Chinese Millennials Research Articles

The intersection of Chineseness and internationalism among Chinese millennials at an EMI university

Abstract This study investigates Chineseness and internationalism through the naming practices of young Chinese learners’ at EMI universities. Investigating the participants’ use of their English/Chinese names in their immediate study environment to start, our study delves into issues related to who can be defined as Chinese, what Chineseness involves, and its intersection with internationalism. A questionnaire was distributed at a Sino-British university in mainland China and a pre-sessional course in the UK via email in 2019. Data from the 357 questionnaire responses was followed by nine randomly selected respondents who were invited for semi-structured interviews. The data was coded using NVivo 10 and thematic analysis was utilized to understand the key themes. The study found rising confidence among the participants, represented by a rejection of the association between internationalism and westernisation. The participants proffered Chineseness as equal claims to internationalism as western culture, albeit being a continuing site of struggle and confrontation. Further, a distinctive ‘Chinese way of thinking’ is a key marker of Chinese identity, which alludes to an essentialist Chineseness rooted in mainland China.

The Guanxi mediating role linking organizational justice to contextual performance with age as a moderator.

Guanxi, a distinctive Chinese concept, reflects a shared vision of relationships and connections that include mutual understanding, trust, and a deep bond between individuals. Recognized for its potency in shaping the relationships that facilitate business undertakings and access to key resources, Guanxi is postulated as a potential mediator in the nexus between organizational justice and contextual work performance. The depth of Guanxi, intertwined with Chinese culture and values, may be perceived differently across age groups. Specifically, as Chinese millennials usually interact with global paradigms, generational disparities might emerge in valuing these traditional constructs. This study delves into how the dimensions of Guanxi-Ganqing (emotional connection), Renqing (reciprocity), and Xinren (loyalty)-mediate the relationship between organizational justice and contextual work performance, with chronological age as a moderator. The present study includes a convenience sample of 630 Chinese employees, aged 22-67 years, who participated in a quantitative online survey. The findings endorse the mediation role of Guanxi. The total influence of justice was found to be significant, as well as the indirect impacts, that were statistically salient. Although the age-moderated mediation was not wholly substantiated, the age-specific indirect effects of Renqing and Xinren did present significant variances between millennials and those above 42 years. The relevance of this study extends beyond the academic field, shedding light on the cultural dynamics at play within Chinese organizational settings. By unveiling the relationships between Guanxi, organizational justice, and performance, and by elucidating the age-specific variations therein, this research provides insights for organizational leaders and human resource professionals. Based on these findings, businesses can craft targeted interventions that capitalize on the strengths of Guanxi, ensuring fair practices and enhancing performance across diverse age groups. Further, recognizing the unique attributes and values of different generational cohorts can aid in fostering a harmonious, culturally attuned, and efficient workplace environment.

Do cultural and individual values influence sustainable tourism and pro-environmental behavior? Focusing on Chinese millennials

ABSTRACT This study investigated the Chinese millennials’ perspectives of tourism sustainability using Hofstede’s five-dimensional model. It examined the relationship between their environmental attitudes and hedonic/utilitarian values. According to the findings, collectivism had a positive impact on their pro-environmental attitude, evident in both their preferences and behaviors. Large power distance as well as high tolerance for uncertainty, conversely, resulted in a less pro-environmental attitude. Simultaneously, their masculinity, as expressed in their tendency to obtain more profit in advance, was harmful. This research adds to a greater understanding of cultural and individual values and suggests marketing strategies to advocate for environmentally conscious behaviors.

