


































In ternationa l
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African Journal of Agricultural Marketing ISSN: 2375-1061 Vol. 3 (4), pp. 209-215, April, 2015. Available online at 
www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals 

 

Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. 

 

 

 

 

Full Length Research Paper 
 

Significance of last name on acquisition timing in China 

 

*Feng ziping, Zhuo Qingdong and Shen Yifu Lin 
 

Department of Marketing, Faculty of Management Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China. 
 

Accepted 12 March, 2015 

 

This research examines the effect of last name on acquisition timing for Chinese. Previous research 
suggests that there is a significant negative correlation between the depth of the first letter of surname in 
the alphabet and response time to acquisition opportunities in Western culture. This research illustrates 
whether this finding holds in Chinese culture over three studies. We find an opposite conclusion that the 
earlier in the pinyin alphabet the first letter of surname is, the faster the person responses to acquisition 
opportunities. We suppose that it lies in the difference between Chinese culture and western. Additionally, 
this research also expands the concept of “last name” from depth into the alphabet the first letter of one’s 
last name (pinyin in Chinese system), to number of strokes of first letter of one’s last name and student ID 
for Chinese subjects, as the stroke is a feature of Chinese name and the student ID is related to the class 
registers. Findings suggest that there is no significant correlation between number of strokes and response 
time, and there is a partial significant positive correlation between student ID and response time, indicating 
the earlier the ID locates in register sheet, students respond quicker. 
 
Key words: The last name effect, acquisition timing, consumer behavior, culture. 

 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
There is a daily life phenomenon, maybe you have 
noticed, that each person has different speed in 
responding to choice making such as purchasing the stuff 
they desire or prefer. Some people tend to act fast, 
especially when the time of purchase is fixed and the 
amount of discount goods is limited. At the moment they 
meet the goods they want or prefer, they pay promptly 
when  there  is  a  discount  with  time pressure no matter 
 
 
 
 

 
*Corresponding Authors. Email: zipingfeng@gmail.com 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
whether they need the goods or not; while some people 
are relatively lackadaisical facing those problems or 
opportunities. However, there is an another phenomenon 
maybe you have not noticed, that a friend around you 
with a surname in pinyin that begins with the letter C in 
the pinyin alphabet acts faster than another friend with a 
surname in pinyin that begins with the letter Z facing 
identical chances or troubles. This phenomenon in 
Chinese culture is definitely different from Western 
culture in which the earlier in the alphabet the first letter 
of one’s surname is, the slower the people act, although 
the order of both alphabets is same.  

This phenomenon may expound an influence on some 
person that the use of a class registers using alphabetical 



Feng et al.      209 
 
 

 
ordering via surname in pinyin creates an unfair class 
system in school. For instance, students with surnames 
that begin with letters near the beginning of the alphabet 
in pinyin suffer inequitable treatment. Their names are at 
the beginning of the class registers and teachers may 
notice them firstly when they want to select someone to 
answer questions or to assign tasks, especially when the 
tasks are beneficial to the whole class not only to 
themselves. Those students listed earlier in the class 
register sheet are always the first person to answer 
questions, solving puzzles and making contributions such 
as cleaning up the class, designing blackboard 
newspapers and making funny tips in front of class. While 
those with surnames later have much time to prepare for 
duties and challenges and deal with them later, they 
maybe do not need to clean up the class through the 
whole semester. These discriminating treatments during 
school-days may have latent influence on behavior 
throughout individuals’ life.  

In current studies, particularly in psychology, there is a 
concept, acquisition timing, to illustrate the extent people 
adapt to the life background. This reveals the speed 
consumers at which respond to a shopping situation 
which has a time pressure on consumer behavior. It is 
important for marketers that the speed responding to 
restrained opportunities influence outcomes, stocks and 
the discount of items, which could influence how fast 
consumers respond to the text messages or emails on 
bargains when they plan to substitute a new good for the 
old one which is close to the end of use period or they 
just attempt to use a new one.  

