PARENTS PERCEPTION OF TEENS INFLUENCE ON FAMILY PURCHASE
DECISIONS: A STUDY OF CULTURAL ASSIMILATION
Dr. Gurvinder S. Shergill Senior Lecturer in Marketing,
Department of Commerce Massey University, Private Bag 102 904 NSMC
Auckland, NEW ZEALAND Ph: +64 9 414 0800 x9466 Email:
[email protected] & Min Zhao Decorator Consultant
Freedom Furniture 19 Link Drive Rd Wairau Park North Shore City
Auckland, New Zealand Email: [email protected]
Abstract This study investigates the cultural assimilation
influence on family purchase decisionmaking of Chinese immigrant
families in New Zealand, and in Chinese families living in China
(PRC). The data is collected from 200 respondents. One-hundred
families have been chose from each of these countries. The results
of this research show that cultural assimilation does have an
influence on parental perceptions of teens influence on family
decision-making. Chinese immigrants teenage children in New Zealand
were perceived as having more influence within the family than
their peers in Chinese families living in China. Key Words:
cultural assimilation, family purchase decision, Chinese family,
Chinese immigrant family, decision-making stages, product types.
INTRODUCTION As the primary, and basic, consumption unit the family
has been paid increasing attention by marketers and marketing
research in recent years, including the decisionmaking stages and
the influences on decision-making (Kim and Lee, 1997; Moore et al.,
2002). Many studies have examined the influence of husbands and
wives on their family purchase decision-making, in terms of various
consumption decisions and across
different cultures (see, for example, Cox, 1975; Davis, 1976;
Hempel, 1974). Some researchers have pointed out that children will
influence the family decision-making process and an increasing
number of research results show that teenagers are an attractive
market segment, through their influence on their parents spending,
as well as through spending their own money, as well as through the
fact that they will spend more in the future (Martin and Bush,
2000; Zollo, 1995). Furthermore, due to the spending power
controlled by the teenage demographic, this group is usually a
trendsetter in terms of consumption patterns (Martin and Bush,
2000). Increasingly, children are no longer passive observers; they
are increasingly becoming active participants in the family
purchase decisions (Martin and Bush, 2000). They not only spend
their own money on a diversity of products and services of their
choice, but also have extensive influence on family purchase
decision-making (Wimalasiri, 2004). According to McNeal (1992), in
China, there are more than 300 million people under the age of
fifteen years, with children being referred to as little Emperors.
They are interested in everything from confectionary to computer
games (Zikmund and dAmico, 1998). According to Wimalasiri (2004),
the teenage market in Australia is worth around AU$3.9 million, and
is worth around AU$800,000 in New Zealand. Teenagers are perceived
by parents as having influence on family purchase decisionmaking.
The perception of parents in this area will, however, be influenced
by the familys cultural background. Under different cultural
backgrounds, parents will have different perceptions regarding
teenagers influence on family purchase decisionmaking (Lassere and
Schutte, 1995; Adler, 1987; Shoham and Dalakas, 2003; 2005). This
research tested whether cultural assimilation influences Chinese
immigrant parents perceptions of childrens influence on family
decision-making in New Zealand. To isolate the effects of the
Chinese and New Zealand cultures, two surveys were conducted: One
of Chinese immigrant families in New Zealand; and the other of
Chinese families residing in China. The surveys dealt with the
parents assessment of the childrens influence on different types of
products purchased and the family purchase decision-making stages.
The surveys also tested whether cultural assimilation influences
parental perceptions of childrens influence as the children grow
up.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Factors impacting childrens influenceIn this research, a family
purchase is defined as, one in which all family members were
involved in the decision-making process or consumption of the
purchased item or service (Thomson, 2003, p.23). Research into
family purchasing patterns often focuses on the role of spouses, or
of the husband and wife separately (Cox, 1975; Davis, 1976; Hempel,
1974). This ignores the important role of children in family
purchase decisionmaking and, therefore, misrepresents the reality
of family purchasing behaviour, whereby products are purchased and
consumed together by the family (Thomson, 2003). Many previous
studies have indicated that children were perceived by parents to
have influence during the family purchase decision-making process,
and that this influence varies due to a number of different
factors. These factors include, product type (e.g. Foxman and
Tansuhaj, 1988; Jenkins, 1979), the decision stage (e.g. Nelson,
1979; Shoham and Dalakas, 2003) and the childs age (e.g. Nelson,
1979; Atkin, 1978). In this research the impact of these three
factors on childrens perceived influence is investigated.
