An Overview

This research aims at determining how the BMW brand strategy can influence the Chinese
consumer behaviors in the Chinese E-car market. In the reviewed literature, the study already
discussed the consumer decision-making process on the purchasing of the E-cars.

Besides, to make this study viable and empirically confirmable, the reliability of the primary
results is a part of the study target. To receive an adequate answer in the goal of this research, the
researcher will make the potential BMW Chinese consumers as its target group, based on the
aims of the topic.

More specifically, the researcher will sample 60 respondents from 10 different target groups,
which will be from a stratified random sample. The researcher will analyze primary quantitative
data using the computer-aided, SPSS system. Furthermore, the researcher will also collect
secondary data, which will come from the published journals and from other pieces of literature
to support the survey results.

The Research Hypothesis

The research hypothesizes that the brand reputation of the BMWi electric cars is low among the
majority of the Chinese consumers.

In the reviewed literature, the research noted that the perception of the Chinese consumers
towards the foreign automobiles is considerably low. Moreover, the study analyzed how product
information, brand personality, and brand associations influence the consumer’s perception about
products. This hypothesis will help in identifying the strengths and weaknesses the BMWi brand.

The study believes that the number of people interested in the BMWi electric vehicles is
considerably low as the consumer’s attitudes are low towards the BMWi brand.

Based on the reviewed literature, the study discovered that marketers measure consumer attitudes
through the Rosenberg theory that contains two important variables. These variables include the
instrumentality and the value of a product. This hypothesis is sufficient for assessing the
perceived instrumentality and value of the BMWi E-cars in the Chinese automobile market.

The study assumes that majority of the aspiring BMW consumers are worried about the future of
the electric-supported BMWi vehicles due to low trust.

In the reviewed literature, marketing expert Frank Dophreide revealed that the BMW Group has
failed to assist its consumers to distinguish between the old BMW models from the new E-car
models. This construct will help in investigating the levels of trust among the Chinese consumers
towards the BMWi brand.

The study hypothesizes that the Chinese consumers cannot associate themselves with any of the
BMWI brands because BMW has not reinforced the BMWi brand.
Following the reviewed literature, the value-drivers model postulates that a brand experience is
very meaningful for the consumer experiences. Therefore, reinforcing a meaningful and a
different brand experience is essential. This hypothesis will assist the study to examine the
attitudes of the consumers on their perceived brand experiences with the BMWi cars.

Sociology and Scientific Dimension

The intended research will hinge its foundation on the concept of sociology, in which the idea of
the people’s way of living and their regular behaviors play important roles in this research.
According to the researchers Auguste Comte, Hine, and Flemming, who invented the idea of
sociology, the word sociology, literally means the continued cultural life of people (Babbie
2003).

The research will take the approach of sociology, based on the idea that analyzing how the BMW
brand strategy can influence the E-car consumer behaviors in the Chinese market, needs an
understanding of the Chinese consumer behaviors and trends. Consumer behavior is a concept
that directly associates with the concept of sociology in a manner that the behaviors of the
consumers tell a lot about the cultural and societal values of a certain consumer group (Babbie
2003).

In the concept of sociology, sociologists believe that social change can appear in a radical
manner or through a regular process.

Radical and Regular Change

The study assumes that social change can be in the form of a radical change perspective or a
regular change perspective. A radical social change refers to a form of social transformation, in
which people replace their conventional social behaviors in a quick manner and in an abrupt way
(Babbie 2003).

In a radical social change, people change their cultures, social behaviors, and their routine
practices in a drastic manner and adopt postmodern behaviors straight away. Contrary to the
radical social change, regular social change refers to a process of social transformation whereby
people of certain cultural values transform into their cultural behaviors and societal routines in a
systematic manner (Bracken 2010).

The study shall use the regular change view in the process of finding an approach by which the
BMW brand strategy will influence the consumer behaviors in the Chinese market. A regular
change perspective will provide the BMW marketers with a systematic way of penetrating into
the Chinese E-car market.

The Scientific Dimension on Social Change

The scientific dimension regarding sociological research entails the concepts of ontology,
epistemology, human nature, and methodology (Bracken 2010). In this research, the four
concepts comprise an integral part of analyzing how the BMW brand strategy can influence the
behaviors of the E-car consumers in the Chinese market.

In the social science research, ontology is a modern philosophical term that refers to the manner
in which research uncovers what entails reality and how people perceive this reality. According
to Bracken (2010), the main purpose of social science research is to help people create an
understanding of how people comprehend social reality and how their personal perceptions shape
their behaviors in the reality they know.

