The Effect that Consumption Propensity of Chinese Consumers, and Consumer Emotion for Convenience Stores have on Using Attitude and Loyalty: Focusing on the Moderating Effect of Price Sensitivity
Authors:   Asia-Europe Perspective Association, Zhang Meng Jiao , Ryu Mi Hyun 
Published: April 2019

China continues to grow at a high rate every year, and it is no exaggeration to say that China’s future growth potential is very high. The convenience store industry in China is growing rapidly because of the increase in income level and the habit of people seeking simplicity and the increase in the single-person households in city center area. Since the reform and opening up of China, several foreign convenience store companies have entered China, and mainland convenience stores in China have been gradually emerging, and competition among convenience store industries has become increasingly fierce. In this competitive environment, the key to the survival of convenience stores is to accurately grasp the desires and needs of consumers and ultimately to maximize sales. Therefore, it is meaningful to predict the decision-making behavior of consumers by studying the factors affecting the loyalty of the consumers in terms of consumer side and business side. In addition, as globalization of companies has been actively promoted in recent years, there is an increasing need for studies to improve the effectiveness of global marketing strategies by analyzing the similarities and differences of consumer behaviors due to social and cultural environments in various global markets . Therefore, it is meaningful to analyze the loyalty of users in convenience stores in China.
Although there have been previous researches related to convenience stores in China, there have been few studies on the moderating effects of loyalty and previous influential factors. Therefore, this study analyzed the moderating effect of whether consumer consumption propensity and consumer emotion for convenience store affect using attitude and whether there is a difference in the price sensitivity in the relationship between using attitude and loyalty. Consumer consumption propensity was divided into pleasure orientation and price/rationality orientation, and consumer emotion was divided into positive emotion and negative emotion. Through this study, it is expected to gain better understanding of Chinese consumers who use convenience store. Especially for the consumer, it helps to make reasonable use of convenience stores, and on the corporate side, it can be provided as a basis for developing effective marketing programs for the advancement of the Chinese market in the future and ultimately help to establish a global management strategy that can enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.
The results of this study are as follows: First, both the pleasure orientation and the price rationality, which are the sub-dimensions of the consumption propensity, had a positive effect on the using attitude of convenience store. Second, positive emotions for convenience stores have a negligible effect on using attitudes, whereas negative emotions had negative effects on using attitudes. Third, convenience store using had a very positive effect on loyalty and moderating effect of price sensitivity was found to be significant. In other words, the higher the price sensitivity, the more positive the using attitude leads to the loyalty. Therefore, it is important to maintain a positive attitude toward consumers’ use of convenience stores, but it is also important to consider that consumers place great importance on prices for convenience store products.