Chapter II Literature Review
2.4 Demographic Factors
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consumers perceived from luxury goods (O’Cass, 2001). Hence, it is necessary to understand the relation between product involvement and consumers’ purchase intention because previous research had proved that product involvement can cause the influence on consumer behavior (Bertrandias & Goldsmith, 2006; Goldsmith, 2002;
Penz & Stottinger, 2015; Wee et al., 1995).
Moreover, Penz and Stottinger (2005) research had supported that product involvement has a strong negatively affect for consumers to purchase counterfeit goods, on the other words, individual who has high level of product involvement will less likely to purchase counterfeit products. Hence, the hypothesis relates to product involvement and purchasing intention is conducted:
H6. Individual who has a higher product involvement is more likely to purchase genuine luxury bag.
2.4 Demographic Factors
Demographic factors can be helpful for scholars to understand individual’s purchase intention and consumption habits toward luxury products. The research examines four demographic characteristics, including age and disposable income.
Firstly, age can be an important indicator for individual to purchase genuine or counterfeit luxury bags, researcher targeting on age group between 20 and 45 because
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users which online survey can easily reach to. Moreover, elderly people are recognized as authentic population who might has higher possibility to purchase genuine luxury bags (Gardyn, 2002; Moschis et al., 2004; Singh et al., 2007; Strain et al., 2002).
Secondly, level of disposable income can be evaluated whether individual has ability to purchase luxury products. Adapting the standard price theory, individual who has higher disposable income can purchase more premium products than others (Ikeda, 2006). From this perception, others who have lower disposable income might more likely purchase counterfeit luxury goods, however, Francese’s (2002) research presents an opposite idea that lower disposable income can selectively purchase luxury goods as well.
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Chapter III Research Methodology
3.1 Research Framework
The research would like to examine consumers’ different purchase intentions toward genuine and counterfeit luxury bags, and how related variable influence individual’s purchase behavior. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used for data collection, that is, the researcher conducts in-depth interviews and questionnaire survey so as to examine whether there are significant relationships between consumers’
purchase intentions and some psychological variables. In-depth interviews are conducted among luxury bag owners, then, questionnaires survey is conducted to gather information for the analyses, with a view to finding out answers to the research question.
The research framework of this study and research procedures are presented in the following Figure 1,
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Figure 1. Research Framework
• Research Hypotheses
H1a. Motivation of conspicuous consumption will enhance individual’s purchase intention of genuine luxury bag.
H1b. Motivation of conspicuous consumption will enhance individual’s purchase intention of counterfeit luxury bag when it is difficult to distinguish it from the genuine one.
H2a. Motivation of self-gratification will enhance individual’s purchase intention of genuine luxury bag.
H2b. Motivation of self-gratification will enhance individual’s purchase intention of counterfeit luxury bag, while price is an essential concern.
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H3. Individual with lower self-confidence is more likely to purchase genuine luxury bag.
H4. Individual who has a high consideration of moral concern is less likely to purchase counterfeit luxury bag.
H5. Individual who is more sociable is more likely to purchase genuine luxury bag.
H6. Individual who has a higher product involvement is more likely to purchase genuine luxury bag.
3.2 Research Procedure
3.2.1 In-depth Interview
In-depth interviews are conducted to obtain insights of various factors that may influence consumer’s purchase intention toward either genuine luxury bags or counterfeit bags. With the aid of interview, researcher can make sure hypotheses are significant and can clearly understand which variables cause consumers to have different purchase intention toward genuine and counterfeit luxury bag.
3.2.1.1 Selection Criteria of Interviewees
The purpose of this interview is to investigate significant explanatory variables
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of luxury bags are included in the in-depth interview. These six interviewees are ages between 20 and 45. The Table 1 summarizes the background information about the participants of the in-depth interview.
