Consumer decision making styles: a comparative study among Motswana, Chinese and South African students

As the global marketplace becomes more integrated and consumer specialists develop an international focus, developing useful scales to profile consumer decision-making styles in other cultures becomes important. Comparing the decision-making styles of consumers from different countries would thus contribute to the understanding of the effect of the marketing environment as well as of the cultural factors on consumer decision-making styles. It would also be significant to determine if the decision-making styles of foreign consumers differ from those of local ones. The influx of foreign students enrolled at South African Universities and Technikons has resulted in an increase in the number of consumers who have to make purchases connected to their daily lives within a different cultural environment. An understanding of students as consumers and their decisionmaking processes is important to marketers, particularly as students are recognised as a specialised market segment for a variety of goods and services. It would thus be significant to determine if the decision-making styles of foreign students differ from those of local students. This exploratory study investigates the decision-making styles among Chinese, Motswana and South African Caucasian students in a South African context, with a view of verifying the international applicability of the Consumer Styles Inventory (CSI) developed by Sproles and Kendall (1986). Only students with a Caucasian background were included in an attempt to avoid the influence of the different subcultures amongst South African students. It was found that Sproles and Kendall’s (1986) model did not fit the South African samples. It was furthermore found that differences exist among Motswana, Chinese and Caucasian students in consumer decision-making styles. The mean value for the “Novelty-fashion conscious” style was number one in the list of factors for Chinese and Motswana students and second for the Caucasian sample. “Price conscious” style, however, was number one for the Caucasian students

Consumer decision making styles: a comparative study among Motswana, Chinese and South African students

As the global marketplace becomes more integrated and consumer specialists develop an international focus, developing useful scales to profile consumer decision-making styles in other cultures becomes important. Comparing the decision-making styles of consumers from different countries would thus contribute to the understanding of the effect of the marketing environment as well as of the cultural factors on consumer decision-making styles. It would also be significant to determine if the decision-making styles of foreign consumers differ from those of local ones. The influx of foreign students enrolled at South African Universities and Technikons has resulted in an increase in the number of consumers who have to make purchases connected to their daily lives within a different cultural environment. An understanding of students as consumers and their decisionmaking processes is important to marketers, particularly as students are recognised as a specialised market segment for a variety of goods and services. It would thus be significant to determine if the decision-making styles of foreign students differ from those of local students. This exploratory study investigates the decision-making styles among Chinese, Motswana and South African Caucasian students in a South African context, with a view of verifying the international applicability of the Consumer Styles Inventory (CSI) developed by Sproles and Kendall (1986). Only students with a Caucasian background were included in an attempt to avoid the influence of the different subcultures amongst South African students. It was found that Sproles and Kendall’s (1986) model did not fit the South African samples. It was furthermore found that differences exist among Motswana, Chinese and Caucasian students in consumer decision-making styles. The mean value for the “Novelty-fashion conscious” style was number one in the list of factors for Chinese and Motswana students and second for the Caucasian sample. “Price conscious” style, however, was number one for the Caucasian students

Evaluation of agronomic traits in Chinese wild grapes and screening superior accessions for use in a breeding program

This study was conducted to evaluate 15 agronomic traits in 67 accessions of 13 Chinese wild Vitis species. The results have been used to screen superior accessions for grape breeding in the future. Chinese wild Vitis had high diversity in economic traits among the species, such as bud-burst date, blooming date, berry ripening date, bunch weights, berry weights, berry soluble solid contents, berry acid contents, and vine production. Bunch weights of 56 Chinese wild accessions and berry weights of 12 Chinese species (except V. davidii) were much smaller than those of the two European cultivars. In our 25-year of evaluation on disease resistance and economic qualities in this Chinese germplasm, we suggest that V. quinquangularis, V. amurensis, V. yeshanensis, V. romanetii, and certain accessions in V. liubanensis be the first potential materials chosen for breeding.

