Understanding Chinese Consumers’ and Chinese Immigrants’ Purchase Intentions toward Global Brands with Chinese Elements: The Moderating Role of Acculturation: An Abstract

Abstract

Nowadays, global brands often use Chinese elements in their products to attract consumers and increase market share. However, research on this topic is still in its infancy. This article aims to investigate the relationship between three independent variables (cultural pride, cultural compatibility, and Chinese elements authenticity), and a dependent variable (purchase intentions) toward the global brands using Chinese elements in their products, both in the Chinese and North American markets. Another aim is to understand how acculturation moderates the relationship between cultural pride and purchase intentions, and the relationship between cultural elements authenticity and purchase intentions.

The data were collected from China and North America respectively. 163 Chinese participants and 165 Chinese immigrants from the U.S. and Canada participated in this research. The measures of cultural pride, cultural compatibility, and purchase intention were adopted from previous research and had validity and reliability. Hierarchical linear regressions were used to test the direct effects hypotheses, and all were supported. The Moderated Regression Analysis (MRA) method was used to test the moderation hypotheses.

The findings show that cultural pride, cultural compatibility, and Chinese elements authenticity are positively related to the purchase intentions of global brands with Chinese elements for both the Chinese consumers and the Chinese immigrants in North America. There is a partial moderation effect of acculturation on the relationship between cultural pride and purchase intentions; however, there is no moderation effect on the relationship between cultural elements authenticity and purchase intentions. These findings have important implications for marketers of global both in terms of the Chinese market at home, but also among Chinese immigrants abroad.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Fonds de recherche société et culture (Quebec).