Different mirrors: studying the effect of perceived risks and information-seeking behavior on the perceived cognitive image of Chinese and Russian millennial tourists

ABSTRACT The primary objective of this research is to investigate the impact of perceived risks (PR) on the formation of pre-travel cognitive destination image (CDI) among first-time Chinese and Russian millennial tourists in Iran. It aims to explore both the direct and indirect influence of perceived risks on the cognitive perception of the destination. A quantitative approach was employed, where a survey was conducted to collect data from a sample of 446 respondents who were visiting Iran. The data were analyzed using smart-PLS, a variance-based path modeling technique. The study’s findings indicated that political, technological, health, and socio-cultural risks had a direct impact on the CDI of both Chinese and Russian millennial tourists. Additionally, the research discovered that these risks indirectly influenced CDI through the mediating role of information-seeking behavior (ISB). However, differences emerged between the two groups concerning socio-cultural and economic risks. Specifically, for Chinese millennials, both economic and socio-cultural perceived risks directly and indirectly affected CDI. On the other hand, the hypotheses regarding Russian millennials were rejected, suggesting that economic and socio-cultural perceived risks did not have a significant direct or indirect impact on their CDI. These findings highlight the varying influences of perceived risks on the formation of CDI among Chinese and Russian millennial tourists, emphasizing the importance of considering cultural and economic factors in understanding their cognitive perceptions of a destination. The paper has implications for DMOs to make efforts to find sustainable solutions in designing policies to reduce tourists’ perceived risks and improving the cognitive image of Iran.

Impact of perceived value, positive emotion, product coolness and Mianzi on new energy vehicle purchase intention

China is currently the world's largest new energy vehicle consumer market, and millennials are the largest consumer group in China. To better promote environmental protection, this study aims to investigate the impact of Perceived Value, positive emotion and consumption characteristics (the “Coolness” concept representing millennials and the “Mianzi” concept representing traditional Chinese consumption values) on the purchase intention of new energy vehicles among Chinese millennials. Two studies were conducted using a sample of Chinese data (ntotal = 649), and an empirical examination was carried out using the partial least squares structural equation model. The results indicated that both perceived value and product coolness have a positive influence on purchase intention. Perceived value and positive emotion mediate the relationship between product coolness and purchase intention. Additionally, the “mianmianzi” factor positively moderates the relationship between perceived value, product coolness, and purchase intention. Finally, the implications for marketers and policymakers are discussed.

How does Chinese millennials’ active social media use relate to their future goals? A moderated mediation model

China has achieved great economic and technological development, with the internet emerging as a further significant factor. Chinese millennials have grown up with the internet, which has shaped their ideas and behaviors. According to social change and human development theory, rapid development and popularization of communication technologies drive human change. Compared with traditional media, social media has become more integrated into people’s daily lives, which makes the effects of social media more potent. The current study tested the mediating role of desire for fame in relation to the connection between active WeChat use and future goals, including intrinsic and extrinsic goals. A sample of 422 Chinese university students completed a survey measuring active WeChat use, future goals, desire for fame, and narcissism. Results indicated that active WeChat use was associated with both extrinsic and intrinsic goals. Moreover, desire for fame mediated the association between active WeChat use and external and intrinsic goals. The mediation path linking active social media use to intrinsic goals differed from that linking active social media use to external goals. Compared with individuals with low-level narcissism, individuals with high-level narcissism who actively use WeChat were more likely to desire fame, which further drives them to pursue external goals. These findings advance understanding of how and when active WeChat use is associated with future goals for millennials, thus providing more empirical data at an individual level to enrich theory in the Chinese context.

Decent Work and Turnover Intentions Among Chinese Millennials: A Longitudinal Study

Turnover among millennial employees is frequent and is more common when work is not considered decent. Nevertheless, the potential reasons for why decent work attainment links with millennials’ turnover intentions deserves further exploration. Grounded in the psychology of working theory and social exchange theory, the current research explored the roles of overall well-being and perceived career opportunity in the relation between decent work and turnover intentions. Through an analysis of three-wave data obtained from 327 millennials in China, we found that decent work was indirectly related to turnover intentions via overall well-being, and that perceived career opportunity served as an important moderator in this relation. The results suggest that millennials who perceive their work as indecent may have greater turnover intentions in part because they are less satisfied with their lives. This relation is even stronger when they perceive few career opportunities in their current job.