This paper primarily examines one variable, the first letter 

of surname in the pinyin alphabet in Chinese culture, has a 

significant effect on acquisition timing in order to verify 

whether the last name effect holds in Chinese culture. This 

article also examines the correlation between other variables 

relating to surname or the class registers and acquisition 

timing, such as the strokes of surname and the student ID in 

school. We assume that the correlation is influenced by the 

unfair class system resulting from the use of class registers 

to ask questions and assign tasks via factors about one’s 

name. This inequitable treatment throughout the school-days 

is along with period of formation of one’s behavior, maybe it 

is the consumers’ behavior, which is difficult to change in the 

future and influences choice making especially the choice of 

purchase. This inequitable treatment causes two different 

behaviors that those with the first letter of surname early in 

the pinyin alphabet seem positive and opportunistic in facing 

fixed opportunities while those with the first last letter seem 

lackadaisical. 
 
 
 
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 
 
The theoretical framework proceeds in two broad steps. 
First, we present a detailed conceptualization of the last 
name   effect,    showing   a   general   hypothesis   about 

 

 
 
 

 
surname effect on consumers’ choice making and the 
speed of it. Then we discuss the term acquisition timing 
about when and how fast consumer purchase and pay, 
and what prims the consumer behavior. 

 
The last name effect 
 
Previous researches in western culture have revealed 
various impacts that one’s name especially the surname 
can affect one’s choice making. The letters belonging to 
own first or family names are preferred to not-own name 
letters. This discovery is called the “name letter effect”  
(Nuttin, 1985).  

The name letter effect has been shown for consumers’ 
choice of branding. Btendl (2005) found that respondents 
were more likely to choose a brand when the name of the 
brand started with letters from their names than when it 
did not in five experiments, a result they called “name 
letter branding”. What’s more, the name letter effect also 
can be found in academic success (Einav and Yariv, 
2006). That means person also can be appealed to the 
things that link with their name, implying that they regard 
the things as themselves. Maybe we can use implicit 
egotism to explain the effect because most people 
possess positive associations about themselves (Pelham 
et al., 2003).  

From the above researches, it seems that person can 
choose things that they like most, but the society does 
not meet everyone’s needs. Both in Chinese and western 
culture, many situations use an order of surname or ID 
code to show the order of persons, such as class in 
schools, the list of winners and the list of editors when 
there were more than one editor for one book, which will 
generate a sustained and latent impact on individuals. 
Thus we suppose that the alphabetical order or the order 
of student ID impacts the response tendencies.  

There is a preliminary founding about the last name 
effect in western culture, saying that there is a robust 
effect of one’s childhood last name on temporal 
responses to opportunities and various purchase 
incentives will be taken up more quickly by those later in 
the alphabet (Carlson and Conard, 2008). Then Carlson 
and Conard make a deep study and find that those with 
late alphabet names are more likely to acquire an item 
when response time is restricted and they consider that 
the limited time offers more appealing than their early 
alphabet counterparts (Carlson and Conard, 2011). But in 
China, there is little research on the last name effect. The 
researches merely used the surname as a method of 
studying in their particular field. For example, Mingyan 
Chen regarded the pinyin and strokes of one’s surname 
as a method to explore the character of poor 
undergraduates’ implicit self-esteem and she find only the 
strokes of surname can be used. 
 
 

Acquisition timing 
 
Mostly,  what the marketers concern is not whether to buy 



 
 
 

 
but when and how fast to buy. It is important to know 
what influences the timing of acquisition. What we 
already know is that people also postpone making 
decisions which have various options and there is still a 
long time before the deadline. If there is time pressure, 
there is high efficiency.  

In western culture, there is a study on some reasons for 
substantial delay in consumer decision making. They find 
that the delay reasons are related to the reasons 
consumers stop delaying, and are also related to the 
amount of time that consumers spend in different stages 
of the decision-making process (Greenleaf and Lehmann, 
1995). Dhar and Nomlis (1999) further show that time 
pressure systematically impacts choice deferral by 
increasing the use of non-compensatory decision rules in 
the selection decision and by increasing the relative 
emphasis placed on the unique features in the deferral 
decision. In addition, in Chinese culture, Wang and Liu 
(2008) also find that there is a significant correlation 
between time pressure and purchasing behavior and 
there is a significantly positive correlation between time 
pressure and consumers’ willingness on purchase in the 
group-buying (Xianguo Li et al., 2012). Thus, the time 
pressure impacts the behavior of choice making and may 
accelerate the acquisition timing.  
In consumer behavior, there is another factor influencing 
consumers’ choice that is unconscious or affective goal, 
maybe we can say it is Pavlovian conditioning, which has 
motivational properties consistent with goal pursuit but 
inconsistent with mere cognitive activation (Chartrand, 
2008).  

