UKM-Graduate School of Business, The National University of Malaysia, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia.
School of Economics, Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, Guangzhou, China.
PLoS One. 2022 May 6;17(5):e0267563. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0267563. eCollection 2022.
This study aims to investigate how young Chinese consumers make purchase intentions towards Western brands under the influence of two conflicting values and CSR, which is insufficiently discussed in the current literature. Both value-attitude-behavior (VAB) and consumer cultural theories are adopted to construct the research framework. Data was collected from undergraduate students studying at a public university located in Guangzhou via WeChat and Tencent QQ. A total of 314 usable responses were analyzed by the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The empirical findings indicated that cosmopolitanism has a significantly positive effect on brand attitudes and purchase intentions; ethnocentrism has a significantly negative effect on purchase intentions, but no significant impact on brand attitudes; and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives positively affect brand attitudes rather than purchase intentions. The results also revealed that brand attitudes mediate the relationship between cosmopolitanism/CSR and purchase intentions, but it does not have a mediating effect on the relationship between ethnocentrism and purchase intentions. These findings provide essential insights to the body of knowledge of international marketing in emerging markets and shed light on understanding how young Chinese consumers make purchase decisions towards Western brands. The results are useful for Western brands to effectively adjust their marketing strategies and advertising/promoting campaigns for business development purposes in the Chinese market.
本研究旨在探讨在两种冲突价值观和企业社会责任的影响下，年轻的中国消费者如何对西方品牌产生购买意向，而这在当前文献中讨论得还不够充分。本研究采用价值态度行为（VAB）和消费者文化理论来构建研究框架。通过微信和腾讯 QQ 从位于广州的一所公立大学的本科生那里收集了数据。通过偏最小二乘结构方程建模（PLS-SEM）对 314 份有效回复进行了分析。实证结果表明，世界主义对品牌态度和购买意向有显著的正向影响；民族中心主义对购买意向有显著的负向影响，但对品牌态度没有显著影响；企业社会责任（CSR）举措对品牌态度有积极影响，而对购买意向没有影响。研究结果还表明，品牌态度在世界主义/CSR 与购买意向之间起中介作用，但在民族中心主义与购买意向之间没有中介作用。这些发现为新兴市场国际营销的知识体系提供了重要的见解，并阐明了如何理解年轻的中国消费者对西方品牌的购买决策。研究结果对西方品牌有效调整其营销策略和广告/推广活动以促进在中国市场的业务发展具有重要意义。