Table 1. Information Regarding Participants in In-depth Interview
Code Name Age Status
Date of Interview Participant A Grace 25 Employee of headhunter company
2018/5/12 Participant B Nicole 43 Employee of global company
Participant C Joe 23 Student
Participant D Yichen 36 Project planner Participant E Michelle 33 Flight attendant
Participant F Amy 29 Employee of CTCB
During the interview, every recruited individual will be given few questions, they will be interviewed in the same time and will last approximately 20 minutes in total.
Furthermore, the procedure will be carried out as interviewer presents variables, including motivation, individual differences and product involvement, then ask questions to find out whether variables are factors to trigger consumers purchase intention.
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3.2.1.2 Interview Questions and Summarize
There will be seven interview questions in total to further verified the reliability of variables. Interview questions are developed,
Q1. Have you ever purchased genuine and counterfeit luxury bag?
Q2. Will you purchase luxury bag to show off your social status or fashion sense, and consider buying counterfeit one as well?
Q3. Will you consider buying luxury bag as a self-gratification for yourself, and how about purchasing counterfeit one?
Q4. Will you view product involvement as an index of purchasing genuine or counterfeit luxury bag? for example, if an individual has a higher recognition of certain product that whether he/she only willing to purchase genuine one or not.
Q5. Is a moral concern being one of factor for you to refuse purchasing counterfeit luxury bag?
Q6. Is an amount of social activities influencing your choice between purchasing genuine and counterfeit luxury bag?
Q7. Do you view yourself as an individual who has higher or lower self-confidence character? Is this factor influencing your choice of buying genuine or counterfeit luxury bag?
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To sum up the interview results, respondents tend to purchase luxury bag to represent social status and sometimes they may view it as an item to show-off, further, they tend to consider purchasing counterfeits if other people cannot recognize it is the fake one. Buying luxury bags can also be explained as “treat myself well” for such participants, but they are unlikely to choose counterfeits when it comes to self-satisfaction only if it is cost-effective.
Moreover, product and brand involvement is an essential factor for interviewees, they will only consider purchasing genuine one when they have high recognition on certain brand or design. However, respondents all agree moral concern would have negative influence on purchasing counterfeit products, additionally, individual who has high sociability would tend to purchase genuine items to display social status and wealth when they participant in social events. For the last question, respondents who view themselves as a low self-confidence person would rather purchasing expensive genuine bags because this purchase behavior would boost up their confidence.
Therefore, hypotheses are constructed and examined to make sure the result is significant related based on the result of in-depth interview.
3.2.2 Questionnaire Survey
After the in-depth interviews, questionnaire survey is the main data collection method used in this study for the purpose of quantitative data analysis.
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3.2.2.1 Sampling and Questionnaire Design
The researcher conducts a survey to find out the differences of consumers’
purchase intention toward genuine and counterfeit luxury bags in Taiwan, and questionnaire will all be completed by female between 20 and 45years old who whether has purchase experience of genuine and counterfeit luxury bags. The research wish to collect data from at least 200 respondents who have purchase intentions for either genuine or counterfeit luxury bags.
The survey will both use English and Mandarin, and the distribution is via internet because online distribution provides an easy access to reach the targeting sample.
Moreover, questionnaire will be posted on several luxury bag related websites so as to include interested respondents (See Figure 2). In addition, movie ticket will be a lottery prize as the incentive for individual who fill up the survey.
Figure 2. Example of Targeting Sample (Social Media’s Group/Page)
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respondents’ demographic profile, and the second section will evaluate respondents’motivation factors. Moreover, the third section is individual differences, including self-confidence, moral concern and sociability, and the last section will measure how product involvement influence individual’s purchase intention toward genuine and counterfeit luxury bags.
3.3 Measurement of Research Variables and Reliability Test
Following will list each variable’s measureable scale and detailing questions, and each scale might be slightly adjusted to adapt the research objective.
Table 2. Measurement Scales of Research Variables
Variable Study
Conspicuous Consumption
• the Conspicuous Consumption Orientation Scale (Chaudhuri, Mazumdar and Ghoshal, 2011) - 4 items
• Constructed by the researcher - 2 items -I buy some products because I want to show others that I am wealthy.
