A book review by Alex Pun

Consumer Behavior in China is a heart issue after China opens its market. And so it is a very important book for researchers who did researches in China. Normally, the research studies and the theories were generated in US and Europe, and less focued in Asia and China. As Hofstede did lots of research on cross-cultural area, and it showed that different countries have its own culture which would affect the value and the consumer behavior. Therefore, understand China value is important as the role of China is very important.

Yau, the author is the experts in Chinese culture, and he used another approach to explain the cultural value in China and how it affect the consumer behavior which more suitable for Chinese. The book actually is a research findings, the author has considered lots of factors which would influencing cultural values i.e. situational factor, product expectation and describe the methodology and the findings at last..

As Chinese has its own culture, the value system used must have great differences compare with western, and author would explain lots of tradition Chinese culture e.g. relational orientation, Man-to-himself orientation, and therefore, the reader would know the origin of each value.

And the research findings are very comprehensive, by using different research methods, the author draw the big picture of Chinese culture, therefore for researchers, they would have basic ideas in Chinese value after reading the book. And then they can set the meaningful hypothesis for further explore.

For marketers, the findings are very important, when they consider to enter China market, environment analysis is important, and consumer behavior are the major concerns for them, the needs of people depend much on values, attitude, personality, surrounding environment, and all the behaviors of Chinese can be found from this book. When marketers need to do promotion, the attitude towards different approaches are needed to be found out, the research findings would satisfy them.

However, there is one limitation, as the book is printed in 1994, and 10 years before, some of the data are outdated and the value of Chinese have changed as the socio and economy have great development, therefore the buyer should consider this limitation. But overall, this book would help the researchers and marketers to know more the Great China market.

OLIVER YAU HON MING is Chair Professor of Marketing and Director of the Unit for Chinese Management Development, Faculty of Business at the City University of Hong Kong (CityU). He holds an International Teacher’s Certificate from CESA (now HEC), France, and a Ph.D. degree in marketing from the Management Centre, Bradford University, England. He has held teaching and research positions in four continents, including South America, Australia, Europe and Asia. Before he joined CityU, he was with the Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Queensland, and the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. He was appointed as a visiting or consulting professor by more than ten major universities in Mainland China, Australia, Taiwan, and England. He has published over 200 articles in refereed international journals and conferences, including Journal of international Business Studies, Journal of International Marketing, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research and European Journal of Marketing and more than 30 books in both Chinese and England. Being a renowned consultant in services and marketing research, he has assisted over 50 companies in various countries by conducting surveys and providing consulting and training services. He is now a member of the editorial board for more than ten international journals. He was the Chairman of the Southeast Asia Region of the Academy of International Business (AIBSEAR) and Honorary President of the Hong Kong Institute of Marketing. Currently, he is the advisor of the Hong Kong Professional Validation Council of Hong Kong Industries, and also an adviser of the Academy of Chinese Marketing.