The BMW brand strategy meant to influence the Chinese consumers to adopt the BMW electric
cars, targets to help the people understand the reality in the use of electric vehicles (Bracken
2010). The ontological perceptions of the Chinese consumers concerning the BMW i3 and i8
cars will give the BMW Group a chance to teach its E-car consumers.

Methodologically, the intended research will also use an epistemological research approach.
According to Bracken (2010), epistemology is a social science approach in which the research
concentrates on what comprises a valid knowledge and the way people can obtain that valid
knowledge. In epistemology, researchers concentrate on the creation and dissemination of
information to suit the people who need it most.

Methodologically, the research seeks to use the epistemological approach to help the Chinese
consumers understand the need to embrace the BMW electric vehicles, and help them cease their
conventional ideologies about the electric cars. The philosophy of human nature will also be
integral in this research.

In social sciences, human nature is complex and researchers tend to develop ontological
approaches to examine the human nature. While trying to understand ontology, epistemology,
and their association with the human nature, it is important to understand that there are two main
ontological approaches namely the positivism and the interpretivism approaches. The study will
use a positivist approach.

The Positivism Approach

A positivist research technique is a form of a systematic scientific approach that “sees the world
as being based on the unchanging, universal laws and the view that everything that occurs around
us can be explained by knowledge of these universal laws” (Mukherja & Albon 2009, p. 11).
This study will employ the positivist paradigm of research because the research on the BMW
brand strategy entails the use of manipulative and quantitative approaches in analyzing a
research environment.

According to Mukherja and Albon (2009), a positivist research yields high validity and reliability
because it regularly assumes that the much-needed truth is always within the people. Therefore,
since people have enough knowledge to inform research, the positivist approach believes in the
quantitative research approach, which accurately helps to measure and quantify a certain
phenomenon.
In this proposed research, the positivist approach will help the researcher to quantify and
measure the responses of the participants quantitatively, and to provide a high data validity and
reliability through an appropriate sampling and instrumentation.

The Research Approach

Based on the philosophies of the ontology and epistemology approaches that informed the
research to use the positivism paradigm, the research will use the quantitative research approach
to collect data, analyze data, and discuss the results. According to Tewksbury (2009),
quantitative research aims at measuring, quantifying, and investigating a phenomenon through
the collection of numerical data that comes from the closed-ended questionnaires.

Quantitative research aims at investigating a phenomenon through manipulative techniques as it

views behavior to be regular and predictable. In this study, the researcher intends to use a
quantitative method because the research will rely on the positivist approach in which the data
involved will provide predictable the aspects.

According to Tewksbury (2009), a quantitative research approach helps researchers to study

human behaviors under controlled conditions. The research on the BMW brand strategy involves
a review of the predictive situations that accompany the participants who will provide data
concerning their perceptions about the BMW electric cars.

The Research Design

Quantitative researchers often use descriptive statistics to present quantitative data and
descriptions in a convenient manner (Borman & Dowling 2008). The intended research is going
to use a descriptive form of research in which a survey approach that uses closed-ended
questionnaires will be useful in the collection and analysis of the primary data.

Descriptive studies according to the social science researchers are studies that focus on
describing the research participants. Therefore, since the study intends to deal with the consumer
behaviors of the Chinese BMW users, the descriptive research design will be suitable for
describing their consumption trends, consumption attitudes, and their consumption culture.

The research will use a quantitative research survey technique to analyze how the BMW brand
strategy can influence the consumer behaviors in the Chinese market. A quantitative technique
may sometimes involve large data, which ends up not providing concise findings. To help make
the data concise and meaningful, the descriptive research will help the researcher synthesize the
data.

The Survey Method

Historically, a survey was a kind of a research method that used an observation or an

investigation to prove the truth about a phenomenon. However, nowadays a survey is a scientific
research term that explains the process of collecting primary data from the selected individuals,
or from a research sample.
It should remain noted that a short period of 12 weeks spared for an academic research is a
limitation for research. Therefore, a questionnaire survey method is the best chosen for the
research, because questionnaires are easy to comprehend, take little effort to fill, and are capable
of providing a huge amount of information in a little space. A self-made questionnaire made up
of 23 questions will be appropriate for this research.

According to Ledesma and Valero-Mora (2007), self-made questionnaires help researchers to

collect data based on the research question to test the available assumptions. The survey will
comprise an interview form of research, in which the researcher will engage directly with the
respondents, and administer the questionnaires by hand.

The Sampling Strategy

Studies involving the ontological and epistemological approaches often involve analyzing certain
aspects with the human population. A scientific research must always have a target population in
which a study must gather the required responses to produce empirical facts about a study
phenomenon.