-I would enjoy buying a designer label because not many can afford it.
-If my friends can see me using a brand or a product, I will purchase an expensive version that can make me the center of attraction.
-I feel proud when others say that I have a fine taste.
-I might consider purchase counterfeits
a. when it is difficult to distinguish between the counterfeit and the genuine luxury bags for me.
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Table 2. Measurement Scales of Research Variables…continued
b. when the counterfeit luxury bag has no difference with genuine one in others perception.
c. when the quality of counterfeit luxury bag is good and acceptable.
Self-Gratification
• the Experiential/Hedonic Related Scale (Spangenberg, Voss, and Crowley, 1997; Tsai, 2005) - 2 items
• the survey from Jinhwa Lee’s (2009) and Boonhee &
Seung-Hee’s (2009) research - 3 items
-It is important for me to possess really nice things, such as genuine luxury bags.
-Buying luxury bags gives me a lot of pleasure.
-I buy counterfeit products if I think genuine designer products are too expensive.
-Low price is an important factor to consider for my purchase of fashion products.
-I buy counterfeit products if I cannot afford to buy designer products.
Self-Confidence • the survey from Jinhwa Lee’s (2009) - 3 items
• Constructed by the researcher - 3 items -I’m concerned about what other people think of me.
-I’m usually aware of my appearance.
-I feel socially inferior if people realize that I own fashion counterfeits.
-I am highly confident to myself so using genuine luxury bag is not necessary to me.
-Using genuine luxury bags can boost up my confidence.
-It is helpful for me to gain more self-confidence while possessing genuine luxury bags.
Moral Concern • the survey from Jinhwa Lee’s (2009) - 4 items -I think of myself as someone who is concerned about ethical issues.
-I feel that I have an ethical obligation with my purchase of fashion products.
-I believe that fashion counterfeiting will hurt the original brand owner’s business.
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Table 2. Measurement Scales of Research Variables…continued
Sociability
• the Overall Luxury Value Perceptions Scale and the Luxury Purchase Intentions Scale (O’cass & McEwen, 2004; Shukla,2010) - 4 items
• Constructed by the researcher - 3 items
-I am willing to pay high price for genuine luxury bags because it gain/increase my social status.
-The real/fake of luxury bags is an important index for me to participant social events.
-I will purchase a genuine luxury bag just because it presents high social status.
-Genuine luxury bags are important to me because they make me feel more recognition in upper class society.
-Using genuine luxury bags can boost up my confidence while attending certain social activities.
-Attending social events is one of purpose to purchase genuine luxury bags.
-If I rarely participate social events that genuine luxury bags will not be my priority choice of consumption.
Product Involvement
• the 17 Items Involvement Scale from Peter H. Bloch’s (1981) research - 6 items
-It is worth to pay high price to own a specific design or brand of luxury bag.
-I prefer to purchase bags with well-knowing brand or designer.
-I generally feel a sentimental attachment to the bags I purchase.
-I have little or no interest in fashion consciousness.
-Bags are nothing more than appliance.
-I will not consider counterfeit bags if I have high involvement in the product.
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In order to examine the feasibility of the measurement scales of the research variables, a pre-test was conducted in advance. The six independent variables of this study are, conspicuous consumption, self-gratification, self-confidence, moral concern, sociability and product involvement, which may be grouped into two categories, namely purchase motivation and individual difference.
Firstly, factor analysis and reliability test of purchase motivation and individual difference were conducted, the resulting factor loadings and Cronbach's α are presented in Table 3.
