Geng Cui

Regional market segments of China: opportunities and barriers in a big emerging market

As one of the big emerging markets, China’s enormous population and rapid increase in consumer spending have attracted many multinational corporations (MNCs). Meanwhile, the misconception of China as a homogeneous market often leads to difficulties in assessing market demand and enacting effective strategies. Examines the diversity among Chinese consumers across seven regional markets. Data from a national survey suggest that consumers from various regions are significantly different from one another in terms of purchasing power, attitudes, lifestyles, media use, and consumption patterns. MNCs need to take a cautionary approach when expanding into the inland regions, and must adapt to the local market conditions and devise sustainable strategies.

The Effect of Online Consumer Reviews on New Product Sales

This study examines the effect of online reviews on new product sales for consumer electronics and video games. Analyses of panel data of 332 new products from Amazon.com over nine months reveal that the valence of reviews and the volume of page views have a stronger effect on search products, whereas the volume of reviews is more important for experience products. The results also show that the volume of reviews has a significant effect on new product sales in the early period and such effect decreases over time. Moreover, the percentage of negative reviews has a greater effect than that of positive reviews, confirming the negativity bias. Thus, marketers need to consider the distinctive influences of various aspects of online reviews when launching new products and devising e-marketing strategies.

Emerging market segments in a transitional economy : a study of urban consumers in China

How to integrate the emerging consumer segments in transitional economies into multinational corporations’ global marketing strategies presents a significant challenge. An analysis of Chinas urban consumers based on a 1997 national survey reveals several market segments that are distinctive in their demographics, psychographics, lifestyles, media usage, and consumption patterns. The findings suggest that multinational corporations need to adapt to the local market conditions in China and other transitional economies.

Machine Learning for Direct Marketing Response Models: Bayesian Networks with Evolutionary Programming

Machine learning methods are powerful tools for data mining with large noisy databases and give researchers the opportunity to gain new insights into consumer behavior and to improve the performance of marketing operations. To model consumer responses to direct marketing, this study proposes Bayesian networks learned by evolutionary programming. Using a large direct marketing data set, we tested the endogeneity bias in the recency, frequency, monetary value (RFM) variables using the control function approach; compared the results of Bayesian networks with those of neural networks, classification and regression tree (CART), and latent class regression; and applied a tenfold cross-validation. The results suggest that Bayesian networks have distinct advantages over the other methods in accuracy of prediction, transparency of procedures, interpretability of results, and explanatory insight. Our findings lend strong support to Bayesian networks as a robust tool for modeling consumer response and other marketing problems and for assisting management decision making.

Order of entry and performance of multinational corporations in an emerging market : a contingent resource perspective

Drawing on the resource-based view, this study examines the contingency effects of industry- and firm-level variables on the first-mover advantages and effective follower strategies in an emerging-market context. Using hierarchical regressions, the authors analyze a large data set of foreign investors in China. Contingency models that include the interactions of entry order with the moderating variables have better fit of the data than the main-effect models. Industry growth and competition, firm size, entry mode, resource commitment, and marketing intensity have significant moderating effects on first-mover advantages. After the authors correct for multicollinearity bias using ridge regression, it seems that pioneers still enjoy a small advantage in market share but not in profitability, indicating a trade-off between the two. Furthermore, followers may augment performance by increasing resource commitment and marketing intensity. These findings have significant implications for entry-order strategies and for improving foreign direct investment performance in foreign markets; they also suggest meaningful directions for further research.

Consumer attitudes toward marketing in a transitional economy: a replication and extension

Burgeoning consumerism in transitional economies has significant implications for both multinational corporations and local companies. Based on a survey of four cities in mainland China, this research examines consumer attitudes toward marketing, and compares the findings with those of previous studies of other economies. The results suggest that consumers in mainland China are less critical of marketing than their counterparts in advanced economies. Furthermore, consumer attitudes toward marketing, beliefs about business, and their interactions have significant effects on consumer satisfaction. The implications for marketing operations in transitional economies and avenues for future research are explored.

Marketing to Ethnic Minority Consumers: A Historical Journey (1932-1997)

This study provides a historical survey of the research on ethnic minority consumers and related marketing issues and includes more than two hundred articles and books dated from 1932 to 1997. Quantitative analyses of longitudinal data reveal several historical transitions and the amount of research activities in various subject areas, thus providing an overview of the history and recent development in this area. Content analyses identify the key research topics, theoretical propositions, and empirical findings. It further explores directions for future research and provides suggestions for marketing educators, researchers, and practitioners.

Marketplace diversity and cost-effective marketing strategies

As the population and purchasing power of ethnic minority consumers in the USA continue to grow, more marketers are using subcultural segmentation and targeted marketing to reach these consumers. Meanwhile, some marketers have grown increasingly concerned with the cost‐effectiveness of ethnic segmentation and differentiated marketing. This research reviews various methods for segmenting the ethnic markets and suggests the nested approach and cost‐benefit optimization for analyzing the cost‐effectiveness of ethnic segmentation and marketing. Furthermore, this research proposes four alternative strategies for marketing in a multicultural environment. Directions for future research and managerial implications are explored.

Responses of Chinese Consumers to Sex Appeals in International Advertising: A Test of Congruency Theory

ABSTRACT While the use of sex appeal is on the rise in China to advertise products ranging from beer to cars, their effect on Chinese consumers is largely unknown and may be incongruent with the Chinese culture. This study adopts the congruency theory to examine the effects of sex appeal in international advertising and proposes several testable hypotheses. In an experiment, we adopt a three × two design including three levels of sex appeal and two models (Chinese and Caucasian) and test the advertisements with a group of Chinese consumers. The results suggest that the subjects respond more favourably to advertisements with non-sex appeal than those using sex appeal in terms of their attitudes toward the advertisement (A ad ) and brand (A b ), and buying intention (BI). Chinese consumers also prefer advertisements featuring Chinese models to those using Caucasian models, even when strong sex appeal is used. Thus, international advertisers are cautioned with standardized strategies in advertising to Chinese consumers using sex appeal and Caucasian models.

Culturally incongruent messages in international advertising

This study investigates the effect of culturally incongruent messages in international advertising on consumer responses. The results of an experiment suggest that the type of cultural values (terminal vs instrumental) and ethnic background of models (foreign vs local) significantly moderate the effect of message congruency on attitude towards the advertisement, and such effect is mediated by the number of counter-arguments. Thus, culturally incongruent messages can be effective if they avoid conflict on a fundamental value or are positioned as originating from a foreign culture. Moreover, model background moderates the effect of message congruency on brand attitude and buying intention. These findings have meaningful implications for international marketing across societies of different cultural traditions.