The Mediating Role of Brand Recall and Brand Attitude in Influencing Purchase Intention in Advergames

Azaze-Azizi Abdul Adis,김형준 한국마케팅학회 2013 ASIA MARKETING JOURNAL Vol.15 No.3

Research on purchase intention had showed remarkable progress in contributing to the theory of consumer behavior. Despite the popularity of academic discussions on various issues influencing purchase intention, the mediating role of brand recall and brand attitude on purchase intention, in particular advergames, has not yet been well explored, especially in developing economies such as Malaysia. Furthermore, the influence of self-brand congruity, entertainment and brand placement acceptance as antecedents to brand recall and brand attitude are expected to add value to the brand recall, brand attitude and purchase intention relationships. This paper aims to investigate the impact of the mediating role of brand recall and brand attitude on purchase intention in advergames among Malaysian gamers. The antecedents towards brand recall and brand attitude are also examined to measure their influence on purchase intention. A total of 350 Malaysian gamers were interviewed through online survey in this study. The results showed that brand recall and brand attitude mediate the relationship between self-brand congruity, entertainment and brand placement acceptance with purchase intention. Also, entertainment and brand placement acceptance were found to have a significant relationship with brand recall. As expected, brand recall and brand attitude showed a positive relationship with consumer purchase intention in advergames. It was found that self-brand congruity has a significant influence on brand attitude and purchase intention. When users see the brand which matches with them, they tend to act positively toward the brand exposed in the game. This is consistent with Escalas and Bettman (2005) who suggested that the greater the congruity, the more positive the consumer’s attitude toward the brand in question. This leads to game usage and purchase (Davis and Lang, 2013). In the advergaming context, the entertainment value in advergames is very important to determine the level of enjoyment and pleasure experienced by gamers during game-playing. Therefore, the more entertaining the ads, the more it will be remembered and the greater the positive behavior of the consumer towards the advergames – this ultimately stimulates their intention to purchase the brand. This study shows the effect of brand placement on brand recall and brand attitude and also purchase intention. Brand placements might not work in games due to the interactivity involved in game-playing as people could be distracted from noticing the brand placements (Yang et al., 2006). However, the significant influence of brand placements found in this study may provide major promise for advertisers. Game players may or may not explicitly remember the brands they see in the games, but these placements may influence their brand recall and brand attitude and could therefore influence later decisions (Yang et al., 2006). In this study, it was found that self-brand congruity was not significantly related with brand recall. The reason for this could be attributed to the fact that this study examined gamers who are highly involved in the interactive medium of games which force them to focus on game play rather than advertisements; the level of recognition to remember the brand exposed in the game is low and contributes to the “mismatch” between the gamers and the said brand. The present study contributes to the existing literature of the antecedents of brand recall and brand attitude in advergames. This study contributes to the role of brand recall and brand attitude as mediators in purchase behavior theory. Academically, the relationship between brand recall and brand attitude is well known in advergaming research, but their impact as important mediators on purchase intention add new understanding in the interactive communication literature. Their mediating role may provide new insights on how they facilitate the effects of self-brand congruity, entertainment and brand p...

확장된 계획행동이론이 주얼리 구매의도에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구

김소라(Kim, So Ra),김귀옥(Kim, Gwi Ok),배채수(Bae, Chai Soo) 한국공공정책학회 2020 공공정책연구 Vol.27 No.1