Understanding the last name effect and the acquisition 
timing, we propose that the unfair class system 
throughout school-days can be regarded as a kind of 
sustain stimulation that will form fixed habit and behavior, 
such as the speed of acquisition in purchase. Since there 
is an obvious difference in name between Chinese 
culture and western, we propose not only to research the 
first letter of Chinese surname in the pinyin alphabet, but 
also to examine the number of strokes of the first letter of 
surname. In addition, we propose to examine the effect 
on student ID because this factor is also during the 
school-days though it has a little change from time to 
time. 
 
 
OVERVIEW OF STUDIES 
 
Three studies examine the effect of the depth into 
alphabet the first letter of one’s last name in Chinese 
system, the number of strokes of first letter of one’s last 
name and the Student ID for Chinese subjects on 
individuals’ acquisition timing. Study 1 demonstrates the 
basic effect of the depth into alphabet the first letter of 
one’s last name, the number of one’s last name’s strokes 
and the student ID on response time to opportunity when 
the opportunity is fixed in reality. Study 2 replicates the 
results of Study 1 using a questionnaire research in  case 

210          Afr. J. Agric. Mark. 
 
 

 
of the non-responders. Study 3 continues the exploration 
of the influence on last name by a questionnaire from a 
scenario test.  

These studies enable us to make the following claims: 
First, the surname especially the first letter of surname in 
the pinyin alphabet influences acquisition time for fixed 
opportunities to obtain desirable items. Second, 
individuals with last name beginning with letters early in 
the pinyin alphabet respond relatively quickly to fixed 
opportunities to obtain desirable items, while individuals 
with surname beginning with letters late in the pinyin 
alphabet respond relatively slowly to the identical 
situations. There is a significant positive correlation 
between the first letter of the responder’s surname in the 
pinyin alphabet and the acquisition timing to 
opportunities. Finally, there is no significant correlation 
between the number of strokes and response time and 
there is a partial significant correlation between student 
ID and response time revealing that students with ID 
earlier listed in register sheet respond quicker. 

 
Study 1 
 
The main purpose of study 1 was to obtain evidence that 
individual’s temporal response to an opportunity is 
different and is relating to the first letter of Chinese 
surname in the pinyin alphabet. The study also examined 
the effect of surname’s strokes and the student ID. 
 
 
METHOD 
 
In this study 100 undergraduates in two graduate business schools 
were given the opportunity to participate in an examination on 
consumer behavior in exchange for a bonus of winning a free ticket 
to watch the movie, Steve Jobs. There were six free tickets. What 
they ought to do was to send their information including name and 
student ID to a designated mailbox after the announcement. The 
commitment of the free tickets was made at the end of each course 
to ensure that all the students had an equal opportunity to respond. 
The sample of 46 respondents consists of those students who have 
sent the email and get the chance to win a free ticket. Response 
time was measured by analyzing the difference between the time 
when the announcement was sent out and the time when each 
reply was received in minutes. The first letter of subject’s surname 
in the pinyin alphabet, the number of strokes of subject’s surname 
and the student ID for subject were derived from replies. For 
analysis, the first letter of pinyin of surname was transformed into a 
number equivalent, for example, A=1; Z=26. The student ID was 
transformed into a shorter number using the last three digits as the 
subjects abstracting from the same business schools (i.e. 
2011811114=114). We use simple linear regression to analyze the 
correlation between pinyin, strokes, student ID and response time. 
 
 
RESULTS 
 
The average response time to the announcement was 
1454.2 min. There was an insignificant correlation between 
response time and the number equivalent of the first letter 
of surname in  pinyin  alphabet (t= -.411, p= .683),  strokes 



Feng et al.      211 
 
 

 
(t= .296, p= .769) and student ID (t= 1.390, p= .172). We 
found that this effect did not reach statistical significance 
because we have not announced that each email can 
only represent one person’s application when making the 
announcement. There were some subjects sending 
information via only one email. Thus, the samples that 
consist of others’ emails should be rejected from the 
master samples. The sample size became 32.  

Using the adjusted samples, the average response time 
turned into 810.1 min. Importantly, there was a significant 
positive correlation between surname and response time 
(t= 2.024 p= .052). In sum, these results indicated a last 
name effect in China for individuals when faced with an 
opportunity to acquire limited items like movie tickets. 
That is, participants with surname beginning with letters 
early in the pinyin alphabet respond relatively quickly to 
fixed opportunities to obtain items, while participants with 
surname beginning with letters late in the pinyin alphabet 
respond relatively slowly to the fixed same opportunities. 
 

