Cross-Cultural Customer Satisfaction at a Chinese Restaurant:
The Implications to China Foodservice Marketing

Increasingly, Americans are consuming the cuisine of other cultures. Is this an indication that globalization is having an effect on our eating habits? Are Americans embracing and savoring multiculturalism? This study examines the factors (e.g., reliability, assurance, empathy, cultural awareness, cultural atmosphere, responsiveness, control, etc.) contributing to customer satisfaction in an ethnic restaurant. The results reaffirm the notions that reliability and value are the primary indicators of customer satisfaction. Moreover the findings from this study do not confirm some previous studies that cultural awareness of ethnic food has positive effects on customer satisfaction, an issue that needs more explorations. The findings are used to make suggestions to the China food marketers as how to effectively satisfy foreign travelers for their food consumption when they are in China.

INTRODUCTION

Since the very beginning of human history, food has assembled peoples in the way that not any other things have been able to do. No matter it was the ancient agora or today’s modern day supermarket or restaurant, the market of food has always played a central role in human’s lives, communities, communication, and culture (Huddleston et al., 2009; DeJesus and Tian, 2004).. Culture is often defined as a system of values as well as a determinant of consumer behavior. Members of a particular culture transform their experiences with their physical and social environments to an abstract level of belief about what is desirable and what is not (Lillis and Tian 2010). Such encoded beliefs, called values, act as a general guide for everyday behaviors, including those pertaining to buying and consumption. Cultural values differ among nations along Hofstede’s four dimensions of national character (Emery and Tian, 2003; Hofstede, 1984; Tian, 2002). The growing amount of international business has increased the need to understand consumer behavior from a cross-cultural perspective (Mooij, 2004; Senguder, 2001; Sunderland and Denny, 2007; Tian 2002 a). A number of satisfaction models have been accepted by researchers and practitioners, but these models explain the phenomenon at the individual level, independent of the cultural environment of the consumers (Oliver, 1997; Senguder, 2007).
The objective of all marketing efforts is to maximize customer satisfaction (Rust et al., 2004). If for the marketers to satisfy the customers with the same cultural background is not that easy, then to satisfy the customers with different cultural background, which we termed as cross-cultural customer satisfaction, will be even more difficult. According to existing research, valued benefits have impact on satisfaction responses following consumption. Therefore, satisfaction is the function of the congruency between perceived performance and valued benefits derived from consumer personal values, and the formation of consumer values is influenced by central cultural values (Senguder, 2007; Westbrook and Reilly, 1983).
Consumer satisfaction is important to the marketer because it is a determinant of repeat sales and consumer loyalty. Satisfaction is also important to the individual consumer because it reflects a positive outcome from the fulfillment of unmet needs. Customer satisfaction is an important determinant of post-purchase attitude and product choice. The growing amount of international business has increased the need to understand customer satisfaction from a global or cross-cultural perspective (Choi and Mattila, 2006; Katherine et al., 2001; Senguder, 2007; Spreng et al., 1996). Generally, when Americans think about the influence of globalization on consumer behavior, they think it in terms of the United States’ influence on the consumerism of other cultures. The reverse, however, may also be true (Tian, 2002 a, b).
Interestingly, over the last two decades, the popularity of ethnic restaurants has grown faster than any other category in the U.S. (Panitz, 2000; Pillsbury, 1998, Silverstein, 2009). Furthermore, this increase seems to directly parallel the increase in overseas trade. On the other hand, the fast growth of China economy as well as China becomes more open to the world, the number of foreign visitors to China is increased to a new high record of almost 55 million tourist visit it annually, which apparently stimulates the foodservice market in China. The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors (cultural and otherwise) contributing to the customer satisfaction of new and repeat customers at ethnic restaurants. It probes the factors that are influencing customer satisfaction any different for an ethnic restaurant than for an American restaurant. Thus to answer the question: does cultural authenticity or cultural familiarity influence customer satisfaction? In so doing the authors aimed at providing some useful suggestions to China foodservice marketers in general and to the Chinese restaurant industry in particular as how to satisfy foreign travelers’ food consumption when they are traveling in China.

THEORETICAL ISSUES AND HYPOTHESES

Customer satisfaction is commonly defined as the organization’s ability to meet or exceed customer expectations. Research conducted by Parasuraman et al. (1988) suggests that customer service expectations can be categorized into five overall dimensions: reliability, tangibles, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Specifically, reliability is the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately. Tangibles are the appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel and communications material. Responsiveness is the willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. Assurance is the knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence. Lastly, empathy is the caring, individualized attention provided to the customer.
Additionally, it is important to note that the reliability of service outcomes is the most important dimensions in meeting customer expectations. This is particularly true in the restaurant business. The quality (e.g., aesthetic appearance, aroma, temperature, and taste) of the food is the primary reason for visiting the restaurant (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2009). The process dimensions (assurance, responsiveness, and empathy), however, are the most important in exceeding expectations (Ziethaml et al., 1990). Note, the lack of influence that tangibles have as satisfiers or delighters on customer satisfaction. This is particularly surprising since customers experience the service within the environment of the service facility. Therefore, we believe that:

H1: Of the various service and cultural dimensions, service reliability will have the largest effect on customer satisfaction.
H2: The atmosphere of the restaurant (e.g., décor and music) will not have a significant effect on customer satisfaction.

Bateson (1985) suggests that the dynamics or control of the service encounter play a significant role in customer satisfaction. Every service encounter involves an interaction between a customer and a service provider; each has a role to play in an environment staged by the service organization. Furthermore, management has an interest in delivering service as efficiently as possible to protect their margins and remain competitive. These rules and procedures tend to limit the extent of service provided for the customer and the resulting lack of customization that might result in an unsatisfied customer. Additionally, the interaction between contact personnel and the customer has the element of perceived control by both parties. The contact people want to control the behavior of the customer to make their own work more manageable and less stressful; at the same time, the customer is attempting to gain control of the service encounter to derive the most benefit from it. In short, the more control that a customer has over the service; the more the customer is likely to be satisfied. This might be particularly true in situations when a customer is in a foreign environment. Consequently, we expect that:

H3: The customer’s desire for control will have a significant effect on customer satisfaction.

Why do customers choose one service over another---restaurant A over restaurant B? Cost, one may answer. Ambiance or any of several other good reasons are also viable answers. The bottom line, however, may be culture, because the underlying culture helps to determine the value that customers place on the service (Schwartz and Davis, 1981). In other words, when an American customer repeatedly chooses an ethnic restaurant, he or she may have a more positive perception of the restaurant associated with its culture, which may contribute to the value of the service. As such, we anticipate that:

H4: The customer’s perception of the restaurant’s culture will have a significant and positive correlation with customer satisfaction.

Additionally, the work of Hofstede (1984) on cultural dimensions may have some effect on whether an individual is willing to take part in a cross-cultural experience. Specifically, Hofstede suggests that countries (e.g., the United States) with a relatively low sense of uncertainty avoidance are more apt to seek out new experiences and to be more tolerant of differences. Further, Bennis et al. (1973) suggest that the more one becomes aware of a foreign culture; the more one is likely to enjoy the culture. Therefore, we imagine that:

H5: The customer’s level of understanding of the ethnic food culture will have a significant and positive correlation with customer satisfaction.