Therefore, the following section will present the studies related
to these three factors and their impact on childrens perceived
influence. Product type Product type is one important source of
variation in childrens influence in the family purchase
decision-making process (Mangleburg, 1990). Most of the studies in
this area found that children were perceived to have more influence
on the purchase of products for which they were the primary users
(Shoham and Dalakas, 2003). For instance, children are perceived to
have substantial influence in the purchase of breakfast cereals,
snack foods, toys, childrens clothes and school supplies (Atkin,
1978; Belch et al., 1985; Brody et al., 1981; Foxman and Tansuhaj,
1988; Foxman et al., 1989a; Jenkins, 1979; Mehrotra and Torges,
1977; Moschis and Mitchell, 1986; Holdert and Antonides, 1997;
Chavda et al., 2005). The main explanation for the above phenomenon
is that children will be more involved in the purchase of products
for themselves and in the purchase of those products which are seen
by them as being personally relevant to them (Mangleburg,
1990).
On the other hand, children were perceived to have less
influence on the purchase decisions regarding products which are
used by the entire family (Mangleburg, 1990). For example, children
have been found as being perceived to have little influence on the
purchase of motor vehicles, life insurance and televisions (Belch
et al., 1985; Foxman et al., 1989b; Jenkins, 1979). Parents prefer
to make these decisions without permitting the child to influence
them, due to the financial risks involved, meanwhile, children are
also found to have less motivation in influencing the purchase of
those products which have low personal relevance to them
(Mangleburg, 1990). Decision stages The other important source of
variation in childrens influence is the decision stages during the
decision process (Mangleburg, 1990). Most of these studies found
that children were perceived as having greater influence on the
early stages (problem recognition and information search), with
this influence declining as the decisionmaking progresses through
the stages (Nelson, 1979; Szybillo and Sosanie, 1977; Swinyard and
Sim, 1987; Wimalasiri, 2004). Wimalasiri (2004) found that children
were influencers during the family purchase decision stages and
used different tactics to influence parental decision-making.
Holdert and Antonides (1997) found, however, that children are
perceived to have more influence at the stages of alternative
evaluation, make choice and make purchase during the family
decision-making process, than at the problem recognition stage.
Childs age Most studies have found that older children will have
more influence than will younger children. For example: Atkin
(1978) found that older children were perceived as having more
influence on family cereal purchases than were younger children;
Nelson (1979) concluded that older children had more influence in
choosing the restaurant for the family to eat out at than did
younger children; and Ward and Wackman (1972) also pointed out that
older children had a stronger influence than younger children in
the purchase of relevant foods, less relevant foods, child-durables
and toiletries. In other words, based on the previous studies, we
could conclude that childrens influence is increase as they grow
up.
To sum up, the three variables examined above have all been
shown to significantly impact on childrens perceived influence on
family purchase decision-making. This research uses the basis of
these three factors to test whether cultural assimilation impacts
Chinese parents perceptions of childrens influence. To better
understand the influence of cultural assimilation it is first
necessary to understand the cultural differences between New
Zealand and China, and then review the literature regarding
cultural assimilation.
The cultural differences between New Zealand and ChinaAccording
to Hofstede and Hofstede (2004), the scores of these two countries
on three culture dimensions are as presented in Table 1 below.