The study also revealed that there was no significant 
correlation between strokes (t= .254 p= .802) and 
response time and there was no significant correlation 
between student ID (t= -.195 p= .846) and response time. 
Thus, there was no evidence of correlation between 
strokes and response time, and the student ID either. 
There was little effect on individuals with lengthy surname 
or simple surname in Chinese character to acquire items 
from a limited supply. There also was little effect for 
individuals with an early student ID or late student ID 
facing the same situation. 
 
 
DISCUSSION 
 
These findings provide evidence that consumers’ prompt 
response to a fixed opportunity was different relating to 
their surname in Chinese culture, especially the first letter 
of surname in the pinyin alphabet. Individuals with 
surnames beginning with letters early in the pinyin 
alphabet responded more quickly than those starting with 
letters late in the pinyin alphabet facing the same 
acquisition opportunities based on desirable goods with 
constrained supplement, for example, six free movie 
tickets.  

This result is definitely different from Western culture in 
which the later in the alphabet the first letter of one’s 
surname is, the faster the individual responds when the 
alphabets used are same. We suppose that it may come 
from the difference in Chinese and western culture. For 
example, in China where an interdependent culture is 
mainstream, in order to keep harmonious relationship, 
students are generally shy and avoid showing off, 
teachers hence tend to initiate class interaction and 
assign tasks or duties by calling student names; 
therefore, students with last name locating earlier in the 
register sheet are more likely and more  frequently  to  be 

 

 
 
 

 
assigned duties and challenges. This in the long run acts 
as a priming or inertia effect and shapes the characters of 
students with last name earlier to be more aggressive 
and active, always to keep alert and ready to take 
challenges. This in turn makes them respond quicker to 
acquisition opportunities in restricted time period. The 
difference between Chinese and Western culture of self-
construal can be seen in Figure 1. 
 
 
Study 2 
 
The purpose of study 2 was to replicate the findings of 
study 1 using a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. Although 
study 1 had established the last name effect in China and 
given evidence to reveal the correlation between 
response time and surname in the pinyin alphabet, we did 
not assemble information of non-responders in the study. 
Thus, we cannot gather those subjects’ information of 
exact response time. It was not possible to compare the 
response time of those who sent the email in the name of 
themselves to that of those who did not. The last name 
effect in Chinese culture expects that the response 
subject should comprise more individuals whose first 
letter of surname in the pinyin alphabet is always closed 
to the beginning of the pinyin alphabet than the 
individuals who do not respond.  

Besides, there were several subjects sent their 
applications together through only one email and there 
were several subjects sent emails through cell phone, 
iPad and other mobile internet device (MID). The using of 
MID has created several extreme data like 1 min from a 
subject. Thus, we design a questionnaire using semantic 
differential scale to explore a method, from which every 
subject in the sampling frame received the information at 
the same time and replied, to assure that each subject’s 
information can be gathered. 
 
 
Method 
 
Seventy five undergraduates completed a paper-and-
pencil questionnaire in exchange for an average grade 
and attendance of a Consumer Behavior Course. 
Participants were asked to read a scenario described 
previously and answer two questions. The questionnaire 
asked subjects to assume that they participated in an 
English training class and were given an opportunity to 
attend a forum about English in exchange for a free 
magazine ----The Economist. The scene also assumed 
that this information was announced at the end of the 
class and the students who wanted to participate in the 
forum should send their personal details like surname, 
cell phone numbers and student ID to the leader’s 
mailbox. After reading the scenario, the subjects 
answered two questions. The first question was an 
attraction  to  attend  the  forum : “Do the activity to attend 



212          Afr. J. Agric. Mark.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

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Chinese Culture - Interdependent V S Western Culture - Independent  

   
 

          

          
 

          
 

   Earlier in The  Later in The  Earlier in The  Later in The 
 

   Register  Register  Register  Register 
 

          
 

   Maintain  Maintain     
 

   Connectedness and  Connectedness and  
Uniqueness  

Uniqueness  

   

Harmony with 
 

Harmony with 
  

 

        
 

   Others  Others     
 

          
 

          
 