THE STUDY AND METHOD

In order to get a sense of whether other ethnic food cultures influence the U.S. food culture, the authors wanted to select an ethnic culture that was the most dissimilar to that of the U.S. As such, the authors used the Hofstede (1984) dimensions as a guide, and also used a list of the available ethnic restaurants in the city to select one that is most suitable for our study. The area is relatively more diversified in terms of ethnicity and the population is more concentrated than in many other small cities in the U. S. Among many different ethnic restaurants we determined that this particular Chinese restaurant would be the most suitable for our study because it is located in the center of the city and can be easily accessed from all directions. Moreover, we ourselves are regular visitors of this restaurant and have established “guangxi” (social network) with the owners and the service staff. Additionally, we wanted to select a restaurant that had high volume for lunch and evening meals in order to capture statistics on both types of clientele. Further, we wanted to select a geographic area that was rapidly increasing its dependence on world trade.
The site selected was a Chinese buffet style restaurant in a city of approximately 100,000 residents along one of the major interstate highway corridor. The corridor, in general, and this area specifically, is consider by many authorities as one of the country’s most rapidly increasing areas in terms of generating foreign revenue. The restaurant is located next to a major shopping mall, in a commercial complex on a heavily traveled four-lane street. There is a commercial plaza across the street with several American style restaurants and fast food services. Additionally, there are two other Chinese restaurants within two miles. A third Chinese restaurant one-half mile away recently went out of business.
The parking lot can accommodate 85 cars and the restaurant is designed to have a serving capacity of 180 customers at a time. There are five seating areas, among which, one is designated as a smoking area with 40 seats. The restaurant is nicely decorated with a beautiful waterfall screen between the waiting area and the eating areas and two large pictures of Hong Kong and the Great Wall in the two main dining rooms. The four buffet bars are next to the kitchen and between the two dining rooms. There is an excellent variety of foods consisting of 4 variations of rice, 15 steamed or fried dishes, 16 fried entrees, 18 vegetable entrees, and 18 deserts and soups. All entrees on each bar are even numbered according to the Chinese cultural value of hao shi cheng shuang (good things are in pairs).
Based on authors’ observation, the consumers and their consumption behaviors at this restaurant vary from lunches to dinners, from weekdays to weekends. Generally, the consumers for weekday lunches are mainly working adults and drivers; the consumer for weekday dinners are families, mainly husbands and wives; the consumers for weekend dinners and lunches are mainly families, most with children. It is observed that the consumers for Sunday lunch are mainly extended families with grandparents, parents, and children after their church activities (See Table 1 for detailed information about consumers’ structure).
There is a manager and a hostess to control the cash register and the waiting area and seven waiters/waitresses and one busboy to handle the dining areas. Except for the manager, hostess and a few servers, the majority of the employees are unable to freely communicate with the customers in English. The service persons are all from Mainland China. They do not get paid from the owners but are tipped by the customers. They work six days a week and long hours per day. The owners provide them with accommodations, including food and shelter. On the other hand, the owners clearly understand the importance of the cook in a Chinese restaurant; the owners pay the cook very well compared with what they pay the other employees and with what other Chinese restaurants pay their cooks. Overall, the manager says the restaurant serves approximately 3,500 customers a week and makes a nice profit despite their relatively low prices.

TABLE 1
OBSERVED CONSUMER STRUCTRUES IN VARIOUS TIMES OF A WEEK

Items
WK day Lunch
WK day Dinner
WK end Lunch
WK end Dinner

Dates of observation (days)
Times of observation*
Consumers (smoking)
Males
Females
Children
Consumers (non-smoking)
Males
Females
Children
May 25 (Thu.)
12:30 p.m.
33
23
8
2
97
62
31
4
May 23 (Tue.)
6:15 p.m.
6
3
3
0
47
23
21
3
May 28 (Sun.)
1:15 p.m.
8
4
4
0
113
45
51
17
May 26 (Fri.)
6:00 p.m.
17
8
7
2
63
30
24
9
* Times when the observer arrived at the restaurant.
Three instruments were developed for the purpose of this study. The first instrument was a 20-item, five-point Likert scale questionnaire developed by operationalizing each of the proposed factors affecting customer satisfaction. This questionnaire was given to a random sample of 72 lunch and 88 evening patrons. The second instrument was a seven-question open-ended interview sheet that focused on the issues of cultural awareness, the atmosphere, and reasons for choosing this restaurant. These interviews were given to a random sample of 25 daytime and 32 evening customers. Lastly, a five-item, five-point Likert scale cultural awareness survey was developed and distributed to 100 customers and 100 community members. In all, the data collection process covered a five-week period and was conducted by the authors and eight undergraduate student workers.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The first, second and third hypotheses were tested using a stepwise regression analysis of the following variables: reliability, assurance, responsiveness, empathy, tangibles, cultural familiarity, cultural atmosphere, and customer control. Separate analyses were performed on the lunch and dinner customers. Both results supported the first hypothesis, which suggested that reliability would be the most dominant variable influencing customer satisfaction (lunch adjusted R2 = 0.324; p < .01; dinner R2 = 0.356, p< .01). Other factors with adjusted R-squares above 0.05 were responsiveness (lunch adj. R2=0.181, p < .01; dinner R2 = 0.153, p < .01) and customer control (lunch adj. R2 = 0.233 p< .01; dinner R2 =1.211, p < .01). None of the other variables had levels of significance less than .05. On this basis, one can see that both the second and third hypotheses were also supported. The atmosphere did not have a significant effect on customer satisfaction (p < .05) and customer control did have a significant and meaningful effect on customer satisfaction. The fourth and fifth hypotheses were tested using a correlation analyses. The fourth hypothesis, which suggested that customer satisfaction would be correlated with a customer's perception of the organization's culture, was generally supported (r = .63, p < .01). The fifth hypothesis, which posited that customer satisfaction would be correlated with a customer's understanding of the ethnic food culture, was not supported (r = .18, p > .05). This finding conflicts with findings in previous studies (DeJesus and Tian, 2004, Pillsbury 1998, Tian 2001), and therefore more careful studies are necessary. On the other hand, although not hypothesized, there was a strong and significant correlation (r = 63, p < .01) between a community member's knowledge of China/Chinese culture and their frequency of eating in Chinese restaurants.
Ninety percent of the lunch hour customers and 78% during the dinner hour customers were repeat patrons; mean values of repeat visits were 12.3 and 7.2 for the noon and evening meal respectively. Incidentally, there was a strong correlation between the number of repeat visits and the customer's belief that they were recognized by the manager and/or hostess (r = 73, p <. 01). Of the first time customers, 70% of the daytime and 67% of the nighttime customers said that they would be back. Only 11% of the customers perceived the food to be authentic Chinese. However, of the customers who perceived that the food wasn't authentic Chinese, only 5% cared. The other 95% did not seem to mind. Also, the four top reasons that customers indicated as reasons for their intent to return were: (1) taste, (2) variety, (3) quantity, and (4) price. The two most common reasons for customers indicating that they "would not return again" or "probably would not return again" were: (1) they didn’t find the food to their tastes (65%), and (2) they didn't like the buffet style of service delivery (23%). Further, it is interesting to note that although a relatively high percentage (45%) of customers believed that there could be miscommunication with the servers, most (82% bottom two blocks) didn’t see this as a problem or as a source of dissatisfaction.
Additionally, a comparison of the results of the community survey to the customers offered some interesting insights. First, fifty-nine percent of the community members believed that an ethnic restaurant should have an authentic décor and delivery system. In contrast, less than 15% of the satisfied buffet patrons believed that the décor was authentic and none of the satisfied patrons believed the delivery system was authentic. Second, the average community member perceived that Chinese have significantly stronger work ethics (58% to 20% top two blocks) and significantly higher morals (62% to 32% top two blocks) than Americans, but they are less attentive to cleanliness (19% to 32% top two blocks). Lastly, the demographic findings indicated that the patrons were relatively evenly distributed by age, occupation (professional vs. nonprofessional), gender, and education level. It did seem, however, that there were not as many families with young children (ages 5-12) as might be expected in a comparable American style restaurant.
Support for the first three hypotheses gives a strong indication that the factors influencing customer satisfaction at the Chinese buffet do not differ much from those influencing customer satisfactions in a typical American restaurant. It is interesting that the atmosphere, in general, and Chinese décor, in specific, did not influence customer satisfaction. This should be noteworthy to most of the proprietors of Chinese restaurants, since they spend a good deal of money on decorations. Perhaps atmosphere in a Chinese restaurant would be classified by Hill (1989) are a “qualifier” or by Kano (1984) as a “basic need”.

TABLE 2
SUMMARY OF TESTED HYPOTHESES

Concept/Issue
Hypothesis
Finding and Interpretation

The relationship between reliability of service and customer satisfaction. H1: Of the various service and cultural dimensions, service reliability will have the largest effect on customer satisfaction.
Supported, which means that reliability would be the most dominant variable influencing customer satisfaction.
The influence of environmental factors on customer satisfaction. H2: The atmosphere of the restaurant (e.g., décor and music) will not have a significant effect on customer satisfaction.
Supported, which means that the atmosphere did not have a significant effect on customer satisfaction.
Customer’s control over the service and their satisfaction. H3: The customer’s desire for control will have a significant effect on customer satisfaction.
Supported, which means that customer control over the service has a significant and meaningful effect on their satisfaction.

The underlying culture helps to determine the value that customers place on the service. H4: The customer’s perception of the restaurant’s culture will have a significant and positive correlation with customer satisfaction.
Supported, which means that a customer satisfaction would be correlated with his or her perception of the service organizational culture.

