消費(fèi)者行為的全球趨同研究

1、消費(fèi)者行為的全球趨同研究global convergence和global divergencePart 1 Theoretical FoundationsClements, Kenneth W. and Dongling Chen. Fundamental similarities in consumer behavior. Applied Economics, Vol. 28, no.6, 1996.They analyzed different consumer behavior patterns from different countries by studying a wide r

2、ange of goods data within time sequence. They did a comparative study with the consumer price index number, finding that consumer behavior in different countries began to appear a number of similarities. For, example, Japanese, who traditionally favor fish, had started to accept and love to eat beef

3、, while the fish consumption of those countries who always ate pork had been also rising. Analogously, the rice consumption in Western countries was keeping rising, while the amount of barley consumed in Eastern countries were falling. Traditionally, what drink was loved in southern Europe was liquo

4、r, which has been gradually replaced by beer, while the liquor Nordic drinker was keeping in a steady rise. During the 45 years time between 1950 and 1995, the proportion of beer consumption of Nordic to southern European dropped from a maximum of 9 times to 2.2 times which was the lowest, while the

5、 liquor ratio of drinkers in Southern Europe in the amount of Nordic consumer dropped from 11.7 times in 1950 to 1.8 times in 1995. To some certain extent, these studies provided the evidence of the convergence of consumer behavior in different countries. However, such studies just remained in a mac

6、ro level, and did not relate to the problems in the consumer behavior patterns, such as purchase motivation, attitude action.The Eshghi and Sheth (1985)十分抱歉，這篇文獻(xiàn)是別的中文論文的引用中找到的，因?yàn)閿?shù)據(jù)有限，也實(shí)在找不到。煩請(qǐng)您自己在國(guó)外的數(shù)據(jù)庫中搜索下。 They compared the differences of traditional life style and modern life style in four countr

7、ies. Findings proved that different lifestyles had significantly effects on consumer behaviors; the national and cultural influences also existed, but if adding the country element as an independent variable to the analysis model, the effects of modern life style on consumer behaviors were not weake

8、ned. This, to some extent, declared that there exist strong common features in peoples behavior who were advocating modern lifestyle.Zaichkowsky,Judith L.and James H. Sood. A global look at consumer involvement and use of products. International Marketing Revise, Vol.6, no.1, 1988.They did a compara

9、tive study of the use of 8 kinds of productions and services and the consumer involvement in 15 countries. The result is that with the influence of national factors, the difference degree of use pattern between flight traveling, restaurants and shampoo was the hugest; the difference degree of the co

10、nsumer involvement between watching movies and buying soft drinks was the hugest. The use pattern and consumer involvement degree of audio equipment are less affected by nation factor. Their research provided strong evidence to the view that products with high-tech were most likely to be welcome by

11、the whole globe.Huszagh, Sandra M., Richard J. Fox and Ellen Day. Global Marketing: An Empirical investigation. Columbia Journal of World Business, Vol. XX, no.4, 1986.They studied what products can have similar acceptance rates in different countries, and whether the product features can explain it

12、. Based on that, they analyzed the globalization of customer behavior. The results showed that the durable the personal goods always shared a higher acceptance rate, which to some extent supported Levitts view: products which can be touched by consumers should be sold with a global marketing view.Da

13、war,Niraj and Philip M.Parker. Marketing Universals: Consumers use of brand name, price, physical appearance, and retailer reputation as signals of product quality. Journal of Marketing, Vol. 58, no.2, 1994They studied four kinds of quality signals used by consumers from 38 countries when they were

14、in the purchase of household appliances: the brand name, price, appearance of the product, the retailers reputation. The results showed that these four signals were referred by consumers from different countries in a considerable order when buying electrical appliances. The signal order is as follow

15、s: brand name, price, appearance, and retailer reputation.Susan P. Douglas, Yoram Wind. The Myth of Globalization. 1987He proposed some assumptions that the demands and purchasing orientations are getting much more similar than before, which is mainly shown by the selecting and preference on the pri

16、ce, characteristics, features, etc.Theodore Levitt. The globalization of markets. 1983He thought that it was the development of technologies, such as the information technology, transportation technology, that drove the world to become common. People from isolated places will share similar demands a

17、nd experiences, which would drive he global market to be more assimilative. He then used hundreds of examples to prove that so many outstanding firms had paid attention on their customers, in order to offer better products with a globalized view.Keillor, B.D. & Fields, D.M. Perceptions of a Foreign

18、Service offering in an overseas Market. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 1996, 9, pp83-104.They pointed out that the culture was a key factor which had influences on customer behavior. They found that customers with various culture backgrounds tend to have different perspectives on produ

19、cts. This definitely resulted in different cognitions, attitudes and affections in customer behaviors. They also proposed that, when multi-joints made marketing strategies, the culture characteristics of the target market should be taken into consideration.Marslow. Hierarchy of NeedsHe proposed that