The targeted population of the study is the Chinese E-car consumer group. The theory
concerning the use of electric vehicles in China has associated the Chinese E-car consumers with
increased levels of adamancy and negative attitudes towards the electric cars, and especially
those manufactured by the foreign companies such as the BMW Company.

The study will use the Chinese E-car consumers as their target population to unravel the
association between cultural perceptions against the BMW electric vehicles, and the
consumption trends of the Chinese E-car users. The research targets about 60 respondents from
different consumer groups, to provide data on the present Chinese consumer perceptions about
the BMW electric cars.

The proposed research intends to sample its targeted population using the non-probability
sampling technique. This non-probability sampling believes in the critical theory that argues that
the modern social structure contains people with varied traits.

Non-probability sampling is a research approach used to acquire a sample size from a targeted
population through a procedure that does not give the targeted people equal participation
opportunities in the research. In this form of sampling, the research will adopt a quota form of
non-probability sampling technique to sample the consumers based predominantly on their
connection with the BMW cars.

To be more specific, the proportional quota sampling strategy will apply in this proposed
research. Based on its prior empirical evidence, the propositional quota sampling technique will
be relevant in this research because it allows researchers to sample the respondents based on
their unique characteristics, i.e. age, occupational statuses, situational experiences, social
statuses, and economic statuses, among others.
This study understands very well that the representation of women in the class of premium car
owners in the Chinese population is relatively low than that of men. To ensure that the results
remains reliable and logical based on the principles of the propositional quota sampling
technique, the study will conduct a pre-visit or a reconnaissance study, which will help the
researcher identify the representation gap between the women and men in the premium car
ownership.

The reconnaissance will take almost a month to the actual study, and the researcher will make
frequent quota sampling to ensure that the sample is proportional via a 50-50 representation.
During the reconnaissance period, the researcher will sample the 60 respondents based on their
educational backgrounds, their income statuses, their ages, and most importantly, their
experiences with the BMW brands. A quota sampling of this kind will allow the researcher to get
the respondents with high legibility for participation.

The Questionnaire Design

In quantitative research, researchers collect primary data from the respondents using carefully
selected data instruments. A quantitative survey relies on the collection of quantitative data that
comes in the form of numerical values or statistical figures. In scientific research, the most
appropriate data collection instrument that is suitable for the collection of quantitative data is the
closed-ended questionnaire.

Closed-ended questionnaires are capable of giving uniform results with high accuracy when
appropriately applied in a quantitative research. The proposed research will use self-administered
closed-ended questionnaires with a manipulative framework in which the respondents will only
fit their responses using some fixed conditions.

The structured or closed-ended questionnaires will have predetermined responses driven by the
existing theories. The study will articulate the questionnaires using the Chinese language to yield
better responses because most of the respondents may not be well conversant with English
despite their high educational levels.

Data Collection Procedure

Just like any other scientific research, the study will use two forms of data namely the primary
data and the secondary data. Primary data is a form of research data observed and gathered
through a first-hand field experience. According to Driscoll (2011), primary research involves
the actual collection of data through observations, interviews, and surveys.

The most appropriate means of collecting primary quantitative data is through the surveys, which
come through the structured questionnaires commonly known as the closed-ended questionnaires
(Scotland 2012). Just like in the other forms of quantitative research, this study will rely on the
surveys administered through the structured questionnaires to collect primary data from the 60
participants identified for the study.
The importance of primary data in research is that primary data reinforces the theoretical
assumptions and other empirical findings identified in the existing literature. This approach helps
because primary data provides verifiable facts to validate the findings of a given research.

Secondary Data

Research is all about gathering and analyzing data to have a coherent conclusion. To reinforce
and bolster the facts established in the primary data, researchers gather data from the peer-
reviewed published journals, books, and from other relevant literature sources.

According to Nicholson and Bennett (2008), data gathered from the peer-reviewed journal, the
books, and other literature sources, where no significant first-hand experience is involved, is
known as the secondary data. In this research, the researcher will use several secondary data
sources including books, journals, and articles on genuine websites.

The study proposed to use secondary data with an aim of strengthening the primary data
collected since secondary data is normally capable of enabling a richer exploration of the
research phenomena. In a carefully triangulated manner, the research will establish the most
relevant secondary data through various internet searches. Data with verified empirical facts will
be more useful in this proposed research.

Data Analysis

In a primary research, the collected data must undergo further synthesis and analysis to provide
meaningful information that can enrich the research conclusion. According to Babbie (2003), the
practice of social research where a quantitative approach plays a role requires an understanding
of how to analyze the quantitative data that comes in the form of numeric data.