Cultural awareness of ethnic food helps to increase customer satisfaction. H5: The customer’s level of understanding of the ethnic food culture will have a significant and positive correlation with customer satisfaction.
Not supported, which means that a customer’s satisfaction might not be correlated with his or her understanding of the ethnic food culture

On the other hand, since atmosphere would be considered by Parasuraman et al. (1991) as a process delivery dimension, it could be used an opportunity to exceed customer expectations. Additionally, it may be that as people become more familiar with China, they may appreciate efforts to improve authenticity or to receive information about China during the meal. We believe, however, that a buffet style restaurant is not a good candidate to test this proposition since most people indicated they were there for other reasons (e.g., control, speed, quantity, sampling opportunities).
Also, it is not surprising that this restaurant was doing very well financially. A buffet style restaurant is an excellent mix of Porter’s (1980) cost leadership and differentiation strategies. The buffet standardizes service delivery by imposing strict operating procedures and, thus severely limits the discretion of the contact personnel. Although personalized service is not available, customers are presented with a vast array of items to choose from. This is a particularly good strategic fit since the customers are interested in controlling time, cost and variety and the restaurant doesn’t have to worry very much about the English skills of its service staff
Further, it is important to note that the customers’ sense of the restaurant’s organizational culture was correlated with their level of satisfaction. This is probably an extension of Bitner’s (1990) theory on the effect of attribution on satisfaction. In other word, since the customers perceived the Chinese as having a strong work ethic, they would not attribute any dissatisfying experiences as the fault of the restaurant. Also, it was surprising to note that customer satisfaction was not correlated with a customer’s knowledge of the ethnic food culture (i.e., H5). Especially since our survey of community members indicated a positive correlation between their knowledge of the Chinese culture and their frequency of eating Chinese meals.
We suspect this disparity is because there are a large number of people who like Chinese food, yet know nothing about China or the Chinese food culture. As such, we believe the effect (direct or moderating) of ethnic knowledge on customer satisfaction deserves further study. Additionally, it might be worthwhile to investigate the correlation between a person’s level of uncertainty avoidance (Hofstede 1984) and their penchant for cross-cultural cuisine. Such a correlation would suggest an interesting opportunity for micromarketing. In short, however, the study simply affirms America’s love for Chinese food and the buffet style of service delivery (self-service and variety). Apparently, the customers studied in this case did not expect to get a one-hour trip to China and they did not expect authentic Chinese food and that was just fine with them. The question remains, however, what are Americans or other foreign travelers in China expecting for their food consumption? How the Chinese food marketers effectively market their food and service to those foreigners who are traveling in China? In the next section we will make some of our suggestions based on this particular study.

THE IMPLICATIONS TO CHINA FOODSERVICE MARKETERS

China is a quite unique and diverse country market in various aspects including business practices, distribution and product development as well as legal systems, which differ from those of any other countries. The China food market is huge and unique as well with a great growth opportunity in the next few decades as the process of China urbanization goes and more foreign tourists travel in China (Trend Hunter World 2010). China’s restaurant and catering industry is one of the most growing sectors in China since its reform and opening in the end of 1970s. The Chinese foodservice industry was valued at nearly Y 500 billion RMB (about $70.2 billion USD) in 2006, the leading profit foodservice area was the restaurants channel. It is expected to achieve yearly average growth of 18 percent with a goal of Y 3.3 trillion RMB (about $478 billion USD) in sales by 2013. The industry employed nearly 20 million people in 2009, with another 2 million would be added each year (Xinhua News Agency 2009). It is observed that in recent years, the Chinese domestic restaurant market has greatly changed. Not only the changing of consumer behavior but also the customer structure, such as more and more foreigners become the customers, requires that the operators of restaurant industry to engage more accurate brand positioning and better service.
There is no doubt that the fast increase in tourism has benefited the foodservice market in China, this is particular true during 2008 Olympic Games time in the summer of 2008. China has become a major tourist destination following its reform and opening to the world in the late 1970s instigated by Deng Xiaoping. In 1978, China received about 230,000 international foreign tourists, mostly because of the severe limitations that the government placed on who was allowed to visit the country and who was not. In 2006 China received 49.6 million international visitors, making it the fourth most-visited country in the world. In 2007 international tourist arrivals to China increased to 54.7 million, and the foreign exchange income was about $42 billion USD. According to the WTO in 2020, China will become the largest tourist country and the fourth largest for overseas travel (China National Tourist Office homepage).
Although the main purpose of foreign tourist visit China is not for enjoying the Chinese food culture, it is true that to provide a variety of good food choices and services will be definitely helpful to increase the satisfaction of foreign tourists when they travelling in China and thus will be helpful to attract more foreign tourist travelers in the future. The foreign tourist visitors differ from the origins (see Table 3) and thus they must have different food cultures from that of Chinese food culture. It is important and necessary for the food marketers to understand and familiarize themselves with some major foreign food cultures and to customize their food and service to their foreign customers from different countries. It is also important that the food service managers to allow their foreign customers certain degree of self control as what type of food to be served, the buffet foodservice format might be a better choice for most foreign foodservice consumers.

TABLE 3
FOREIGN VISITOR ARRIVALS IN 2009

Age Sex
NATIONALITY TOTAL
(10,000 Person) Under
14 Age
15-24 Age
25-44 Age
45-64 Over 65 Male Female
ASIA 1,377.93 49.76 102.91 653.58 488.77 82.90 923.59 454.34
AMERICA 249.12 19.00 17.68 85.05 106.02 21.37 158.99 90.13
EUROPE 459.12 17.33 44.86 213.46 163.93 19.54 275.87 183.25
OCEANIA 67.24 5.26 4.32 25.74 27.30 4.63 41.50 25.74
AFRICA 40.12 0.70 2.12 26.35 10.45 0.50 30.07 10.04
OTHERS 0.22 0.01 0.01 0.11 0.09 0.01 0.13 0.09
TOTAL 2,193.75 92.05 171.90 1,004.28 796.56 128.95 1,430.15 763.60
Source: China National Tourist Office Homepage http://www.cnto.org/chinastats_2009ArrivalsByPurpose.asp

It is also suggested that the foodservice marketers in China should learn to effectively educate their foreign customers by providing them the basic information about the Chinese food cultures, demonstrating the proper way that the Chinese food being served, so that their foreign customers will be able to format their positive perceptions about Chinese food they are served. Finally but not lastly, it is very important that the foodservice marketers in China to train their service staff to effectively communicate and serve their foreign customers. The previous studies conducted by the scholars (such as Tian 2001) demonstrate that effective communications between customers and service staff at any restaurant will play an important role to get customers satisfied and to retain the customers’ loyalty, therefore it is suggested that the Chinese foodservice leadership should realize the importance of foreign language training to the foodservice employees.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION FOR THE FUTURE STUDY

Cultural factors play an important role in consumer food consumption and satisfaction. Satisfaction is vital to individual consumers because it reflects a positive outcome from the fulfillment of unmet needs such as eat food when feel hungry. To marketers, especially to the service marketers, such as restaurant operators, customer satisfaction is a very significant because it is a determinant of customer loyalty. Various factors influence customer satisfaction in foodservice sector, such as the reliability of the service, customer control over the service, customer cultural awareness of the service organizational culture, and ethnic food culture (a factor that previous studies have confirmed). It is important that ethnic restaurant operators to educate their customers have a better understanding about their service organizational cultures and their ethnic food culture as well.
Most consumers are aware of the differences between the Chinese food cultures and the American food cultures but need to know more about how and why they differ from one another. The study treats the consumers as the cultural participants but it needs more probes as to how the consumers behave themselves at various situations. The relationship between consumers and employees is not analyzed because of the limitations of the data, although it is suggested that the employees have much influence on consumer behaviors.
The growing amount of international visitors to China in recent years has increased the need to understand customer satisfaction from a cross-cultural perspective by the foodservice marketers in China. In order to create competitive advantages, cross-cultural customer satisfaction should be systematically studied by the Chinese foodservice marketers. It is highly recommended that the foodservice marketers in China should have a better understanding of the determinants of satisfaction responses of their foreign customers.
Future research will investigate the consumer behavior of food and service consumption in more detail and will include a survey of the foodservice employees. Particular areas of interest are how consumers define food cultures; the extent to which consumers are knowledgeable of Chinese food culture and what element consumers identify as the most important factors that cause them to behave differently in such an ethnic restaurant, if there is any difference. The authors are also interested in finding out how the foodservice providers, in this case the Chinese foodservice marketers, understand the differences between their own food cultures and other people’s food cultures from an inside-out perspective. Moreover, it is important to find out the cross-cultural factors and their affects on consumers’ food consumption and satisfaction.

REFERENCES

Please send me an email to request for references.

