle risk dimensions identified in this research are consistent with those detailed in Western studies. However, the underlying relationships between the risk variables are different. Such differences can be attributed to the specific The measurement of risk is best operationalised through the application of one of the commonly used models - the multiplicative. This model produces results that are more consistent with the qualitative patterns derived from the application of mixed methods research. Whilst this research advocates the use of the multiplicative model, it also contends that future researchers should evaluate both common models- as the impact of context needs to be addressed sensitively,and this would also be consistent with the application of a critical realist perspective. Further, when considering perceived risk measurement, this research has found that the application of multiple variables is useful to test validity and reliability. These two issues are seldom considered or evaluated in previous perceived risk studies. This application also lends itself to the development of greater depth in data analysis, and therefore provides a more specific perspective to understand risk perceptions through detailed measurement. Future research in perceived risk should also address risk evaluation by considering the purchase stages, as consumers risk perceptions may be influenced and subject to change at different stages. Without such an approach results generated may be misleading, and may not provide an adequate basis for understanding consumers and developing appropriate marketing strategies to meet these concerns.

Master of Science
Department of Apparel, Textiles, and Interior Design
Joy Kozar
China is the world’s largest apparel producer, exporter, and maintains the largest domestic apparel market. Since economic reform in the 1980s that opened up the Chinese market for foreign investors, China’s domestic apparel market has attracted many foreign (Western) apparel brands (Shenkar, 2005). More than 10,000 different international apparel brands share China’s domestic apparel market, including brands from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States, Britain, and South Korea, among others. Around 2,000 Chinese domestic apparel brands have experienced difficultly surviving in China’s domestic apparel market. Besides the large number of foreign (Western) apparel brands, counterfeit apparel products have grown faster than China’s government can control. As a result, China has become the world’s largest counterfeit market. This has become a secondary threat to China’s domestic apparel market and national economy. Additionally, because of economic growth and modernization in China, Chinese consumers have accepted more Westernized values, but also retained their traditional face-saving values. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore how their attitudes toward counterfeit apparel products, China’s domestic apparel brands, and foreign (Western) apparel brands are influenced by their level of perception about knowledge and attitudes toward counterfeit apparel products, face-saving values, materialistic values, and ethical values. This study utilized a sample of males and females between the ages of 18 and 64, who reside in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Wuhan, China. A questionnaire was utilized as part of this study and data was collected online by SOJUMP Survey Company. A total of 1,192 participants (736 males and 456 females) participated in this study. There are in total nine significant relationships that have been found in this study. First, the researcher found a positive relationship between Chinese consumers’ perception about knowledge of counterfeit apparel products and their attitudes about counterfeit apparel products. Second and third, the present study also discovered that Chinese consumers with favorable attitudes of foreign apparel brands or negative attitude of China’s domestic apparel brands would similarly hold positive attitudes of counterfeit apparel products. Fourth, the present scholar concluded that Chinese consumers with favorable attitudes of China’s domestic apparel brands tend to hold negative attitudes of counterfeit apparel products. Fifth and sixth, it was found that Chinese consumers with high level of face-saving values show positive attitudes of foreign (Western) apparel brands and counterfeit apparel products. Seventh, Chinese consumers with high level of face-saving values also possess strong materialistic values. Consequently Chinese consumers with strong materialistic values tend to hold positive attitudes of counterfeit apparel products and foreign (Western) apparel products, but negative attitudes of China’s domestic apparel brands. The findings of this study show that Chinese consumers have a very low level of perception about knowledge of counterfeit apparel products. It is necessary to connect educators, government, apparel industry, and brand owners to develop and enhance anti-counterfeit educational programs. These programs should clearly explain the perception about knowledge of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), trademark, and the negative causes of counterfeit products are warranted. Also, it is better for China’s domestic apparel brand companies to develop better brand images and improve product quality to meet Chinese consumers’ face-saving standards and materialistic values.