Table 1 Culture index scores of China and New Zealand China 20 30
80 New Zealand 79 49 22
IDV (Individualism Index) UAI (Uncertainty Avoidance Index) PDI
(Power Distance Index)
Source: Hofstede and Hofstede (2004) Hofstedes (1993, p.89)
definition of Individualism (IDV) is, the degree to which people in
a country prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of
groups. From the index of individualism, China scored 20 points,
which is much lower than New Zealand. This indicates that
individual initiative is more strongly discouraged in China than in
New Zealand, and that the Chinese culture places more emphases on
the group than on the individual. Therefore, children in New
Zealand more actively make individual decisions, with their parents
more likely to respect these individual decisions. On the other
hand, children in China are expected to have more faith in their
family, to be more obedient and to follow their parents, or
familys, decision, and not make individual decisions themselves.
Therefore, in regards to this dimension, it can be summarized that
children in China are expected to have less influence on family
purchase decision-making than children in New Zealand. Uncertainty
avoidance (UAI) is defined as, the degree to which people in a
country prefer structured over unstructured situations (Hofstede,
1993, p.90). From the index of
uncertainty avoidance, it can be seen that China scored 30 and
New Zealand scored 49 points. New Zealands higher index of 49
points means that people in this kind of culture do not like
change, they avoid risk, and that younger people tend to be
suspicious of change (Hofstede, 1980). Therefore, it can be said
that New Zealand parents are likely to doubt their childrens ideas
and decisions, since they believe that their children are not
mature enough to make their own decisions. On the other hand, New
Zealand children are likely to strive to avoid conflict with their
parents and to seek consensus more than are Chinese children
(Shoham and Dalakas, 2003). As a result, children living in New
Zealand will be expected to have less influence in family purchase
decision-making than will Chinese children. The definition of Power
distance (PDI) is, the degree of inequality among people, which the
population of a country considers as normal; from relatively equal
to extremely unequal (Hofstede, 1993, p.89). Based on Hofstede
(1993), it can be concluded that New Zealand has a much lower power
distance than China. This means that New Zealand parents value
their childrens obedience less in comparison to parents in cultures
with a high power distance. Therefore, New Zealand parents are more
likely to encourage, and be more open to, their childrens
involvement in family decisionmaking. As shown, the index of Power
distance (PDI) in New Zealand is 22, which means that children in
New Zealand will be more likely to be encouraged to become involved
in family decision-making than will children in China. In other
words, the parental perception of childrens influence on family
purchase decisions in New Zealand is expected to be stronger than
for their counterparts living in China.
Cultural AssimilationAs previously indicated, there are huge
cultural differences between China and New Zealand. This means that
Chinese families who immigrate to New Zealand will experience a
process of changing their existing cultural values in order to
adapt to New Zealand cultural values. This process is called
cultural assimilation. The most widely accepted definition of
assimilation is from Park and Burgess (1921, p.735): Assimilation
is a process of inter-penetration and fusion in which persons and
groups acquire the memories, sentiments and attitudes of other
persons or groups and by sharing their experience and history, are
incorporated with them in a
common cultural life. In this research, the subculture is the
Chinese (PRC) families who have immigrated to New Zealand, and the
dominant culture is the New Zealand culture. To become more
involved in New Zealand society, or to achieve a better lifestyle,
or a good career, Chinese immigrants have to assimilate into the
New Zealand culture. During, or after, this process, the cultural
values of the Chinese immigrants will change, which means that, to
some extent, the Chinese parents perceptions of their childrens
influence on family purchase decision-making will also change. By
reviewing the literature, it is found that there are a few studies
regarding the influence of cultural assimilation on parents
perceptions of their childrens impacts on family purchase
decision-making. Ganeshs (1997) found that spousal consumer
behaviuor is significant different in decision-making stages when
compared with Asian-Indians living in India, AsianIndians living in
the US and American nationals. He concluded that, for immigrants,
while there are large culture differences between host country and
home country, there must be an Americanisation process. Wallendorf
and Reilly (1983) found that MexicanAmericans experience a cultural
assimilation process toward their internalised conception of
American life, and this acculturation could influences their food
consumption behavior. Therefore, it can be seen that changes in
cultural background will definitely impact consumer behaviour.
