A Study On Family Buying Behavior In Chinese Urban

Extracurricular Training Classes for children is a typical feature of Chinese education market. Since children, takers of training classes, have no independent capability of payment, the buying of extracurricular training classes for children is highly a characteristic of family behavior. As one kind of united decision-making, family decisions are different from individual decisions in various aspects, especially characterized by its emotional side, which makes the buying process rather special.Then, how do families behave when selecting extracurricular training classes for their children? This paper, based on the theoretical framework by Sheth, is dedicated to establishing a decision-making model on buying extracurricular training classes for children by urban families, and to investigating the influences of the factors such as family conditions, family lifestyle and manners of family decision-making.This paper employs the method of Pearson correlation analysis or T-test to investigate variations of attitudes towards extracurricular training classes by parents with different family conditions. It designs a scale for family lifestyle, and by means of factor analysis and cluster analysis, discovers four types of family lifestyles: fashionable, conservative, rational, and career-oriented, and then discusses the variations of buying behaviors of these four types of families. Based on variations of children's involvement and influence in the buying process, it distinguishes four manners of family decisions: democratic, autocratic, authoritative, and laissez-faire, and analyzes their differences in buying, and especially explores children's roles in this process.Through investigations of issues above, this research provides theoretical and methodological guidance for making strategies of market segmentation and market positioning. It makes conclusions corresponding to China's social reality, and provides evidences and ideas for future research on family buying behaviors of Chinese people. Conclusions made in this paper are as follows:1. Family income has no significant influence on buying"capability"training classes, and has significant influence on buying"interests"training classes;2. Degrees of education of parents have significant influence on buying both"capability"and"interests"training classes 3. Ages of children have significant influence on buying"capability"training, and have no significant influence on buying"interests"training classes;4. Grades of children have significant influence on buying both"capability"and"interests"training classes5. Families with different lifestyle have significant variations in buying children's extracurricular training classes6. Families with different manners of decision-making have significant variations in buying children's extracurricular training classes...