A Descriptive Analysis of the Contents and Origins of Research on

China Marketing in English

This research paper explores the scope and penetration of English-language research into marketing practice on the mainland of the People’s Republic of China. In addition to this research itself, the paper also analyzes the researchers who are doing the research, and their affiliations. It was discovered that although China marketing is in its infant stage, research into China marketing is increasing. Further, it was discovered that most China marketing research concerns consumer behavior, and that there is a trend towards quantitative research. The authors conclude that the research is broad in scope, but not extremely deep. Finally, the paper concludes that the demand for China marketing research has outstripped the supply. In addition to these conclusions drawn concerning China marketing research, the following conclusions were drawn concerning China marketing researchers: the top researchers are ethnic Chinese, a majority of the researchers are ethnic Chinese, the top institutions supporting China marketing research are located in Hong Kong, the majority of the top researchers are in Hong Kong, most researchers are not located in Asia but rather in the West, and finally, there has been much Chinese-Western collaboration in the production of China marketing research. One hundred marketing journals and 141 marketing articles were examined.

Key Words: China Economy, China Marketing, International Journal of China Marketing, Marketing Research

INTRODUCTION

With the advent of “opening and reform” in the late 1970s under Deng Xiao Ping, China began a startling revolutionary process which today has culminated in the production of a huge market-oriented economy, which has arisen out of the ashes of a previously-moribund Chinese command economy. One of the prerequisites for a market economy is the practice of marketing, and therefore, not surprisingly, China has developed the marketing profession in accordance with the country’s development of a market-oriented economy. Everywhere there is print, web, radio, TV, and billboard advertising, as well as the promotional techniques seen everywhere in the West. Corporate executives devise market strategy even as their Western counterparts do. The market mechanism has become an important factor in the economic development of China (Tian and Wang, 2003; Tian 2008). These changes have come even as China has become a major player in the global economy. These changes, these revolutionary changes, have not only impacted Chinese consumers, but they have impacted the entire international economy (Wu, 2009).

Along with the fact that the market-oriented economic system has become the dominant economic force in China, marketing has become one of the hottest subjects discussed in Chinese society, and marketing research has become one of the most rewarding fields for academic study. However, given the fact that the market economic system is relatively new in China, marketing itself as a field of study is still in its initial development stage, and academic marketing research papers, compared with marketing research in Western countries, is not only limited in scope but also in numbers. While researchers have investigated management activities in China, they have not investigated business marketing to the same degree. Although the number of research articles on China marketing has increased in the last 25 years, there is still no generally-accepted theoretical framework in which China marketing can be placed. (Wang & Song, 2011) In addition, due to language constraints much of China marketing research work has not been published in English journals. Current marketing research pertaining to China does not reflect the reality of the Chinese economy, nor does it meet the needs of the business world.

Philip Kotler, often called “the father of modern marketing,” has written that “China’s rapid development of the American-style consumer culture, which is revolutionizing the lives of hundreds of millions of Chinese, will have the potential to reshape the world… As China goes, so goes the world.” (Kotler, P., 2010) This revolutionary development of a consumer market in China has in turn provided opportunities for marketing scholars, whose services should be in demand to help China market their products and services. This article aims to explore the development of marketing research pertaining to the China market by taking an inventory of relevant marketing journals beginning in 1988, when the earliest marketing research papers pertaining to China were posted online.

METHODOLOGY

A two-stage design was employed. The first stage was designed to reach back to the approximate time in the past when research into modern Chinese marketing began. The relatively long time period required that a relatively small (seven) number of journals be searched. The second stage was designed to be broader than the first, and therefore, 93 journals were chosen, but were only searched for relevant articles published in the first half of 2012. The broader range of searched articles required a shorter chronological scope.

The First Stage

A list of all marketing journals known to the American Marketing Association was obtained (AMA, 2010). A search was made of this list for all journals whose titles were linked to marketing in China. There were no such journals. However, the authors were aware of a new journal directly related to marketing in China, whose name is International Journal of China Marketing (IJCM), and therefore this journal was chosen. Next, a search was made of the American Marketing Association’s comprehensive list for all journals whose titles were associated with marketing in Asia generally, as opposed to marketing in China specifically. The following three journals in that category were identified: Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics (APJML), Asian Journal of Marketing (AJM), and Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ).

In order to find a meaningful sample of journal articles, it was decided to make an online search of these four journals for articles related to China marketing. Eleven articles were found in IJCM, 39 articles were found in APJML, 2 articles were discovered in AJM, and 5 articles were found in AMJ, for a total of 57 articles. Since the authors were not satisfied with a sample number of 57 articles from those four journals, they added three additional journals from the American Marketing Association’s comprehensive list that related to international or global marketing. These three journals were the Journal of Global Marketing (JGM), the Journal of International Marketing (JIM), and the Journal of International Consumer Marketing (JICM). Nineteen articles were found in JGM, 5 articles were found in JIM, and 19 articles were found in JICM, for a total of 43, bringing the total research sample to 100 articles.

Except for the Journal of International Consumer Marketing, the entire table of contents for each journal was searched, starting from the date that the journal articles were posted online, up until the most current issue as of September 20, 2011. The Journal of International Consumer Marketing’s table of contents was only searched partially, starting with the most recent issues, because it was felt that earlier issues tended to be more general, theoretical and conceptual, rather than quantitative and practical, as the more recent issues were. The beginning search dates (which were the earliest online publication dates) for journals are listed as follows: AJM (2007), AMJ (June, 1998), APJML (1989), IJCM (November, 2010), JGM (1988), and JIM (March, 2005), JICM (2006).

The abstracts of the one-hundred articles were searched for the following data: authors, authors’ affiliations, number of pages of each article, key words, country of the journal’s origin, date of publication, and whether the research method used was qualitative or quantitative. In addition, an effort was made to categorize each article. After all the abstracts were categorized, a list of sixteen categories had been produced. These categories were narrowed down to five broader categories: 1) advertising, 2) consumer behavior, 3) marketing strategy, 4) theoretical issues, and 5) miscellaneous.

In general, we have (partially) followed the procedure of an earlier survey of journal articles relating to marketing in China by Ouyang, Zhou, and Zhou (2000). In that research, the authors summarized the work that had been published, the topics covered in the work, and the places the papers have been published. They then identified the individuals and institutions that had contributed to the creation of that particular body of marketing literature.

The Second Stage

The American Management Association comprehensive list of marketing journals published in English contained 93 English journals. The online tables of content for 2012 (up to July 2012) for those 93 journals were searched, and all article titles apparently dealing with China were further examined. A few of those articles were discarded, because, although they were published in marketing journals, their content was not, strictly speaking, pertinent for marketing. The articles content was categorized by topic, and the authors’ and their affiliations were noted. In this manner, 32 relevant articles were obtained.

CONTENTS AND CATEGORIES OF THE ARTICLES – THE FIRST STAGE

Earlier research has detected an upward trend in the number of published articles on China marketing, beginning with opening and reform in the late 1970s. (Ouyang, Zhou, & Zhou, 2000). The results of the research reported in this paper confirm this trend. In stage one of the research, the period from 1988 to 2011 was investigated by examination of 100 relevant articles. Eleven articles were published before 2000; 31 articles were published between 2000 and 2006; and 58 articles were published between 2007 and 2011.

One hundred ninety-five researchers from 70 institutions contributed the 100 articles selected. The earliest article was written in 1988, and the latest article was written in 2011. The average length of the articles (except for the five articles found in JIM, whose abstracts did not include page numbers) was 14.5 pages. There were several types of papers, including concept papers, literature reviews, case studies, qualitative studies, and studies using typical quantitative methods. There were seven journals searched. The journals are ranked in Table 1 below by the number of articles within them that were related to China marketing.

The Content of the Articles

The majority of the articles (65%) did not focus on any one particular industry. However, those articles (35%) which did examine a particular industry studied a wide variety of Chinese industries, including food retailing, automobiles, books, computers, credit cards, higher education, IT (including e-commerce, internet services, and telecommunications), iron and steel, manufacturing, restaurants, sports, retailing (including hypermarkets and malls), tourism, VCDs, TVs, and clothing.

The articles were distributed across five categories: 1) advertising and promotion 2) consumer behavior, 3) marketing strategy, 4) theoretical issues, and 5) miscellaneous. A verbal description of the content of the articles in each category is given below, followed by a table that will summarize the content of the one hundred articles examined (see Table 2 for categories and sub-categories).

Advertising & Promotion Eighteen (18%) of the 100 papers in the research sample were related to advertising and promotion. Articles related to advertising or promotion in China appeared in all seven of the journals chosen for this research. Examples of subjects covered in the advertising and promotion category are the influence of culture (La Ferle, Edwards & Li, 2008; Emery & Tian, 2010; La Ferle & Lee, 2003) the influence of English (Hung & Heeler, 1999) on Chinese advertising, governmental regulation of Chinese advertising (Gao, 2007; Gao & Zhang, 2011), and the use of sex appeal in Chinese advertising (Cui & Yang, 2009).

