The influence of Chinese philosophical religious traditions on Chinese consumption behaviour: a multiple case study of Chinese festivals

As firms across the world target China, it is important for marketers to understand the inherent and unique characteristics of the Chinese population in order to establish effective marketing strategies. Previous research has predominantly focused on Confucian luxury consumption behaviour and none have addressed the three principal philosophical religious traditions of China (namely Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism) in the context of consumers and their consumption behaviours. This study is exploratory in nature and employs multiple case studies of Chinese festivals to achieve an in-depth understanding of the influence of these three philosophical religious traditions on consumption behaviour in China today. The multiple case study design comprises the Chinese festivals of the Qingming Festival (Confucianism), the Duanwu Festival (Taoism), the Laba Festival (Buddhism) and the Chinese Spring Festival (unifying all three philosophical religious traditions), and was conducted using three data collection techniques: accompanied shopping, participant observation and in-depth interviews with participants who self-identified with a given tradition. The research aim was to explore how the cultural values from these philosophical religious traditions impact Chinese consumption behaviour in terms of the purchasing and consumption experience from the point of view of the participants. In combining the findings from the four case studies, this research provides an holistic understanding and analysis of the influence of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism on contemporary Chinese consumption behaviour. The key contribution of the study is to offer an evidence-based framework of Chinese consumption behaviour across all three traditions, entitled an Empirical Framework of Chinese Consumption Behaviour. This framework helps close an existing gap in the marketing literature and provides a (relatively rare) non-Western perspective on contemporary Chinese consumption behaviours rooted in a very different cultural heritage. Ultimately, this will help firms outside of China to devise appropriate marketing strategies for the Chinese market as a comparative analysis of the differences between the three philosophical religious traditions has been conducted for international companies to take as a reference point for successful marketing in China.

Grantor dc:publisher

Oxford Brookes University

Year dc:date

2019

Author dc:creator

• Zhu, Haiping

Contributors dc:contributor

• Clarke, Jackie
• Occhiocupo, Nicoletta

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved

Language dc:language

en

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.24384/e0hf-ed03

OAI identifier oai:identifier

tle:20519350-b3e7-4301-8e2e-717825bb7e85:d6bd9758-527a-46cd-bfe2-c433766e8fca:1