Search results

The previous literature has often focussed on Asian migrants’ acculturation to western cultures with data collected in the western contexts. The purpose of this paper is to explore western consumers’ acculturation to East Asian cultures and their consumption behaviour, which fulfils the research scarcity in this area.

This study was conducted via carrying out in-depth interviews with 18 British sojourners in China, exploring how they acculturated to Chinese culture, with a particular focus on their food and media consumption choices. This study applied inductive qualitative data analysis to build on but explore beyond existing theory.

The findings show that British consumers display a diversified acculturation strategy towards different products. They present an integrative approach to food consumption with a negotiable identity to host culture value whilst they adopt a separated approach relating to traditional media consumption, showing a non-negotiable consumption stance. They apply an assimilated approach for pragmatic reasons in terms of social media adoption.

British sojourners in China hold a different cultural stance in different areas of consumption. The study contributes to existing theory by arguing the complexity of a continuous negotiation process between different value systems in sojourning consumers’ consumption choices, which existing acculturation models have not yet examined. By emphasising the context speciality, the findings give marketers clear marketing implications when targeting sojourning consumers who declare their value stance via consumption practice.

The purpose of this paper is to explore Chinese consumers’ perceptions in relation to both Chinese traditional and European food.

A web-based free word association test was administered to 302 consumers in China. They were asked to give the first three words that came into their minds when they were presented with each of two stimulus words, “traditional food” and “European food”. Three researchers grouped the elicited words into classes and then into dimensions. χ² association tests were used to assess and identify statistically significant differences in the frequencies of classes and dimensions for the two food concepts between socio-demographic groups.

The findings show that Chinese consumers define Chinese traditional food and European food through ten similar dimensions: Sensory appeal, Health, Origin, Marketing, Safety, Variety, Heritage, Symbolic meaning, Simplicity and Mood. Additionally, they associate Chinese traditional food with the dimensions Elaboration, Celebration and Habit, as well as link European food to the dimensions Convenience and New. Although ten dimensions are the same, obvious differences can be identified by comparing the classes for the two food concepts. Further, there are significant differences in the class associations for European food between age groups and in the dimension associations for Chinese traditional food between gender groups.

By using an online qualitative research method, this study is one of the first to address how Chinese consumers define both European food and their own traditional food in China, the largest East Asian country. The findings are particularly useful for the future development of traditional food products and for the future export of European food products onto China and even other countries in East Asia.

Following the standard practice of using nutrition claims to denote food functionality, this study empirically explores Chinese consumers’ willingness-to-pay for functional processed meat products by using three nutrition claims (namely “increased calcium,” “containing omega-3”, and “reduced salt”) made on pork sausages. It also aims to outline the typical characteristics of Chinese consumer segments based on preferences.

A choice-based choice experiment is utilized to investigate Chinese consumers’ valuation on attributes of interest regarding functional sausage products. First-hand data was collected in the two cities of Xi'an and Beijing.

There are market potentials for domestic and/or imported functional processed meat products among Chinese consumers. Nutrition claims made on pork sausages are appealing to Chinese consumers, and therefore, monetarily rewarded by them. Being imported from a more developed country of origin could both positively and negatively impact consumers’ WTP for nutrition claims made on pork sausages. Furthermore, specific functional modification strategies should be taken into account when addressing different segments of the Chinese market. In addition, regional impacts between Xi'an and Beijing are implied in terms of consumers’ valuation for functional pork sausages.

Limitations in the current study are mainly two folds. First, the WTP estimation magnitudes are subject to a hypothetical bias by using a stated preference approach. Second, this study only focuses on pork sausages to explore consumers’ perceptions and selects three nutrition claims among many other relevant options.

Implications are provided for meat marketers and for Chinese official food policymakers, such that promoting meat products with a nutrition claim is an attractive marketing strategy for foreign food manufacturers in China, and more reformulated meat products with better nutritional compositions should be allowed in the Chinese market.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this research is the first to fill in the literature blank on investigating the consumers’ valuation for functional meat in the emerging market of China. Because when taking Chinese consumers as a target market and evaluating their perceptions of food quality-related labeling and certifications, the existing literature is mainly limited to topics of product safety, organic/green products, and geographical origins. However, nutrition claims, as marketable credence attributes that associate closely to the main characteristics of the functional food products, have been explored to a much lesser extent among Chinese consumers.

In China food waste during the catering service process namely the back end of the entire food supply chain has neither received sufficient attention nor been evaluated precisely even though it has been the cause of food security concerns. In response considering the complex tacit knowledge embedded at the front end of the Chinese catering supply chain this article aimed at addressing relevant issues from the viewpoint of tacit knowledge.

This article is conceptual in nature. From the perspective of knowledge management (KM), we used a deductive method to explore intricate tacit knowledge embedded at the front end of the catering supply chain in China.

The key challenges in preventing food waste in the Chinese catering supply chains are: (1) a variety of knowledge icebergs in Chinese catering culture, (2) the complex tacit dimension of knowledge in Chinese cookery, and (3) difficulties in bringing standardization to the Chinese catering business. The three KM-based step-by-step solutions are: (1) standardizing the essential cookery techniques of Chinese cuisine, (2) encouraging catering enterprises to create online knowledge-sharing platforms to reduce food waste for all stakeholders, and (3) using big data to build a nationwide KM system.

Our research indicates that the of a comprehensive KM system specific to the Chinese catering supply chain is crucial for standardizing the essential cookery techniques of Chinese cuisine and analyzing big data, which could help improve Chinese catering processes and gastronomic habits in reality, so as to more effectively prevent food waste.