본 연구의 목적은 확장된 계획행동이론을 주얼리 구매에 적용시켜 주얼리 구매 소비자들은 어떠한 의사결정과정을 통해서 구매하는지 실증적 검증을 실시하여 파악함으로써 주얼리 산업에서 다양하게 활용할 수 있는 근거자료를 생산하고자 한다. 본 연구에서는 주얼리 산업이 확대되고 있는 현 상황을 반영해 주얼리 소비자들의 태도, 주관적 규범, 지각된 행동 통제감, 사전지식 그리고 구매의도간의 관계를 검증하고자 하였으며, 그 과정에서 4개의 독립변수가 주얼리 소비자들의 구매의도에 영향을 미치는 요인으로 작용하는지를 파악하고자 계획행동이론을 확장 및 적용하여 분석하였다. 실증 분석을 위해 명확한 내용타당성을 확보하고자 경기도 권에 거주하는 20대 이상 주얼리 소비자 180명을 조사 대상으로 169부를 유효 표본으로 선정해 본 연구에 활용하였다. 가설검증을 위한 분석방법으로 IBM SPSS Statistics 24를 사용해 빈도분석, 신뢰도분석, 상관관계분석을 실시하였고 영향관계에 대한 가설검증을 위해 회귀분석을 실시했다. 분석 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 태도는 구매의도에 정(+)의 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 둘째, 주관적 규범은 구매의도에 정(+)의 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 셋째, 지각된 행동 통제감은 유의한 영향을 미치지 못하는 것으로 나타났다. 넷째, 사전지식은 구매의도에 정(+)의 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 태도가 구매의도에 가장 큰 영향을 미쳤고 그 다음으로는 사전지식, 주관적 규범순으로 나타났다. 분석 결과를 통하여 연구의 시사점을 제시해보면 확장된 계획행동 이론은 구매의도에 부분 유의한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 첫째, 확장된 계획행동이론의 태도요인은 구매의도에 정(+)의 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 이것은 주얼리 구매의도에 관한 영향 관계는 구매의도에 대한 개인의 태도와 의지가 중요하다는 결과이다. 둘째, 주관적 규범이 주얼리 구매의도에 대한 영향 관계는 정(+)의 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났으며 준거인인 가족, 친구, 회사 동료 등 주변 사람들을 의식하여 구매하는 의도가 높은 것을 알 수 있다. 셋째, 지각된 행동 통제감은 주얼리 구매의도에 유의하지 않은 것으로 나타나 지각된 행동 통제감이 본인의 구매의지와 경제력만으로 구매의도에 직접적인 영향을 미친다고 하기에는 다소 무리가 있으며 주얼리 구매자들의 인식전환을 위해 목표이익을 낮추거나 인지도를 높이며 자연스럽게 접하게 한다면 긍정적인 인식전환에 도움을 줄 것이라 사료된다. 넷째, 사전지식이라는 변수를 추가하여 주얼리 구매 시 정확하고 상세한 정보를 제공하며 접근한다면 긍정적인 영향을 주어 점진적인 확대를 고려해 볼 수 있을 것이다. 이러한 연구의 결과는 확장된 계획행동이론과 주얼리 소비자의 구매의도를 설명하는 주요지표로 설정할 수 있음을 나타내고 있다. 주얼리 시장의 성장에 비하여 구매의도와 행동을 예측한 연구가 저조하기에 앞으로 보다 많은 연구가 이루어질 필요가 있을 것이며, 다양한 확장요인을 추가하여 연구할 노력이 필요하다. The objective of this study was to produce supporting data that can be used for various purposes by empirically identifying what kind of decision-making processes jewelry consumers went through by applying the expanded theory of planned behavior to jewelry purchases. This study aimed to evaluate the relationships among attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavior control, prior knowledge, and purchase intention by reflecting that the jewelry industry had been expanding. This study analyzed by expanding and applying the theory of planned behavior in order to examine the effects of these four independent variables on the purchase intention of jewelry consumers. This study handed out questionnaires to 180 subjects who were 20 years or older to secure content validity for empirical analyses. This study selected 169 copies as valid samples and used these copies for this study. This study conducted frequency analysis, reliability analysis, and correlation analysis to test the hypothesis and carried out regression analysis for testing the hypothesis about the influence relationship The analysis results are as follows. First, attitude positively affected purchase intention. Second, subjective norm positively influenced purchase intention. Third, perceived behavior control did not have a significant effect. Fourth, prior knowledge affected purchase intention positively. Attitude had the greatest influence on purchase intention, followed by prior knowledge and subjective norm in the order of magnitude. The analysis results of this study implied that the expanded theory of planned behavior had a significant effect on purchase intention partially. First, the attitude factor of the expandable theory of planned behavior affected purchase intention positively. The results indicated that the attitude and will of an individual’s purchase intention were important in the influence relation about jewelry purchase intention. Second, subjective norm positively influenced purchase intention and many people intended to purchase goods by paying attention to family members, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances. Third, it was found that perceived behavior control did not have a significant relationship with purchase intention, which indicated that it was too much to say that perceived behavior control directly affected purchase intention solely using willingness and economic power. It is believed that lowering the target profit or making purchasers access to it naturally with raising awareness would contribute to changing their perception positively. Fourth, if purchaser are accessed with receiving accurate and detailed information while purchasing jewelry by addind a new variable prior knowledge a gradual may be considered by giving a positive effect. The results of this study indicated that the expanded theory of planned behavior could be a key index explaining the purchase intention of jewelry consumers. Since there are not many studies predicting purchase intention and behavior compared to the growth of the jewelry market, more studies are needed. It is also needed to add and study more diverse expansion factors.

