Antecedents of Taiwan Chinese Consumers’ Purchase Intentions Toward U.S.- and Japanese-Made Household Appliances

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to understand the factors influencing Taiwan's Chinese consumers’ purchase intentions toward U.S. and Japanese household appliances. The authors attempt to develop and test a comprehensive model linking such purchase intentions to several constructs including Taiwan Chinese consumers’ openness to foreign cultures, consumer nationalism, product familiarity, traditional cultural values orientation, and product-country image. The result of analysis using structural equation modeling shows that consumer nationalism has a strong indirect effect on purchase intention via the product-country image construct. Taiwan Chinese consumers’ traditional cultural values orientation and openness to foreign cultures have direct effects on consumer nationalism and, hence, are important antecedents in explaining the purchase intentions toward foreign-made goods by Taiwan Chinese consumers. With the growing importance of the Chinese domestic market, this study provides international marketing managers with practical implications in important areas such as market segmentation, branding strategy, and market research and practices in the Chinese consumer market.     

Disclosure of Energy Operating Cost Information: A Silver Bullet for Overcoming the Energy-Efficiency Gap?

Consumers frequently act contrary to rational economic theory by overvaluing an initially higher purchase price while heavily discounting future energy operating costs. One opportunity to help limit the scale of over-discounting is to fully disclose the energy consumption of a product, e.g., by means of an energy label. However, not only the availability of information, but also the way in which specific information about the energy consumption is framed, is likely to affect how individuals discount future operating costs. A cost accuracy estimation experiment reveals that disclosing annual energy operating costs for the product category of televisions might risk assisting consumers in realising that the possible energy operating cost savings fall below initial estimates. A subsequent choice-based conjoint experiment shows that disclosing annual energy operating costs thus affects consumers by causing them to discount future energy operating costs of a television more heavily than when the information is disclosed in the form of “watts.” Owing to the power of the reversed “pennies-a-day” effect, disclosing lifetime energy operating cost information, however, proves to be most effective in guiding consumers towards more energy-efficient shopping behaviour. Implications for consumer policy and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT OF HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES—FOR THE BENEFIT OF CONSUMERS OR PRODUCERS?

Two hypotheses are presented on the basis of the consumerist and private enterprise points of view of technical development of household appliances: H₁: maintaining or increasing sales of household appliances by product development can be done regardless of, or even conflicting with, consumer needs. H₂: maintaining or increasing sales of household appliances can only be done by developing products that satisfy consumer needs. To test these hypotheses the concept of utility has to be defined operationally. Assuming that household appliances are bought to be used according to their functions, utility is defined as use frequency and way of using. Using data from a Norwegian survey on the purchase and use of electric ranges and sewing machines, it is shown that all equipment studied is used frequently and correctly by too many respondents to declare them generally without utility. But for each device there was quite a large share of the respondents who did not use it. The hypothesis that products cannot be sold to consumers who do not need them, is thus rejected. The causes of the problem as well as possible means of solving it are discussed.     

Inadequate Life?Evidence of Consumer Attitudes to Product Obsolescence

Public interest in the durability of household appliances may be traced back 40 years to criticism of planned obsolescence raised by an emerging consumer movement. A recent revival of interest in product life spans has taken place in the context of increasing waste generation and debate prompted by proposed producer responsibility legislation, but data on the age of discarded products and consumer attitudes to product life spans have been lacking. This paper draws upon recent data from research into discarded household appliances in the UK to enhance a theoretical model of product obsolescence and explore some implications for marketing and public policy. A survey of over 800 households provided quantitative data on consumer attitudes and behaviour relating to appliance life spans and a subsequent series of focus groups enriched this data with personal narratives. Respondents were evenly divided on whether or not appliance life spans are adequate. Variations in behaviour demonstrated how users may influence appliance life spans. Overall, the results suggest that consumers have an important role in reversing the trend toward increased appliance waste but currently face economic disincentives and lack adequate product information.     

