Search results

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a study undertaken to investigate the effect of Chinese traditional cultural values on the gift‐giving behavior of consumers in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and to check the moderating effects of Chinese traditional cultural values on a consumer's purchase intention and self‐consistency.

Using a survey among a large sample of people in four cities, gift‐giving behavior, purchase intention and self‐consistency of the consumer in purchasing decisions were measured by the scale. The Chinese traditional cultural values include Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Factor analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were used to analyze the data.

Results indicates that Chinese traditional cultural values have significant moderating effects on gift‐buying intention accords with gift‐giver's image and purchase intention accords with gift‐receiver's image. Consumers with higher value orientation are more careful about consistency between gifts with self‐image and receiver's image.

Research results should be interpreted with caution as the study was limited to several major cities in the PRC. Also the questionnaire has neglected some people who did not fully understand the questions.

This study points out those Chinese traditional values that play an important role in gift‐buying decisions. Results will provide some professional opinion for some insider engage in gift marketing and add new viewpoints.

The paper develops new scales for measuring constructs such as Chinese traditional cultural values, attitude for gift‐giving and gift‐buying intention.

Using Hofstede’s cultural value model, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how Chinese employees’ cultural values differ according to firm ownership type such as state-, privately, and US-owned firms.

Data were collected from 367 Chinese employees working at firms located in Beijing.

Results showed that while Chinese employees in state-owned firms scored the highest in collectivism, those working at privately and US-owned firms scored higher for individualism. The score for long-term orientation was also higher in state-owned firms than in privately and US-owned firms. However, contrary to the expectation, the scores for Chinese employees for power distance in state-owned firms were lower than in the others, while the scores for masculinity in state-owned firms were higher than for the others. Chinese employees in all three types of firms showed lower scores than reported in previous studies for uncertainty avoidance.

This study contributes to a deepened understanding of how the cultural values of Chinese employees differ depending on firms’ ownership types, with significant implications for managers, who do business in China as they seek to establish management practices more closely aligned with the cultural values of Chinese employees.

This study may be the first attempt to examine how Chinese cultural values differ according to various ownership types. It suggests that Chinese employees at privately and US-owned firms have different cultural values from employees at state-owned firms, even though all three groups of employees are Chinese.

To address Generation Z’s role in the emerging workforce, this paper aims to examine Chinese Generation Z’s subjective well-being (SWB) during their internship in the hospitality and tourism industry through the lens of Chinese cultural values. It explores the extent to which Gen Zs identify with Chinese cultural values and the influences of Chinese cultural values on intern students’ SWB which, in turn, predicts their future job intentions in this industry.

This paper proposes a normative model to contextualize the multi-dimensional interactions between Chinese cultural values, intern students’ SWB, and their future job intentions in the hospitality and tourism industry. A survey as the main data collection method was used with 400 respondents in Macau, China in testing hypotheses and analyzing the direct and indirect effects of these interactions.

The paper provides empirical insights into the way that Generation Z’s SWB is influenced by Chinese cultural values. Findings show that Chinese intern students’ average SWB in the workplace was above average. It also suggests that two cultural dimensions can be identified as playing a significant and salient role in shaping their SWB in the workplace as well as their future job intentions, namely, attitudes toward work and job-related face values. However, no significant relationships with the other three dimensions of CCVs were found to influence their SWB or future job intentions, namely, attitudes toward people, moral discipline and status and relationship.

This research results may lack generalizability because the respondents chosen in Macau cannot be fully representative of Chinese Generation Z. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to widen the respondent base. Furthermore, cultural influences are tempered by many macro-contextual factors. Although this study focuses on unpacking Generation Z’s mental status from the level of national culture, other factors such as organizational considerations warrant future academic attention.

This paper addresses a research gap by identifying the influences of cultural values on the SWB of intern students which, in turn, affects their future job intentions in the hospitality and tourism industry.

The purpose of this article is to investigate the detailed relationships between Chinese cultural values (Confucian dynamism, individualism, masculinity, and power distance) and work values (self‐enhancement, contribution to society, rewards and stability, openness to change, and power and status) in an integrated model. Further attempts are also made to explain the above relationship in terms of different cultural exposure experiences.

The sample was collected from China (selected from after‐work classes for Chinese businessmen in China) and Australia (overseas Chinese living or working in Sydney) by questionnaires. Altogether, 185 respondents took part in the study. SEM was used to test the relationship between Chinese cultural values and work values, and difference analysis was employed to test the impact of respondents' Western cultural exposure experiences.