Consumer Behavior Thirty-nine (39%) of the papers in the research sample dealt with consumer behavior. Articles related to consumer behavior in China appeared in all seven of the journals chosen for this research. Consumer behavior was the most researched topic in the sample journals. Representative subjects investigated in the articles written about consumer behavior in China include the following: Chinese values (Wang, Chen, Chan, & Zheng, 2000; Cheung & Prendergast, 2006; Sun & Wang, 2007; Tai, 2008, Smith, et al., 2010), Chinese attitudes (Cui, Chan, & Joy, 2008; Li, Mizerski, Lee, & Liu, 2009; Sun & Wang, 2010) country of origin effects (Kwok, Uncles, & Huang, 2006; Oh & Zhang, 2010; Parker, Haytco, & Hermans, 2011; Chao & Arnold, 2005; d’Astous & Li, 2009; Ishiia, 2009; Wong, Polonsky, & Garma, 2008) the influence of children on purchase behavior (MacNeal & Yeh, 1996; MacNeal & Mindy, 1996), sex appeal (Liu, Li, & Cheng, 2006; Liu, Shi & Wong, 2010) perception of brand names (Ang, 1996; Li, Wang, & Yang; 2011; Yang, Zhou & Chen, 2005), and perception of store image (Chang & Luan, 2010; Hua & Jasper, 2010) From this listing we can see that country of origin effects produce a large attraction for researchers. Seven (7%) of the 100 articles surveyed concerned this issue.

TABLE 1

MARKETING JOURNALS – FIRST STAGE

Journal Name		Number Articles	Citations
1. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics	APJML	39	186
2. Journal of Global Marketing	JGM	19	74
3. Journal of International Consumer Marketing	JICM	19	72
4. International Journal of China Marketing	IJCM	11	1*
5. Journal of International Marketing	JIM	5	50
6. Australasian Marketing Journal	AMJ	5	7
7. Asian Journal of Marketing	AJM	2	0**
Total		100	390

Source for Citations: Google Scholar

*The small number of citations may be due to the late date of IJCM’s first issue (2010)

**The two articles used in AJM were not found in Google Scholar

Marketing Strategy In the research sample there were found 24 articles (24%) which dealt with marketing strategy. Topics investigated include the following: branding (Ga, Pan, Tse, & Yim, 2006; Bennet, 2008; Wang, Linyang, & Liu, 2009; Fu, Saunders, & Ou, 2009; Bodet, 2010; Chen, Lam, & Zou, 2011; Chaoying, Jian & Ille, 2011; Leng & Zhang, 2011), distribution channels (Wing, 1994; Luk, Li, Ye & Xue; 2003; Yi & Jaffe, 2007; Sternquist & Wang, 2010), pricing (Tian, He, Zhao, & Yi , 2005; Liu & Tang, 2005; Zhang & Zhou, 2010; Jiang, Chou, & Tao, 2011), product positioning (Skallerud & Grønhaug, 2010), and service quality (Prugsamatz & Ofstad, 2006; Gebauer & von Zedtwitz, 2007; Stanworth, 2009). From this it can be seen that branding was the most popular topic for authors writing about marketing strategy in China.

Theoretical Issues There were 10 articles examined in this study (10%) which have been classified as theoretical. This category includes discussions of different modes of marketing in command and transition economies (Wei, 1995; Logan & McEwan, 2010), principles derived from ancient Chinese history applied to modern real estate marketing (Pheng, 2000), marketing for foreign-Chinese joint ventures, a comparison of the business climates of India and China (Panigrahi, Ede, & Calcich, 2002), , and theoretical quantitative and methodological issues concerning marketing research in China (Sin & Ho, 2001; Tu, 2011).

Miscellaneous This final category includes nine articles (9%) found in the research sample that were difficult to categorize, but which nonetheless were of interest. Examples are general articles about marketing in China (Liu, 2007; Thorellia, 1988; Kirpilani & Robinson, 1989; Knowles, Mathur, & Jai-Sheng, 1990), a literature survey of articles written about marketing in China (Ouyang, et al., 2000), the effects of population aging on marketing in China (Hou, 2011) and marketing ethics in China (Walle, 2011; Singh, S. J. V.; Al-Khatib & Clarke, 2007).

TABLE 2

CONTENT OF THE ARTICLES – FIRST STAGE

Category	Number of Articles	Sub-Category*

1. Advertising &	18
Promotion		influence of culture
		governmental regulation
		sex appeal

2. Consumer	39
Behavior		Chinese values
		Chinese attitudes
		country of origin effects
		influence of children on purchase behavior
		sex appeal
		perception of brand names
		perception of store image

3. Marketing	24
Strategy		branding
		distribution channels
		pricing
		product positioning
		service quality

4. Theoretical	10
Issues		marketing in command and transition economies
		ancient Chinese theory and real estate marketing
		marketing for foreign-Chinese joint ventures
		comparison of Indian and Chinese business climates
		marketing research quantitative & methodological issues

5. Miscellaneous	9
		general articles about China marketing
		literature survey about China marketing journal articles
		effects of population aging on marketing in China
		marketing ethics in China

There are no subcategories for the Theory* and Miscellaneous category. Rather, several representative articles are listed.

CONTRIBUTORS AND THEIR AFFILIATIONS – THE FIRST STAGE

Several salient facts emerge from an examination of the 195 researchers who published the one hundred articles employed in stage one. First, it was discovered that of the 195 authors, 111 (57%) of them were ethnic Chinese. This was determined by looking at each author’s name, and determining whether the romanization of the name indicated a Chinese name or not. This method was also used to decide whether or not there had been collaboration between an ethnic Chinese author and a Western one. It was discovered that of the 100 articles, 34 (34%) of them were jointly authored by a Western researcher and an ethnic Chinese one. Only 78 of the 100 papers were jointly authored. Of these 78, 34 (44%) were co-authored by a Westerner and an ethnic Chinese.

Top Contributors

The researchers were ranked using three different methods: publication credits, adjusted publication credits, and number of citations. Table 3 and Table 4 below use publication credits in order to rank the authors of the one hundred articles that were examined for this paper. Publication credits have been calculated in two ways: by total number of publication credits (cf. Table 3 below), and by adjusted number of publication credits (cf. Table 4 below). If a researcher is listed as an author of an article, that researcher was given a publication credit, no matter whether the author was the sole author, or whether there were co-authors. The total number of publication credits obtained in this fashion equals the author’s total publication credits.

TABLE 3

AUTHOR’S PUBLICATION CREDITS – THE FIRST STAGE

Author	Publication Credits	Institution*
1. Nan Zhou	4	City University of Hong Kong
2. Suk-Ching Ho	3	Chinese University of Hong Kong
3. Geng Cui	3	Lingnan University (Hong Kong)
4. Jianyao Li	3	University of Western Australia
5. Fang Liu	3	University of Western Australia
6. 19 authors published 2 articles	2
7. 171 authors published 1 article	1

*Hong Kong universities are in boldface

If the researcher shared the authorship of an article, his adjusted publication credits were determined this way: if there was one other co-author, the researcher received one-half of a publication credit. If there were two other co-authors, the researcher received one-third of a publication credit, and so on. This procedure has been adopted in previous studies. (Ouyang, et al., 2000) The 195 researchers who wrote the 100 articles were also ranked by citations to their articles by other researchers (Cf. Table 5 below). Google Scholar was used in order to find the number of citations to each of the one hundred articles.

It is interesting to note that when the authors are ranked by total publication credits, the top five researchers are all Chinese, and that when the authors are ranked by adjusted publication credits, the top eight include seven Chinese researchers. This apparently indicates that interest in China marketing has not yet become thoroughly globalized. This is backed by the previously noted fact that 111 (57%) of the 195 authors who contributed to the 100 articles are Chinese.

TABLE 4

AUTHOR’S ADJUSTED PUBLICATION CREDITS – THE FIRST STAGE

Author	Adjusted Publication Credits	Institution*
Susan H.C. Tai	2.00	Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Zhihong Gao	1.50	Rider University (NJ-USA)
Hongbo Tu	1.33	Wuhan Institute of Technology
Suk-Ching Ho	1.33	Chinese University of Hong Kong
Riliang Ou	1.30	Aston Business School (UK)
Nan Zhou	1.25	City University of Hong Kong
Carrie La Ferle	1.20	Southern Methodist Univ/Mich State U
Geng Cui	1.17	Lingnan University (Hong Kong)
187 authors ≤ 1.00	≤1.00

*Hong Kong universities are in boldface

As previously mentioned, the researchers were also ranked according to the number of times their articles had been cited by other researchers (cf. Table 5 above). If more than one researcher authored a paper, and the paper was cited once, then each researcher received a citation credit. Thus, no special importance was given to the author whose name was listed first on the paper. An examination of Table 5 in order to discover Chinese names reveals that of the top 41 researchers in terms of citations to their articles, 25 (61%) were Chinese. This is an indication of how Chinese researchers of China marketing seem to be dominating the field.