소비자 특성과 소비자 신뢰가 친환경농산물의 구매의도에 미치는 영향 분석

김미송,최형규,김동환 한국유통과학회 2013 유통과학연구 Vol.11 No.1

Purpose – The environment-friendly agricultural product market in Korea sees continual high growth. Recently, the Korean government has been actively fostering environment-friendly agriculture as an engine of future growth. Korean people have increasingly become more health-conscious and interested in food safety issues. Many distribution and retailing companies have responded with various promotional activities. However, most of these are not strategic and appear to have unsatisfactory outcomes. The main purpose of this paper is to suggest effective marketing strategies for environment-friendly agricultural products. To achieve this aim, the study empirically investigates the effects of consumer characteristics and trust on the purchase intention of environment-friendly agricultural products. Research design, data, methodology - Based on the theory of planned behavior, and previous studies related to the purchase intention and consumption of environment-friendly agricultural products, we set up five study hypotheses. These related to the demographic characteristics of consumers, purchase intention, and behavior of the products. We then set up a study model and four study hypotheses relating to health consciousness, environmental consciousness, consumer trust level,purchase intention, and behavior of the products. The data were collected using a questionnaire given to consumers living in Seoul and southern Geonggi Province. The final sample size is 403 and mean age is 44.3. SPSS 15.0 for Windows and Amos 7.0 were used as statistical analysis tools. Meaningful results were derived using frequency analysis, correlation analysis, a t-test, and structural equation modeling. Results - Empirical results of this research are as follows. (1) First,it is shown that consumers consider such attributes as intimacy and health to be important when they buy environment-friendly agricultural products. (2) We also found that consumers recognize the value of environment-friendly agricultural products as high, but their trust level as low. (3) Consumer groups consisting of married couples, with higher education, higher income, and higher age are shown to have a higher intention of buying environment-friendly agricultural products than any other consumer group. (4) It is estimated that the level of consumer trust positively affects the purchase intention of environment-friendly agricultural products. The path coefficient (.138) between consumer trust and purchase intention is statistically significant at the α = .05level. (5). It is also estimated that environmental consciousness positively affects purchase intention. The path coefficient (.245) between environmental consciousness and purchase intention is statistically significant at the α = 0.05 level. The standardized path coefficients of consumer trust and environmental consciousness with purchase intention are .556 and .288 respectively. Therefore, consumer trust affects purchase intention more than environmental consciousness. (6) Finally,purchase intention is estimated to positively affect purchase behavior. Conclusions - Based upon empirical results, this research suggests that marketers of environment-friendly agricultural products should focus more on increasing consumer trust levels, emphasizing the training and education of employees. The government also should pay attention to a standardized certification system for environment-friendly agricultural products. Marketers of environment-friendly agricultural products should consider the consumer groups of married couples, with higher education, higher income, and higher age as a major target segment.

