Huachao Gao

Dr. Huachao Gao joined the Gustavson School of Business at UVic in 2016, bringing with him a fascination for cross-cultural consumer behaviour and consumer identity in the era of globalization. These two streams of research represent his most important research passions.

Huachao’s research centres on exploring consumers’ purchase decisions from a cross-cultural perspective. Specifically, how individual consumers from different countries/regions or with different cultural backgrounds might be different in processing marketing information, evaluating marketing offerings, and making final purchase decisions. His research articles have appeared or are in press for journals, including Journal of Consumer Research and Journal of Marketing.

Huachao’s teaching interests reflect his research interests in international marketing and cross-cultural consumer psychology. Before joining UVic, Huachao taught Principles of Marketing and Consumer Behavior at the University of Texas at San Antonio in US.

Journal Publications

Gao, H., Zhang, Y., & Mittal, V. (2017). How Does Local-Global Identity Affect Price Sensitivity? Journal of Marketing, 81(3), 62–79.

Gao, H., Winterich, K. P., & Zhang, Y. (2016). All That Glitters is Not Gold: How Superior Salience Influences the Effect of Power Distance Belief on Status Consumption. Journal of Consumer Research, 2(43), 265–281. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucw015

Poster Presentations

Gao, H. (2013). The Effect of Dukes’ Consumption on Consumer Preferences for Status Associated Products. Society for Consumer Psychology. San Antoni, TX.

Presentations

Gao, H., & Zhang, Y. (2017, June). The Status is Part of Me: The Effect of Customer Demotion from A Cross-Cultural Perspective. JAMS Thought Leaders’ Conference on Marketing Strategy in Digital, Data-Rich, and Developing Market (D3) Environment. Beijing, China.

Jiang, L., Gao, H., & Shi, L. (2017, June). Power distance belief, social-function attitude and luxury consumption. 26th Annual CIMaR Conference Consortium for International Marketing. Florence, Italy.

Jiang, L., Gao, H., & Shi, L. (2017, June). Power distance belief, social-function attitude and luxury consumption. 26th Annual CIMaR Conference Consortium for International Marketing. Florence, Italy.

Gao, H., & Zhang, Y. (2015, October). The Effect of Power Distance Belief and Status Demotion in Hierarchical Loyalty Programs. Association for Consumer Research. New Orleans, LA, USA.

Gao, H., & Zhang, Y. (2015, June). Consumers’ Local-Global Identity and Price Sensitivity. Association for Consumer Research Asia-Pacific Conference. Hong Kong.

Gao, H., & Zhang, Y. (2015, August). Local Identity Makes Me Willing to Pay More: The Sacrifice Mindset Explanation. Summer Marketing Educators’ Conference (Summer AMA). Chicago, IL: AMA.

Gao, H., Winterich, K., & Zhang, Y. (2015). How Does Power Distance Belief Affect Status Consumption. Winter Marketing Educators’ Conference (Winter AMA). San Antonio, TX: American Marketing Association.

Gao, H., & Zhang, Y. (2014, October). Power Distance Belief and Status Consumption. Association for Consumer Research. Baltimore, MD.

Yan, D., & Gao, H. (2014, October). Having More But Not Felling Better: The Effects of Merely Owning Preventive Goods on Risk Perceptions. Association for Consumer Research. Baltimore, MD.

Proceedings Publications

Gao, H., & Zhang, Y. (2018). Cultural Value of LTO and Variety Seeking. In 2018 China Marketing International Conference.

Gao, H., & Zhang, Y. (2017). The Effect of Long-Term Versus Short-Term Orientation on Variety Seeking. In 2017 North American Conference of the Association for Consumer Research.

Gao, H., & Dong, Y. (2015). Consuming to Make Me Feel Good about Myself: The Effect of Self-Threat on Preferences for Socially Responsible Products. In Advances in Consumer Research (Vol. 43, pp. 785–785). Duluth, MN: Association for Consumer Research.

Gao, H., & Zhang, Y. (2015). The Effect of Power Distance Belief and Status Demotion in Hierarchical Loyalty Programs. In Association for Consumer Research (Vol. 1, pp. 529–530). New Orleans, LA, USA.

Recognition & Awards

Grants

• Cultural Differences and Consumers’ Variety Seeking Behavior, Funded by University of Texas at San Antonio (November 1, 2013 - December 31, 2015) ($5,000.00), Completed, Fall 2015, PI Huachao Gao (100%)
  
  
• How Does Power Distance Belief Affect Consumer Responses to Price Increase?, Funded by UVic Internal Research/Creative Project Grant (April 13, 2017), awarded April 13, 2017 ($7,000.00), Funded - In Progress, Spring 2017, PI Huachao Gao
  
  
• How Do Accessible Cultural Values Influence Bicultural Consumers’ Conspicuous versus Non-conspicuous, Counterfeit versus Genuine Product Purchase?, Funded by SSHRC (April 1, 2017), awarded April 1, 2017 ($87,987.00), Funded - In Progress, Spring 2017, PI Huachao Gao with CoInvestigator Linda Shi, Other Yinlong Zhang, Other Ling Jiang
  
  
• Power Distance Belief and Consumer Responses to Customer Demotion, Funded by Carolan Institute Grant (September 20, 2016) ($11,000.00), Funded - In Progress, Fall 2016, PI Huachao Gao (100%)

Courses Taught

• International Marketing (BCom)
• Marketing Principals & Management (BCom)