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An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.
Introduction
With one-fourth of the world's population and the world's fastest rate of economic growth, China offers huge market opportunities for US firms. To address these opportunities, a growing number of studies have explored Chinese consumer purchase behavior utilizing behavioral intention (BI) models such as the theory of reasoned action (TRA) ([17] Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975), the theory of planned behavior (TPB) ([1] Ajzen, 1991), and [29] Lee's (1990) modified Fishbein model (from now on Lee's model).
The early studies on Confucian consumer behavior generally agreed that Confucian consumers including Chinese consumers reflect social pressures (e.g. face saving and group conformity) in their purchase decision more than western consumers (e.g. [29] Lee, 1990; [30] Lee and Green, 1991). However, the recent studies report rather inconsistent findings. It is not rare to see the insignificant role of subjective norm (SN) in Chinese consumers' purchase intention in recent studies ([10] Chan and Lau, 1998; [43] Shen et al. , 2003). Face saving also played an inconsistent role in explaining purchase intention in Hong Kong ([36] Malhotra and McCort, 2001).
This study posits that the insignificant role of normative influences (i.e. face saving, subjective norm) may be related to value changes among contemporary Chinese consumers. As inevitable results of fast economic growth, Chinese traditional Confucian values have been challenged in the modernization process of China, and western characteristics, such as individualism and materialism, have been emerging ([32] Leung, 2008; [42] Piron, 2006; [50] Wang, 2006a). Under these rapidly changing economics, traditional and contemporary values interplay ([32] Leung, 2008); thus, neither Fishbein model that mainly provides explanation powers to western cultures nor Lee's model that was invented to explain Confucian consumers can adequately explain the consumption behavior of contemporary Chinese consumers. Therefore, it is vital to examine Chinese consumers' purchase behavior with a comprehensive research framework in order to provide realistic answers to US apparel firms.
The purpose of this study is to precisely explain contemporary Chinese consumers' purchase behaviors toward US branded apparel goods with a more comprehensive model. To this end, this study proposes a composite model that allows us to test the influence of both Chinese traditional and contemporary...