SNS이용자의 성격유형(외·내향성)을 조절효과로 고려한 SNS상의 사회적 자본과 정보원의 공신력이 구매의도에 미치는 영향

이희태,허재강,전계형 대한경영학회 2019 大韓經營學會誌 Vol.32 No.1

The purpose of this research is to explore the effect of SNS social capital and credibility of Information Source and the personality of SNS users on SNS purchase intention. In order to achieve the research objectives, social capital is divided into bonding and bridging social capital, and credibility of Information Source is divided into trustworthiness, expertness and attractiveness of the information source. Personality is divided into extraversion-introversion. First, we analyze the relationship between the effect of SNS bonding and bridging social capital on SNS purchase intention. Second, we examine whether credibility(trustworthiness, expertness and attractiveness) of information source influences SNS purchase intention. In addition, for each of the relationships, we analyze moderating effect of Personality(Extraversion-Introversion) of SNS users. The gender ratio of the specimen is males(54.7%) and females(45.3%). We analyze Cronbach's Alpha, Factor Analysis, Correlation Analysis, and Regression Analysis. As a result of the analysis, SNS bounding social capital has a negative effect on SNS purchase intention. SNS bridging social capital has a positive effect on SNS purchase intention. Trustworthiness of information source has a positive effect on SNS purchase intention. Expertness of information source does not have significant effect on SNS purchase intention. Attractiveness of information source has a positive effect on SNS purchase intention. Personality(ExtraversionIntroversion) does not have a moderating effect on the relationship between SNS social capital and SNS purchase intention. Extraversion has a positive Moderating effect on the relationship between trustworthiness of information source and SNS purchase intention. Introversion has a positive Moderating effect between expertness of information sources and SNS purchase intention. There was no Moderating Effect of Personality(Extraversion-Introversion) between attractiveness of information source and SNS purchase intention. 본 연구의 목적은 SNS 이용자 사이에서 형성된 사회적 자본, SNS 이용자의 성격특성(외향성, 성실성) 및 그들이 지각하는 정보원의 공신력이 SNS상에서 제공되는 제품 및 서비스의 구매의도에 미치는 영향을알아보고자 하였다. 첫 번째로 SNS상에 결속적·연계적 사회적 자본이 SNS상에서 제공된 제품 및 서비스에대한 구매의도에 미친 영향 관계를 분석하였다. 두 번째로 SNS 이용자들에게 지각된 정보원의 공신력(신뢰성, 전문성, 매력성)이 SNS상에서 제공된 제품 및 서비스에 대한 구매의도에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지 분석하였다. 세 번째로 SNS 사회적 자본과 정보원의 공신력이 구매의도에 미치는 영향 관계에 대해 SNS 이용자의 성격(외향성과 내향성)이 미치는 조절적인 영향에 대해 알아보았다. 실증 분석 결과, SNS상의 연계적 사회적 자본과 정보원의 신뢰성, 매력성이 구매의도에 정(+)의 영향을미쳤다. 반면 SNS상의 결속적 사회적 자본은 구매의도에 부정적인 영향을 정보원의 전문성은 유의미하지않은 것으로 나타났다. 외향적인 이용자는 내향적인 이용자에 비해 정보원의 신뢰성과 구매의도에 긍정적인조절 효과를 미쳤다. 반면 내향적인 이용자는 정보원의 전문성에 긍정적인 상호작용효과가 있음을 확인할수 있었다. 이러한 연구는 기업이 구매의도를 촉진시키기 위해 SNS상에서 어떠한 활동을 하는 것이 효과적인지 알려준다. 구체적으로 구매활동 촉진을 위해 SNS상에서 국소적이고 폐쇄적인 결속적 사회적 자본을 형성하기보다 다양한 정보의 유입이 쉬운 연계적 사회적 자본형성을 도와야 하며 SNS상에서 제품 및 서비스를보여줄 때 SNS이용자에게 정보나 정보전달자가 전문적이라고 지각되기보다 신뢰성있고 매력적이라고 지각되도록 접근해야한다. 마지막으로 SNS활동이 활발한 외향적인 SNS이용자의 구매의도를 자극하기 위해서는보다 신뢰성 있다고 지각할 수 있는 정보나 정보전달자를 활용하는 것이 효과적이다.

SOCIAL COMMERCE: THE EFFECTS OF TIME PRESSURE, PRODUCT POPULARITY, AND WEBSITE REPUTATION ON PURCHASE INTENTION

Minjung Park,Jungmin Yoo 글로벌지식마케팅경영학회 2016 Global Marketing Conference Vol.2016 No.7