   
Solidarity  

Solidarity  
Individuality  

Individuality  

      
 

          
 

          
 

   Shy and Avoid  Shy and Avoid  Active to Show  Active to Show  

      
 

   Showing Off  Showing Off  Off  Off 
 

           

 

        

 Assign Duties and  Assign Duties and  Allocate  Allocate 
 Challenges  Challenges  Opportunities  Opportunities 

        

        
 

 
        

     Earlier to Get  Later to Get 
 Earlier Called  to  Later Called to  Choice When  Choice When 
 Assign Tasks  Assign Tasks  Opportunities  Opportunities 
     Arise  Arise 
        

        
 

 

        
 

 More Challenge or  More Chance to  More  
Less Opportunities  

 

Duties 
 

Be Lazy 
 

Opportunities 
 

 

     
 

        
 

 
 

 More Active;  More Lazy;  Relatively  Relatively 
 Aggressive;  Unenterprising;  Lackadaisical;  Opportunistic; 
 Never Laid Back;  Dilatory;  Respond Slower  Respond Faster 
 More Alert;  More Relax;  When  When 
 Ready Faster to  Ready Slowler to  Opportunities  Opportunities 
 Take Challenge;  Take Challenge;  Arise;  Arise; 
        

 
Figure 1. The difference between two cultures. 



Feng et al.      213 
 
 

 
the forum in exchange for a free magazine attract you?”  
Responses are designed on 9-point scale (1 =not at all 
attract; 9 =extremely attract). The second was a question 
about the pace to reply the announcement: “How quickly 
will you reply to attend the forum?” Responses also were 
captured on a 9-point scale (1 =do not reply; 9 =reply at 
once). Then, the subjects were asked to write down their 
surname and student number. Different from study 1, the 
first letter of pinyin of surname was transformed into 
another number equivalent, for example, A=26; Z=1, to 
illustrate the correlation easily. 

 
Results 
 
To gather enough evidence for the last name effect in 
pinyin alphabet in Chinese culture, we tested the 
surname with response to attraction to attend a rewarded 
forum and pace to reply from a scene simulation. There 
was a significant positive correlation between the first 
letter of surname in the pinyin alphabet and the attraction 
to attend the forum (t= 3.052 p= .003), and there also was 
a significant positive correlation between surname and 
the pace to reply (t= 2.233 p= .029). It revealed that those 
with the first letter of surname early in the pinyin alphabet 
were more likely to respond to the things that interest 
them and take action than those late in the pinyin 
alphabet.  

In addition, we found no evidence that there was a 
significant positive correlation between student ID and the 
attraction to attend the forum (t= 0.243 p= .808), and 
there also was no significant positive correlation between 
student ID and the pace to reply (t= 0.916 p= .362). 
Moreover, the study also revealed that there was no 
significant correlation between the possibility to attend the 
forum and strokes (t= -0.756 p= .452) and relatively 
significant correlation between the pace to reply and 
strokes (t= -1.406 p= .164). In general, the correlation of 
the influence of strokes and student ID to response time 
is insignificant. 
 
 
Discussion 
 
This study gathered more powerful evidence to indicate 
the effect that surname influences the response time. In a 
virtual situation, those with surnames beginning with 
letters early in the pinyin alphabet for Chinese character 
were more likely to take advantage of the free magazine 
than those with surnames beginning with letters late in 
the pinyin alphabet. Thus, the customers with surnames 
earlier in the pinyin alphabet would make decisions more 
quickly when customers meet an unrequited and limited 
deed. 
 
 
Study 3 
 
In order to reveal the last name effect in  Chinese  culture 

 

 
 
 

 
better, we designed another paper-and-pencil question-
naire about purchase and discount to fit the real life of the 
individuals. As discussed, there was a positive correlation 
between response time and surname in the pinyin 
alphabet, and there was no significant correlation 
between strokes and student ID and response time. It is 
needed to verify the effect of surname in the pinyin 
alphabet influencing the response time and to gather 
more evidences to verify whether there is a significant 
correlation between strokes and response time and 
correlation between student ID and response time. We 
gather more evidences to strengthen the effect of last 
name on acquisition timing in China. The purpose of this 
study was to examine this thought by testing the last 
name effect on a product that has a discount but was 
given a limited supply. 
 