Employee Engagement and Innovative Work Behavior Among Chinese Millennials: Mediating and Moderating Role of Work-Life Balance and Psychological Empowerment.

Given the ever-changing business environment, organizations are forced to consider innovation as an essential prerequisite to enhance their efficiency, productivity, and sustainability. In this regard, organizations pay increased attention to enhancing employees' engagement (EE) and stimulating their innovative work behaviors (IWBs). Research emphasizes the importance of employees' IWBs in achieving competitive advantages and organizational sustainability. In this research, we address the question of whether employee engagement leads to stimulating IWBs of the Chinese millennial workforce in service industries. In addition, we explore the potential mediating effect of work-life balance (WLB) and the moderating influence of psychological empowerment (PE) on the relationship between EE and IWBs. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data from 372 Chinese senior employees working in the IT, trade, real estate, financial, and telecommunication industries. Our empirical findings showed that highly engaged employees are most likely to exhibit IWBs and maintain a WLB. In addition, the relationship between EE and IWB was partially mediated by WLB. Moreover, the interaction between EE and PE was found to strengthen employees' IWBs. Our study contributes to understanding the importance of EE as an essential prerequisite for millennials' IWBs and provides new insights for service organizations to encourage employees' IWBs. This study contributes to the human resource management field by offering valuable implications vis-à-vis how service organizations operating in a turbulent business environment stimulate the IWBs of their millennial workforce.

Cultivation of new taste: taste makers and new forms of distinction in China’s Coffee Culture

ABSTRACT Specialty coffee is increasingly produced and consumed as part of routine life in many cities in modern China, but the social and cultural shifts it has engendered yet to be systematically examined. By examining the intersections between social media and the operations of independent Chinese coffeehouses in the field of taste, this paper puts forward the idea of new taste among Chinese millennials, which comprises individual subjectivity, heterogeneous social relationships, and forms of class distinction. Using taste-oriented keyword searches on WeChat official accounts, 20 articles were returned and analyzed in terms of their textural and visual orientations to examine the processes underlying how taste is influenced in the consumption of specialty coffee in China. Findings suggest the importance of taste makers in this process, from routine creation of aesthetic ambience in the coffeehouses to the construction of affective taste spaces online, and the establishment of taste cycles from online to offline, which all underpin class privilege. Moreover, the emergence of an ‘urban café community’ appears to be characterized by specific forms of belonging resulting from a productive effect of the interplay between independent coffeehouses and consumers in everyday urban life in which a set of aesthetic boundaries reside. Second, these digital consumers distinguish themselves socially by positioning themselves as having a cosmopolitan taste grounded in coffee appreciation instead of merely consuming coffee for physiological benefits. These findings extend taste propositions through engagement of Chinese digital millennial consumers to uncover the underlying cultural classifications.

Decoding Chinese Millennials: The Culture of Singles in the Post-Mao Era

ABSTRACT Though China has long served as a prototypical collectivist culture, the growing number of individual and unattached adult singles is gaining currency in the country. While previous studies of Chinese singles are typically geared toward the country’s so-called “leftover women”, and treat singledom as pejorative or problematic, this study focuses on the emerging demographic of young urban singles and their distinctive social role in reform-era China. Based on semi-structured interviews with 18 singletons from Guangdong Province who are entering the workforce, this study provides an exploratory overview of this new generation of young Chinese singles. The interviews reveal how this emergent single culture is prompting changes in individual autonomy, interpersonal attachment, marriage, gender norms, and family dynamics in contemporary China.

