Consumers In Shanghai Research Articles

Market competitiveness of mobile TV industry in China

Mobile TV is listed as China's national priority to develop the triple play system. Fast-growing China Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting services (CMMB) leads China's mobile TV industry and forms the largest network globally. As mobile TV regulation and technology became stable after the initial stage, this study focuses on CMMB's competitiveness in market/industry subsystem. Using document analysis and expert interviews, it analyzes CMMB's institution-driven and market-driven forces in the Chinese 3G/4G telecommunication market. The socio-technical framework is incorporated with seven forces model to examine commercialized CMMB and investigates its market and technoculture in Shanghai. Institutionally, CMMB business structure was collapsed into three levels which managed extensive and diverse Chinese markets strategically through a unified platform. After the business model switched to a subscription model, CMMB's rollout slowed down but turned it into a sustainable business. Besides, analysis of market forces shows CMMB's good market competiveness due to strong support from suppliers, complementors, and distribution channels and little threat from rivals, new entrants, and substitutes. CMMB users have increasing switching cost because of improved content/services and devices and no data charge fee. In contrast, CMMB faces stronger threat from competitors and substitutes and less loyal consumers in Shanghai than on a national level. CMMB's rapid developmental path provides meaningful implications for other countries in establishing mobile multimedia networks. This study recommends a pro-innovative and technology-neutral regulatory approach to develop mobile TV. Finally, the socio-technical model is found useful for analyzing technological development at different stages and contexts.

Predicting Chinese consumers' purchase intentions for imported soy‐based dietary supplements

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to model Chinese consumers' purchase intentions for imported soy‐based dietary supplements (DS) based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the health belief model (HBM). The central hypotheses for this study are that purchase intentions of Chinese DS consumers are a result of attitudes toward using DS, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Health value and perceived susceptibility to illness, as well as product knowledge and marketer distrust, are integrated into the model.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 251 consumers in Shanghai, China. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.Findings – The TPB model is effective in predicting Chinese consumers' imported soy‐based DS purchase intentions. Attitudes toward using soy‐based DS, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control have significant influences on purchase intention. Perceived behavioral control also plays an important role in the formation of atti...

Beliefs about advertising in China: empirical evidence from Hong Kong and Shanghai consumers

PurposeThis paper aims to examine metropolitan Chinese Generation Xers' attitude toward advertising and to determine whether the ranking for ad likeability and dislikeability attributes are the same across Hong Kong and Shanghai.Design/methodology/approachA telephone interview of 200 respondents in each city was conducted using a strategy of matched samples. Generation Xers residing in Hong Kong and Shanghai were selected as these two segments are politically more uniform now than before, share similar economic and business structures, and are exposed to the same goods and services. Respondents were first asked to recall three television advertisements they liked/disliked and give as many reasons as possible to explain why they liked/disliked them. They were also asked about their beliefs in advertising.FindingsThe results show that the respondents from both cities find advertising “interesting and entertaining”, but “devious”. In terms of likeable attributes, they like “entertaining”, while “style” is the most disliked attribute. The main difference between the two groups was found in attribute rating. The study concludes by offering several explanations for these variations.Originality/valueIn this study, instead of requesting respondents to interpret what had appeared in the prints or commercials, it examines respondents' verbal descriptions of how they perceived television commercials. This method affords an opportunity to have respondents more freely express their thoughts and feelings about the topic under investigation.

Does an energy efficiency label alter consumers' purchasing decisions? A latent class approach based on a stated choice experiment in Shanghai

In this paper we conducted a hypothetical choice experiment in Shanghai, China, to examine whether the China Energy Efficiency Label influences consumers' choices of air conditioners and refrigerators. A latent class approach was applied to observe both heterogeneities among the respondents and product brands. Our results suggested that consumers in Shanghai were well aware of the China Energy Efficiency Label and tended to pay more attention to products with such labels. In addition, air conditioners and refrigerators affixed with a hypothetical label that indicates saving in electricity bills compared with a standard model received significant preferences, which suggested that the more information manufacturers provide, the more their products would be preferred by consumers. Finally, weighted by class probability, the willingness to pay values for more energy efficient refrigerators were higher than those for more energy efficient air conditioners, implying that Shanghai consumers have greater incentive to pay more for appliances they use more frequently.

