Chinese consumer decision-making styles: A comparison between the coastal and inland regions

China is rapidly becoming an important market for consumer goods, but relatively little is known about variations in consumer shopping patterns in different regions of China. We employ a cultural materialism perspective in understanding decision-making styles of inland and coastal shoppers. Our findings reveal that consumers in the two regional markets do not differ in utilitarian shopping styles but they do in hedonic shopping styles. Marketers need to understand these differences to be able to market effectively to consumers in different regional markets within China. (c) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.