20、 in the American society where there exist strong individualism, consumers will rely more on public information on the mass media purchases, rather than the individual verbal propaganda when they were in purchase; they would make their own decision according to their substantive needs. So their purc

21、hase behavior is more rational and pragmatic. However, the Chinese consumers who have strong collectivist characteristic will put more emphasis on the personal opinions of their relatives, friends, colleagues when they are in search of products information, and sometimes they will suppress their buy

22、ing preferences with considering the view of their families. In the some developing countries, consumers are likely to pursue high levels of demand even when their basic needs are not met.Solomon. Conspicuous Consumption, 1994He named this above said kind of consumer behavior as conspicuous consumpt

23、ion behavior. In a research report on the Indian consumer behavior analysis, he studied the Indian Potlach party which is a way to invite friends to have a dinner. In Potlach party, the host family shows off their wealth by giving extravagant or exaggerated gift to guests. The luxury and amount of t

24、he gift show that the hosts noble identity and the status. Sometimes, in Potlach party, the host family will damage their property to show the rich. Professor Solomon also found that, in some Third World countries, consumers would be scrimp and save to buy a refrigerator, even though there was almos

25、t nothing can be refrigerated. Because refrigerator will make them feel a sense of security and a certain social status and let them feel self-respect. Many similar studies showed that consumer behaviors which are born in different national cultures are quite different from each other. This is exact

26、ly the source of the international marketing theory that multinational companies should keep a keen observation and quick adaptation on the differences of the national environments to create a competitive advantage.Sproles,George.B. and Elizabeth L. Kendall. Methodology for profiling Consumers Decis

27、ion-Making Styles, the Journal of Consumer Affairs,1986, 20(2):267-279They organized the literatures on consumer behavior research, and summarized that consumer decision-making can be classified style with three kinds of methods:I. lifestyle / psychographic classification method;II. The consumer typ

28、ology;III. The consumer characteristics approach. However, these methods cannot explain consumer behavior very well. Based on the previous studies, Sproles (1985) firstly developed a simple model to study the consumer decision-making style, and made a conclusion of six kinds of decision-making style

29、: Perfectionist Style, the Value -Conscious Style, Brand Conscious Style, Novelty-and- Fashion Conscious Style, Shopping Avoider (the Time Saver Style), Confused and Support-Seeker style.In order to further explain how the consumer decision-making style will guide consumers decisions (for example, c

30、onsumers may show price consciousness, popular consciousness or brand consciousness),Sproles and Kendall (1986) developed a customer decision-making style questionnaire (CSI) as a measurement tool of the consumers decisions, using factor analysis to explore the characteristics of consumer decision-m

31、aking style, and finally summed up eight kinds of consumer decision-making dimension:I. perfectionistic and high-quality conscious: This type of consumer will carefully search for products with the best quality. And usually they will not be satisfied with what they have and constantly striving for p

32、erfection.II. Brand consciousness - the price equals quality: consumers will tend to purchase the internationally famous brands, or products with the best sales and most advertisements. And they believe that high prices always represent high quality.III. Novelty-and-fashion conscious: this kind of c

33、onsumers prefers popular or novel products, and they can enjoy fun in the search for new things. They always focus on fashion, pursue the trend, and seek diversifyIV. Recreational and hedonistic: this kind of consumers treats shopping as an important leisure activity, and a pleasurable thing.V. Pric

34、e conscious and value-for-money: this kind of consumers has a preference for specials or discounted products. And they will save money by spending choosing time. So this type of consumer will carefully compare the prices, and their decisions are largely influenced by the price of a product.VI. Impul

35、sive and careless: consumers will be affected by the situation then, and will purchase products with impulse. Usually, they do not care about how much was spent or whether they did the best choice.VII. Confused by over-choice: this kind of consumers will feel disturbing and cannot make a decision-ma

36、king when shopping, because of the too much brand or product information.VIII. Habitual and brand-loyal: this kind of consumers is accustomed to their familiar shops and buys their familiar and favorite products again and again.After that, lots of scholars use the shopping decision-making style ques

37、tionnaire (CSI) designed by Sproles and Kendall (1986) to do the cross-cultural empirical research and explore the various shopping decision-making styles of consumers in different countries and cultural backgrounds, and influences from other consumer behavior variables.Hafstrom, Jeanne L. Jung Sook

38、 Chae, and Young sook Chung. Consumer Decision-Making Styles: Comparison between United States and Korean Young Consumers. The Journal of Consumer Affairs, 1992, 26(1): 146-158In the aspect of cross-cultural research, Hafstrom, Chae and Chung, et al. used this questionnaire to explore young Korean c

