Essays on contemporary Chinese consumer behavior
Date issued
Authors
Editors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
License
Abstract
This dissertation has a broad research goal of understanding the behavior of Chinese consumers. In four essays, it investigates the purchasing behavior and the responses toward various contemporary marketing and branding strategies via experiments and surveys. It identifies four issues that are of particular relevance in China. These issues are the role of corporate brand dominance, the importance of face concerns, unethical invitation to provide positive online reviews, and the role of consumer trust in direct selling and online shopping.
In the first essay titled “Consumer Attributions Toward Brand-Harm Crisis: The Role of Corporate Brand Dominance”, the study examines consumer attribution formation regarding two types of negative brand publicity (namely performance-related and morality-related). It also examines the moderating role of corporate brand dominance in the relationship between negative brand publicity and consumer attributions. Corporate brand dominance is associated with corporate branding strategy and refers as the visibility of a firm's corporate brand in product communications. Experimental results show that the effect of negative brand publicity on consumer attributions is moderated by corporate brand dominance. When corporate brand dominance is high (vs. low), consumers are more inclined to form non-firm-related locus of causality and uncontrollability attributions in response to performance-related negative brand publicity. However, in response to morality-related negative brand publicity, consumers are more inclined to form firm-related locus of causality and controllability attributions when corporate brand dominance is high (vs. low). Marketing or brand managers may make use of the findings to formulate their corporate branding strategy based on the likelihood of their type of negative brand publicity that may happen.
In the second essay titled “The Effect of Face Concern on Hospitality Brands Associated with Corporate Social Responsibility”, the study examines how Chinese consumers evaluate brands associated with corporate social responsibility (CSR), with a focus on hospitality industry. Face is a positive image of self and is affirmed through interaction with others. Since a person’s association with CSR brands can maintain his or her positive self-image, the purchase of CSR brands may contribute to face enhancement. It suggests that Chinese consumers with a high (vs. low) face concern would have better quality perception and higher purchase intentions and propensity to provide positive word-of-mouth for hospitality brands with strong CSR associations. In addition, the favorable impact of face concern will be more pronounced in public than in private service settings. Results from three experimental studies support these arguments. For restaurants involving CSR activities, they may appeal to customers about the enhancement of face in their marketing communications.
The third essay titled “The Impact of Unethical Online Review Invitation on Consumer Responses: The Role of Shopping Experience and Altruism” investigates the effects of unethical online review invitation on consumers’ biased review intentions and their trust in the sellers and e-retailer review system. The moderating roles of shopping experience and altruism are examined as well. In order to examine the proposed hypotheses, two experimental studies were performed. The findings show that rewarded online review invitation will negatively affect consumers’ attitude toward a brand and the firm. As a result, business firms should not adopt such marketing communication strategy. Rewarded reviews would induce consumers’ distrust in the seller’s rating record and credibility. More importantly, spillover effect may occur and consumers’ distrust in a seller can generalize to the entire e-retailer review system.
Finally, the fourth essay titled “Exploring Trust in Direct Selling and Online Shopping” explores Chinese consumers’ perception of risk and trust in direct selling and online shopping situations. This research is exploratory in nature and consists of two major studies. The first study examines the dimensions of interpersonal trust which would affect the buyer-salesperson relationship in a direct selling situation. It also investigates consumers’ perceived risk and advantages of direct selling. Questionnaire survey of consumers and non-consumers of direct selling companies was conducted. The results show that there are six dimensions of interpersonal trust in the buyer-seller relationship in direct selling. Unsolicited telephone call (such as telemarketing) is found to have the highest perceived risk and the ability to shop at home is found to have the highest advantage rating of direct selling. The second study was designed as an exploratory study using a personal interview survey in which samples were chosen independently from a number of major cities in China. Two different measures of trust were used (i.e., Cognitive Trust, and Organization Trust). For one measure of trust, Cognitive Trust, there is a significant difference between the two shopping approaches (online shopping vs. direct selling) with the value of trust generally being greater for direct selling. In contrast, for Organization Trust, the second measure of trust, the value is greatest for online shopping. This is the first study to examine trust in both online shopping and direct selling in the same study. A set of research propositions are proposed which can serve as guides for formal testing in future research.