Interesting results are found concerning Chinese employees' cross‐cultural work values. The study not only confirms the impact of cultural values on work values, but also brings some new thoughts on Hoftstede's belief that instead of high masculinity and individualism, Confucian dynamism is the main cultural value to foster self‐enhancement and most work value of Chinese employees.

Because China is a complex country, the limited Chinese sample should not be taken as representative. The current study did not differentiate respondents' demographic differences. Hence some demographic variables may have produced some of the intergroup differences reported in this study.

The findings provide useful input for managers who are seeking to develop effective working relationships with Chinese counterparts.

This paper enriches existing Chinese values studies and serves as a starting point for future research concerning the detailed relationship between Chinese cultural values and work values.

The purpose of this study is to offer a better understanding of contemporary consumer behaviour. This study relates to the complex and value-laden phenomenon of “gift-giving” from the perspective of bicultural consumers. The focus was on the gift-giving practices of Chinese immigrants in Canada within both their current and their past residencies (Canada and China, respectively).

Conceptual guidelines for this study embodied the gift-giving conceptual framework of Sherry (1983) and Chinese cultural values on gift giving (Yau et al., 1999). A qualitative research study was implemented. Specifically, in-depth interviews with Chinese immigrant women mainly from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in Ontario, Canada, offered empirical evidence relating to the gestation stage of gift giving.

The findings indicate the complexity of acculturation in gift-giving practices. In terms of gift-giving occasions, Chinese immigrants in Canada, for the most part, adopted the Canadian gift-giving occasions. However, the important role of ethnicity in decision-making is found through their strong sense of differentiation between Chinese and Canadian gift receivers. The results also indicate some Chinese cultural values such as relationship, reciprocity and group orientation as being still important in shaping gift-giving practices, even after immigration to a new country quite distant from the homeland. One cautionary note is that some cultural values such as relationship can be common to both Chinese and Canadian cultural groups.

This research was conducted mainly in the GTA in Ontario, Canada. Future studies could address other large Canadian cities with significant bicultural Chinese populations such as Vancouver in British Columbia and Motreal in Quebec.

This research extends the knowledge of bicultural consumers by examining the evolving gift-giving practices of Chinese immigrants living in Canada. A good understanding of the cultural values important to bicultural consumers will help marketers to efficiently and effectively allocate their marketing resources in attracting these niche consumers.

This study has contributed to the broader field of marketing research. Specifically, the current study offers the importance of understanding values transference of bicultural consumers and their behaviours in integrating into the mainstream gift-giving cultural context.

This study has contributed by offering evidence of how a minority consumer group formed complex acculturation realities within a gift-giving consumption context. This contribution can be counted as a step towards theoretical advancement in the field of acculturation and of understanding bicultural consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a study undertaken to investigate the gift‐giving behavior of consumers in the People's Republic of China (PRC) during the Chinese New Year and the influence exerted by Chinese cultural values on such behavior.

Using a survey among a large sample of people in the city of Tianjin, gift‐giving behavior was measured by the importance accorded to gift‐giving, the amount given, the effort spent on gift selection and brand orientation when selecting gifts. The cultural values examined were renqing (human obligations), guanxi (relationship), yuan (destiny or fate), reciprocity, family orientation and Mianzi (face). Factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the data.

Results indicated that Chinese cultural values as a whole as well as most of its components investigated in this research had positive effects on the various gift‐giving behaviors. The “face” component was, however, found to affect only the importance attached to gift‐giving, the amount given and the choice of brand.

Research results should be interpreted with caution as the study was limited to Tianjin – one of the several major cities in the PRC. Also the Chinese New Year may not be representative of other occasions when gifts are exchanged.

The results of this investigation would benefit practitioners involved in the marketing of “gift items” in the PRC by providing them with a clear understanding of the general consumption patterns of the PRC urban consumers, insights into the various antecedents of gift‐giving and linking them with various aspects of Chinese cultural values. The research findings would also benefit researchers, academics and others interested in the PRC market by making them familiar with some of the salient aspects that characterize Chinese consumers.

This study develops a new model describing the relationships among values (Chinese cultural value and personal value), motivation for gift‐giving and gift‐giving behavior. It also develops new scales for measuring the constructs such as Chinese cultural values, motivation for gift‐giving and gift‐giving behavior.