Since the cultural differences between China and New Zealand are
large, when a Chinese family moves to New Zealand, cultural
assimilation is necessary. As a result, parents will develop a
different view of their childrens influence on family purchase
decision-making, compared with the view of parents living in China.
The review of the literature shows, however, that there are no
studies which focus on the influence of cultural assimilation on
childrens perceived influence on family purchase decision-making.
This is a research gap which the current research intends to fill.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The more specific objectives of this study are
listed below:
1. To investigate whether parents have the same perceptions of
their childrens
influence in regards to different products and family purchase
decision-making stages in Chinese immigrant families in New
Zealand, and Chinese families living in China. 2. To investigate
whether parents perceptions of childrens influence on family
purchase decision-making will have any significant difference as
the children grow up in Chinese immigrant families in New Zealand,
and in Chinese families living in China. Based upon above research
objectives, following hypotheses have been fromed to be tested in
this research: H1: Parents in Chinese immigrant families in New
Zealand perceive that their children have a significantly different
level of influence on family purchases of different products, when
compared with the parental perception in Chinese families living in
China. H2: Parents in Chinese immigrant families in New Zealand
perceive that their children have a higher level of influence on
family purchases of different products, when compared with the
parental perception in Chinese families living in China. H3:
Parents in Chinese immigrant families in New Zealand perceive that
their children have a significantly different level of influence on
family purchase decision-making stages, when compared with the
parental perception in Chinese families living in China. H4:
Parents in Chinese immigrant families in New Zealand perceive that
their children have a higher level of influence on family purchase
decision-making stages, when compared with the parental perception
in Chinese families living in China. H5: As a child grows up, there
will be a significantly different trend in parents perception of
the childs influence on family purchases of different products in
Chinese immigrant families in New Zealand, and Chinese families
living in China. H6: As a child grows up, there will be a
significantly different trend in parents perception of the childs
influence on family purchase decision-making stages in Chinese
immigrant families in New Zealand, and Chinese families living in
China.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Population The target population of the
research is defined as urban middle-class (defined as having
pre-tax income from NZ$2500 monthly to NZ$8333 monthly; as per
Barker, 1996), with childrens ages being from thirteen to nineteen
years for Chinese immigrant families in the study who have been
residing in New Zealand for between two to five
years; and urban, middle-class (defined as having pre-tax income
from 5,000 monthly to 41,667 monthly; as per Statistics China,
2005), with childrens ages being from thirteen to nineteen years
for the Chinese families residing in China. The reason for choosing
this income level is that, these families are more easily to find
to collect the data. In New Zealand the respondents were selected
from Auckland, as Auckland has the largest immigrant population in
New Zealand. In China, the respondents were from nine different
cities. The reason for choosing these respondents is that they are
all known to the researchers relatives, which increased the ease of
finding suitable families for the research
Sample Size Due to the constraints of time and budget, 260
families (135 families in China and 125 families in New Zealand)
were approached for this research. Most of the families in New
Zealand are familiar with the researcher; and the families in China
are known to the researchers relatives. They were also asked to
provide referrals of middle-class families with teenage children to
the researcher and the researchers relatives. Questionnaire design
Questions in the questionnaire were taken from Swinyard and Sim
(1987) and Shoham and Dalakas (2005). Questions relating to five
family use products and six children use products were included in
the questionnaire. Questionnaire was divided into three parts. In
the first part, respondents were asked to rate the childrens
influence using a five point scale for the eleven products (Foxman
et al., 1989a; 1989b). The second part tested the general influence
of children on family decision-making stages (Swinyard and Sim,
1987; and Shoham and Dalaka, 2005). The last part included the
demographics such as family income and the age of the child. Data
collection methods Snowball sampling was adopted to collect the
data. A self-administered questionnaire was developed to collect
the data in New Zealand and China. Participant families were
known to the researcher and they were asked to provide referrals
of other middle-class families with teenage children. Both parents
were asked to complete the questionnaire together, and it took
approximately five to ten minutes to complete the questionnaire.