 
Method 
 
This study used a new sample of 271 undergraduate 
students who had completed a survey in exchange for the 
average grade of a general education elective subject. 
After reading a short scenario about the discount of 
shoes of Belle for ladies and the discount of sneakers of 
Nike for men, the discount is 50 percent and they needed 
the shoes or sneakers and found the discount by chance 
while they did not take their purses and they should go 
back to school for 15 min to get enough money to obtain 
goods, subjects was asked to assume the situation and to 
answer two questions. In this scenario, subjects were 
specially told that the supply was limited, so buying was 
not just a yes or no option but a purchase decision should 
be made immediately. After assuming the scenario, 
subjects were asked to answer two questions. The first 
was about the appeal of the discount product:  
“How the discount attracts you?” The options were 
designed on a 9-point differential scale (1 =not at all 
attract; 9 =extremely attract). The second was about the 
possibility to go back to get the purse to buy: “Is it 
possible for you to go back to get the purse to buy the 
shoes of sneakers?” The options were also designed on 
a 9-point differential scale (1 =not at all possible; 9 
=extremely possible). Then, each subject wrote down the 
information especially the surname and student ID. 
Consistent with study 2, the first letter of pinyin of 
surname was transformed into the same number 
equivalent, illustrated as A=26; Z=1. 
 
 
Results 
 
The results of the first letter of surname in the pinyin 
alphabet of study 1 and 2 were replicated. Again, there 
was a significant positive correlation between the first 
letter of surname in pinyin and acquisition timing. The 
correlation between surname and the appeal of discount 
was significantly  positive (t = 3.412 p = .001). Thus, subjects



 
 
 

 
subjects with first letters of surname early in the pinyin 
alphabet were more likely to take action on buying 
discount products than those with first letters late in the 
pinyin alphabet. There also was a significant positive 
correlation between surname and the possible to buy the 
discount product (t = 2.919, p = .004). It indicates that the 
subjects with surname beginning with early letters were 
more likely to buy something discounted and would take 
action to get it quickly.  

There also was a significant positive correlation 
between student ID and the possible of making purchase 
decision (t = 1.675, p = .095), indicating that the subjects 
with early numbers in the whole student ID frame tended 
to response more quickly than those with late numbers. 
But there was no significant correlation between student 
ID and the appeal of discount (t = 0.214, p = .830). We 
suppose there was a partial significant positive correlation 
between student ID and acquisition timing. However, 
there was also no significant correlation between strokes 
and the appeal of discount (t = 0.757, p = .450) and no 
significant correlation between strokes and the desire to 
buy (t = 0.548, p = .584). 
 
 
Discussion 
 
The results of this study confirmed the last name effect in 
China. This study revealed that the last name effect 
expanded to the customers’ purchase decision-making. 
This study involved the discount commodities. The 
studies of individuals with the last name beginning with 
first letters early in the pinyin alphabet revealed that they 
would more likely to act on the appealing discount than 
those late in the pinyin alphabet especially when the 
opportunity was limited.  

We found there is a partial significant positive 
correlation between student ID and acquisition timing. We 
suppose that it is related to the class registers and 
generated from the order of Chinese name in pinyin, 
when the amount of students became large the teacher 
came up with a new method to discern the students in 
order to assign duties or challenges easily, so the student 
ID follows with the surname in pinyin. 
 
 
GENERAL DISCUSSION 
 
The studies above reveal a robust effect of the first letter 
of the last name in the pinyin alphabet on acquisition 
timing. Individuals with the first letters of surnames early 
in the pinyin alphabet responded faster than those late in 
the pinyin alphabet to the same acquisition opportunities. 
There were some qualifications like time pressure (the 
time of discount) and the context is real in some studies 
(movie tickets) and assumed in other studies (paper-and-
pencil questionnaire). And the effect occurred under 
those conditions. It means there is a significant positive 

 

214          Afr. J. Agric. Mark. 
 
 
 
 

correlation between the first letter of surname in the 
pinyin alphabet and acquisition timing. It is definitely 
opposite to the research in western. We suppose that 
those with the first letters of surnames late in the alphabet 
are always in adversity missing opportunities and become 
responding fast to catch the opportunity in western. While 
the teachers always ask students to answer questions 
and assign tasks which mean duties and challenges but 
not opportunities for students relating to the order of class 
registers which are made by the order of students’ 
surname in pinyin in Chinese culture.  
Thus, the students with surname early in the class 
registers facing a situation that they do not have much 
time to prepare than those late become more positive and 
initiative when meet challenges and solve puzzles than 
those late, especially the late in the class registers may 
not need to complete task like clean up the class. The 
school-day is also the period to form the behavior. Thus, 
in Chinese culture, those with surname early in the 
alphabet (early in the class registers) respond more 
quickly to acquisition opportunities regarding the 
responds as a duty or challenge to complete and if they 
prepare earlier and respond faster, they would complete 
earlier and feel ease.  

