Chapter III Research Methodology
3.3 Measurement of Research Variables and Reliability Test
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 significant toward purchasing genuine luxury bags. However, the reason why self-gratification has high explanatory value in simple regression analysis but not here is because conspicuous consumption and self-gratification have high correlation
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coefficient 0.746, hence, they will have conflict effect when they are considering at the same time.
Table 7 presents the result from hierarchical multiple regression analysis for purchasing counterfeit luxury bags, and the results have the similar conclusion to Table 6 that only conspicuous consumption (p<.05) can be explained in this case. Therefore, for purchasing either genuine or counterfeit luxury bags, only purchase motivation–
conspicuous consumption is significant and can be proved while all variables are examined at the same time.
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5.1 Summary and Limitations of Research Results
To conclude overall research results that conspicuous consumption is the most influential explanatory variable of dependent variable for purchasing both genuine and counterfeit luxury bags. Though all the other independent variables show a significant effect in simple regression analysis, however, they become insignificant in the presence of purchase motivation of conspicuous consumption as indicated by the results from hierarchical multiple regression. Hence, I exhibited the limitation of the study and proposed further research that will gain broaden knowledge about consumers' purchase behavior.
Table 8 summarizes the research hypotheses and outcomes of the analysis, the results from data analysis indicate that all hypotheses are strongly supported, and all variables have valid p-value that smaller than 0.05 (see Table 8).
Table 8. Summary of Research Hypotheses and Outcomes of the Analysis
Research Hypothesis Outcome
H1a. Motivation of conspicuous consumption will enhance individual’s purchase intention of genuine luxury bag.
Supported P=.000, <.05 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 P=.000, <.05
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H2a. Motivation of self-gratification will enhance individual’s purchase intention of genuine luxury bag.
Supported P=.000, <.05 H2b. Motivation of self-gratification will enhance individual’s purchase
intention of counterfeit luxury bag, while price is an essential concern.
Supported P=.000, <.05 H3. Individual with lower self-confidence is more likely to purchase genuine
luxury bag.
Supported P=.012, <.05 H4. Individual who has a high consideration of moral concern is less likely
to purchase counterfeit luxury bag.
Supported
purchase genuine luxury bag.
Supported P=.000, <.05
From the result of simple regression analysis, for purchasing genuine luxury bag, 65% of respondents will purchase it because of conspicuous consumption, 68% will buy it to gain self-satisfaction, 8% who recognize themselves as a low self-confidence individual will more likely to purchase it for increasing self-confidence, 37% would consider purchase genuine luxury bags because they have more social events to attend and it will help them build up their social identity, and 40% of survey respondents agree they are more willing to buy genuine luxury bags because they have high product involvement to specific items.
On the contrary, for purchasing counterfeit luxury bag that 69% of survey respondents will consider purchase it when the quality is difficult to distinguish from the genuine one, 52% agree when price is an essential and primary concern that
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purchase counterfeit luxury bags will gain more self-gratification than purchase genuine one, and 38% of respondents show they are less likely to purchase counterfeit luxury bags because they have higher concern of ethical issues. In conclusion, each variable has significant effect to support each hypothesis and the beta-value is high, however, only variable of self-confidence has beta-value 0.084, therefore, it is worth to discuss why self-confidence has such low beta-value in the future research.
Figure 3. Importance of Purchase Motivation among Female Consumer
Indeed, there are lots of factors which will influence consumers’ decision whether purchase genuine luxury bag or counterfeit one. Researcher had listed and examined various factors, including individual purchase motivation and characteristic difference,
Purchase Motivation Individual Difference
- Conspicuous Consumption - Self-Gratification
Purchase genuine luxury bags and
Purchase counterfeit luxury bags
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nevertheless, from the data analysis (simple regression analysis) findings that there are two variables especially significant for both consumers to purchase genuine and counterfeit luxury bags, namely motivation of conspicuous consumption and psychological factor of self-gratification. However, researcher also conducted hierarchical multiple regression that found out these two variables—conspicuous consumption and self-gratification are highly correlated, hence, only conspicuous consumption has explanatory effect when they are considering in the same time.
5.2 Suggestion for Future Research
This research provides interesting results for marketers who work in luxury industry, and the importance of purchase behavior of luxury product among Taiwanese female consumers. Moreover, the study proves that variety of factors, such as personal purchase motivation and individual differences, but also age and disposable income are essential predictors of the willingness on whether purchase genuine luxury bags or counterfeit luxury bags. However, the study still exists few limitations and could be further discuss in future research.
Firstly, researcher examined the measurement scale after completed the survey results, and found out the items for self- gratification is not good enough to measure the efficiency of the research variable. Hence, it might be one of reasons which caused conspicuous consumption and self-gratification has high correlation, it should be aware
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Secondly, the non-probability sample of respondents may not be representative of the entire consumer market of luxury bags, although the survey respondents have acquired the necessary characteristics and are actual or potential luxury products’
consumers. Some demographic factors, such as educational level was not included in the analysis because it failed to show significant correlation with the dependent variable.
Meanwhile, the research only collected data 202 female respondents, a larger sample size is needed and could consider examine demographic factors for future study to assure the validity and reliability if the study.
Moreover, even though the research framework includes demographic factors and indeed researcher had run the pre-test, however, the pre-test results of demographic factors, including age and disposable income both do not reach validity value of factor loading and Cronbach's α are not reliable. Hence, researcher found out might due to the questionnaire distribution method that the platform was via internet and focus on luxury bags related websites. The design is to include interested respondents initially, however, it might cause the target people are too similar and make no difference between them.
Furthermore, although all the variables that researcher had examined are significantly supported, the variable of self-confidence has relatively low beta value (0.084), hence, I suggest conducting an experiment study in the future to narrow down on this variable, and find out the reason why self-confidence has little influence on consumers to purchase genuine and counterfeit luxury bags. And the researcher may have left out other meaningful psychological or sociological variables which may
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contribute to the explanation of dependent variable, such as social network, advertising appeal, materialism, socioeconomic status and so on.
In conclusion, the foregoing suggestions might give scholar who has interested in consumer behavior of luxury industry an insight and gain more findings for future research.
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12 Reasons Why Consumers Buy Luxury Goods? 12
- Megan Minmin C. (2018). Retrieved from http://meganminminc.com/filter/ /12-Reasons-Why-Consumers-Buy-Luxury-Goods-12
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