The most reliable data analysis tool that quantitative researchers use is the SPSS data analysis
tool (Scotland 2012). The SPSS research tool, which stands for the Statistical Package for Social
Sciences, is a form of predictive analytics software that helps researchers to analyze quantitative
data appropriately (George & Mallery 2003).

The software will be appropriate because the study will rely on data collected from the structured
questionnaires where numerical data will be present (Scotland 2012). Additionally, the research
will use the Excel system to support the SPSS software in analyzing some data that will be in
numerical form but maybe with a different dimension.

Ethical Considerations

In the social science research, the collection of primary data often entails the use of human
participants as subjects that provide empirical data of a study. The involvement of human beings
as important research subjects that enrich a study in the collection of data often requires a close
consideration of the research ethics (Ledesma & Valero-Mora 2007).
The proposed research seeks to collect data from 60 participants who are all human beings. The
study will ensure a maximum use of ethical principles in the collection, analysis, and
dissemination of the primary data collection. Firstly, while collecting primary data will be an
essential part of the research, respondents will participate in the study and give information upon
their willingness and upon their discretion.

In a diplomatic manner, this research understands that using coercion or intimidation to extract
information from the research participants is unlawful and unethical. In the secondary data, the
research will ensure a proper acknowledgment of the authors through proper document citation.

Limitations

The proposed research may face limitations because, within the targeted population, it is uneasy
to detect the exact number of people with the knowledge about the BMW electric cars. Secondly,
the area of study is China, where the introduction of the electric cars has elicited sharp political
and social reactions concerning the engagement of the foreign automotive companies in the
Chinese automobile market.

The inherent social attitudes and political influences are capable of influencing the response
behavior of the participants (Tewksbury 2009). Locating the reliable participants is also another
significant limitation to this research. The research requires the collection of data from 60 human
respondents, who are either in motion with their vehicles or scattered somewhere within the large
population.

People with premium or personal cars are often uneasy to locate and engage them in a survey
because they are either driving or busy with certain schedules. Moreover, BMW has a low brand
identity in China, and the Chinese participants may not respond efficiently to some questions.

Validity & Reliability

Since most of the social science studies often measure the human behavior using the positivist
paradigm and empirical analytic approaches to discern the reality, the measurement instruments
must always prove to be valid and reliable (Drost 2011). Due to the Chinese political and social
influences against the foreign car brands, respondents are likely to provide biased information.

To help reduce the chances of information biases, the study aims to use a self-made
questionnaire, which can suitably counter this social dilemma, as the fixed responses will yield
coherent answers (Drost 2011). First, the researcher should determine whether the questionnaire
has a correct design and a clearly understandable design that is familiar to the respondents.

Moreover, as Drost (2011) states, the researchers must determine whether the selected sample is
suitable for the survey when handing out the questionnaire. Additionally, the researcher will
make sure that the responses will not remain affected by external inhibiting factors through
assuring the respondents of their confidentiality and respect in the responses they will give.
To help ensure high reliability and validity of the research data, the study will employ several
test and data reliability measures to improve the validity and reliability of the collected data. In
their study, Saunders, Lewis, and Thornwill (2007) discovered that for research to prove
empirically correct, researchers must ensure that the instruments of data meet all the satisfactory
levels of validity.

The four satisfactory levels of data validity include the internal validity, the external validity, the
construct validity, and the statistical conclusion validity (Drost 2011). To avoid problems related
to the construct validity, just as Drost (2011) recommends, the researcher will ensure that the
self-made questionnaires follow the guided principles of forming questionnaires, are
scientifically verifiable, and have the proper structure.

A researcher can ensure the validity of the data from a survey (Saunders et al. 2007). Before the
respondents answer the questionnaires, there has to be a premise, in which the researchers need
to know whether respondents have the idea about it.

In the construct validity, if the respondents did not clearly understand any of the questions, the
researcher will have the responsibility to explain it until they understand how to answer the
questionnaire. Because this topic is about a hi-fi tech product, the number of male respondents
may be higher than that of the female respondents.

However, using a balanced proportion of male and female respondents for a reliable
questionnaire is vital (Pogodzinski, Young, Frank & Belman 2012). Thus, it is necessary to let
respondents understand what the questionnaire includes. Based on the existing theory, several
hypotheses are verifiable by the findings. The validity of hypotheses will be used to confront the
observation that is conducted by the questionnaire.

If hypotheses are not valid, further adjustments of the hypotheses will be necessary (Steele,
Hamilton, & Stecher 2010). To study the consumer behavior effectively, the researcher will write
the questions in the Chinese language. Using the Chinese language to target the Chinese
respondents will help to avoid language bias.