Workplace spirituality and innovative work behavior: the role of employee flourishing and workplace satisfaction

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the role of employee flourishing as a mechanism to explain the relationship between workplace spirituality and employees' innovative work behavior (IWB). Furthermore, this study investigates how the relationship between workplace spirituality and innovative behavior is moderated by employees' perceived workplace satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachBased on structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression analysis, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of 236 millennial workers in China's service and manufacturing industries.FindingsThe research findings confirmed that workplace spirituality positively predicted the innovative behavior of employees; furthermore, employee flourishing and workplace satisfaction mediated and moderated the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee innovation, respectively.Practical implicationsThis study's findings suggest that workplace spirituality unlocks employees' innovative behavior through a heightened sense of flourishing and enhanced sense of workplace satisfaction. Organizations are advised to foster a climate conducive of workplace spirituality by developing mutually aligned values. Moreover, organizations are advised to train leaders on workplace spirituality dimensions and foster workplace practices that facilitate self-reflection, job crafting and team building, as a means of broadening employees' emotional states and workplace satisfaction.Originality/valueFew studies have examined the mechanisms that shape employees' innovative behavior through workplace spirituality. This study fills several research gaps by extending the theoretical implications of workplace spirituality and employee flourishing, as demonstrated by the multi-faceted role these variables play in motivating employees' innovative behavior among Chinese millennials. Additionally, this study demonstrates that higher levels of workplace satisfaction contribute to higher levels of innovative behavior.

Millennials' online perceptions: the role of cultural characteristics in creating e-loyalty

PurposeMillennials, a cohort of young consumers, are the primary group of shoppers via e-commerce. This study aims to identify Chinese individual cultural values in millennials and examine the role of perceived shopping (hedonic and utilitarian) values in creating e-loyalty.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 296 Chinese millennials who use online shopping websites and apps. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the validity and reliability of the methodology. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the proposed hypotheses.FindingsAll hypotheses were supported except one: the respondents rejected the impact of the face value on utilitarianism. The findings confirmed that Chinese individual cultural characteristics (face and Yuan) impact perceived shopping values (hedonic and utilitarian). Furthermore, these shopping values significantly influence e-loyalty.Research limitations/implicationsThe study's findings suggest some implications that academicians and market practitioners should consider. Additional implications for business managers focus on cultural characteristics, strong local teams, market-based approaches and long-term strategies.Originality/valueThe present work highlights the online shopping behavior of Chinese millennials by exploring e-loyalty, considering its two dimensions.

The Role of Face Gaining on Millennials' Outbound Travel Intention in Mainland China

As a typical cultural concept being deeply rooted in Chinese society, "face" regulates many social behaviors in China. However, research on the social aspect of "face" is limited in tourism studies. This study applies an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) model incorporating face gaining for examining millennials' outbound travel intention from mainland China. By analyzing data from 350 Chinese millennial tourists, we find that face gaining has an indirect impact on outbound travel intention through attitude (ATT), subjective norm (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC). Based on the findings, the research provides some insights regarding "face gaining" in travel behavior, and destination marketing on Chinese millennials.

Purchase Intention for Green Cars Among Chinese Millennials: Merging the Value-Attitude-Behavior Theory and Theory of Planned Behavior.

The value–attitude–behavior and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) appear to provide limited explanation for consumer green purchase behavior. This study aims to examine the relationship between pro-environmental value, consumption value, and TPB toward green car purchasing intention among the young Chinese generation. A total of 541 student responses were collected, and the results showed that altruistic value positively influenced subjective norm (SN) and perceived behavioral control (PBC), but negatively influenced green purchase attitude (GPA). Biospheric value positively influenced GPA and PBC. Function value and emotional value positively influenced GPA, respectively, and emotional value fully mediated the relationship between function value and GPA. Furthermore, GPA, SN, PBC positively influenced intention toward green car purchasing behavior, respectively, and SN mediated the relationship between GPA and intention. This study shows how pro-environmental value and consumption value can influence components of TPB in green car purchase intention.

Research on the Effect of Social Media on the Online Shopping Behavior of Chinese Millennials

In China, millennials represent a sizable consumer segment with significant purchasing power. The fact that millennials are engaged on social media and eager to purchase online demonstrates this. Through the search and reading of relevant literature, this paper proposes that social media and online shopping behavior are inextricably linked, and that Chinese millennials are naturally the drivers of online shopping.

