This research is a study of purchasing intentions and behaviors in China. Consumers from four key cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Guangzhou were studied and differences in intentions and behavior as well as influences on behavior were analyzed. The results of the study provide greater depth to understanding consumer behavior in China and insight into likely responses to marketing strategies. Interviews with Chinese marketing experts were conducted and surveys were administered to samples of the target populations. Interviews assisted in understanding many of the general stereotypes held with respect to various ethnicities and helped with explaining some of the reasons for differences found. The study’s results are categorized into five areas. First, with respect to general purchasing intentions the study found that Chinese consumers from key cities differ significantly with respect to most of the purchasing intentions measured including inclination to try to new products, brand loyalty, use of discount cards, and willingness to purchase substitute brands. Based on five measures of conservatism, Beijing and Shanghai consumers were found to exhibit more conservative consumption behaviors than Chongqing and Guangzhou consumers. Chongqing and Guangzhou consumers are more likely than consumers in Shanghai and Beijing to wait for a friend's recommendation before buying a new brand. Second, with respect to brand choices, the study found that Beijing consumers tend to be more ethnocentric in their purchasing behavior in comparison to consumers from other key cities. The study also found a moderate association between ethnicity and brand purchase repertoire in most product categories. Third, with respect to reasons for purchases, the study found that generally there was only limited association between ethnicity and the reason for selecting brands. Consumers most often cited quality as the main reason for purchase. Fourth, with respect to actual brand purchase frequencies, the study found that Beijing consumers made more frequent purchases more often than other consumers in half of the categories studied. Chongqing consumers tend to purchase favorite brands less frequently than consumers from other key cities. Fifth, with respect to knowledge of country of origin and country of manufacture and their influences on intentions, the study found that for most product categories (nine of twelve studied) country of origin was an important consideration in the purchase decision. In general, many Chinese consumers are misinformed about brands’ country of origin. The research provides insight into important purchase cues and moderators impacting brand choice behavior.

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.

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.

This thesis aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the Chinese marketing environment, which would enable companies to understand the fundamental characteristics of Chinese market. The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter serves as an introduction to theoretical basis, the second chapter is devoted to modern history and the basic characteristics of Chinese culture. PEST Analysis of China's marketing environment is a key part of the thesis. The fifth chapter focuses on Chinese consumer behavior, including predictions of changes which can be occured as a result of specific demographic trends, increasing disposable income of Chinese households, the actual consumer preferences, etc. Trough the analysis of marketing environment and consumer behaviour the thesis provides the recommendation for the marketing mix creation.

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.

The demand for imported fruit in China has increased dramatically since it first appeared in Chinese markets around 1993. Although imported fruit is much more expensive than domestically produced fruit and people’s income is much lower in China than in developed countries, imported fruit still attracts many willing buyers. Conventional concepts such as meeting basic needs or increasing consumer awareness of the importance of fresh fruit to a healthy lifestyle cannot adequately explain this phenomenon, as there is an abundance of fresh, cheap, local produce available in almost every Chinese market. There must be other factors influencing buying behaviour. To explore these factors and to examine the dynamics of the market for imported fruit, this research adopted a mixed qualitative-quantitative methodology guided by the paradigm of phenomenology. The research examined the characteristics of imported fruit itself, criteria imposed by Chinese buyers on these characteristics, the intended uses of imported fruit and their associated consumption values. To shed light on the possible influence of socio-economic factors, the research also compared buyers from two Chinese cities, Guangzhou and Urumqi. The former is one of the most developed cities in China and the latter is regarded as among the more backward and conservative cities in China. The research identified ten attributes that appeal to Chinese buyers. Six relate to the fruit’s physical attributes: that it has better appearance and packaging, lower chemical residues, better or different taste, and freshness. The remaining four relate to symbolic attributes associated with the fruit: that it represents achievement, wealth, personality and social status. Five intended uses of imported fruit were identified: for gifts, self-consumption, children, aged parents and patients. Four consumption values underlying these intentions were also identified: symbolism, concern for health, meeting basic needs and hedonism. However, the research revealed that no single combination of intended use and consumption value drives the demand for imported fruit in the Chinese market. Most frequently, it is a mix of hedonic and symbolic values behind a range of different intended uses that stimulates demand. Pursuing hedonic and symbolic values also leads to the visual quality of imported fruit generally being the most appealing attribute to Chinese buyers, a pattern common to both Guangzhou and Urumqi. These findings make a significant contribution to empirical knowledge about Chinese consumer behaviour. Results provide valuable insights into the interrelationships among product attributes, intended uses, consumption values and cultural values, and would give essential guidance to the development of strategies to market imported fruit in China. The research also examined limitations of current analytical approaches to the study of consumer behaviour. It demonstrated that approaches based on neural networks and fuzzy logic could be used independently or combined with conventional statistical methods to improve the explanation of consumer behaviour in this case. A comparison was carried out between the most popular form of neural networks (feedforward networks) and multivariate statistical methods in terms of their ability to predict behavioural intention through consumers’ attitudes towards products. Results demonstrated that neural networks were capable of capturing nonlinear aspects of complex relationships and producing better predictions than conventional statistical models. To explore consumer cognitive patterns, the research also compared K-means clustering with a Self-organizing Map (SOM) neural network in terms of the ability to cluster consumers on the basis of perceptions towards imported fruit attributes. Results indicate a superior outcome when K-means is used in conjunction with SOM in clustering analysis: using SOM to determine the ‘natural’ numbers of clusters and using K-means to do clustering. Finally, to quantitatively evaluate the impact of consumption values, this research develops a new approach that combines Means-end Chain theory with fuzzy logic theory. Given the global importance of the Chinese market, the successful application of neural networks and fuzzy logic in this study of the behaviour of Chinese consumers purchasing imported fruit could have wider ramifications. If the approach were proven in other applications, it could significantly improve the ability to understand the demand for consumer goods in China.