Background and Purpose of Study: Social commerce refers to a form of electronic commerce based on Social Networking Service (SNS) and has grown substantially since the advent of Groupon in 2008. The growth of social commerce was accelerated with the increased popularity of SNS, where consumers share product information and reviews and the information is spread to others through SNS in real time (KB financial group, 2015). Social commerce can be divided into three types: (1) online group buying, (2) online shopping linked with the SNS, and (3) online shopping in SNS. The first type of social commerce is the most common type in Korea and the current study conducted an experiment based on the online group buying format. In the group buying social commerce, consumers gather together to purchase a product with a cheaper price. Placing a large order facilitates price promotion, (Yuan, & Lin, 2004) and buyers benefit from the cheaper price through the group buying (Zeng, Huang, & Dou, 2009). Group buying websites provides consumers with two types of information: time left for the promotion (time pressure) and the number of product sold (product popularity), and the overall purpose of this study is to examine the effects of time pressure, product popularity and website reputation on purchase intention. Hypotheses Development: Consumers make a purchase on social commerce websites because they can get a product with a cheaper price through group buying. Thus, this study is based on the assumption that all products are under price promotion. According to prospect theory, consumers are more likely to be sensitive to losses than gains. Consumers initially perceive a price promotion as a potential gain, but as the expiration approaches, they are more likely to perceive the promotion as a potential loss, which consequently increase purchase intention (Inman & McAlister, 1994). Also, a statement indicating product popularity, such as ‘the best-selling item’ increases purchase intention (Jeong & Kwon, 2012). Signaling theory provides a useful insight into understanding the effects of website reputation. Since consumers use a website reputation as an indicator of quality (Kirmani & Rao, 2000), they generally respond more positively to well-known websites than unknown websites (Shamdasani, Stanaland, & Tan, 2001). Therefore, based on the literature review, the following hypotheses are developed.H1: High time pressure has a greater impact on purchase intention than low time pressure. H2: High product popularity has a greater impact on purchase intention than low product popularity. H3: Well-known website has a greater impact on purchase intention than unknown website. H4: The effect of time pressure on purchase intention differs as a function of product popularity. H5: The effect of time pressure on purchase intention differs as a function of website reputation. H6: The effect of product popularity on purchase intention differs as a function of website reputation. Method: This study’s design is a 2 (time pressure: high vs. low) x 2 (popularity: high vs. low) x 2 (website reputation: well-known vs. unknown) between-subjects factorial design. This study includes three pretests: (1) to select high versus low time pressure, (2) to select the number of product purchased (product popularity), and (3) to select well-known and unknown social commerce websites. Based on the results of the pretests, eight mock websites simulating social commerce websites were developed for the main experiment. The data were collected via a research company. Invitation emails with a URL were sent to potential participants, and they were guided to shop the website and answer the questionnaire. The measure of purchase intention was adopted from the existing literature with adequate reliabilities (Cronbach’s alpha >.70), and the scale items used a 7-point scale. Manipulation checks showed that manipulations of time pressure, product popularity, and website reputation were successful. Results: A total of 453 female online shoppers participated in the online experiment. An exploratory factor analysis revealed one factor of purchase intention, and the reliability.93, indicating adequate internal consistency of the scale. Hypotheses were tested using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results showed main effects for product popularity [F (1, 445) = 10.34, p < .05] and website reputation [F (1, 445) = 72.03, p < .05] on purchase intention, supporting H2 and H3. With regard to H4 to H6 predicting interaction effects, ANOVAs showed significant interaction effects of time pressure by product popularity [F (1, 445) = 5.53, p < .05], time pressure and website reputation [F (1, 445) = 4.59, p < .05], and product popularity and website reputation [F (1, 445) = 9.15, p < .05] on purchase intention. Thus, H4 to H6 were supported. Conclusions and Discussion: The study offers academic and managerial implications. The findings of the study provide empirical support for the signaling theory and prospect theory. The results suggest that high popularity and high reputation are significant factors influencing purchase intention. When consumers perceive a product as being popular on a social commerce website, they have greater purchase intention than when they do not perceive the product popularity. Also, when consumers shop on a well-known social commerce website, they have greater purchase intention than when they shop on an unknown website. When the product popularity is high, high time pressure is an important factor enhancing purchase intention. When a website is well-known, high time pressure increased purchase intention. However, when a website is unknown, high product popularity increased purchase intention. These findings of the study contribute to the literature in social commerce. Based on the website reputation, social commerce websites need to incorporate appropriate marketing tactics, such as time pressure and product popularity to increase consumers’ purchase intention.