Energy efficient household appliances in emerging markets: the influence of consumers' values and knowledge on their attitudes and purchase behaviour

This research integrates both motivational and cognitive approaches to better understand consumers' purchase behaviour of energy efficient household appliances in emerging markets. A unique values, knowledge, attitudes and behaviour model was developed, and then validated by obtaining data from Vietnamese consumers which yielded 682 usable responses. The findings confirm that consumers with stronger adherence to egoistic values are more likely to develop negative attitudes towards environmental protection, and they tend to formulate positive attitudes towards individual inconvenience associated with the purchase of energy efficient appliances. In contrast, biospheric and altruistic values facilitate consumers' purchase behaviour by enhancing their attitudes towards environmental protection, and by also reducing their attitudes in relation to individual inconvenience. Interestingly, consumers with high knowledge about energy efficient appliances tend to believe that the purchase of such products is important for environmental protection, and they are likely to negate the perception of inconvenience associated with the purchase. Attitudes were found to be significant determinants of both purchase intention and behaviour. The implications for policymakers, marketers and other stakeholders are discussed and future research directions presented.     

Consumer Awareness of the Legal Obligations of Funeral Providers

The results from a consumer survey that examined consumer knowledge of some parameters of the Funeral Rule are presented. Currently, all funeral home activities are regulated under the Funeral Industry Practices Rule of the Federal Trade Commission. The rule is premised on the assumption that it is difficult for consumers to make careful, informed purchase decisions in at‐need situations because of emotional stress, time pressure, and lack of familiarity with available goods and services. However, limited research has assessed how much consumers know about the legal obligations of funeral providers as provided for by the Funeral Rule. Implications for consumer protection and policy are discussed.     

The Dilemma of Pull and Push-Price Promotions

Should manufacturers of products such as automobiles and household appliances offer cash rebates to all consumers at the time of purchase, or offer trade deals to retailers? The authors conduct an analytical inquiry that shows that choosing between these two types of price promotion critically depends on the consumer sensitivity to both regular and promotional prices. More specifically, when consumers are more (less) sensitive to promotions than to regular prices, manufacturers are better (worse) off offering trade deals (consumer rebates) rather than consumer rebates (trade deals). Consistent with traditional predictions found in the economic literature, either of the two promotions can be offered indiscriminately if consumers make no difference between promotional offers and regular-price reductions. The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.     

Consumer demand for counterfeit goods

Research on counterfeiting has focused on the supply side, with scant attention to consumer demand for counterfeit goods. Anticounterfeiting efforts would benefit from the identification of the segment(s) of consumer counterfeiting accomplices, consumers who knowingly purchase counterfeit products. This article reports on three studies, conducted at flea markets and malls, that attempted to identify consumer accomplices. Study 1 investigated prepurchase factors, Study 2 focused on factors active during purchasing, and Study 3 concentrated on postpurchase factors. The results suggest the existence of a typology of consumer accomplices, sly shoppers who purposely purchase counterfeit goods to demonstrate their consumer shrewdness and economically concerned shoppers whose intentional purchase of fake goods is driven by economic concerns. Implications for marketing practitioners are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

What drives consumers to customize products? The mediating role of brand experience

Brands are increasingly seeking ways to engage consumers in deep and meaningful brand experiences. As technological advances have developed, brands have an increasing arsenal to draw on in creating brand experience. One increasingly common tactic is product customization, whereby consumers are provided the ability to create their own products from a set of options. With this study, we seek to understand the mediating role of brand experience in consumer decisions to customize products. Specifically, we investigate the interplay of non-brand drivers (those intrinsic to the consumer) and brand drivers (those extrinsic to the consumer) in the context of customization. In doing so, we develop an understanding of consumers' intention to use a customization toolkit and their subsequent intention to purchase customized products. We find brand experience drives intention to use a customization toolkit, mediating the relationship between individual factors and usage intentions. A customer's prior experience and their intention to use a customization toolkit are also direct drivers of customized product purchase intention.     

Examining impacts of negative reviews and purchase goals on consumer purchase decision

Extensive literature has studied the impact of positive online reviews on consumers’ purchase decisions. Research on the role of negative reviews in consumer price perception is heavily under-investigated. This study examines effects of negative reviews on consumer price perception and subsequent purchase behavior while considering the moderating effect of purchase goals. Results from two experiments show that the proportion of negative reviews has stronger negative impacts on purchase decision for consumers with a purchase goal than those without. This research contributes to growing knowledge about negative online reviews and consumer goal literature and offers practical implications for online retailers.     