Decolonizing Shanghai: Design and Material Culture in the Photographs of Hu Yang

In considering the current state of design in Shanghai, particularly in relationship to the question of globalization, it would be easy to fall into the traditional binary East-West narrative that sets up inherent tensions between a native Chinese past and Western influences ushered in by the colonial era. Remembering the significant imprint left on Shanghai culture through the partial occupation by Western nations of France, Great Britain, and the U.S. from the mid-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries, one can sympathize with the many scholars, critics, and popular commentators who have promoted such readings. After all, even the physical composition of the city, with its distinct historical Chinese and colonial districts, serves as a daily reminder of Shanghai’s complex political and cultural past. The dichotomy is further accentuated by the metropolis’s present role as one of China’s main entry ports of business and cultural exchange with Western nations. In these early years of the twenty-first century, however, prudence should compel us to reassess whether the single East-West narrative, with its accompanying subtexts of center and margin, colonizer and colonized, remains sufficient for describing the complexity of the milieu of design and visual culture of contemporary Shanghai. In addition to questioning our conceptual framework, we also must address the issue of source material when dealing with design in Shanghai. A natural and common approach is to undertake a survey of the design products available on the Shanghai retail market. From this, one can easily construct a narrative about the types of cutting-edge global design products available in Shanghai today. However, while this type of product survey offers information about market availability, it remains one step removed from the consumer, showing what is available for sale, but revealing only marginal information about actual acquisition and the behaviors of Shanghai consumers and their cultural predilections towards design and visual culture. Also, while this type of approach may indicate something about the values of a limited subset of the Shanghai population, it tells us little about the pervasiveness of these values, and nothing about the values of those outside of this group. What are the people of Shanghai actually bringing into their spaces? What is the spectrum of their sensibilities concerning design? In what

한국 연예인 광고모델 속성이 중국 소비자 한국 패션브랜드 구매도에 미치는 영향

As the Korean cultural contents, such as drama, films, music, gained popularity in China, Korean fashion brands used Korean celebrities as their models to as a sales promotion strategy for Chinese consumers. With the point of view that the advertising model as a human capital as well, the purpose of this study is to investigate the factors of attributes of Korean celebrity advertising model, and to analyze effects on fashion brand recognition, preference, trust and purchase intention. With convenience sampling, the research surveyed Shanghai consumers in their 20`s to early 30`s who had purchased Korean fashion items. The 291 responses were analyzed by frequency analysis, reliability test, factor analysis, multiple regression analysis, The results are as follows. Frist, Korean celebrity advertising model attribute factors were divided into similarity, familiarity, popularity, attractiveness and trust. Second, the brand recognition was affected by similarity, familiarity and popularity factors, and the brand preference was affected by similarity, familiarity, popularity and attractiveness factors. Third, the trust of Korean fashion brands was affected by similarity, familiarity, attractiveness, trust, brand recognition and brand preference. Lastly, the intention to purchase Korean Fashion brand was affected by similarity, familiarity, attractiveness, brand recognition, brand preference and brand trust.

Devil wears (counterfeit) Prada: a study of antecedents and outcomes of attitudes towards counterfeits of luxury brands

PurposeThis paper sets out to examine how social and personality factors influence Chinese consumers' attitudes towards counterfeits of luxury brands and how these two sets of variables influence purchase intention. It provides a profile of buyers and non‐buyers of counterfeits of luxury brands.Design/methodology/approachA self‐administered questionnaire was designed using established scales. A survey was conducted in downtown Shanghai through the “mall intercept” method. A variety of statistical techniques were used to analyze the data.FindingsStatus consumption and integrity are strong influencers of purchase intention, whereas normative susceptibility, information susceptibility, personal gratification, value consciousness, and novelty seeking had weaker influencing relationships. The attitude towards counterfeits of luxury brands is found to influence purchase intention. Collectivism does not influence attitudes nor purchase intentions towards counterfeits of luxury brands.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are limited to Chinese consumers in Shanghai, which cannot be generalized across the whole of China or other international markets. Further, only luxury brands are considered. Other cultural contexts and product categories should be investigated in the future.Practical implicationsThe research provides an in‐depth understanding of Chinese consumers' attitudes towards counterfeits of luxury brands. The research findings can be used to formulate strategies for academia, practitioners and, more importantly, policy makers to help eradicate, or at the very least curb, counterfeiting activities.Originality/valueThe majority of previous studies focused on counterfeiting and piracy of music and other optical media, whereas this paper focused exclusively on luxury brands. Status consumption is also added as an antecedent towards attitudes and purchase intention of counterfeits.