기업의 사회적 책임 활동과 사회적기업 태도 및 사회적기업 제품 신뢰가 구매의도에 미치는 영향 : 사회적 기업가의 관점에서

조은미,이은수 한국전문경영인학회 2015 專門經營人硏究 Vol.18 No.1

The purpose of this study was to examine whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity factors, social enterprise attitude, and reliability in the products of social enterprises affected purchase intention. The entire sentence is very similar to the first sentence of the abstract. Deletion of the sentence would be better. It also tried to determine if social enterprise attitude and reliability in the products of social enterprise affected purchase intention. In addition, the moderating effects were analyzed for each group according to gender, the experience of using a product of social enterprises, and recognition of social enterprises. So this study aimed to make a CSR activity plan that could affect social enterprise attitude, reliability in the products of social enterprises, and purchase intention and to suggest a marketing plan to make consumers have stronger intention to purchase the products of social enterprises. The major results are as follows: First, such CSR activity factors as ethical responsibility and philanthropic responsibility significantly affected social enterprise attitude while no factor significantly affected reliability in the products of social enterprises. Second, social enterprise attitude significantly affected reliability in the products of social enterprises and purchase intention. Third, reliability in the products of social enterprises significantly affected purchase intention. As for the moderating effects, first, men had ethical responsibility significantly affect social enterprise attitude, which affected reliability in the products of social enterprises and purchase intention significantly, with the former significantly affecting the latter, while women had social enterprise attitude significantly affect reliability in the products of social enterprises and purchase intention. Second, those having used a product of social enterprises had ethical responsibility significantly affect social enterprise attitude, which affected reliability in the products of social enterprises and purchase intention significantly while those having never used a product of social enterprises had social enterprise attitude significantly affect reliability in the products of social enterprises and purchase intention, with the former significantly affecting the latter. Third, as for recognition of social enterprises, those awareness or awaring had such CSR activity factors as ethical responsibility and philanthropic responsibility significantly affect social enterprise attitude, which affected reliability in the products of social enterprises and purchase intention significantly while those unawareness or unawaring had philanthropic responsibility significantly affect reliability in the products of social enterprises, which affected purchase intention significantly. Social enterprise attitude significantly affected reliability in the products of social enterprises and purchase intention.

부정적 온라인리뷰 의미속성 유형(사실성 vs. 평가성)이 소비자 구매의도에 미치는 차별적 영향: 판매자댓글 콘텐츠 유형(정보성 vs. 공감성) 및 해석수준(고해석수준 vs. 저해석수준)의 조절효과를 중심으로

박효현(Hyo Hyun Park),정강옥(Gang Ok Jung) 한국유통학회 2024 流通硏究 Vol.29 No.2

모바일 쇼핑환경하에서의 서비스 품질과 사용용이성이 구매자의 만족도 및 구매의도에 미치는 효과에 관한 연구

송민석(inseok Song),정기만(Kiman Jeng) 대한경영학회 2017 大韓經營學會誌 Vol.30 No.6

VMD(Visual Merchandising)가 구매의도와 충동구매에 미치는 영향

한세민,윤갑근 한국문화공간건축학회 2020 한국문화공간건축학회논문집 Vol.- No.72

It is necessary for distribution markets to innovatively transform themselves along with complex social including distribution market openings, increasing distribution channels of diverse kinds, institutional reformation and consumer behavior changes. In response to these changes, a number of attempts are performed through casting new light on VMD, one of diverse sales strategies. Nevertheless, there are limited practical approaches to VMD such as impulse buying and purchase intention. Especially, there is a lack studies on VMD for online distribution channels regarding the growth of e-commerce markets. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between VMD, purchase intention, and impulse buying, and to verify the potential through the moderating effect of on·off line distribution channels between VMD and purchase intention. In order to achieve this purpose, we performed a survey on a total of 460 people and used the answers from 408 participants for the analysis. The hypothesis was verified using SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 18.0 statistical package programs and the results of this study are as follows. First, as a result of analyzing the use of on·offline distribution channels, consumers mainly used online distribution channels such as Internet and mobile devices and mainly used offline distribution channels such as shopping malls. Impulse buying constituted, over 60% of the group using both online and offline distribution channels. Second, the emotional expressions of VMD had a negative effect (-) on exploratory purchase intention and no influence on loyal purchase intention. Meanwhile, rational expressions had a positive influence on exploratory and loyal purchase intentions. Third, exploratory purchase intention had a negative (-) effect on pure, reminder, and suggestion impulse buying, while loyal purchase intention had a positive (+) effect on pure, reminder, and suggestion impulse buying. However, exploratory and loyal purchase intentions had no influence on planned impulse buying. Fourth, on·off line distribution channels showed a significant moderating effect on the influential relationship between VMD and purchase intention, and the influence was stronger in offline channels compared to online channels. This study is considered to be meaningful in that it integrates and diversifies related studies by empirically verifying the moderating effects by on·off line distribution channels on the influential relationship between VMD, purchase intention, and impulse buying. This will provide various practical implications for VMD as a marketing strategy for distribution markets.