The Researcher’s Institutions

The Affiliations of the Researchers. A look at Table 3 (author’s publication credits) and Table 4 (author’s adjusted publication credits) will reveal the institutions associated with the researchers who have done the most China marketing research in our sample of articles. It is notable that of the top five researchers as measured by publication credits, three were affiliated with Hong Kong universities, and also, of the top eight researchers as ranked by adjusted publication credits, four were affiliated with Hong Kong Universities. The Hong Kong institutions have been bolded in Table 3 and Table 4 for easy reference. This dominance by Hong Kong institutions continues a trend that was noted in earlier research. (Ouyang, et al., 2000) The dominance of Hong Kong universities can also be seen by an examination of Table 5, which ranks the researchers by citations to their articles. The Hong Kong universities in Table 5 have also been bolded for easy reference, demonstrating that of the top 41 researchers listed in Table 5, 13 (32%) are affiliated with Hong Kong institutions.

The data in Table 5 may also be examined to determine the distribution of universities between Asia and the West. We see that 27 (66%) of the top 41 institutions, as measured by citation credits to their affiliated researchers, are Asian, whereas 14 (34%) of the top 41 institutions are western. It is notable that none of the top 41 institutions are European.

We now turn from examining the 41 institutions listed in Table 5 in order to investigate all of the institutions affiliated with the researchers who wrote the one hundred articles of our sample. Table 6 below shows the geographical distribution of the seventy institutions whose researchers produced the one hundred articles. The data there show that a small majority (53%) of institutions doing China marketing related research are western universities located either in Europe or North America, while a large minority of such institutions are Asian (47%).

TABLE 5

AUTHOR’S CITATION CREDITS – THE FIRST STAGE

Author	Citations	Institution*
Allan K.K. Chan	27	Hong Kong Baptist University
Cheng_Lu Wang	27	Hong Kong Baptist University
Zhen-Xiong Chen	27	Hong Kong Baptist University
Zong-Cheng Zheng	27	Zhongshan University (China)
Wei Na Li	23	University of Texas
Mark J. Arnold	21	St. Louis University
Mike C.H. Chao	21	St. Louis University
Nan Zhou	21	City University of Hong Kong
Leo Yat Ming Sin	19	Chinese University of Hong Kong
Mark Uncles	16	University of South Wales
Simon Kwok	16	University of South Wales
John Fong	15	Macquarie University (Australia)
Lauren a. Swanson	15	Chinese University of Hong Kong
Suzan Burton	15	Macquarie University (Australia)
Carrie La Ferle	14	Michigan State U / Southern Methodist U
Swee Hoon Ang	12	National University of Singapore
Fang Liu	12	University of Western Australia
Amy Wong	11	Lingnan University (Hong Kong)
Chui Yim Wong	11	Victoria University (Australia)
Irvine Clarke III	11	James Madison University (USA)
Jamal Al-Khatib	11	University of St. Thomas
Jatinder J. Singh	11	University of Mississippi
Lianxi Zhou	11	University of Guelph (Canada)
Michael J. Polonsky	11	Deakin University (Australia)
Romana Garma	11	Victoria University (Australia)
Scott J. Vitell	11	University of Mississippi
Jie Chen	10	Purdue University (USA)
Lars Ofstad	10	University of Sydney (Australia)
Mindy F.J	10	Texas A&M University (USA)
Sunita Prugsamatz	10	Griffith University (Australia)
Zhilin Yang	10	City University of Hong Kong
Kineta Hung	9	University of Hong Kong
Stella Yiyan Li	9	University of Hong Kong
Steven M. Edwards	9	Southern Methodist University
Susan H.C. Tai	9	Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Brian Murphy	8	Massey University (New Zealand)
Chi Kin (Bennet) Yim	8	University of Hong Hong
David K. Tse	8	University of Hong Hong
Gerald Yong Ga	8	University of Missouri (USA)
Rongmei Wang	8	Massey University (New Zealand)
Yigang Pan	8	York University (Canada)
154 authors 0 – 7 cites	0-7

*Hong Kong universities are in boldface

TABLE 6

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF AUTHORS’ INSTITUTIONS – STAGE ONE

	Hong Kong	PRC	Asian Not PRC Not Hong Kong	Europe	North American	All Institutions

No. Institutions	7	14	12	7	30	70
Percentage	10%	20%	17%	10%	43%	100%

CONTENTS AND CATEGORIES OF THE ARTICLES – THE SECOND STAGE

We turn now to a discussion of the 32 articles culled from the 93 marketing journals listed by the American Marketing Association. Table 7, Table 8, Table 9, and Table 10 provide summary description and statistics. We see from Table 7 that Public Relations Review published six articles in the first part of 2012, followed by the Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, which published four articles in the same time period. APJML, which was the journal that published the most articles in stage one of the research, continues to be a leading publisher of China marketing articles. The Journal of International Consumer Marketing, which was also used in stage one, also appeared in stage two, publishing two additional articles in the first part of 2012.

TABLE 7

NUMBER OF CHINA-RELATED ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN 2012 – STAGE TWO

Journal Name	No.

1. Public Relations Review	6
2. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics	4
3. The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research	3
4. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management	2
5. Journal of Brand Management	2
6. Journal of Consumer Marketing	2
7. Journal of International Consumer Marketing	2
8. Market Intelligence and Planning	2
9. International Journal of Wine Business Research	1
10. Journal of Consumer Behavior	1
11. Journal of Financial Services Marketing	1
12. Journal of Medical Marketing	1
13. Journal of Product & Brand Management	1
14. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing	1
15. Journal of Strategic Marketing	1
16. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing	1
17. Young Consumers	1
TOTAL	32

All of the other journals in stage two were not used in stage one. It is reasonable to assume that had the other journals listed in Table 7 been searched back to the date that they first appeared online, that more China marketing articles might have been found. Four of the authors with publication credits in stage one appeared with publication credits in stage two. These four authors’ universities were in Asia, North America, Hong Kong, and mainland China. They are Lisa McNeil of the University of Otago (New Zealand), Zhi Honggao of Rider University (USA), Zhilin Yang of the City University of Hong Kong, and Ting Juichuo of Renmin University (mainland China).

TABLE 8

CONTENT OF THE ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN 2012 – STAGE TWO

Category	Number of Articles	Representative Topics*
1. Consumer	12	Attitudes towards viral mobile marketing, intention, and behavior
Behavior		Wine consumption
		Values, intention and mall shopping behavior
		Chinese consumers collectivists or individualists?
		State-owned versus privately-owned banks
		Service quality
		Brand image and brand preference
		Crisis brand-management
		Organic food purchase intentions
		Coupon value for new products
		Young luxury consumers

2. Cultural	5	Store type
Effects		Country of origin effects
		Chinese consumer ethnocentrism
		Reflection of cultural values on social network sites
		Effect of Chinese culture on public relations
		U.S. – China differences in re puffery

3. Public	4	Chinese government and public relations
Relations		Public relations as a news source
		Professional standards of public relations

4. Advertising &	3	Promotion in the supermarket industry
Promotion		Puffery
		Website promotion of upscale hotels

5. Marketing	2	Sales strategy for shampoo
Strategy		New product performance and corporate culture
		New product performance and strategic orientation

6. Theory*	2	Overhyping in the hospitality industry
		Statistical validity of personality scales used in China

7. Miscellaneous*	4	Managing strategic business relationships
		Chinese health care system
		National image branding
		Service quality in the language training market
TOTAL	32
*There is no one-to-one correspondence between articles and topics.