39、onsumers decision-making style. The study results showed that the CSI can be applied to the measurement of young Korean consumers shopping decision-making styles. Compared with the eight dimensions of the decision-making style of the U.S. customers, the Novelty-and-fashion conscious dimension did no

40、t appear in young Korean consumers shopping decision-making style system.Durvasula, S.,Lysonski,S., Andrews,J.C.(1993). Cross-cultural generalizability of a scale for profiling consumers decision-making styles. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 27, 55-65.Durvasula, Lysonski and Andrews examined the appli

41、cation capacity of the CSI in the measurement of consumer shopping decision-making style in cross-cultural research with students New Zealand University as objects. The results showed that compared with the experimental objects from the U.S., college students from New Zealand supported this measurem

42、ent tool better, but not every result are the same. Lysonski, Steven, Srini Durvasula, and Yiorgos Zotos.Consumer Decision-Making Styles: A Multi-Country Investigation. European Journal of Marketing,1996.Lysonski, Durvasual and Zotos examined the consumer shopping decision-making style questionnaire

43、 (CSI) using the university students in Greece, India, New Zealand and the United States as objects, in order to verify its applicability in the cross-cultural research. Eventually, they found that some items in CSI do not apply to Greece and India, but basically it can be used in different countrie

44、s.Fan, Jessie X. and Jing J, Xiao.Consumer Decision-Making Styles of Young-Adult Chinese. The Journal of Consumer Affairs. 1998.32(2):275-293.Basing on the SCI developed by Sproles, et al. (1986), Fan and Xiao proposed an amendatory consumer shopping decision-making style questionnaire. This questio

45、nnaire contained seven consumer decision-making oriented structural factors: brand recognition oriented factor, prevalence recognition orientated factor, quality recognition orientated factor, price recognition-orientated factor, time recognition orientated factor (i.e., leisure oriented factor), im

46、pulse (including habit) orientated factor and information recognition orientated factor (i.e., decision-making troubled factor). Fan and Xiao (1998) did an empirical study with some Chinese college students basing on this questionnaire, and the results showed that the impulse (including habit) orien

47、tated factor and prevalence recognition orientated factor did not appear in the factors of shopping decision-making style. And they thought that the main reason lay in the differences between the economic development of different regions and cultural diversities.Part 2 Primary Research ProposalAcade

48、mic context and backgroundIn the late 20th century, one of the most striking features of the world political and economic development is the rising tide of globalization. In fact, since Columbus discovered the New World in the 15th century, the human has begun the process of globalization from the o

49、riginal closed state to an open integration. However, during the four hundred years before World War II, this process was only the regional culture and power integration, which could not yet called true globalization, but only as a slow progress of internationalization. After World War II, especiall

50、y after the Cold War, in the promotion of the new technological revolution, along with the international movement of capital and commodities, the world globalization process has been greatly accelerated, and gradually extended to various areas of social life.The most important symbol of the globaliz

51、ation is the globalization of the market economy, and at the same time, the market economy itself is the most powerful accelerators of globalization. By its essence, driven by the interests, market forces can break through the barriers and shackles of the state, nation, religion, culture, and accord

52、ingly the worlds production and daily life would be more and more closely fused.Needless to say, the foundation of globalization is the globalization of production, and the globalization of production is the result of the international division of labor and technological progress. As the main carrie

53、r of the globalization, multinational companies promote low-cost, standardized products to the world through foreign investment and foreign trade, gradually forming a unified global production, sales network. And they passed the almost standardized consumption method and lifestyle to every corner of

54、 the world through a lot of advertising around the world, which directly impact the preferences and choices of consumers. Coupled with the increasingly well-developed transportation and communications which are leading to the movement of persons and the dissemination of information, the styles of co

55、nsumption are further promoted to mutually penetrate and integrated. This kind of world-wide convergence in consumption conception and style caused by the globalization of production can be called the consumer globalization. We can see that the consumption globalization is the inevitable result of e

56、conomic globalization and the mass consumption is a kind of desire acquired in modern society. Follow the line of globalization of production - the globalization of trade and finance - the globalization of consumption, the process of globalization will continue to expand, promote and getting in-dept

57、h.The Consumer Globalization is changing peoples living condition and every aspects of life, which can be directly reflected in peoples life in terms of clothing, food, housing, transportation, communications, and entertainment. Now, such a phenomenon can be easily observed all over the world: peopl

58、e drink Coca-Cola, have food in McDonalds, KFC; they wear Nike and jeans, live in building block-style high-rise apartments, drive a Toyota or General Motors; they play online games on PC and use mobile telephone for communication and liaison; they watch Hollywood films . The worldwide consumption g

59、lobalization can be seen in clothes, food, sports and entertainment, and technological innovation networking products, most of which should have been various among every culture and region. In the era of globalization, consumption will no longer exist as a kind of pure individual behavior.Even though the convergence of consumption is a direct result of the globalization of production, consumers al