All respondents were informed as to the purpose of the research.
Approximately 260 potential couples were approached (135 families
in China and 125 families in New Zealand). Of the total sample, 100
respondents from each country who matched the criteria
(middle-class income family and childs age 13-19 years) were chosen
for the study. Reliability of questionnaire The reliability test of
the questionnaire showed Cronbachs Alpha larger than 0.7 which
proved the questionnaire has an acceptable level of reliability.
DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS Sample profile The demographic
information regarding the respondents includes family income and
the childrens ages. This is presented in Table 2 in order to
describe the characteristics of the sample used in the research
Table 2 Respondent profileChinese immigrant families Categories
Frequency Percentage $3000-$3999 30 30% $4000-4999 61 61% More than
$5000 9 9% Total 100 100% 13 14 14% 14 14 14% 15 22 22% 16 12 12%
17 19 19% 18 10 10% 19 9 9% Total 100 100% 15.74 Chinese families
Categories Frequency Percentage 5000-5999 68 68% 6000-6999 8 8%
More than 7000 24 24% Total 100 100% 13 20 20% 14 10 10% 15 23 23%
16 17 17% 17 10 10% 18 7 7% 19 13 13% Total 100 100% 15.60
Demographics Family income (pre tax monthly)
Children's age
Average age
child
Parents perceptions of childrens influence on productsThe
answers of the parents were analysed across the eleven products
(see Table 3). These results indicate that, except for childrens
records/CDs, the parental perception of childrens influence has
significant difference in the two types of families. For childrens
records/CDs, children were perceived as having similar influence in
both types of families.Table 3 Means of influence ratings on
different products by parents Products Chinese immigrant Chinese
Difference families families Child's record/ CD 3.67 3.75 -0.08
Child's PC 3.65 3.12 0.53 Family PC 1.99 1.66 0.33 Groceries 2.87
2.14 0.73 Living room furniture 1.45 1.79 -0.34 Child's toothpaste
4.41 3.80 0.61 Family toothpaste 1.98 1.64 0.34 Child's dress
clothes 4.52 3.74 0.78 Child's bicycle 3.62 4.17 -0.55 Family car
2.04 1.60 0.44 Child's magazine 4.91 4.33 0.58 Average influence
3.19 2.89 0.30Notes: Scale anchors were 1= decision solely by
parents and 5= decision solely by child.
P-value 0.594 0.001 0.015 0.000 0.001 0.000 0.010 0.000 0.000
0.000 0.000 0.000
Regarding the parents perceptions of childrens influence, those
of Chinese immigrant families living in New Zealand exceeded those
of Chinese families in eight out of the eleven products. With the
exception of childs bicycle, childs record/CD and living room
furniture, teens in Chinese immigrant families were all perceived
as having a higher level of influence than their peers in Chinese
families living in China. The largest difference between the two
types of families is in the category of childs dress clothes. The
lowest difference relates to childs record/CD. On the other hand,
for those three product categories it was perceived that children
in Chinese families had a higher level of influence than children
in Chinese immigrant families. The largest difference of the three
products was for the childs bicycle. Overall children in Chinese
immigrant families were perceived as having a higher level of
influence than children in Chinese families. Therefore, Hypothesis
1 and Hypothesis 2 are both supported, in that parents in Chinese
immigrant families in New Zealand perceive that their children have
significantly different and higher levels of influence on family
purchasing of different products, when compared with the parents in
the Chinese families in China.
Parents perceptions of childrens influence on decision-making
stagesTable 4 presents the means of childrens influence across the
decision-making stages in both types of families. From the result,
the overall means of the influence showed that children in Chinese
immigrant families were perceived as having higher influence than
their peers in Chinese families living in China but this mean
difference is not significant. Thus, Hypothesis 3 was not
supported. On the other hand, even though no overall significant
difference is found, the higher average childrens influence in
Chinese immigrant families indicates that children in Chinese
immigrant families were perceived as having higher levels of
influence during family decision-making stages than their peers in
Chinese families. Therefore, Hypothesis 4 is supported.