Background: The emergence of global markets has created new hurdles for managers of international companies, yet provided with opportunities to take advantage of country of origin and transmit product information via “Made in” label. For many years China has been perceived negatively for a number of reason, though Chinese cosmetics is a new venture for the emerging economy.  Purpose: The purpose of this study is to widen the current knowledge of country of origin in the cosmetics industry. The aim was to explore the underlying reasons in the attitude formation of female European millennials towards country of origin of China with regard to cosmetics industry.  Method: Focus group discussions have been chosen as the most appropriate research method to fulfil the purpose of the study. Three focus groups consisted of female European millennials were conducted during which the visual aids were shown in order to contribute to answering research questions. A deductive content analysis was used to analyse the data obtained.  Conclusion: The results of this study revealed that the attitudes held by female European millennials towards cosmetics made in China are more negatively due to a weak product-countryimage,withsomeexceptions. Thisisconsistentwithprevious studies that China’s country of origin is still perceived as unfavourable. However, new insights have been discovered that respondents do not perceive any country as having a superior expertise in cosmetics, except of France.

With the continuous exploration of Chinese market’s potential, this promising and enormous market is becoming more and more crowded no matter in which industry. For example, in home furnishing industry, although the world leader - IKEA strived to implement its differentiation and cost leadership strategies that had brought tremendous success in the other markets worldwide, the company’s performance in this distinctive developing country had not progressed much, unlike other parts of the world. Thus, there must be some factors that foreign companies ignored, which led to this situation. That how Chinese think, what exactly trigger them to buy? There is little research on home furnishing industry regarding those questions inside Chinese market. In this article, through observation of the consumer behavior of Chinese people in the home furnishing industry, and focusing on the “mianzi” factor in Chinese consumer behavior, with a quantitative research method, to examine possible correlations with “mianzi” gaining. After a detailed linear regression through SPSS with data collected from 309 candidates both online and offline, the result shows that price and noticeability of home furnishing are key factors that let the Chinese consumer gain “mianzi”; further, lead to competitive consumption and conspicuous consumption, rather than the brand of the furniture.

Multinationals are subject to questioning about organizational legitimacy issues by foreign governments when expanding overseas. This issue has become more prevalent over the past two decades with the rapid development of emerging countries and the exponential expansion in outward foreign direct investments from the firms of these emerging countries. Many emerging-country multinationals, particularly Chinese ones, confront political challenges in overseas. Accordingly, the global marketing economy is increasingly politicized, however previous research on consumer behavior has not paid attention to this political element. Against this background, this thesis draws on signaling theory to investigate the effect of overseas political challenges suffered by Chinese multinationals on domestic consumer purchase willingness, through shaping brand awareness and brand image in the home country. This study adopts a quantitative approach and administers an online questionnaire-based survey to assess Chinese people's willingness to purchase products made by Huawei (a Chinese national brand). Through PLS-SEM analysis of the survey data consisting of 314 valid questionnaires, our results reveal that the overseas political challenges faced by Chinese multinationals does not directly influence domestic consumer purchase willingness. Instead, awareness of this international political pressure can exert a directly positive effect on brand awareness and brand image in the home country, which in turn triggers domestic consumer purchase willingness. Our study suggests that overseas political challenge delivers a positive signaling effect and is conducive to domestic consumer purchase willingness. By building a theoretical link between overseas political challenge and consumer purchase willingness, uncovering the bright side of the challenging overseas environment faced by many multinationals, this study advances research on consumer behavior and gains deeper insight into the effect of these political challenges as well as extending the application of signaling theory.