Our research contributes to the literature by connecting the reduction of food waste issues with the KM perspective. A key to more efficiently reducing food waste in China lies in the lack of a deeper, more systematic understanding of the tacit dimension of knowledge in Chinese cookery and impressive dietary culture, namely the front end of the catering supply chain.

This paper aims to investigate the perceptions by owners and staff working in causal full-service restaurants in Macao of their two major subcultures of customers: Hong Kong Chinese and Taiwan Chinese in terms of their dining behavior and preferences.

Face-to-face interviews with 36 service staff of casual dining restaurants in Macao were conducted through the purposive convenience sampling method. Thematic content analysis was conducted in the data analysis.

The results reveal that although the customers from the two Chinese subcultures have a similar appearance, use the same Chinese characters and share common cultural inheritances; their dining behavior and preferences are perceived as being different.

Practical implications are given on how to better design the products and services to meet each subgroup’s needs for enhancing customers’ experience and service quality in restaurant settings.

This study focuses on examining if there are any sub-cultural differences in food behaviors and preferences among Hong Kong and Taiwan visitors, who are the major tourist sources in the world market. It contributes to the scarce literature on intracultural dining variances of sub-groups within Chinese.

The purpose of this study is to explore the factors affecting the consumption intention of Chinese cuisines for the foreigners living in China. The study also explains the role of variety seeking behavior of consumers in the consumption intention of Chinese cuisines.

The quantitative data were obtained using a structured questionnaire that is based on Dalian, Liaoning province, of People’s Republic of China. A total of 305 responses were collected, and out of which, 282 were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The results indicate that food novelty and utilitarian value are better predictors of consumption intention of Chinese cuisines. The food quality is also found to be significant with consumption of Chinese cuisines. The variety seeking behavior of consumers found to mediate the relationship of food quality, food novelty and utilitarian value with consumption intention toward Chinese cuisines.

The contribution made by the current study is twofold. First, the value of study lies in identifying the factors that are responsible for food consumption intention of foreigners in China, which is an overlooked area in the previous literature. Second, the study also establishes the role of variety seeking behavior of consumers in consumption intention. The authoritative construct of variety seeking behavior matches well with the context of the current study, as the Chinese cuisine is well renowned in the world for its wide variety. Further, the findings are valuable to the stakeholders of restaurant industry in guiding them on how best they can attract foreign consumers toward local Chinese cuisines.

Unlike many other cross‐cultural advertising comparisons, this study compares two different cultures within the same country, and the topic of the content analysis is narrowed down to one particular type of product – restaurants. The content analysis is conducted on ads for Chinese restaurants and English restaurants in newspapers printed in New Zealand. The number of ads in different newspapers, themes of the ads and ads with and without relevant pictures are compared. The results of the study show that the number of ads for Chinese restaurants in English newspapers is significantly greater than the number of ads for English restaurants in Chinese newspapers; the number of ads for other restaurants in Chinese newspapers is significantly more than that in English newspapers; the number of ads for restaurants in holiday issues is significantly greater than that in non‐holiday issues; the themes of the ads for Chinese restaurants focus on basic functions, while the themes of the ads for English restaurants focus on dining atmosphere; and the non‐language speakers understand significantly better ads with relevant pictures than those without.

The objective of this study is to examine Chinese consumers' behavioural intentions to reduce restaurant food wastage (i.e. intentions to order moderate meal size, and to pack leftovers) in a group context from both psychological and cultural perspectives.

This paper used an online self-administered survey for data collection. The measurements were either adopted or adapted from prior studies on pro-environmental behaviours. Using data from 311 Chinese consumers, the authors analysed restaurant food wastage in China by utilising PLS-SEM.

By applying an extended value-attitude-behaviour (VAB) hierarchy with information publicity, it is found that materialism, frugality consciousness, information publicity and environmental concern are important factors in influencing individuals' behavioural intentions to reduce food waste in a group dining-out context.

Drawing upon perspectives of Chinese consumers, this paper outlines key promoters and barriers to food waste mitigation, and provides meaningful insights to policymakers, NGOs, industry stakeholders and even consumers on how to effectively overcome the food waste challenge at the consumption stage in the context of Chinese culture.

Maps and analyzes the development of ethnic Chinese food in the city of Antwerp through the ethnography of both Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs and their customers. Most existing studies draw our attention to group characteristics in explaining Chinese immigrant small businesses, predominantly clustered in the catering sector. Some studies examining Chinese immigrants and the development of the catering sector adopt a mixed model of group characteristics and opportunity structures in the broader society. Looks into a hitherto unexplored terrain, namely the relation between the white customer and the immigrant entrepreneur. Such an in‐depth analysis “from within” instructs us about the dynamics of the immigrant/ethnic restaurant business. From the perspective of the immigrant entrepreneur, immigrant/ethnic restaurants provide in many instances an avenue to social mobility, thereby overcoming the general constraints facing immigrants such as insufficient financial capital, low educational levels, linguistic handicap, etc. The economic advancement is the success side, whereas the success has a series of social costs. The social exchange is fraught with ambivalence, which in its most extreme manifestation may turn into what Frank Chin calls “food pornography”. The two dimensions both present in Chinese immigrant restaurant ventures for they provide opportunities with a series of social costs.

Any discussion of minority ethnic group food habits would be incomplete without including the Chinese who have a food culture very different from the indigenous culture; a food culture which has remained virtually unchanged, regardless of the period of time spent in Britain. From the beginning the Chinese have been involved in the catering industry and although very nearly every High Street in the country has a Chinese restaurant or take‐away food shop, the majority know very little about the Chinese or the role of food in Chinese culture.