Emerging Consumer Perspectives on American Franchise Offerings: Variety Seeking Behavior in China*

Abstract

Chinese consumers had been historically restricted to limited variety with regard to consumer goods and services offerings since the days of Mao Zedong's founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The realities of a planned economy restricted the choices available to those provided through domestic producers, while limited trade with the outside world did not provide significant alternatives. From the early 1980s, however, through the opening of China's economy by Deng Xiaoping and his successors, Western companies have started to gain access to the Chinese market. Their products not only became sought‐after alternatives by Chinese consumers, but even market leaders for choice‐starved consumers. This article reports the results gleaned from recent consumer survey data collected in Beijing which investigated the attitudes and behaviors of Chinese consumers in their patronage of McDonald's restaurants. A total of four hypotheses were tested regarding the influence of Variety Seeking proclivity among Chinese patrons of McDonald's on their sentiments of Desire for Unique Products, Democratization, Ethnocentrism, and Traditionalism. The emergent evidence suggests that Chinese consumers are reverting back to choosing Chinese brands as an expression of their variety seeking efforts and, in a broader sense, of rising consumer power. Chinese brands have reached a level of quality perception that has allowed them in recent years to take back market share from Western market leaders. The findings of this study suggest that a reversal of consumer preferences toward now‐competitive domestic Chinese alternatives is underway.

Cultural Convergence in Emerging Markets: The Case of McDonald's in China and India

“…The finding may be caused by different brand perceptions associated with McDonald's across the generations in China (Eckhardt and Houston ; Varman and Belk ): though older Chinese consumers value the egalitarian culture inherent in the franchised business model, young consumers, being more individually minded than previous generations, may not be as sensitive toward egalitarian elements and, accordingly, toward the values that are supported by applying a franchised brand's concept as McDonald's does. That is, older consumers, who witnessed the dramatic social changes after China's economic reforms in the 1980s and subsequent accelerated economic development (Grünhagen, Dant, and Zhu ), are more likely to support egalitarianism in business models than the young Chinese consumers who may be oblivious to this tumultuous transformation of their society.…”

“…First, relationships between consumer age and egalitarianism support in the two BRICS markets vary. In China, the older consumers are more likely to support egalitarian views in the context of choosing a franchised restaurant, even though younger generations are typically assumed to be more open to new (Grünhagen, Dant, and Zhu 2012), are more likely to support egalitarianism in business models than the young Chinese consumers who may be oblivious to this tumultuous transformation of their society. In India, however, younger consumers are more supportive of egalitarianism than older consumers.…”

The effects of cosmopolitanism and tradition on the evaluation and intentions of the users of fast food restaurants

“…Pored toga, tradicionalne vrednosti podrazumevaju skromnost, poniznost i umerenost u životu, kao i posvećenost vrednostima i načinu života koji su prihvaćeni u društvu. Tradicija kao osobina ličnosti odlikuje pojedince koji odobravaju konzervativni način odgajanja dece, poseduju tradicionalne vrednosti, religiozna uverenja, poštovanje prema starijima, kao i konvencionalne ispravne osobine i ponašanje (Grünhagen, Dant & Zhu, 2012). Prema klasifikaciji koju predlaže S. H. Schwartz (1992), tradicija predstavlja jednu od deset osnovnih ličnih vrednosti koje se mogu klasifikovati u četiri grupe vrednosti višeg reda.…”

“…Additionally, traditional values imply modesty, humility and moderation in life, as well as a dedication to the values and the way of life accepted in society. As a personal trait, tradition characterizes the individuals who approve of a conservative way of rearing children, who have traditional values and religious beliefs, who respect their elders, as well as conventionally proper traits and behavior (Grünhagen, Dant & Zhu, 2012). According to the classification suggested by S. H. Schwartz (1992), tradition represents one of the ten basic personal values that can be classified into the four groups of higher-rank values.…”

Consumers’ Variety Seeking: From an Information Perspective

“…Extensive researches also show that variety seeking closely relates to other domains of consumer behavior such as impulse buying, ethical behavior, cultural studies (Punj 2011;Van Trijp, Hoyer, & Inman, 1996;Kim & Drolet, 2003). The understanding of variety seeking is also deepened from extending the research contexts into emerging markets (e.g., Grünhagen, Dant, & Zhu, 2012) and various purchasing situations (Choi, Kim, & Yi, 2006). One representative example is that people will prefer more equal mixes of virtues and vices when making simultaneous, as opposed to sequential, choices (Read, Loewenstein, & Kalyanaraman, 1998).…”