Who are ethnocentric? Examining consumer ethnocentrism in Chinese societies

Abstract This study examined consumer ethnocentrism in Chinese societies and further to reveal whether more ethnocentric consumers would have higher preferences of domestic products. Multi‐item CETSCALE was applied in the study. Consumer surveys were administered in Taipei, Taiwan and in Shanghai, China, using stratified sampling method following the age and gender distributions of the populations between the ages of 15 and 64 in Taipei and in Shanghai. The differences in consumer ethnocentrism from respondents in Shanghai and in Taipei are that Shanghai respondents are more ethnocentric than Taipei respondents. Furthermore, ethnocentric consumers in Shanghai believe domestic brands of mobile phones are the best choices, while ethnocentric consumers in Taipei think domestic brands of mobile phones are the second best. Ethnocentrism has a strong influence on preferences of domestic brands. Ethnocentric consumers in both cities were relatively older, with lower educational levels, and had been travelling abroad fewer times in the past 3 years. Results of this study indicated that different patterns of consumer ethnocentrism existed in sub‐cultural Chinese societies. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An Analysis of the Purchasing Characteristics on the Friendly Food of the Consumers in Shanghai, China

An Analysis of the Purchasing Characteristics on the Friendly Food of the Consumers in Shanghai, China

Recovering the Good Earth: China’s Growing Organic Market

People whose impressions of Chinese food exports are colored by reports of contaminated pet food or pesticide-laced dumplings might not expect China to have much of an organic market. They would be wrong. According to “The Greening of China’s Food: Green Food, Organic Food, and Eco-labelling,” a paper presented at the May 2008 Sustainable Consumption and Alternative Agri-Food Systems Conference, 28% of China’s arable land—just over 34 million hectares—is devoted to “eco-foods,” a designation that includes organic certification as well as China’s unique “green” and “hazard-free” categories of food. In an increasingly global food market, unexpected opportunities for farmers around the world are opening in unlikely places, such as China’s experiments with organic food. The world market for organic foods has soared, with sales growing by more than US$5 billion annually and doubling between 2000 and 2006, according to the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), an umbrella organization based in Bonn, Germany. That international trend explains why China and other countries—despite relatively little domestic demand for organic food—have become big players in the organic market. Organic farming in China is largely an export-oriented industry, with the main products for both export and import being cereals, soybeans, and tea, followed by some vegetables, fruits and meat. Yet, although China has instituted several eco-food certification systems, reports of lax inspections persist. “Regulation is an imperfect substitute for the accountability, and trust, built into a market in which food producers meet the gaze of eaters and vice versa,” author Michael Pollan writes in his 2008 book In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. In situations where farmers and consumers can’t meet face-to-face at the farmer’s market, however, some form of inspection is all that’s left to serve the interest of public health. How, then, is China adapting to secure the safety of its exports and the health of its own citizens?

Brand preferences and brand choices among urban Chinese consumers

Purpose – Aims to review, update, and extend the understanding of country‐of‐origin (COO) effects in China. This involves examining the nature and extent of the COO effect amongst urban Chinese consumers and the impact of COO on actual purchase behaviour.Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire is used to collect COO information from a sample of 432 Shanghai consumers and a consumer panel is used to track the purchase behaviour of the same consumers over 6 months.Findings – First, Chinese consumers generally say they prefer to buy local Chinese grocery brands. Second, Chinese consumers believe it is important to buy local brands for a range of Chinese‐style and Western‐style product categories. Third, however, the stated preference for Chinese brands was generally not reflected in actual purchase behaviour.Research limitations/implications – The results support the growing view that Chinese consumers are not necessarily attracted to foreign brands. However, the disparity between stated preferences an...