Relatedness of resistance to anthracnose and to white rot in Chinese wild grapes

Resistance to anthracnose and to white rot in 56 accessions of 13 Chinese wild Vitis species, V. amurensis, V. quinquangularis, V. romanetii, V. adstricta, V. pseudoreticulata, V. piazezkii, V. davidii, V. davidii var. cyanocarpa, V. liubanensis, V. qinlingensis, V. bashanica, V. yeshanensis and V. hankockii was evaluated under natural conditions in 1996-1998. All 56 accessions and the 13 species showed resistance to anthracnose. All nine accessions of V. quinquangularis, and one accession each of V. romanetii, V. adstricta and V. pseudoreticulata exhibited susceptibility to white rot; the remaining 44 accessions (78.57 %) and the other 9 species presented resistant to grape white rot. Two V. vinifera cultivars (‘Cabernet Sauvignon’ and ‘Chardonnay’) were susceptible to anthracnose and highly susceptible to white rot. The r-value of susceptibility indices between anthracnose and white rot in the 56 accessions is insignificant. In Chinese wild grapes, the mechanisms for producing resistance to both diseases would be very different, but inheritance of resistance to these two diseases in a certain cross is somewhat related by molecular data.

Analyzing dynamic disturbance fragmentation mechanism of surrounding rock in roadway roof

In this paper, a numerical simulation is conducted to analyze an engineering practice pertaining to the in panel 2347, the discussion is focused on the following aspects: the influence of fault mining activation on fragmentation of surrounding rock in roof, surrounding rock failure of unsupported roadway under static load alone, surrounding rock failure of unsupported roadway under dynamic load and static load combination, damage of surrounding rock in supporting roadway under dynamic load and static load combination. The results show that, for the roadway surrounding rock with obvious dynamic disturbance, the compressive stress value can eliminate the influence of the tensile stress wave generated by the reflection of the compressive stress disturbance wave on the roadway wall. In the roadway support, it should provide a certain compressive stress to the surrounding rock of the surrounding roadway wall. An anchor support surrounding rock can significantly inhibit the tensile crack, shear the crack expansion and dislocation slip of coal gang, and it can also alleviate the tensile, compressive and shear failure of the roof carbonaceous mudstone. Because the dynamic load has a significant damage to the carbonaceous mudstone between roof anchors, it is necessary to reduce the anchor spacing and row spacing or enhance the stiffness and active stress of the protective surface member

A review of taxonomic research on Chinese wild grapes

The taxonomy of Chinese wild grapes can be traced back to the end of the 18th century. However, most research in this field was performed in the last three decades. On the basis of the data from the Chinese wild grape germplasm collected in the last 25 years at the College of Horticulture, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, China, and publications by other scientists in China, we concluded there were 40 species, 1 subspecies, and 13 varieties of Chinese wild grapes. These were classified into 1 subgenus, 5 sections and 4 series according to FASONG WANG et al.’s systematics. The systematics on Chinese wild grapes is discussed in this paper.

The eco-geographic distribution of wild grape germplasm in China

Chinese wild Vitis species are mainly distributed in four major eco-geographic regions: (1) The Changbaishan Mountains and Xiaoxing’anling Mountains Region, (2) The Qinling Mountains Region, (3) The Mid-downstream Yangtze River Region and (4) The Guangxi Region. One, eighteen, thirty-two, and thirteen Vitis species have been found in these four regions, respectively. The Qinling Montains, the Bashan Montains, and the provinces of Jinagxi, Hubei, Hunan, and Guangxi have high Vitis diversity totaling over 30 species, indicating that these regions may be a major center of origin for Vitis. The range of distribution varies much among the species: Vitis pentagona, Vitis flexuosa, Vitis davidii, and Vitis wilsonae have a wide eco-geographic distribution; Vitis hancockii, Vitis bellula, and Vitis sinocinerea distribute more narrowly. The wild Vitis species of China are differentiated and adapted to local climates. We hope that this review familiarizes more researchers with the distribution of the wild grapes of China and will lead to more efficient collection and informed development of this germplasm.