CONSPICUOUS GREEN PURCHASE INTENTION: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF CONSUMER ETHICS AND CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION

Lawrence W.T. Lo 글로벌지식마케팅경영학회 2018 Global Marketing Conference Vol.2018 No.07

Consumer ethics (CE) is defined by Muncy and Vitell (1992) as the moral standards to guide consumers’ behaviors in obtaining and disposing of goods and services. Regarding ethical issues, consumers have concerns on human, animal or environmental welfare (Gregory-Smith, Smith, & Winklhofer, 2013). As Liu, Yang, and Zeng (2015) describe, unethical consumer behavior (UCB) may cause underlying damage to society, reflecting the dysfunctional, dark or sinister side of consumer behavior. In consumer ethics literature, early studies focus on discussing the dark side of consumer behavior or unethical consumer behavior (UCB), such as returning goods you damaged, taping a movie off the television, shoplifting, etc. (Vitell & Muncy, 2003), counterfeit consumption (Tang, Tian, & Zaichkowsky, 2014; Wilcox, Kim, & Sen, 2009). In last few decades, more attention has been given to the study of the bright side, for instance, green purchase (e.g., Lee, 2008 & 2009; Chan, 2008); sustainable consumption (Lee, 2014), or fair trade (Chatzidakis, Kastanakis, & Stathopoulou, 2016). Within the studies on the bright side of consumer ethics, some of them investigate consumers’ attitude towards green purchase and its relationship with green purchase intention and behavior (e.g., Chai & Chen, 2009; Chen & Chai, 2010; Cherian & Jacob, 2012; Han, Hsu, & Lee, 2009; Vermeir & Verbeke, 2006). Among these studies, the semantic-differential scale of attitudes towards green purchase (AGP) developed by Taylor and Todd (1995) is more commonly adopted (e.g., Chai & Chen, 2009; Chan, 2001, Chen & Chai, 2010; Mostafa, 2006 & 2007). This AGP scale contains three items, namely i) I dislike/like the idea of purchasing green products, ii) Purchasing green products is a bad/good idea, and iii) I have a/an unfavourable/favourable attitude towards purchasing a green version of a product. Some other studies on the bright side of consumer ethics investigate consumers’ intention to purchase different green products, such as organic skin/hair care product (Kim & Chung, 2011), organic food (Paul & Rana, 2012), the relationship between environmental concern and green products purchase (Kangun, Carlson, & Grove, 1991), ecologically packaged products purchase (Schwepker & Cornwell, 1991) or organic vegetables (Sparks & Shepherd, 1992). There are several green purchase intention (GPI) scales asking if respondents will buy product of green version, less polluting for ecology or environmental concern (Chan 2001; Chen & Chang, 2012; Taylor & Todd, 1995). Vitell and Muncy (2005) develop a consumer ethics scale with four categories of (un)ethical consumer behaviors, they are i) ethical consumer behaviors (i.e., recycling and doing good), ii) unethical consumer behaviors (i.e., actively benefiting from illegal activities [e.g., returning damaged goods when the damage was your own fault]; passively benefiting at the expense of others [e.g., lying about a child’s age to get a lower price], iii) questionable but generally legal practices [e.g., using a coupon for merchandise you did not buy], and iv) no harm/no foul activities [e.g., returning merchandise after buying it and not liking it]. In this scale, the ‘recycling’ and ‘doing good’ categories are similar to the Taylor and Todd’s (1995) AGP scale. It is quite surprising that there seems no research putting them together in studying green purchase intention. This conceptual paper attempts to fill this research gap. Conspicuous consumption, another type of consumption, also reveals some aspects of consumer ethics. It has been clearly defined that conspicuous consumption involves extravagant consumption (Veblen, 1899/1915), purchase of luxury goods (e.g., O’Cass & Frost, 2002; Shukla, 2008) or scarce products (Gierl & Huettl, 2010) to display wealth or to demonstrate personal taste (e.g., Blumer, 1969; Bourdieu, 1979/1984; Trigg, 2001). Extant literature illustrates that some terms are associated with conspicuous consumption behavior, such as ‘materialism’ (e.g., Podoshen, Li, & Zhang, 2011), ‘unnecessary expenses’ (e.g., Veblen (1899/1915), ‘conspicuous waste’ and ‘overconsumption’ (e.g., Carr, Gotlieb, Lee, and Shah, 2012; Chaudhuri, Mazumdar, & Ghoshal, 2011), ‘luxury consumption’ (Kwek & Lee, 2013), and ‘conspicuous taste’ (Bourdieu, 1979/1984). A relatively more complete scale of conspicuous consumption orientation developed by Chaudhuri et al. (2011) contains 12 items, which explicitly covers all items related to wealth, status and taste. With a closer look on the definition and the terms to describe conspicuous consumption, it is not hard to find out explicit remarks or implicit comments that various kinds of