Exploring the Materialism and Conformity Motivations of Chinese Pirated Product Buyers

While Hong Kong and Mainland China are fused politically, they are in every other sense quite separate. Product piracy in China is a serious problem for multinationals wishing to do business there. This study attempts to gain a greater understanding of the profile of buyers of pirated products in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Issues examined include buyers purchasing behavior, materialistic attitudes and conformity motivation. Two major categories of pirated products were explored: pirated VCDs and pirated clothing and accessories. Personal interviews with more than 700 Hong Kong and Shanghai consumers who knowingly buy pirated products revealed that in both cities pirated products are most often purchased for the buyers and/or their families, and are identified mainly by their price and buying location. Shanghai tended to have a higher number of heavy buyers of pirated products than Hong Kong. Indeed, location was significant in predicting heavy and light pirated product buyers. While materialism did not effectively distinguish heavy from light buyers within either city, conformity was found to have a positive effect on the purchase of pirated VCDs in Hong Kong. Based on the findings, recommendations are made for reducing the market demand for pirated products, and for future research.

Chinese perceptions of western‐branded denim jeans: a Shanghai case study

Purpose – To provide marketing and managerial insights to western companies selling denim jeans in China, specifically in Shanghai. Understanding consumers' perceptions of Western‐branded jeans in a cultural‐specific marketplace is the primary focus. Design/methodology/approach – Combined methods included observation of shoppers wearing jeans in two malls in Shanghai and an anonymous survey. A total of 219 surveys were analyzed and consumer‐perceived jeans attributes or related concepts were tabulated. Findings – About one third of the observed shoppers were wearing jeans, which signified a relatively high popularity of jeans as casual wear in Shanghai. The design and fashion of jeans were deemed highly critical but were superseded by comfort and fit. Shanghai consumers distinguished brand origins only between the West and the East instead of by specific countries. Dissatisfaction with price and fit were identified. Research limitations/implications – Questions were designed to screen out respondents who had not purchased and had no desire to purchase western denim jeans brands. Limiting the sample in this way offered some control for behavioral patterns, but conclusions are limited. Practical implications – Content analysis of an open‐ended question about consumers' perceptions of western‐branded jeans helped discern attributes of jeans that consumers deemed most important. Marketers of western jeans can develop effective marketing strategies in tune with consumer preferences. Originality/value – This paper researched consumers' perceptions of western denim jeans, a type of world dress, in a booming but foreign market in western eyes. The open‐ended question solicited consumers' free responses, which in turn helped pin‐point attributes of jeans that Chinese consumers value the most.

Consumer Behavior in China: An Exploratory Study of Two Cities

ABSTRACT Many multinational enterprises have not been successful in China. According to the literature, one of the reasons for their failure appears to be that planning has been centered on country-wide data, with little attention being paid to regional, social and cultural differences. This study shows the necessity of moving away from broad assumptions about China and the necessity of understanding China's regional and urban differences. There is much hearsay among expatriate managers in China and among others with respect to the supposed sophistication and mores of Shanghainese consumers. They are often described as being formal, fashion conscious and critical. To explore the assumptions that underpin this idea, and ideas like it, our research compared upscale consumers in Shanghai and Chengdu and the motivations and processes involved in making a purchase of a so called “shopping good.” We chose apparel as a proxy for a shopping good, on the grounds that it has high consumer involvement and recall. Our data reveal some important differences between the buying patterns in the two cities. They have pragmatic managerial implications for western multinational firms wanting to tap the top layer of the vast market of 1.3 billion Chinese people. Specifically, they demonstrate a need for adaptation of marketing strategies to reflect significant differences based on geographic location and the derivative differences in lifestyles.

The Dynamics of Chinese Consumers

Chinese consumers have been the most dynamic driving forces during China's two decades of reforms. The purpose of this research is to get insight into the Shanghai consumers' consumption, perceptions, and uses with regard to food products. It provides detailed information about consumers' consumption habits, market outlet choices and consumption trends. Furthermore, this paper identifies the most important variables which influence the frequency of consumers' consumption of selected food products.