The demand for imported fruit in China has increased dramatically since it first appeared in Chinese markets around 1993. Although imported fruit is much more expensive than domestically produced fruit and people’s income is much lower in China than in developed countries, imported fruit still attracts many willing buyers. Conventional concepts such as meeting basic needs or increasing consumer awareness of the importance of fresh fruit to a healthy lifestyle cannot adequately explain this phenomenon, as there is an abundance of fresh, cheap, local produce available in almost every Chinese market. There must be other factors influencing buying behaviour. To explore these factors and to examine the dynamics of the market for imported fruit, this research adopted a mixed qualitative-quantitative methodology guided by the paradigm of phenomenology. The research examined the characteristics of imported fruit itself, criteria imposed by Chinese buyers on these characteristics, the intended uses of imported fruit and their associated consumption values. To shed light on the possible influence of socio-economic factors, the research also compared buyers from two Chinese cities, Guangzhou and Urumqi. The former is one of the most developed cities in China and the latter is regarded as among the more backward and conservative cities in China. The research identified ten attributes that appeal to Chinese buyers. Six relate to the fruit’s physical attributes: that it has better appearance and packaging, lower chemical residues, better or different taste, and freshness. The remaining four relate to symbolic attributes associated with the fruit: that it represents achievement, wealth, personality and social status. Five intended uses of imported fruit were identified: for gifts, self-consumption, children, aged parents and patients. Four consumption values underlying these intentions were also identified: symbolism, concern for health, meeting basic needs and hedonism. However, the research revealed that no single combination of intended use and consumption value drives the demand for imported fruit in the Chinese market. Most frequently, it is a mix of hedonic and symbolic values behind a range of different intended uses that stimulates demand. Pursuing hedonic and symbolic values also leads to the visual quality of imported fruit generally being the most appealing attribute to Chinese buyers, a pattern common to both Guangzhou and Urumqi. These findings make a significant contribution to empirical knowledge about Chinese consumer behaviour. Results provide valuable insights into the interrelationships among product attributes, intended uses, consumption values and cultural values, and would give essential guidance to the development of strategies to market imported fruit in China. The research also examined limitations of current analytical approaches to the study of consumer behaviour. It demonstrated that approaches based on neural networks and fuzzy logic could be used independently or combined with conventional statistical methods to improve the explanation of consumer behaviour in this case. A comparison was carried out between the most popular form of neural networks (feedforward networks) and multivariate statistical methods in terms of their ability to predict behavioural intention through consumers’ attitudes towards products. Results demonstrated that neural networks were capable of capturing nonlinear aspects of complex relationships and producing better predictions than conventional statistical models. To explore consumer cognitive patterns, the research also compared K-means clustering with a Self-organizing Map (SOM) neural network in terms of the ability to cluster consumers on the basis of perceptions towards imported fruit attributes. Results indicate a superior outcome when K-means is used in conjunction with SOM in clustering analysis: using SOM to determine the ‘natural’ numbers of clusters and using K-means to do clustering. Finally, to quantitatively evaluate the impact of consumption values, this research develops a new approach that combines Means-end Chain theory with fuzzy logic theory. Given the global importance of the Chinese market, the successful application of neural networks and fuzzy logic in this study of the behaviour of Chinese consumers purchasing imported fruit could have wider ramifications. If the approach were proven in other applications, it could significantly improve the ability to understand the demand for consumer goods in China.

