Purchasing behaviour of ethnicities: Are they different?. Issue 4 (August 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Trinh, Giang; Khan, Huda; Lockshin, Larry
• Is Part Of: International business review. Volume 29:Issue 4(2020:Aug.)
• Publication Date: 2020-08
• Subjects: Ethnicities -- Purchasing behaviour -- NBD -- Chinese -- Malay; International business enterprises -- Periodicals; 338.8805
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ibusrev.2018.06.002
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0969-5931

Abstract

Highlights: We investigate actual purchasing behaviour of Chinese and Malay households in Malaysia. We found that overall there is significant difference between purchasing frequency distributions of the two ethnic groups. We found mostly no significant differences between the two groups at small and medium, but a significant difference at large household size. We found that the NBD accurately models purchasing frequency distributions and predicts future purchases of the two ethnic groups. These results suggest the two ethnic groups follow the same underlying pattern of buying behaviour and do not differ due to ethnicity. Abstract: This paper investigates actual purchasing behaviour of different ethnicities. Using a national representative sample of Chinese and Malay households in Malaysia, with their continuous purchases of toothpaste, body wash, packaged tea and plain sweet biscuits recorded over a two-year period of 2011–2012, we found that overall there is significant difference between purchasing frequency distributions of the two ethnic groups. However, after controlling for household size, we found mostly no significant differences between the two groups at small and medium household size, but a significant difference at large household size. We also found that the purchasing frequency distributions of the two ethnic groups are accurately modelled by the negative binomial distribution (NBD). The NBD also accurately predicts future purchasing behaviour of the different ethnic groups, highlighting a new application of Conditional Trend Analysis (CTA) in this context. Since both ethnic groups fit these models well, we suggest they follow the same underlying pattern of buying behaviour in consumer good categories and do not differ due to ethnicity.