The transgressive rhetoric of standup comedy in China

ABSTRACT Public discourse under authoritarian rule is not monolithic. Yet how popular rhetoric engages with the hegemonic rhetoric in the same discursive space remains understudied. This article examines the rhetoric of a standup comedy show in China, streamed online and widely popular among Chinese millennials, to understand how alternative views on social issues can coexist with the hegemonic rhetoric. Using critical discourse analysis, it argues that some standup comedy performances transgress the hegemonic rhetoric of 'positive energy' without outright subversion. Comedians use subversive affirmation, self-deprecation, ambiguity, absurd fantasy, and irony to present alternative viewpoints on social issues of broad interest, such as the neoliberal work culture and gender norms. The subtle yet powerful transgressions introduce previously marginal views into the public discourse, diminishing the aura of wide acceptance and authority assumed by the hegemonic rhetoric. The standup comedy performances thus open up new discursive pathways towards non-state-sanctioned views on important social issues.

Chinese Millenials' happiness and materialism: Explanations from two life‐course theories, self‐esteem, and money‐attitudes

AbstractBorn in an era of single‐child families and raised in the rapidly growing and globally connected milieu where material wealth is ranked at the top of life's achievements, Chinese millennials are feared to be materialistic. We assessed whether this was the case and whether happiness is gained from materialism. By questioning processes through which materialism develops, we examined how self‐esteem, money attitudes and human capital, and socialization life‐course theories explain materialism. We collected data from 207 millennials and conducted structural equation modeling and mediation analyses. We found that Chinese millennials were moderately materialistic and do obtain some happiness from materialism. Materialism was explained by the human capital and socialization life‐course theory, whereby self‐esteem mediated in how family resources received and peer communication during adolescence impacted materialism at young adulthood. Self‐esteem was a good predictor of five money‐attitude dimensions, which can help and hinder materialism depending on the dimension consumers hold.

Antecedents and consequences of online customer experience of Chinese millennials luxury consumers

Antecedents and consequences of online customer experience of Chinese millennials luxury consumers

Build It and They Will Come? The Impact of Servicescape on Chinese Millennials’ Satisfaction and Behavioral Intentions toward Integrated Resorts

ABSTRACT The rapidly global development of integrated resorts has led to increased competition in the marketplace. Among all, Chinese millennials are targeted because of their population size and strong spending power. This study aims to identify the effect of servicescape dimensions on satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Considering the environmental feature of the integrated resort and variety-seeking behavior of Chinese millennials, we add facility variety to the dimensions of servicescape. A major survey with 404 respondents was conducted and analyzed with structural equation modeling. The result shows that interior décor, ambience, equipment, signage and symbols, and facility variety are positively associated with customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions, while cleanliness and layout do not have any significant effect. These findings can have meaningful business implications for resort managers.

‘I want to record and share my wonderful journey’: Chinese Millennials’ production and sharing of short-form travel videos on TikTok or Douyin

ABSTRACT Seeking to understand how involvement with social media influences travel experiences, the current investigation explores the reasoning and social justifications of tourists’ engagement with travel videos on the short-form video sharing platform – TikTok. Using phenomenology, data consisted of semi-structured interviews with 12 tourists who had experiences consuming, producing, and sharing travel videos on TikTok. Findings suggest that consuming and creating TikTok touristic fantasies, hashtagging a #wonderfuljourney through sharing, and storing my meaningful life in a ‘public’ diary are three primary reasons for tourists’ engagement in TikTok travel videos. Results show that the daily use of TikTok, a visual storytelling platform, has extended to the tourism context, resulting in the eroding boundaries between tourism experiences and everyday life and contributing to an understanding of the ‘Leisure-Tourism’ Continuum in Web 2.0. It advocates DMOs to produce tourism videos based on tourist needs and the distinctness of the platform of TikTok.