Researcher deleted the items which factor loading score did not reach validity value 0.6, hence, the item 7D (self-satisfaction: Price is important factor to consider when purchasing genuine luxury bag.), 9B (product involvement: I will not purchase counterfeit bags if I have high product involvement.), 11A (self-confidence: I think purchase genuine luxury bags is not important because I am highly confidence to myself.) and 13B (sociability: Genuine luxury bags will not be my priority choice of consumption if I rarely participate social events.) were deleted. Therefore, the factor loadings values for purchase motivation, including conspicuous consumption, satisfaction and product involvement; and individual difference, including self-confidence, moral concern and sociability were all found have high validity with scores between 0.6 and 1.
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acceptable to good reliability where all the Alpha values are between 0.6 and 0.9.Finally, as the measurement items resulted in exhibiting appropriate reliability, composite measures were constructed by computing the indicators of each research variable, and those will be further analyzed in following step to test hypotheses.
Table 3. Reliability Coefficients and Factor Loadings of Research Variables
Measurement Items Factor
Loading -I buy genuine luxury bag because I want to show others I am
wealthy .873
-I buy genuine luxury bag because not many can afford .871 -I buy counterfeit bag when it is difficult to distinguish between
counterfeit and genuine .911
-I buy counterfeit bag when quality is good and acceptable .916 Self-Satisfaction
.718 -I buy genuine luxury bag because I can become center of
attraction .928
-Buy genuine luxury bag is important because I like to possess
really nice things .756
-Buy genuine luxury bag gives me lots of pleasure .675 -Buy genuine luxury bag is worthy even have to pay high price .775 -I buy counterfeit bag when genuine one is too expensive .897 -I buy counterfeit bag when I cannot afford genuine one .910 Product Involvement
.833 -I usually buy bags with well-knowing rand or designer .736
-I usually feel sentimental attach to bags I purchase .608 -I will not buy genuine luxury bags because it is nothing more
than accessory .798
Individual Difference Self-Confidence
.807 -I think buy counterfeit bags make me feel socially inferior when
people find out .796
-I think buy genuine luxury bags can boost up confidence .794
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Table 3. Reliability Coefficients and Factor Loadings of Research Variables…continued
-I think buy genuine luxury bags can increase social status even
have to pay high price .862
-I think buy genuine luxury bags is necessary because it presents
high social status .827
Moral Concern
.766 -I think buy counterfeit bags will harm original brand owner’s
business .837
-I think buy counterfeit bags is an unethical behavior .772 -When I buy fashion bags I will consider ethical obligation .714 Sociability
.737 -When I buy fashion bags I will consider frequency of social
events I have to attend .802
-When I attend social events the real/fake of fashion bags is an
important index .725
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Data Analysis and Results
A total of 235 responses have completed surveys during the three weeks’ period of time. Among them 202 are females, however, this survey aims at collecting data from females only, therefore, the final sample size is 202 after deleting the 33 male respondents. The age of the respondents also distributed quite evenly, with 52.97%
being of age between 20-35, and 47.03% ages 36-45, moreover, monthly disposable income were represented in the sample. The detailing data of respondents’ socio-demographics can be found in Table 4.
Table 4. Demographics of Respondents
Demographics Frequency Percent Cumulative
Percent
SPSS are used in analyzing the data, hence, simple regression analysis was applied to examine the significance of each variable and hypothesis, moreover, hierarchical multiple regressions were run to examine which variable has the most significant
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influence on consumers’ purchase intention to genuine and counterfeit luxury bags among all variables.
Table 5. Results of Hypothesis Testing
Adjusted R2 Beta Sig. (p)
Motivation
Conspicuous Consumption for Genuine Luxury Bags .424 .654 .000
H1a. Motivation of conspicuous consumption will enhance individual’s purchase intention of
genuine luxury bag. (supported)
Conspicuous Consumption for Counterfeit Luxury Bags .468 .686 .000
H1b. Motivation of conspicuous consumption will enhance individual’s purchase intention of
counterfeit luxury bag when it is difficult to distinguish it from the genuine one. (supported)
Self-Gratification for Genuine Luxury Bags .456 .678 .000
H2a. Motivation of self-gratification will enhance individual’s purchase intention of genuine
luxury bag. (supported)
Self-Gratification for Counterfeit Luxury Bags .271 .524 .000
H2b. Motivation of self-gratification will enhance individual’s purchase intention of counterfeit
luxury bag, while price is an essential concern. (supported)
Individual Difference
Self Confidence .002 .084 .012
H3. Individual with lower self-confidence is more likely to purchase genuine luxury bag.
