Cultural differences of Chinese automobile consumers

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

China is the country with huge potential and is growing faster than any other countries. The great economy development makes people interested in China market. And China’s automobile industry had made a great progress after entering WTO. The market has been 10 times than 10 years ago. As the first one-child generation who are also the future potential automobile customers, the consumption pattern of After 80s has many distinctive features and has been a hot topic in China. Nowadays, After 70s are the main automobile customers, but in 10 years future After 80s will take their place to be the target customers in China automobile market. There are many existing researches and papers studying on the consumer behavior of After 80s, but there are rare materials which are related on the differences between the first one-child generation and the early generation. But due to the large population and territory there are huge differences on people from different areas the territory of China is separated by urban areas and rural areas in this thesis. So this essay is trying to find out that regarding to the regions what are the consumption differences between the two generations when they purchasing automobiles.

This thesis collected data through Chinese consumer survey. The sample is focused on After 80s with the age of 20-35 and After 70s with the age of 35-50 in China urban areas and rural areas. And Beijing(北京) has been chosen as the urban city, while Tangshan (唐山) and Baoding (保定) have chosen as the rural cities. And 600 Chinese consumers answered the survey.

First it shows that when purchasing automobiles, there are differences between urban city Beijing and rural cities Tangshan and Baoding. Influenced by Hofstede's Culture's Consequence: individualism and collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, customers in China urban cities perceive style and brand more importantly; customers in China rural cities perceive price and quality more importantly.

Second it shows that when purchasing automobiles, there are differences between After 70s and After 80s. After 80s appears the characteristics of individual consumption, so the perceive style and price importantly, and due to the relatively low income level, compared to After 70s they are also more price-sensitive; while After 70s appears the characteristics of collective consumption, so they perceive brand and quality more importantly.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Chapter 1. Introduction 1
• 1.1 Automobile Market Overview in China 1
• 1.1.1 The Current Situation Analysis of China's Automobile Market 2
• 1.1.2 Geographic and Demographic Characteristics of Auto Industry in China 6
• 1.1.3 Chinese Customers' Preference of Country of Origin on Auto Brand 8
• 1.1.4 Relationship Between Income Level and Auto Purchase 9
• 1.1.5 Low Concentration in China's Passenger Vehicles Market 12
• 1.1.6 Low Brand Loyalty and Same-quality Cars 13
• 1.2 Geographic Difference Overview in China 15
• 1.3 Demographic Difference Overview in China 19
• Chapter 2. Theoretical Background 25
• 2.1 Theory Introduction 25
• 2.1.1 Individualism - Collectivism 26
• 2.1.2 Uncertainty Avoidance 30
• 2.1.3 Individual Consumption of China's After 80s 30
• 2.1.4 Collective Consumption of After 70s in China 34
• 2.2 Hypothesis and Relative Studies 35
• 2.2.1 Perceived Price 36
• 2.2.2 Perceived Quality 38
• 2.2.3 Perceived Style 40
• 2.2.4 Perceived Brand 41
• Chapter 3. Methodology 44
• 3.1 Survey Design 44
• 3.1.1 Geographic Design 44
• 3.1.2 Demographic Design 47
• 3.2 Survey Results 52
• Chapter 4. Conclusion 60
• 4.1 Perceived Price 60
• 4.1.1 Urban Area and Rural Area 60
• 4.1.2 After 80s in Urban/Rural Area and After 70s in Urban/Rural Area 61
• 4.2 Perceived Quality 61
• 4.2.1 Urban Area and Rural Area 61
• 4.2.2 After 80s in Urban/Rural Area and After 70s in Urban/Rural Area 62
• 4.3 Perceived Style 63
• 4.3.1 Urban Area and Rural Area 63
• 4.3.2 After 80s in Urban/Rural Area and After 70s in Urban/Rural Area 63
• 4.4 Perceived Brand 64
• 4.4.1 Urban Area and Rural Area 64
• 4.4.2 After 80s in Urban/Rural Area and After 70s in Urban/Rural Area 64
• 4.5 Limitations and Future Research 66
• References 72