Table 4 Means of influence ratings on decision-making stages by
parents Decision-making stages Chinese Chinese Difference immigrant
families families Notices family needs (stage one) 2.42 2.63 -0.21
Search information (stage two) 2.40 2.76 -0.36 Makes final choice
(stage three) 3.07 3.19 -0.12 Makes purchase (stage four) 3.45 3.19
0.26 Overall influence 2.84 2.94 -0.10
P-value 0.100 0.004 0.289 0.020 0.246
Notes: Scale anchors were 1 = strongly agree that child has
influence and 5 = strongly disagree that child has influence.
Influence of childrens age on products and decision-making
stages. From Table 5, regarding product types, all the product
coefficients in Chinese immigrant families are positive and
significant whereas in Chinese families 3 coefficients are negative
and 6 coefficients are not significant at 95% significant levels.
This means that the relationship between childrens age and the
eleven products are positive or, put differently, the childrens
influence will increase as the childrens ages increase. On the
other hand, for the Chinese families, three products have negative
coefficients (groceries, childs toothpaste and family toothpaste),
which means that, for these three products, the childrens influence
will decrease as they become older. These results show that parents
of these two families perceive that as children grow, they have
different influence on products in two family types. Thus
Hypothesis 5 is supported. Regarding decision-making stages, all 4
coefficients of the decision-making stages of Chinese immigrant
families are negative and significant whereas for Chinese families
they are all positive but only one is significant. It indicates the
childrens influence in Chinese immigrant families decreases as
children grow. On the other hand, in Chinese families the influence
of children on family purchase decision increases as they grow
older. These results indicate that parents do have different
perceptions of childrens influence in Chinese immigrant families
and in Chinese families living in China. Therefore, Hypothesis 6 is
supported.
Table 5 The GLM of childrens age influence on products and
decision-making stages in both types of family. Chinese immigrant
families Chinese families Child age Child age Products Coefficient
F P Coefficient F P Music records/CD 0.200 19.824 0.000 0.120 3.956
0.049 Child's PC 0.260 35.170 0.000 0.160 6.160 0.015 Family's PC
0.160 9.491 0.003 0.100 4.940 0.029 Groceries 0.100 13.710 0.000
-0.020 0.283 0.596 Living room furniture 0.090 7.343 0.008 0.040
1.073 0.303 Child's Toothpaste 0.170 32.539 0.000 -0.110 2.950
0.089 Family's Toothpaste 0.150 7.398 0.008 -0.060 2.310 0.132
Child's clothes 0.160 30.689 0.000 0.170 13.147 0.000 Child's
bicycle 0.210 25.987 0.000 0.070 2.063 0.154 Family's Car 0.120
10.448 0.002 0.070 2.960 0.088 Child's magazines 0.090 9.549 0.003
0.050 4.362 0.039 Decision Stages Notices -0.170 18.772 0.000 0.150
9.825 0.002 Searches -0.190 27.642 0.000 0.090 3.406 0.068 Final
choice -0.160 15.854 0.000 0.060 2.112 0.149 Purchases -0.100 7.092
0.009 0.000 0.001 0.980
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
ConclusionsThis research has proved that parents under different
cultural backgrounds do have different perceptions of childrens
influence on family purchase decision-making. When parents
immigrate to New Zealand, their social values and purchase
perceptions change in comparison to their counterparts living in
China. Chinese immigrant parents adapt to New Zealand culture,
which means that they more likely to give increased rights and
power to their children to attend to family purchase
decision-making. This is a result of cultural assimilation. The
specific results were evidenced across eleven products and four
decision making stages, with children in Chinese immigrant families
being perceived by parents to have a higher average influence than
their peers in Chinese families living in China. Parents in Chinese
immigrant families are more open, and encourage children to attend
to family decision-making more than do parents in Chinese families
living in China. The high Individualistic (IDV) and low Power
Distance (PDI) culture leads Chinese immigrant parents in New
Zealand to be more likely to trust and listen to their children,
than are the parents under high Collectivism (IDV) and high Power
Distance (PDI) cultures in China.