The skincare sector is among the fastest growing consumer branded products, boasting unprecedented growth rates in emerging markets, as well as steady growth in developed and post-developed markets. Yet, a more relevant question to marketers of branded skincare products is what factors influence consumers’ decisions about where to buy such products, and whether or not to spread positive word-of-mouth (WOM) about products and store preferences. Sirgy’s (1982, 1985) self-congruence theory postulates that the greater the match between a consumer’s self-image and the image of a retailer’s typical patron, the greater the likelihood that the consumer will prefer and patronize that retailer. However, a review of the literature on self-image congruence shows a lack of consensus with respect to: 1) the effect of self-image congruence on retail patronage, and 2) the relative strength of the four dimensions (i.e., actual/ideal self- and social/ideal social self-image) of self-image congruence on consumer preferences and choices (e.g., Ibrahim & Najjar, 2008; Kang, Tang, Lee, & Bosselma, 2012). Further, Sirgy, Grewal, and Mangleburg (2000) suggested that the more a consumer matches a retailer’s store attributes with those of an ideal store, the more likely the consumer will prefer and patronize the retailer. Thus, an integrative model (Sirgy et al., 2000) that captures the effects of retail environment and self-image congruence on retail patronage served as the theoretical foundation of this study. The purpose of this study was to examine interactively the effects of retail environment and self-image congruence on retail shopping experience and patronage behavior of Generation Y-aged (Gen Y) consumers with respect to skincare products (i.e., a sub-sector of cosmetics). Primary data were collected through online surveys from 336 American and 325 Chinese Gen Y consumers. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypothesized relationships between self-image congruence, functional congruence, retail shopping experience, and retail patronage behavior. The findings indicate that, across the two sample groups examined, both self-image and functional congruence are related positively to Gen Y consumers’ intentions to spread positive WOM about products and store preferences. In addition, functional, but not self-image congruence, is related positively to purchase intentions across the two groups. Importantly, shopping experience, including satisfaction and pleasure, mediates the relationships between self-image, functional congruence, and retail patronage. Finally, the results of multi-group comparisons show that culture moderates the relative strength of the effect of different dimensions of self-image congruence on Gen Y consumers’ evaluations of retail store attributes and their likelihood to disseminate positive WOM. Specifically, the social-domain of image congruence (e.g., how others see me) had a greater influence on WOM for consumers from a collectivistic culture than it did for those from an individualistic culture. In contrast, the self-domain of image congruence (e.g., how I see myself) had a greater effect on Gen Y consumers’ evaluations of store attributes among those from an individualistic culture than it did for those from a collectivistic culture. This study makes three major contributions to the literature. First, the findings confirm the role of self-image and functional congruence on retail shopping experience and patronage behavior. Second, by using two sample groups from vastly different cultures, the study cross-validates the integrative conceptual model that explains consumers’ retail patronage. Finally, the findings add depth to the original self-image congruence theory by identifying conditions in which the relative strength of the relationships differ.

This study aims to examine the effects of animosity on consumers’ willingness to buy hybrid products (i.e. products that involve affiliations of two or more countries - such as branded in Japan but made in China). While consumers’ reluctance to purchase foreign products from countries that they have animosity towards is clearly evident in the current literature, little is known about consumers’ attitudes towards hybrid products. As such, the study introduces this new construct (i.e. willingness to buy hybrid products) to the animosity model to determine if animositic consumers would be more receptive or willing to accept hybrid products where the animositic tendencies towards foreign countries in question can be negated by the products’ domestic affiliations. To conduct this investigation, the study is undertaken in China where the Chinese consumers’ animosity towards the Japanese was examined. The data with a usable sample size of 435 were collected in the Chinese city of Nanjing. The findings of the study revealed that the high level of animosity present against the Japanese resulted in the Chinese consumers’ unwillingness to buy Japanese products. More importantly, results showed that the Chinese consumers are not any more receptive to hybrid products as such domestic affiliations have not diluted the animosity. Consistent with the literature, the study has also validated that consumer animosity to be a higher-order construct indicated by war and economic animosity. Under the conditions of extreme animosity, consumer ethnocentrism does not take a significant role in influencing other constructs in the animosity model.

