Purpose - With the rapid economic development, great changes have happened in the Chinese beer market. The scale of imported beer is increasing. However, the sales of native Chinese beer decrease in recent years. It is because more Chinese customers prefer beer with unique attributes than those with lower prices. In order to take an advantage in this market, practitioners should develop new products to satisfy Chinese customers. Scholars have also focused on beer characteristics to estimate consumers’ behavior for improving the development of beer industry. However, most studies are theoretically centered on marketing strategy management or general understanding of the market. It is not enough for us to explain customers’ consumption patterns. Some empirical research did attempt to find out beer attributes that may influence their choice behavior. However, they failed to verify what can increase customers’ utility through a new product. More importantly, few evidences can be found in the literature. Therefore this study explores the major characteristics of imported beer which may associate with customers’ preferences.
Research design, data, and methodology - With the results of literature review and focus group interview, we found out four main imported beer attributes and the levels of each factor. A pre-test is constructed to check the problems in the questionnaire protocol. With the results of pre-test, the revised questionnaire is processed among customers who have purchased and had imported beer in China regions such as Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangdong and so on. The choice-based conjoint analysis is applied to analyze the useful data of 205.
Results - Results indicate that choice-based conjoint analysis is the effective method to estimate customers’ choice behavior. Results also indicate that country of origin, price, taste, and package affect customers’ preference and the importances of imported beer attributes are significantly different.
Conclusions - Country of origin, price, taste, and package are important for customers to make an imported beer choice decision. Marketers should consider these determinants and their importance to develop new products. Moreover, choice-based conjoint analysis should be the useful method for practitioners to develop a new product of imported beer for sustainable business in the competitive industry.

Abstract
 1. 서론
 2. 선행연구 고찰
  2.1. 중국 맥주산업
  2.2. 맥주 선택속성
  2.3. 선택형 컨조인트 분석
 3. 연구설계
  3.1. 맥주 선택속성 및 속성수준 선정
 4. 연구결과
  4.1. 표본의 인구통계학적 특성
  4.2. 선택형 컨조인트 분석 결과
  4.3. 시장점유율 예측 결과
 5. 결론
  5.1. 연구결과
  5.2. 연구시사점
  5.3. 연구한계성 및 향후연구
 References

• Zhihua Gao(Department of International Commerce and Business, Konkuk University) | 고지화
• Zhangjian Wu(Department of Business Administration, Zhejiang Wanli University) | 오장건
• Feng Gao(Department of International Trade, Konkuk University) | 고봉
• Jun Zhang(Assistant Professor, Department of Global Business, Konkuk University) | 장준 Corresponding Author