Background: The widespread use of social media has offered brands a great opportunity to engage with their customers and promote sales. In China’s mobile gaming market, the huge user base of social media marketing provides companies with an excellent opportunity to develop their brand image and cultivate further awareness. However, the research regarding social media marketing’s influence on mobile game’s brand equity is still limited from a literary perspective. Purpose: Firstly, the research aims to identify the factors of social media marketing that influencing mobile game companies’ brand equity. Secondly, this research will evaluate the importance of identified impact factors. Method: In order to investigate the research subjects and answer research question properly, the positivism research paradigm has been implemented in this research. In addition, the deductive reasoning approach is applied to formulate and test hypotheses to generate reliable results with a high level of generalization and prediction. The theoretical foundation of this research has been formulated through the frame of reference. Then, the quantitative research methods were applied to the collection and analysis of the data. The primary data has been collected through a survey and the samples have been randomly selected. The main method for the data analysis was regression analysis. Conclusion: In general, the research has demonstrated that social media marketing is a useful tool to develop brand equity for mobile game companies in the Chinese consumer market. Brand popularity and information quality are considered the most important influential factors of social media marketing on mobile game company’s brand equity in China.

Background: The sociodemographic characteristics of consumers, as important determinants of consumer behavior, has not received much attention in research on Country of Origin (COO) effect. In practical, the rapid progress of urbanization in China has brought great demand in the furniture and home-decoration market. Sweden has variety of world-famous furniture and home-decoration brands and most of these have established business in China. There has rarely been research on Chinese consumers’ perceptions of Swedish furniture and home-decoration brands. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of Chinese consumers’ sociodemographic characteristics on COO product image in terms of Swedish furniture and home-decoration products and how this affects and influences purchase intentions. Methods: Quantitative research is used in this study through a survey based on an online questionnaire. We test our research model with seven hypotheses based on the survey consisting of 269 valid questionnaires from Chinese consumers. Findings: This empirical study investigates Chinese consumers’ perceptions of Country of Origin image in their evaluation of Swedish furniture and home-decoration products and examines how these are affected by consumers’ sociodemographic characteristics. Taking into account the distinct situation of the Chinese market, we disentangle sociodemographic aspects: age, gender, education and individual income, especially in terms of overseas experience and the scale of city in which the consumer lives. We posit that Chinese consumers’ perceptions of Swedish furniture and home-decoration products vary across distinct facets of sociodemographics. Our finding is that age, education, overseas experience and scale of city do have a significant effect on COO product image, but that age and individual income do not significant influence COO product image.

Title Evaluation of Factors Affecting the Decision-Making Process of Sneaker Purchase among Chinese Post 90s Consumers. Background Sneakers have become an essential part of the younger generation's wardrobe in today's society, reflecting the millennial drive for comfort and leisure. It ultimately portrays a playful and stylish image among post-90s consumers. In the colossal sneaker market, various factors influence consumers' purchasing decisions.  Purpose The study's objective is to analyse the factors affecting the decision making process of Chinese post-90s consumers in purchasing sneakers. It explores factors behind consumers' purchasing behaviors that are special and different from those of consumers in other parts of the world in the vast market of China. The study focuses on strengthening the knowledge on the topic. Additionally, the study will provide information on what drives China's post-90s consumers' buying decisions on sneakers. Marketers will be able to analyse the factors and come up with services or sneaker products that satisfy consumers. The paper will summarize the factors that influence consumers' purchasing decisions of sneakers by combining literature surveys and interviews.  Method Semi-structured interviews with 12 respondents were conducted. Through the analysis and coding of the interview, the key influencing factors in consumer decision-making are identified. The literature review analysed the five steps of consumer decision-making progress. Conclusion: Consumers make purchase decisions primarily based on their liking for products. Marketers should reasonably position the product range that consumers like and recommend them. Friends' recommendations and discussions influence consumers' purchasing behavior. Establishing good product experience and after-sales service in the marketing process affects brand reputation.