Through the Lenses of Culture

Abstract

This study examines the influence of culture on Chinese consumers' intentions to purchase Australian products. Data were obtained from an online survey completed by 3,171 respondents across 20 cities in China. Results indicate that ingroup influence, product perception, but not marketing efforts have a significant main effect on purchase intentions. In addition, ingroup influence moderates the effects of product perception and marketing efforts on intentions. When ingroup influence is low, product perception has a greater impact on purchase intention than when ingroup influence is high. Similarly, marketing efforts have a greater impact on purchase intention when ingroup influence is low than when it is high. In addition, self-identity as a consumer of imported products also moderates the strength of association between product perception and purchase intention. When self-identity is low, product perception has a greater impact on purchase intention than when self-identity is high. Implications of the findings for theory and practice, in the context of trade between an individualistic culture like Australia and a collectivistic one like China, are discussed.

Not a simple coffee shop: local, global and glocal dimensions of the consumption of Starbucks in China

“…How the added expense of foreign brands and the risks of the marketplace are understood and negotiated -and how resulting choices are legitimated or not -will reflect the cultural habitus of Chinese consumers (Bourdieu, 1984). Cultural values of thrift, self-control and tiao or jingtiao xixuan -careful selection for quality (Hanser, 2010;Lin & Wang, 2010;Liu et al, 2011;Podoshen et al, 2011) -shape consumers' schemes of perception and appreciation. Coffee is relatively new to China, as many respondents noted; thus, Starbucks consumers may not feel competent to judge its quality by their own palate or range of coffee-drinking experience.…”

“…The relationship between collectivism and individualism is not a zero-sum game (Elfick, 2011, p. 206;Liu et al, 2011Liu et al, , p. 1246: it is the negotiation between them in the context of situated consuming practices that constitutes the problem of identity -be it in a Western or specifically Chinese consumer culture (Lin & Wang 2010;Tian & Dong, 2011). Similarly, the global and the local are not mutually exclusive categories; rather, foreign goods require a situated engagement between the local context (including cultural values, national identity and changing social structures) and notions of the global, the West and -in the case of Starbucks -'America.…”

“…Notwithstanding academic debates about -and intense business interest in (e.g. Doctoroff, 2005;Garner, 2005;Wang, 2010) -the Chinese middle class, there remains overall 'a lack of comprehensive understanding of Chinese consumers culturally' (Liu et al, 2011(Liu et al, , p. 1238, of how the Chinese understand and construct urban, middle-class identities via consumer goods (Elfick, 2011, p. 190), and of how, in particular, they understand and engage with foreign goods and brands (Tian & Dong, 2011).…”

“…(Liu et al, 2011(Liu et al, , p. 1246 Despite the suggestion that thrift and self-denial are represented as outdated in the imported genre of lifestyle television (Xu, 2007), there is nevertheless considerable evidence that traditional values of frugality and judiciousness remain central, particularly for negotiating the everyday crisis of trust in the Chinese marketplace, with regard to the problems of fake imported goods, the safety and quality of domestic goods (as highlighted in the 2008 baby milk scandal), the veracity of the information made available by the state, and the fairness with which marketplace transactions take place (The Economist, 2008;Hanser, 2010;Veeck, Yu & Burns, 2010). The third theme running through some of the research on Chinese consumption of foreign brands aligns loosely with 'glocalization' (Robertson, 1995) accounts of globalization and consumer culture, which attempt to move beyond dichotomous homogeneous/heterogeneous arguments about the features and implications of global brands (Ram, 2004).…”

The Failure of Home Depot in China - A Case Study

“…As is known to all, the Chinese are not accustomed or interested in using self-made products because of the national generic reluctance to try something not approved by the vast majority. In the Chinese local culture, people are often reluctant in using products and services which have not been widely accepted; on the contrary, they tend to follow the widely-accepted way of consumption (Miner, 2006), which might attribute itself to "collectivistic orientation" defined as people's tendency to view the self as derived from a specific reference group (e.g., family, friends, relatives) such that their behavior is likely to be under the influence of members of this reference group or important others (Fischer, et al, 2010;Markus & Kitayama, 1991;Triandis, 1989;Liu, et al, 2011). In light of the definition, consumers in collectivistic oriented cultures highlight the social context and seek to comply with the wishes of important others when making decisions (Harb & Smith, 2008;Lee & Green, 1991).…”