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Love and money: Chinese couple’s decisions on wedding expenses. Kara Chan, Hong Kong Baptist University Shiu-Fai Chan, Lingnan University. ACR Asia Pacific Conference, May 2002 . Study of purchases with ritual occasions.
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Love and money:Chinese couple’s decisions on wedding expenses Kara Chan, Hong Kong Baptist University Shiu-Fai Chan, Lingnan University ACR Asia Pacific Conference, May 2002 conferen\2002\ACR_love&money
Study of purchases with ritual occasions • Consumers devote much time and effort to the purchase of goods and services for a special occasion • The white wedding, thanksgiving day, funeral services • The Chinese wedding: • The central role of family in the Chinese culture • Negotiation between two individuals conferen\2002\ACR_love&money
Wedding in Hong Kong • Chinese wedding in transition: from institutional to companionship • Greater role-sharing and gender equality in marital relationship due to increasing economic power of women, and the rise of individualism • 6.8 million pop, each year: 31,000 reg. Marriages, 93% in registries • Median age of bride (27), groom (29) conferen\2002\ACR_love&money
Research objectives • To examine the relative influence of brides and grooms • Change in spousal influence between the information search stage and the final decision stage • Explore factors that may have impact on the spousal purchase decision patterns conferen\2002\ACR_love&money
Literature review • Davis and Rigaux’s (1974) benchmarke study of husband-wife influences by product category • Products are classified into husband dominant, wife dominant, autonomic and joint decisions • Husband took a more dominant role from the problem recognition stage. When moving from information search to the final stage, the pattern of influence become more equal conferen\2002\ACR_love&money
Literature review • Factors influencing the spousal roles: power indicators: education, income, occupational prestige • Cultural factors: whether the society is egalitarian (equal gender status) conferen\2002\ACR_love&money
Hypotheses • H1: there will be more joint influences for high-expense products throughout the decision making process • H2: movement towards joint influences from the info search stage to the final decision stage • H3: grooms with higher income and education will exert greater influences at the final decision stage conferen\2002\ACR_love&money
method • Survey of 91 Chinese couples that married in 1999 and 2000 conducted in Nov 2001 • Questionnaire: • How much they spent on 10 wedding items, Filter out no such expenses, paid for by others • Ask couple to distribute 100 points to indicate degree of influence at two stages • demographics conferen\2002\ACR_love&money
expenses • Survey of 91 Chinese couples that married in 1999 and 2000 conducted in Nov 2001 • Questionnaire: • How much they spent on 10 wedding items, Filter out no such expenses, paid for by others • Ask couple to distribute 100 points to indicate degree of influence at two stages • demographics conferen\2002\ACR_love&money
expenses H M L conferen\2002\ACR_love&money
Spousal influence by stage Information search Final decision conferen\2002\ACR_love&money
Chinese wedding tradition • The groom pays for the banquet • The bride price: contribution by the groom’s family to the bride’s family • The dowry: contributed by the bride’s family and kept by the bride as secret pocket money conferen\2002\ACR_love&money
H1 • H1: there will be more joint influences for high-expense products throughout the decision making process • Influence of husband at info stage = 57.6%, significantly higher than 50% (t=4.87, p<0.0005) • Influence of husband at final stage = 57.7%, significantly higher than 50% (t=4.78, p<0.0005) • H1 is not supported conferen\2002\ACR_love&money
H2 • H2: movement towards joint influences from the info search stage to the final decision stage • Pairwise t-test of influence of husband at info stage and final decision stage indicates there are no significant changes for all three types of products • H2 is not supported conferen\2002\ACR_love&money
H3: grooms with higher income will exert greater influences [not supported] conferen\2002\ACR_love&money
H3: grooms with higher eduwill exert greater influences [not supported] conferen\2002\ACR_love&money
conclusion • Male dominance in the purchase of high-expense products in weddings • No spousal change at different stage: lack of division of labor, enjoy shopping together • Resource and power do not play an essential role (the sample are of high salary and education) conferen\2002\ACR_love&money
Future research • Replicate the study in different cultures • Trace the change of spousal roles in later stages of the family cycle conferen\2002\ACR_love&money