Nous nous focalisons dans cette recherche sur les consommateurs chinois qui vivent à l'étranger (en Europe et aux Etats-Unis), pour analyser dans quelle mesure les valeurs et les comportements des consommateurs chinois vis-à-vis des produits et des services de luxe peuvent être modifiés à la suite de leurs contacts avec les cultures européennes (française et allemande) et la culture américaine ; elle vise également à identifier le rôle que les valeurs traditionnelles chinoises jouent dans ce contexte. Les résultats sont présentés dans trois essais distincts. Dans le premier essai, l'influence de la culture française et de la culture allemande sur la consommation des produits de luxe des Chinois est identifiée en interviewant un groupe de 22 consommateurs chinois qui vit en Europe. Dans le deuxième essai, nous nous efforçons de développer et de valider une échelle de mesure des perceptions des valeurs du luxe en Chine et aux Etats-Unis. La conceptualisation transculturelle de ce construit des valeurs du luxe est également étudiée, en utilisant deux échantillons d'étudiants (Chinois et Américains), et deux échantillons de consommateurs adultes chinois (qui vivent en Chine et aux Etats-Unis). Dans le troisième essai, avec les mêmes échantillons que ceux du deuxième essai, nous visons à clarifier comment les Chinois qui vivent aux Etats-Unis modifient leurs valeurs et leurs comportements pour se conformer aux nouvelles normes de la consommation des produits et des services de luxe. Après des analyses, nous conclussions que les consommateurs immigrés se comportent parfois comme les caméléons pour se fondre dans les normes culturelles du consommateur du pays d'accueil
In this research we focus on the Chinese consumers living in the West (Europe and U.S.), exploring how European cultures (French and German) and American culture influence their luxury consumption values and behaviors, and meanwhile seek to identify the role of Chinese cultural values within this context. These results are presented in three essays. The first essay focuses on exploring the influence of French and German cultures on European-Chinese consumers' luxury consumption, by analyzing 22 qualitative interviews carried out with the Chinese consumers living in Europe. The second essay seeks to develop and validate a scale measuring luxury value perceptions in China and in the United States, and to assess the cross-cultural conceptualization of this luxury value construct, using two student samples (Chinese n=92 & Americans n=92) and two Chinese adult samples (in China n=255 & in the U.S. n=217). Using the same samples as the second essay, we further investigates in the third essay that, the extent to which immigrant Chinese consumers would change in order to comply with the new cultural consensus in luxury consumption. A series of analyses suggest a conclusion that immigrant consumers tend to acquire the prevailing consensus of the host culture, and behave like chameleons, blending into the surrounding environment

WeChat is a widely used multi-functional social media platform in China. The increasing number of WeChat users provides new possibilities and challenges for company marketing strategy. We draw literature from word-of-mouth (WOM) and e-service quality (e-SQ). Qualitive study approach was conducted, and ten interviews done with Chinese consumers with shopping experience on WeChat. This thesis aims to explore the purchasing experience of Chinese consumers on WeChat, and specifically we want to understand how do WOM/ eWOM influences Chinese consumers on their shopping experience on WeChat, and what aspect of the e-SQ may affect Chinese consumers’ shopping experience on WeChat. The results reveal that in the brand awareness period, people are more likely to be influenced by WOM to notice products or services. Furthermore, offline WOM has more influential persuading power than online WOM. In terms of e-service quality, the professionalism and convenience of website design is the foundation of consumer purchase. Fulfillment and security perform quite well on WeChat according to our research findings. At the same time, consumers on WeChat are inclined to buy products with less need of customer service.