Studies on cross-culture marketing often focus on either localization or globalization strategies. Based on data from pre-communist China (1912–1949), product hybridization – defined as a process or strategy that generates symbols, designs, behaviors and cultural identities that blend local and global elements – emerges as a popular intermediate strategy worthy of further inquiry. After examining the mechanisms and processes underlying this strategy, a schema for classifying product hybridization strategies is developed and illustrated. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Critical historical research method is applied to historical data and historical “traces” from pre-communist China’s corporate documents, memoirs, posters, advertisements, newspapers and secondhand sources.

Strategic interactions between domestic and foreign companies in pre-communist China fostered products and a city (Shanghai) containing Chinese and non-Chinese elements. Informed by historical traces and data from pre-communist China (1912-1949), a 2 × 2 classification schema relating company type (i.e. foreign or domestic) to values spectrum endpoint (i.e. domestic vs foreign) was formulated. This schema reflects the value of communication, negotiation and cultural (inter)penetration that accompanies cross-culture product flows.

Cross-culture marketing strategies meant to help companies satisfy diverse marketplace interests can induce a mélange of product design elements. Because product hybridization reflects reciprocity between domestic and foreign companies that embodies multiple interests and contrasting interpretations of product meanings, researchers should examine globalization and localization synergistically.

Strategies adopted by domestic and foreign companies in pre-communist China (1912–1949) can help contemporary companies design effective cross-culture marketing strategies in a global marketplace infused with competing meanings and interests.

Examining historical strategies adopted in pre-communist China (1912–1949) can inform contemporary marketers’ intuitions. Understanding product hybridization in global marketplaces can improve marketing efficiency.

In view of the scarcity of studies on the relationship between national culture and total quality management (TQM), this paper examines the impact of Chinese cultural values on the total quality climate. Using a sample of 189 ISO 9000 certified companies in Taiwan, results from structural equation modeling indicate that Chinese cultural values do have a positive and statistically significant influence on these organizations’ quality climate. Given the results from a quantitative viewpoint, some congruencies among Chinese values and quality climate elements are suggested. Although using the case of Chinese culture, the theoretical proposition raised should gain generalizability in other national cultures towards a culturalist approach to the theorization of TQM.

Current research aims to investigate the relationships between Chinese national cultural values (uncertainty avoidance (UA), power distance, masculinity (MAS), individualism (IDV) and Confucian dynamism) and accounting practices (professionalism, uniformity, conservatism and secrecy).

A sample of 842 users/preparers of financial statements participated in this cross-sectional, questionnaire-based survey from China. Covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) was used to test the proposed relationship.

Results show that cultural values strongly impact financial reporting practices in China. Chinese society is characterized by low UA, high power distance, collectivism, future orientation (Confucianism) and masculine traits. These values show an overall preference for uniformity, conservatism and secrecy in financial reporting with weak professionalism. The findings show that Chinese society emphasizes law abidance, strict codes of conduct, written rules and regulations and respect for consistent orthodox measures.

This study provides valuable input for policymakers in developing regulations and accounting standards in the Chinese market. Understanding the relationship between cultural dimensions and accounting values helps to address societal challenges and align policies with cultural values to acquire desired financial reporting values. Global firm managers must consider cultural dimensions in accounting when entering Chinese markets or negotiating with partners from different cultures. Findings also suggest local managers gain self-awareness of their cultural biases and accounting values, enabling them to navigate businesses and society's financial reporting needs.

This study enriches the existing literature on cultural and accounting practice studies by validating the role of stakeholder and social contract theories in Gray–Hofstede’s framework and highlighting the influence of dominant cultural values on accounting values. The study provides a unique empirical analysis of the Chinese market by using a questionnaire survey and structural equation modeling (SEM). Further, it also opens avenues for future research on the relationship between cultural dimensions, accounting practices and their global impact. These findings emphasize the importance of cultural sensitivity and adaptability, especially in multicultural environments.

This paper examined the usage of cultural values in market segmentation. The study involved young Chinese consumers of apparel market in Hong Kong. Chinese Cultural Values Scale (CCVS) (Yau 1994) was adopted as the measurement instrument of the value construct. Samples were asked to rate the importance of various store attributes in their choices of where to purchase. The analysis involved multivariate statistical methods. Respondents were segmented into four clusters and contrasted. It revealed that clusters with different value orientations rated differently the importances of ten store attributes. Implications for marketers were proposed.