An investigation of decision-making styles of consumers in China

This study investigates Chinese consumers' decision-making styles. The Consumer Style Inventory (CSI) is administered to 387 adult consumers in China. Both an exploratory factor analysis and a confirmatory factor analysis are adopted to validate the CSI inventory. This results in an eighteen-item and seven-factor solution. Findings indicate that five decision-making styles are valid and reliable in Chinese culture: perfectionistic, novelty-fashion conscious, recreational, price conscious, and confused by orerchoice. Cluster analysis is employed to identify prominent market segments. Based on the findings, three segments are formed: trendy and perfectionistic consumer, traditional and pragmatic consumer, as well as confused by overchoice consumer. Marketing and management implications are discussed.