TABLE 9

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF AUTHORS’ INSTITUTIONS – STAGE TWO

	Hong Kong	PRC	Asian (Excluding PRC & Hong Kong)	Europe	North American	All Institutions
No. Institutions	2	7	8	7	17	41
Percentage	5%	17%	19.5%	17%	41.5%	100%
STAGE ONE	7	14	12	7	30	70
RESULTS =>	10%	20%	17%	10%	43%	100%

	TABLE 10
	TITLES OF ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN 2012- SECOND STAGE
1	A relational perspective on media relations strategies: The Chinese government's news conferences from 2001 to 2009
2	A strategic investigation of the determinants of wine consumption in China
3	An institutional perspective of public relations practices in the Chinese cultural contexts
4	Assessing the fit of two brand personality scales in a Chinese context and revisiting the predictive validity of two methods of measuring self-congruity
5	Beyond state-owned banks: Evidence from Shanghai bank customers
6	Branding national images: The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, 2010 Shanghai World Expo, and 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games
7	Chinese consumer ethnocentrism: A field experiment
8	Clan culture, strategic orientation and new product performance in Chinese marketing ventures: an exploration of main and moderating effects
9	Crisis brand management in emerging markets: Insight from the Chinese infant milk powder scandal
10	Cultural values reflected in corporate pages on popular social network sites in China and the United States
11	Dispelling the collective myth of Chinese consumers: a new generation of brand-conscious individualists
12	How public relations functions as news sources in China
13	Impacts of store type importance and country of origin: Exploring the case of dietary supplements in the Chinese market
14	Institutionalizing public relations in China: A sociological analysis of the Chinese Premier's Press Conference
15	Is this Shangri-La? The case for authenticity in the Chinese and Indian hospitality industry
16	Linking Perceived Service Quality to Relational Outcomes in a Chinese Context
17	Managing strategic business relationships in retail operations: evidence from China
18	Organic food products in China: determinants of consumers’ purchase intentions
19	Perceived professional standards and roles of public relations in China: Through the lens of Chinese public relations practitioners
20	Perception of puffery in advertising: investigating the China-US differences
21	Personal values and mall shopping behaviour: The mediating role of intention among Chinese consumers
22	Predicting Young American and Chinese Consumers’ Mobile Viral Attitudes, Intents, and Behavior
23	Predicting young Chinese consumers' mobile viral attitudes, intents and behavior
24	Sales promotion in the supermarket industry: a four-country case comparison
25	Service quality in the language training market in China
26	The Chinese health care system: An analysis of the current and emerging health care needs
27	The framing effect of coupon value for new products: an empirical study in China
28	The impact of lifestyle and ethnocentrism on consumers' purchase intentions of fresh fruit in China
29	The role of brand image congruity in Chinese consumers' brand preference
30	The Young Luxury Consumers in China
31	What Does Hotel Website Content Say About a Property—An Evaluation of Upscale Hotels in Taiwan and China
32	What Makes Sales in Chinese Shampoo Industry? A DEA study based on Efficient Market Hypothesis

Table 8 displays the content categories into which the articles were divided. We see that five of the categories used in stage two are the same with the categories in stage one, namely: consumer behavior, advertising and promotion, marketing strategy, theoretical and miscellaneous. Two additional categories were used in stage two; namely public relations and cultural effects.

Table 9 exhibits a comparison of the geographical distribution of the authors discovered in stage one with the geographical distribution of the authors found in stage two. The reader should first notice how similar the distribution is. In both stages, European and North American institutions outnumbered Asian institutions, including those in Hong Kong and in mainland China. In both stages, institutions on the mainland outnumbered those in Hong Kong; however, it should be remembered that there are fewer institutions in Hong Kong than there are on the mainland, and that often, authors from one Hong Kong institution will publish many articles. Table 9 does not reflect that statistical reality. One difference between the two stages is that the percentage of institutions located in Hong Kong in stage two was half that of stage one. It should be noted that four authors who were working for business firms, and who were not affiliated with a university when they published the article, were excluded from the statistics in Table 9.

Finally, Table 10 lists the titles of all articles used in stage two, in order to give the reader an opportunity to gain an appreciation of the content area of the most recent China marketing research in English.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CHINA MARKETING

One of the journals used in this study was the International Journal of China Marketing. A special section of this paper will be devoted to this journal, because, as far as is known by the authors, this is the first academic journal in print devoted entirely to marketing in China. The journal was established in the United States in 2010, and was introduced by the renowned marketing scholar Philip Kotler, who has earned the sobriquet “the father of marketing.” In the introduction to the inaugural issue, Dr. Kotler suggested that the journal could examine “almost all aspects” of marketing in China. (Kotler, 2010) Indeed, the scope of IJCM’s publications matches that of the articles found in the other journals used in this research. Below, we will use the same categories which were used to analyze the other journals in stage one of the research. We will sort the relevant articles found in IJCM into the following categories: advertising and promotion, consumer behavior, marketing strategy, theoretical.

In commentary provided to introduce the third issue, Geoffrey P. Lantos proclaimed “The notion of a market oriented economy is still brand new in China, while marketing as a field of scholastic study is just in its beginning steps… I feel it is an honor to write this commentary on behalf of the editorial board. Like Dr. Philip Kotler and Dr. Ping Zhao, I sincerely hope the International Journal of China Marketing will continue to deliver the highest quality research in the service of those who wish to understand the world of Chinese marketing better.” (Lantos, 2011)

It is the authors’ considered opinion that IJCM has indeed begun to deliver the highest quality research into the world of China marketing. The overview below will give the reader a taste of the research done so far in the first four issues published to date. It should be noted that the articles in the first two issues were included in the sample of 100 articles studied in stage one of this research. The articles in the third and fourth issue were not included in the research samples of this paper, but will be discussed in this special section.

Advertising and Promotion In the first three issues, IJCM has published two articles related to advertising and promotion in China. The first article (Emery & Tian, 2010) updated Hofstede’s (1980) famous model of cultural variables, related Pollay’s (1983) advertising appeals to those variables, and hypothesized that the advertising appeals which appealed to either China’s or the United States’ salient cultural variables would have the most impact. For example, China is considered very masculine. An advertising appeal of effective would be considered a masculine appeal. Thus, it was hypothesized that an advertisement with an effective appeal should perform better in China than in the United States. Of twenty such hypotheses, only nine were supported, and one was significant in the opposite direction. The authors therefore concluded that it would be unwise to use Hofstede’s cultural dimensions as a sole predictor for advertising effectiveness in China. The researchers speculated that for practical use Hofstede’s dimensions were either outdated, or too broad, or both. In addition, the authors speculated that the effectiveness of advertising appeals may be moderated by other factors such as age, societal trends, the political-legal environment and product usage.

The second article in IJCM concerning advertising measured changes in brand attitude based upon advertising appeals which mixed rational and emotional appeals. (Chaoying, Jian, & Ille, 2011) It was hypothesized that customers who predominately processed information cognitively would respond more positively to rational appeals in a mixed-appeal advertisement, and customers who predominately processed information intuitively would more positively respond to emotional appeals in a mixed-appeal advertisement. The authors, having studied an advertisement for a Chinese telecommunication service, concluded that mixing rational and emotional appeals did not hinder effectiveness when those appeals were delivered to a general audience, and that a mixing strategy is a good compromise when trying to attract a population of people who process both emotionally and rationally.

The fourth issue of IJCM contained an article concerning advertising and promotion in virtual worlds, which are computer generated. (Sharma, Li & Wang, 2012) The most well-known of these virtual worlds is Second Life. Real life companies such as IBM advertise their products in the virtual world of Second Life, or they have conferences discussing their products. The authors discovered that E-marketing in Second Life exactly mirrors marketing in the real world, with manufacturing, distribution, sales, etc. One implication for business reported by the authors is that marketing in the virtual world of Second Life can have positive effects for the marketing efforts of the company in the real world.

Consumer Behavior There were three articles dealing with consumer behavior in the first three issues of IJCM. The first was a case study of an ethnic Chinese restaurant located in the United States (Tian & Wang, 2010) The authors concluded that reliability and value were the primary indicators of satisfaction for foreign customers of ethnic restaurants. The authors failed to corroborate previous research, which suggested that customers’ cultural awareness of the ethnic food sold, had positive effects on customer satisfaction. The second article (Li, Tu, & Li, 2011) investigated the attitudes of Chinese peasants towards refrigerator purchases, and ranked the relative importance to these peasants of seven attributes of refrigerators. The refrigerators’ brand was discovered to be of the most importance, followed by price, color, structure, power consumption, volume, and cooling capacity. The author concluded that peasant consumer attitudes towards refrigerator attributes varied in different regions and markets, and that therefore market segmentation was very important. The third article dealing with consumer behavior studied the different attractions to consumers for Chinese supermarkets and Chinese wet markets, the supermarkets being superior in safety and quality, the wet markets being superior in price, convenience, and freshness. (Cui, 2011)

The fourth issue of IJCM contained two articles dealing with consumer behavior. The first dealt with the acceptance of (and resistance to) mobile marketing among young Chinese consumers. This article reported that acceptance of mobile marketing was directly correlated with young mobile phone users’ propensity to share content, directly related to users’ propensity to access content, and directly related to the users’ personal attachment to their phone. Based on these findings, the author suggested that marketers emphasize meaningful incentives and value propositions to encourage consumers to provide information, which would then make them more susceptible to mobile marketing.