Comparing consumer-produced product reviews across multiple websites with sentiment classification

ABSTRACT

Online consumer reviews have been extensively studied. However, existing literature analyzing online consumer review data mostly relies on a single data source, resulting in potentially biased analytics conclusions. Many websites encourage consumers to post reviews of their purchased products, so that new consumers can evaluate these reviews for the same product across different websites to help them make purchasing decisions. Confusions often arise in this process, because there often exist substantial discrepancies in customer reviews across different retailers on the same product. Clarifying such confusions can help consumers reduce concerns to make up their mind for their purchases, therefore benefiting both consumers and retailers. Through text analytics and sentiment analysis, we comparatively examine the underlying patterns of online consumer reviews of three large retailers including Sears, Home Depot, and Best Buy for a same product. Afterward, we combine online consumer reviews from these large retailers and conduct an overall text analytics and sentiment analysis. The overall results are further compared with the results from individual retailers. The findings show that the sentiment of the online consumer reviews could vary substantially so relying on a single data source to make purchase decision is not a wise idea. Based on the results, we further devise a framework to comparatively examine and integrate multiple data sources for social media analytics of online consumer reviews. This study offers important managerial implications and identifies several new research directions for social media analytics.     

基于心理暗示的定价研究

由于信息不对称的存在,消费者无法获知商品的真实价格,在购买前会先对商品进行主观估价,进而形成感知价格的心理变动。价格不确定性和价格感知变化性的交互作用是商品定价对消费者购买决策影响形成心理暗示的现实反映。运用这套作用机制,商家可以通过价格心理暗示方式改变消费者购买决策。本研究通过对文献的归纳和实验研究结果的整理,总结出四种价格暗示方式,并深入分析四种方式作用机制,同时提出价格暗示的应用误区。     

Consumer values,motivation and purchase intention for luxury goods

There is considerable ambivalence in how different societies and cultures relate to the consumption of luxury goods. Thinly focused in the literature are Islamic societies (with rapidly emerging ‘super-rich’ consumer segments) where the concept of luxury may be in tension with religious values. Set against this background, this paper investigates how consumer values and motivation influence purchase intentions towards luxury goods. Based on a sample of 400 respondents drawn from Morocco and applying logistic regression models, the paper finds correlations between the intention to buy luxury goods, motivation and personal values. Paradoxically, the influence of religion appears to diminish as consumer affordability of luxury goods increase. Partly due to globalization of markets and impacts on consumer values, Moslems are not fundamentally different from western consumers with regard to predispositions towards luxury consumption. Potential impacts of religion on luxury consumption attitudes and personal values appear to be moderated by the global consumer culture. The results also show an important gender underpinning especially when considered alongside perceived gender biases in consumption decision-making in many Islamic countries. Regarding the nature of purchase behavior women were found to be more positively disposed to impulse purchasing of luxury goods compared to men while more educated people, generally, indicated a greater tendency towards rational than impulse buying decisions.     

How information processing and mobile channel choice influence product returns: An empirical analysis

The mobile internet is starting to overtake the desktop device‐based internet as a purchase channel. Its impact on consumer behavior is therefore increasingly important to understand. This study seeks to understand and measure, if usage of mobile devices for online purchases leads to a lower decision quality and, in effect, to more product returns. In doing so, the impact of information environments on the end‐to‐end consumer purchase decision‐making process is better understood and it is investigated, if the information environment of mobile devices leads consumers to take more error‐prone purchase decisions. An exclusive data set spanning more than 140 million transactions of a European online retailer is used to empirically analyze changes in product return behavior after mobile channel adoption. The results show that mobile channel usage is positively related to product returns, overall and for both, purchases made with mobile devices and purchases made with desktop devices, although prior literature predicts that returns from desktop purchases should not increase. These findings suggest that through new channels, consumers’ information environment is altered sufficiently to affect their decision accuracy. Moreover, the results indicate that previous research may be overestimating the positive effect of mobile channel adoption on sales by disregarding changes in product return behavior.     