Because of the uniqueness of Chinese character, many 
occasions rely on not only the order of the first letter of 
surname in pinyin but also the strokes of Chinese 
character to decide the rank of individuals. The studies 
also examined the strokes’ effect on the acquisition 
timing. However, above the studies, there is no significant 
correlation between strokes and the timing of acquisition. 
We suppose the use of strokes is not frequent in our daily 
life and the time that we often meet the use of strokes is 
the situation serious and formal, such as political issues 
and the order of editors of a book, and strokes have little 
effect on consumer behavior.  

In addition, we examine the correlation between student 

ID and acquisition timing because the student ID is also an 

identity to student and is related to the class register. But the 

correlation is partial significant positive. Some-times the 

correlation is positive and sometimes there is no significant 

correlation. During survey the student ID of some 

universities, we suppose the generation of student ID is 

based on surname in pinyin and class, that is, those with the 

same order of the first letter of last name in the pinyin 

alphabet will have different order based on student ID, as 

they are in different class. For example, a student whose 

first letter of surname (Ding) is D get the student ID 1, while 

another student who has the same first letter of surname will 

get the student ID 40, because they are at different class. 

Thus, the correlation between student ID and acquisition 

timing is not robust. 
 
 
Implications 
 
As the acquisition timing  is  important  to  marketers  and 



Feng et al.      215 
 
 

 
the surnames of consumer are easy to obtain, the result 
of this research may be significant relevant for marketers. 
Marketers regard the acquisition timing as an indicator to 
determine the outcomes and storage amounts, and 
specially the amount of discount items. Using the new 
result of this research, the marketers can propose a 
schedule to determine the audience of promotion 
preferentially who early get the information on discount 
and the duration of promotion. For example, marketers 
could send message or email to consumer, with the first 
letter of surname in pinyin early in the alphabet, who will 
respond faster to the discount opportunities. As the 
consumer’s name is easy to get, the marketers could set 
up a database relying on consumer’s name and form a 
key consumer group responding fast to the discount.  

In addition, the marketers can use this result to improve 
their push notification service. The marketers can design 
different frequency to send information of items such as 
introducing new goods and discount to different customer 
groups segmented by surname in pinyin. For example, as 
those with the first letter of surname late in the pinyin 
alphabet respond slowly to goods information, especially 
the discount, the frequency of push information to this 
customer group could be increased rapidly, while the 
frequency of push information to those early could be 
decreased. And different language style of content of 
push information can be designed to different consumer. 
For example, the marketers can use words such as  
“clearance sale”, “reduction sale” and “the last day for 
sale” to remind customer to purchase whose location of 
the first letter of surname is late in the pinyin alphabet, 
while they can design common language style to those 
early in the pinyin alphabet. 
 
 
Conclusion 
 
The research of this article reveals a new finding of the 
last name effect in Chinese culture, it is different from 
western, that there is a significant positive correlation 
between the first letter of surname in the pinyin alphabet 
and the speed to respond the acquisition opportunities. 
Those with first letter of surname early in the pinyin 
alphabet respond faster to the acquisition opportunities 
than those late in the pinyin alphabet. This effect can be 
used for marketers to explore the consumer behavior and 
formulate the marketing program. In addition, there is a 
partial significant correlation between student ID and 
acquisition timing and there is no significant correlation 
between strokes and acquisition timing.  

As many marketers focus on the range of the potential 
customers we think our marketers should focus on the 
potential customers who will deliver huge benefits not all 
the customers. Otherwise, the name or the id may be 

 

 
 
 

 
along with a person in him or her whole life or subtly 
influence him or her behavior by culture, environment or 
the person live along with him or her.  

Our future study will focus on the relation between 
student id and acquisition timing and we want to expand 
the sample of studies and research the relation between 
acquisition timing and the last name in depth. 
 
 
Conflict of Interests 
 
The authors have not declared any conflict of interests. 
 
 
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