The second article in the fourth issue dealing with consumer behavior dealt with face consciousness of Chinese consumers, and its effect on decision-making styles of young Chinese adult consumers (Xue & Wang, 2012). The authors discovered that there was a significantly positive relationship between five face consciousness characteristics and a Chinese consumer with a perfectionistic, high-quality consciousness, for example. Other consumer decision-making styles that were positively correlated with face consciousness were a novelty-fashion conscious consumer, recreational consumers, and hedonistic consumers.

Marketing Strategy Articles in IJCM dealing with marketing strategy included research into pricing, product positioning and product development, branding, and service quality. One article examined the propensity for Chinese companies to start price wars (Zhang & Zhou, 2010). The authors conclude that, contrary to much opinion, Chinese businesses are not irrational to fight such wars, but that the rational desire to achieve economies of scales is the motivation behind these wars, and that many Chinese businesses participating in them emerge stronger and more profitable. A second article (Calantone, Benedetto, & Song, 2011) develops a model whose constructs predict the success of new product launches, and then tests the model using samples from the United States and China. The authors conclude that new product launches in both countries are (generally) governed by the same factors, which are: launch timing, launch execution tactics, resource allocation, marketing activities, distribution channel support, market orientation, and cross-functional integration on launch. A third article describes “Shanzhai” products and branding (Leng & Zhang, 2011), which explains the highly successful marketing strategy employed by small Chinese companies when they imitate the products of large successful brands (and sometimes infringe on the copyright of the more established product’s brand name). A fourth article (Shen & Wang, 2011) investigates public satisfaction with education in Beijing, in the context of Chinese education reform.

The fourth issue of IJCM contained one article dealing with marketing strategy. This was an article describing a Japanese overseas retailer doing business in Guangzhou (Wang, 2012). This anthropological study examined localization practices of the Japanese form. One such localization practice was intensive hiring of Chinese, which contrasted with the typical ethnocentric hiring practice of Japanese firms. The other localization practice employed by the Japanese firm was the adoption of a consignment form of contract between the company and suppliers. Suppliers supplied goods and promoters, and paid various fees and a commission on total sales. The Japanese company provided space for the goods.

Theoretical This category encompasses articles which describe structural or legal aspects of the Chinese economy at a macro-level, or which speculate on the suitability of application of marketing models and methodology to the Chinese context, or which address ethical issues in marketing. One example of research that examines the structure of the Chinese economy is a paper that concluded that China, after the financial crisis of 2008, would surpass the United States in research and development, especially in commercialization of research (M. Kotler, 2010). Another paper investigating the structure of the Chinese economy and its markets is one that addresses the perennial issue of intellectual property protection (Logan & McEwan, 2010). In this paper, the authors conclude that China should seek a balance between protecting proprietary information and allowing that information to be shared. A third paper which examines the structure of the Chinese economy and its markets is one that looks at the problem of population aging in China (Hou, 2011). This paper warns that the efficiency of the Chinese labor force may be compromised by population aging, as well as compromised by the ability of the country’s pension system to take care of the nation’s elderly.

One paper addresses a marketing model and its applicability in the Chinese context. This paper takes traditional cluster marketing theory and seeks to apply it to the Chinese high-tech industry (Tu, 2011). Another paper also addresses theoretical marketing research issues. This paper argues that traditional anthropological research techniques should be applied to business in China, in order to understand cross-cultural issues in marketing, in order for foreign firms engaged in business there to obtain a competitive advantage (Tian & Borges, 2011).

A final theoretical article involves marketing ethics. This article examined the practice of “cultural tourism” in China (Walle, 2011), and concluded that the traditional marketing focus on the customer was undercutting ethnic communities in China and cheapening their traditions, or unduly creating stress for ethnic people.

DISCUSSION

The findings from this research have impelled the authors to agree with Geoffrey P. Lantos, who has stated that “The notion of a market oriented economy is still brand new in China, while marketing as a field of scholastic study is just in its beginning steps.” (2011). This article has attempted to describe the state of this infant discipline in such a way that readers may ascertain the concerns of researchers in the China marketing field, as well as the characteristics of these researchers and their institutions.

Academic journals have become the primary medium of communicating scholarly knowledge in China marketing, and the number of China marketing-related journals and articles has increased in recent years. However, compared with research covering marketing activity in Western countries, only a handful of journals have covered China marketing issues up to now. The rapid growth of marketing in the Chinese economy makes it increasingly important to gain insight into the relative influence of marketing-related research papers. This research discovers that at this time most interest so far about marketing research related to China is in consumer behavior, although there is a good deal of interest in advertising, marketing strategy, and theoretical issues. As to the structure of scholars in China marketing research, we can easily see that most authors in the field are Chinese themselves, although much research is jointly collaborative between Chinese and non-Chinese. It is obvious that there is a concentration of scholars doing China marketing in Hong Kong. It is also clear that a small majority of institutions affiliated with China marketing research is located in Europe and North America and that a large minority of such institutions is located in Asia.

It seems to the authors that several implications flow from this. One is that the content of China marketing research is very broad, but not very deep. There are many topics covered in the literature, but few of those topics have been researched thoroughly. There is a need to explore marketing issues in China more deeply. Another implication is that professional contacts between China and the West, at both the individual and institutional level, are indispensable prerequisites for doing meaningful marketing research in China. The cultural and language barriers between China and the West are certainly not small. East-West collaboration will help western scholars to dispel the mystery of Chinese markets, and will help Chinese scholars to gain access to advanced marketing research techniques developed in the West.

In the authors’ best judgment, China is still virgin territory for researchers, which should entice marketing academicians for years to come. Karl Gerth, Professor of Modern Chinese History at Oxford University, notes that total consumer spending in China of $4 trillion in 2009 is still less than half that of the US, but it has surpassed consumer spending in Japan and is closing in on that of the EU. Gerth points out that it has taken China just a few years to learn what took these consumer countries decades: how to spend. He further points out that China’s advertising market has grown by 40% a year over the past two decades and may become the world’s largest by 2020. China now has over 2000 newspapers with a total circulation above a billion, the world’s ten largest general-circulation magazines, and over 1000 television channels. Advertising in China is now a huge industry, including over 80,000 ad companies that employ over one million people to help build brands. Gerth claims that the consequences are radically transforming China and the world. (Gerth, 2011) Such a phenomenon cries for academic investigation into China marketing by trained marketing researchers.

CONCLUSION

The emergence of China as a world-class market-driven economy presents marketing scholars with a unique opportunity. The flourishing of marketing activities in China, coupled with a relative scarcity of scholarly research into that activity, presents a wide-open door of opportunity for scholars to publish in the field. Such opportunities can be especially leveraged by collaboration between Western marketing scholars and Chinese ones.

This study was limited in several ways. In stage one, the sample of journals was restricted to those marketing journals whose titles focused on marketing in Asia or China. In addition, only articles that were posted online were examined, which may have precluded the inclusion of relevant articles on China marketing. Reasonable suggestions for further research would include an examination of all marketing journals, rather than Asian marketing journals, in order to find related articles. Although the authors have done this in stage two, the time period studied was only for one-half year. A study of all English-language marketing journals, over a longer time period, would be profitable.

There were certain restrictions placed on the inclusion of articles within the research sample. For example, articles concerning the behavior of ethnic Chinese consumers living outside of China or Chinese industries located outside of China were excluded. Also excluded were articles about the reaction by non-Chinese consumers to Chinese products consumed in countries other than China. Research into those areas might perhaps be worthwhile. In addition, all articles concerning marketing research into business activity in Hong Kong and Taiwan were excluded. These articles should be worthy of separate investigation. Finally, it is suggested that there is now enough China marketing research available to justify narrowing the scope of research. For example, a survey of articles related only to marketing strategy in China, or only related to advertising in China, etc., should perhaps be worthwhile.

REFERENCES

My Articles on China Marketing

A Descriptive Analysis of the Contents and Origins of Research on

China Marketing in English

INTRODUCTION

METHODOLOGY

The Content of the Articles

Journal Name

Number Articles

Citations

APJML

JGM

JICM

IJCM

JIM

AMJ

AJM

TABLE 2

Category

Number of Articles

Sub-Category*

TABLE 3

Author

Publication

Institution*

City University of Hong Kong

TABLE 4

Author

Adjusted Publication Credits

Institution*

Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Chinese University of Hong Kong

City University of Hong Kong

Author

Citations

Institution*

Hong Kong Baptist University

City University of Hong Kong

Chinese University of Hong Kong

City University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong Polytechnic University

University of Hong Hong

TABLE 6

Hong

PRC

Asian

Europe

North American

All

Journal Name

No.

TABLE 8

Category

Number of Articles

Representative Topics*

TABLE 9

Hong

PRC

Asian (Excluding

Europe

North American

All

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CHINA MARKETING