This research also found that parents believed that childrens
influence across three products (familys and childrens toothpaste,
and groceries) and the first three decisionmaking stages (noticing
family needs, searching information and making final choice) will
decrease as childrens age increases in Chinese families, with no
increase or decrease trend in stage four (making purchase from
store). On the other hand, in Chinese immigrant families, for all
eleven products and four decision-making stages, parents perceive
that childrens influence increases as they grow up. Again, the
influence of cultural assimilation was also proved by this result.
Even though children from both types of families grow up and face
more pressure from study, Chinese immigrant parents give their
children more power to attend to family purchase decisionmaking
than do Chinese parents in China. This is due to the adaptation to
more Individualistic (IDV) and low Power Distance (PDI) cultural
values in New Zealand. To sum up, 5 hypotheses, out of 6, have been
supported by this research, with the finding that cultural
assimilation influences parents perceptions of childrens influence
on family purchase decision-making.
ImplicationsThe findings of this research have some implications
for marketing practitioners. For example, it was found that
teenagers in Chinese immigrant families in New Zealand are
perceived by their parents to have higher levels of influence in
family purchase decision-making than are teenagers in Chinese
families living in China. This means that the former group of
teenagers have more power to influence their parents decision.
Therefore, marketing practitioners could use specific advertising
and other promotion marketing strategies to attract the attention
of these teenagers to products and services, as it is an effective
way to reach the Chinese immigrant families market. Similarly,
Chinese immigrant families in New Zealand, or in other countries
with highly Individualistic and low Power Distance cultures,
develop different cultural values to their counterparts in China.
Therefore, marketers could use more Western promotional methods to
reach this market segment. Furthermore, this research has also
proved that children do have an influence on family
decision-making and that they have more influence in terms of
child-products, for which they are the primary users. Therefore,
marketing practitioners can use the findings of this research in
determining that they should appeal to children as much as to their
parents. Marketers could improve, or create, the direct relevance
between their products/services and teens, which will make the
products/services become more like a child-product/service (not
just being relevant to the family, or being
parentsproducts/services) in order to increase childrens
involvement. The research also found that childrens age would
significantly influence childrens influence on family
decision-making, especially in Chinese immigrant families.
Therefore, marketers should target children as they grow, in order
to effectively influence family purchase decision-making. For
example, marketers could advertise, or promote, products/services
targeting late teen children.
CONTRIBUTION OF THIS RESEARCHThe main contribution of this
research is the finding that cultural assimilation does have an
influence on parents perceptions of childrens influence. This
research fills a gap in the existing literature as there is no
research that focused to investigate the impact of cultural
assimilation on childrens influence on family purchase decision
making. The influence of cultural assimilation was reflected from
two aspects. One aspect is that parents in Chinese immigrant
families are influenced by New Zealands culture, and they perceive
that their children have more influence on family purchase
decisionmaking than their counterparts in Chinese families living
in China. The second aspect is that there are some significant
differences in parents perceptions of childrens influence as
children grow. This finding holds true for both types of
families.
LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCHThe primary limitation of this
research is the fact the Chinese immigrant families sample has only
been chosen from Auckland, which might not accurately represent the
whole Chinese immigrant population in New Zealand. Similarly, even
though the Chinese families sample was drawn from nine different
cities in China, because China is such a large country, the sample
might still not accurately represent Chinese parents
perceptions of childrens influence. So further research should
focus on wider selection of cities from both countries. Secondly, a
snowball sampling method was used to gather the data, meaning that
most families in the sample were recommended by others in the
sample. This means that the sample used in this research may
produce results which are difficult to generalise to the Chinese
immigrant population in New Zealand and the Chinese population in
China. So an attempt should be made to use random sample, if
possible, from both countries. Lastly, the research focused on
middle-class families with children aged from thirteen to nineteen.
A sample including families with other income levels and/or
families with younger children might produce different perceptions
of culture assimilation. So future research should target different
income levels and age groups.
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