Background In recent years, with the rapid development of e-commerce in China, various online media and digital social platforms have attracted more users, and online marketing has gradually replaced traditional marketing strategies. The increasing frequency of online shopping by Chinese consumers, especially millennials, presents a huge opportunity for influencer marketing. Influencers with a large number of followers have been used by many companies as online marketing tools. To deeply explore the reasons why Chinese millennial consumers buy products recommended by the influencer, the Theory of Triadic Influence (TTI) was used as the theoretical basis to form the theoretical framework of this study after a review of academic literature, and various factors such as Chinese culture, different industries, personal influence stream, environment, and social environment should be considered. Purpose The purpose of this research is to study the factors that affect Chinese millennial consumers to follow the recommendations of influencers in purchasing sports products through Taobao, Tik Tok, or Weibo. MethodIn this quantitative research, 362 Chinese respondents' data were collected through an online questionnaire. The data of the 302 sample were tested and analyzed by SPSS software since they were referring to Chinese millennials who have followed influencers and purchased sports products online. Conclusion According to the data analysis results of this study, behavior control, self-efficacy, and attitude will actively promote Chinese millennial consumers' purchase intentions of sports products recommended by influencers. Finally, social norms are related to Chinese culture, which may explain why this hypothesis does not significantly predict consumers' online purchase intentions. Therefore, this study could provide suggestions for influencers and online retailers to help them improve the online purchasing intention of Chinese millennial consumers, and thus improve the sales and profit. On the other hand, this study can help consumers understand the marketing strategies of influencers to achieve the purpose of helping them to make more rational consumption.

Purpose: This study aims to inform readers whether greenwashing in the Chinese electrical appliance market impacts consumers' green purchase intention. Methods: This study uses theory of planned behaviour as the theoretical basis to construct a structural equation model. An online questionnaire survey was conducted on 521 participants. Results: Our analysis shows that greenwashing has indirectly positively correlated with green purchase intention; green attitude and green perceived value play an intermediary role between greenwashing and green purchase intention. Conclusion: This study concluded that in the Chinese electrical appliance market, greenwashing has positively affected green attitudes and green perceived value, then green attitudes and green perceived value positively affected green purchase intention, and green attitudes positively affected green perceived value. Structure: In this study, after the introduction, the model and related proprietary definitions involved in the research are explained, and hypotheses are proposed. Next are the research methods and research results, and then the discussion of the research results. Finally, the possible directions of future research are discussed.

Over the last decade there has been a rapid development of United States quick service restaurant companies such as KFC and McDonalds in China. Increasingly urban Chinese consumers patronize these restaurants as a way to experience American culture. For some it is becoming a part of their eating pattern. Recent health studies have demonstrated that nutritional diseases are increasing in China. This study accessed urban Chinese consumers' perceptions about U.S. quick service restaurants and their knowledge about the nutritional value that U.S. quick service food can provide. This study revealed that Chinese consumers' perceptions and knowledge about U.S. quick service impacts their patronage. Additionally, the study determined correlation between consumer patronage and reported health status as well as consumers' length of patronage negative influence on their health status. The results of this study will help U.S. quick service restaurants in educating consumers on nutrition and improving the menus.

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the communication of luxury brands through social media, by focusing on cross-cultural aspects between the Chinese society and the Western one. The first chapter analyses the importance of culture in implementing international marketing strategies and the relevance of finding the perfect balance between standardization and adaptation. To advertise a product in a country that is different from the home market, it is essential to be deeply aware of the foreign environment, not only in social, psychological and behavioural terms but also in the choice of the best market segment. In this way, a precise and detailed analysis of the Chinese cultural context is presented, thanks to Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. Finally, the chapter deals with the importance of the physical point of sale and the role of distribution. The second chapter focuses on the specific area of interest of this thesis: the luxury fashion sector and the role of social media in Chinese society. In order to understand Chinese customers and their purchase and internet habits, a questionnaire is designed to gather information about new concrete research data: 151 answers were collected in China. The final chapter focuses on a qualitative analysis of a total of 200 posts from the social media platforms Facebook and Weibo, to verify whether the 10 selected luxury fashion brands communicate in the same way to Western and Chinese consumers or not.