conspicuous consumption can be unethical, creating negative impacts in economical, socio-culturally and environmental contexts. First, conspicuous consumption can be a waste of economic resources. For instance, in conspicuous consumption feasting in Chinese communities, ordering more foods than enough would create wastes. Besides, conspicuous consumption is associated with impulse/impulsive buying (Zhang & Shrum, 2009). In modern economies with higher materialism, conspicuous consumption is highly related to expenditures of visible goods like high fashion clothing (O’Cass, 2001), jewelry, cars (Bloch, 1981; Charles, Hurst, & Roussanov, 2009), housing or mobile phones (Spero & Stone, 2004). Impulsive conspicuous consumption of new fashion in every season is another type of consumption creating more wastes. Second, conspicuous consumption can be harming to environment. For example, to demonstrate wealth or status, some people eat endangered species or killing wild animals, e.g., shark fin (Eriksson & Clarke, 2015), monkey or turtle. conspicuous consumption of clothing, ornaments or decorative items made of endangered species (e.g., ivory from elephant, skin from fox are also harming the nature. Given the ethical feature of conspicuous consumption is obvious, it is surprising that ethical issues of conspicuous consumption have yet been discussed prominently. Moreover, seldom of the studies in conspicuous consumption or CE discuss the bright side of conspicuous consumption. In fact, some types of consumption can be ethical and conspicuous. For instance, Griskevicius, Tybur, and Van den Bergh (2010), when they study conspicuous conservation, they prove that status competition can help promote pro-environmental behavior. Alike, Sexton and Sexton (2014) reveal the green buying of energy saving vehicles. There are in fact more examples of ethical and conspicuous consumption, like consumption of eco-friendly clothing, accessories or dining, etc. In this regard, if there are more conspicuous and green consumptions, e.g., eco-friendly vehicles, decoration material, clothing or cuisines, conspicuous consumption can facilitate the development of a greener and harmonious societies on the contrary. Nowadays, amid the proliferation of environmental protection ideology, more consumers are willing to have green purchase. If the purchases are also ‘socially visible’, we may call them as ‘conspicuous green purchase’. Following this logic, if consumers have a higher tendency in consumer ethics and conspicuous consumption, they may have a higher green purchase intention (GPI). This proposition may be particularly valid for branded fashion, visible consumer electronics, or vehicles. In conspicuous GPI, consumers can show off their wealth, fashion taste and conservation virtue through displaying green products or green purchase publicly. Recently, a sustainable consumption report published by the Consumer Council in Hong Kong (Consumer Council, 2016) reveals that Hong Kong people has a high level of awareness and purchase intention of sustainable products, but they have a low level in action taking. In this regard, perhaps, the conspicuousness in the consumption of green products can be an additional motivation to enhance consumers' purchase intention. Surprisingly, there seems no research to explore to find out the mediating effect of conspicuous consumption on the relationship between AGP and GPI. This conceptual paper tries to fill this research gap. To sum, this conceptual paper aims to explore the relationship between these four constructs, attitudes towards green purchase (AGP), consumer ethics (CE), conspicuous consumption (CC) and conspicuous green purchase intention (CGPI). More specifically, this paper tries to examine the mediating effects of CE or CC on the relationship between AGP and CGPI. Considering the discussion above, the following propositions are generated. P1: A person with positive AGP tends to have a higher CGPI than a person with negative AGP. P2: A person with a higher CE orientation (recycling and doing good) and positive AGP tends to have a higher CGPI than a person with a lower CE orientation. P3: A person with a higher CC orientation and positive AGP tends to have a higher CGPI than a person with a lower CE orientation. This conceptual paper has both theoretical and practical implications. It helps integrate four constructs, namely attitudes towards green purchase, consumer ethics, conspicuous consumption and green purchase intention in one study, building better theories in these areas. This paper also helps marketers of green products to pay more attention to the market segment that consumers are both ethical and conspicuous consumption oriented, hence conveying more appropriate promotion messages and selecting right channels of distribution. Finally, more green purchase would help us to make better societies with higher moral standard in consumption.