Explaining Green Purchasing Behavior

This study examines the applicability of the Theory of Planned Behavior to green purchasing behavior in the Chinese and American cultural settings. To this end, consumers in Shanghai and Los Angeles were surveyed and the relevant structural equation modeling analysis indicates the satisfactory external validity of the model in explaining eco-friendly purchases of the Chinese and American consumers. Despite the general universality of the model, the cross-group analysis highlights that both subjective norm and perceived behavioral control exert stronger influences on Chinese consumers' behavioral intention than on American consumers. Moreover, the translation of green purchasing intention to corresponding behavior is found to be more effective in the American sample. These cross-group variances are likely to be attributed to cultural differences and discrepancies in the environmental development of the two nations, and would provide policy makers and green marketers useful insights into fine-tuning their pervasive and intervening strategies.

Shopping Behavior under the Rapidly Changing Retail Environment of Shanghai

Though faced with the Asian currency crisis in 90's, China keeps the high economic growth rate. In Shanghai, the most modernized region in China, many urban redevelopment projects are under way. They include the Pudong district, which is famous for its newly developed huge New Town with a city center of skyscrapers, and many urban renewal programs at the old city center area near Nanjing Road, which has been recently renovated as the pedestrian walkway with colored tiled pavement. Many parts of Shanghai, whether they are new or old, are drastically changing their physical figures.On the other hand, retail business categories such as convenience store, supermarket, and hypermarket, which are new for China, have emerged and spread out rapidly. In fact, the first convenience store opened just three years ago, but now more than 1, 000 convenience stores are running. Consumers in Shanghai have adapted to these rapidly changing retail environments. It is no exaggeration to say that the future spatial structure of urban retail system will hinge on the course of the changes of consumer behaviors.Few studies, however, have been carried out to empirically clarify the actual behavior of consumers at urban China. With this in mind, for the first time we have conducted two surveys on consumer behaviors in Shanghai. One is the on-site survey on consumer shop-around behavior at the city center retail environment near Nanjing Road and the other the home-based diary survey on shopping behavior of consumers at suburban residential areas.Based on the latter diary survey, this paper tries to clarify the characteristics of consumer's shopping behaviors. We first classify shopping destinations into three categories: neighborhood shopping street, suburban shopping center, and central commercial district. Then we analyze how consumers allocate their shopping trips and expenditure among these three categories.Using above micro-data of consumer's behavior, we have shown that the central commercial district is characterized by less frequent with high expense shopping behavior and the neighborhood shopping street by high frequent with less expense shopping behavior. We also have shown that the difference of the age and income of consumers leads to different allocation patterns of shopping trip and expenditure among three destinations. In particular, we have shown that the shopping behavior of the age group of lOs to 20s is quite different from other age groups above 30 since they are much oriented to central commercial district in contrast to the other age groups oriented to neighborhood shopping street.

Country-of-origin Effect on Chinese Consumers' Apparent Perceptions of Foreign-brand and Chinese-brand Apparel: An Experimental Study

Many companies are keenly interested in selling in the People's Republic of China's market; however, doing business with China is a great challenge. To compete successfully, companies must make an effort to understand the China market. Unfortunately, research into what Chinese consumers want from foreign-brand apparel and how they perceive it has been lacking. The purpose of this exploratory research was to investigate Chinese consumers' perceived quality, perceived price, and purchase willingness toward foreign-brand apparel compared with Chinese-brand apparel. The research instrument was administered to 200 male consumers in Shanghai, China, who answered a questionnaire while they viewed three identical men's dress shirts, each with a fictitious country-of-origin label. The consumer sample included men of different ages, occupations, incomes, and education levels. Data were statistically analyzed to determine whether there were significant differences as a result of fictitious brand origins. Findings indicated that Chinese consumers' attitudes toward foreign-brand apparel were more favorable than those toward identical Chinese-brand apparel. Perceived quality, perceived price, and purchase willingness toward foreign-brand apparel were all significantly higher for foreign-brand shirts. Results of this research should help manufacturers and marketers improve the likelihood of success in doing business with Chinese consumers.