(supported)
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Table 5. Results of Hypothesis Testing …continued
H4. Individual who has a high consideration of moral concern is less likely to purchase
counterfeit luxury bag. (supported)
Sociability .130 .366 .000
H5. Individual who is more sociable is more likely to purchase genuine luxury bag. (supported)
Product Involvement
Product Involvement .155 .398 .000
H6. Individual who has a higher product involvement is more likely to purchase genuine luxury
bag. (supported)
According to the results in Table 5, we can find out all hypotheses are supported, and all independents variables have significant contributions to the dependent variable—purchase intention. The two motivation related variables—conspicuous consumption and self-gratification have strong impacts on the dependent variable, as indicated by high beta coefficient and high adjusted R2. For example, conspicuous consumption for genuine luxury bags (β=.654, p<.05), conspicuous consumption for counterfeit luxury bags (β=.686, p<.05), self-gratification for genuine luxury bags (β=.678, p<.05) and self-gratification for counterfeit luxury bags (β=.524, p<.05).
Following are variables of moral concern (β=.382, p<.05), sociability (β=.366, p<.05) and product involvement (β=.398, p<.05), and the least significant explanatory variable is self-confidence (β=.084, p<.05), therefore, all hypothesis one to six are supported.
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In order to further examine the relative importance of all independent variables, two hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted. Hence, three groups of independent variables were included, namely conspicuous consumption, self-gratification, self-confidence, moral concern, sociability and product involvement, presented in Table 6 and Table 7 as below.
Table 6. Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis for Purchasing Genuine Luxury Bags
Model Adjusted R2 Beta Sig. (p)
1
Conspicuous Consumption (Genuine Bag)
.421 .665 .000
Self-Gratification (Genuine Bag) -.015 .853
2
Conspicuous Consumption (Genuine Bag)
.416
.678 .000
Self-Gratification (Genuine Bag) .044 .677
Self-Confidence -.081 .304
Moral Concern -.008 .897
Sociability -.013 .862
3
Conspicuous Consumption (Genuine Bag)
.415
.680 .000
Self-Gratification (Genuine Bag) .063 .560
Self-Confidence -.080 .306
Moral Concern .001 .981
Sociability .005 .954
Product Involvement -.059 .429
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Table 7. Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis for Purchasing Counterfeit Luxury Bags
Model Adjusted R2 Beta Sig. (p)
1
Conspicuous Consumption (Counterfeit Bag)
.467 .617 .000
Self-Gratification (Counterfeit Bag) .080 .431
2
Conspicuous Consumption (Counterfeit Bag)
.460
.623 .000
Self-Gratification (Counterfeit Bag) .073 .485
Self-Confidence -.022 .741
Moral Concern -.012 .839
Sociability .037 .579
3
Conspicuous Consumption (Counterfeit Bag)
.459
.611 .000
Self-Gratification (Counterfeit Bag) .093 .389
Self-Confidence -.014 .836
Moral Concern -.001 .986
Sociability .059 .419
Product Involvement -.055 .447
The result of hierarchical multiple regression analysis for purchasing genuine luxury bags is present in Table 6, it shows that only conspicuous consumption stands out (p<.05) while all independent variables were considered at the same time, on the other hand, other independent variables’ p-value are not smaller than 0.05 and are not
The result of hierarchical multiple regression analysis for purchasing genuine luxury bags is present in Table 6, it shows that only conspicuous consumption stands out (p<.05) while all independent variables were considered at the same time, on the other hand, other independent variables’ p-value are not smaller than 0.05 and are not