Consumer price awareness in food shopping: the case of quantity surcharges

Quantity surcharges, higher unit prices on larger sizes than smaller sizes, are often found among grocery items. In this study we consider the question of why consumers buy surcharged goods. We hypothesize that it is the consequence of a failure to price search, and that some buyers purchase larger sizes in the belief they are cheaper, thus avoiding the need for price comparisons. In the analysis we examine canned tuna, using 1990 data from 54 grocery regions on sales, prices, and consumer demographics. Results support the hypothesis. We find evidence that buyers of surcharged items are mainly those with high time and information costs.     

Buying while expecting to sell: The economic psychology of online resale

Consumer online resale is becoming increasingly common for transactions of secondhand goods. However, when accompanied by a preconceived intention to resell a product after using it, the initial consumer purchasing decision for self-use is complicated by the estimated resale value of that good. We applied the principles of mental accounting to develop and evaluate a new concept that may influence consumer resale and purchase intention: external resale reference price (ERRP). The study examines how online consumer sellers' economic psychology of buying affected their expectation of future online resale outcome. The results indicate that (1) consumers' awareness of future online resale potential can influence their purchasing decisions; (2) ERRP, which is mediated by the estimated resale return, can increase purchase intention; and (3) the effects of ERRP on purchase intention are moderated by online resale likelihood, but are minimal when consumers are aware that resale possibility is extremely low.     

The Recent versus The Out-Dated: An Experimental Examination of the Time-Variant Effects of Online Consumer Reviews

Conventional wisdom suggests that the most recent online reviews may have a greater impact than out-dated online reviews on consumers’ purchase decisions because of their up-to-date nature. However, building on the theory of temporal distance and construal fit, this study proposes a new perspective, suggesting that the influence of online reviews posted at different times is a function of the timeframe for the consumers’ intended purchase. Four experiments demonstrate that although recent online reviews are more influential in shifting consumer preferences towards near-future consumption decisions, the relative influence of out-dated online reviews in shifting consumer preferences increases when consumers are making distant-future consumption decisions. This effect occurs because of a construal fit between the construal level of the online reviews posted at different times and that of the timeframe of consumers’ purchase decisions. The recent reviews are represented at a relatively lower construal level, with the low-level construal matching the timeframe of the near-future consumption decision. Out-dated reviews, however, are represented at a relatively higher construal level and match the timeframe of the distant-future consumption decision. This construal fit, in turn, enhances consumer engagement and consequently exerts a greater influence on consumer preferences.     

Consumer learning, switching costs, and heterogeneity: A structural examination

This paper develops and estimates a model of forward-looking consumer learning with switching costs using household level scanner data from a frequently purchased product category. This is novel because current models of consumer purchase behavior assume that only one of these types of dynamics is present, not both at the same time. My model estimates support the presence of both learning and switching costs in this product category. The estimates show that before consuming new products, consumers are unsure of their tastes for them, and subsequently learn their tastes by purchase and consumption of new products. Switching costs are large, comprising roughly 30 percent of the cost of a medium sized package of the product. Additionally, the model incorporates very rich individual level unobserved heterogeneity in price sensitivities, tastes, and switching costs, and the amount by which consumers learn. To show that my model produces different implications than a model with learning or switching costs only, I estimate two more specifications, one without each type of dynamics, and simulate counterfactuals that are of interest to managers and policymakers. I find that intertemporal elasticities are underestimated when either type of dynamics is left out, by as much as 90%. Informative advertising is also affected by the presence of switching costs, although the direction of the bias is not signed. Leaving out dynamics also has a large impact on long-term elasticities, which are used by antitrust policymakers to evaluate the impact of mergers. When learning is ignored, cross elasticities are underestimated by as much as 45%. When switching costs are ignored, both own and cross elasticities are underestimated.     

Forgive me,Father, for I did not give full justification for my sins: How religious consumers justify the acquisition of material wealth

Abstract

This research shows how high religiosity consumers justify the purchase of highly materialistic goods. By drawing on the Justification-Suppression Model (JSM), it is shown that high religiosity consumers favour advertisements that suppress the materialistic aspects of goods and offer adequate justification for the purchase. However, these same consumers dislike advertisements that explicitly focus on the materialistic nature of goods. The results from the research offer insight into how high religiosity consumers are able to acquire material wealth despite a strong aversion to such practices within their doctrine. Implications from this research include a greater understanding of how to advertise to high religiosity consumers, but also how the JSM can be used as a means of minimising cognitive dissonance during purchase decisions.