中国消费者奢侈品牌购买意愿的传导机制研究——基于“态度功能理论”视角

Study on the Mechanism of Chinese Customers' Purchase Intention for Luxury Brands:Based on Functional Theory of Attitude

在2008年全球范围内的金融危机冲击下,全世界奢侈品消费都不可避免地呈下降趋势,中国却一枝独秀地保持了增长势头,因此,深刻剖析这一现象背后的心理作用机制为政府和学界广为关注。本文从态度功能理论视角,率先打开了由动机到购买意愿之间的"黑箱",提出了中国消费者奢侈品牌购买意愿的内部作用机制模型。研究结果表明,功能性态度在奢侈品牌的购买动机与购买意愿之间起到中介作用。这一传到机制具体可解释为:社会功能态度在社会导向动机和购买意愿之间有中介作用——炫耀性动机和从众动机通过自我展示而对购买意愿产生影响,独特性动机通过自我表达对购买意愿产生影响;情感功能态度在个人导向动机与购买意愿之间起到中介作用。

Since the financial crises burst out in the whole world in 2008, the consumption of luxury has inevi- tably declined, however China maintained a growth trend. Therefore, the government and academia are urgent to an- alyze the psychological mechanism of this phenomenon profoundly. Luxuries are designated by Luxury brand, which stresses that the concept of luxury markets and the value of luxury-brand marketing should be interpreted from the consumers＇ point of view. Therefore, it＇s more valuable to research on luxury brand than on the tangible luxury goods. It can provide a deeper understanding of luxury consumption behaviors. Most studies are limited to purcha- sing motivations of luxury brand, which are used to predict consumers＇ purchasing intention and brand loyalty direct- ly. There is a gap in the researches on the internal mechanism of luxury consumption behavior. In order to fill the gap, attitude as a core antecedent and stable predictor of purchase intention is a key point. The functional theory of attitude that emphasizes two types of psychological functions, which are social attitudes and emotional attitude, gives us a unique perspective for the research on luxury purchase intention. This study draws on the functional theory of attitude, exploring the relationships among social motivations, personal motivations, social-function attitudes, affective attitude and purchase intentions for luxury brands. This theory shows that attitudes serve important social-functions such as facilitating self-expression and self-presentation. A self-expression attitude toward luxury brands is defined as an orientation to respond toward luxury brands so as to display individual identity and underlying values and com- municate central beliefs. A self-presentation attitude toward luxury brands is defined as a predisposition to use luxu- ry brands to convey social image. The conspicuous and bandwagon as social motivations of the purchases on luxury brands are associated with social images, which can lead the attitude to serve as self-presentation function. The need for uniqueness can be seen as personal characteristic. Such group with this kind of motivation wants to convey self being out of the common by owning brands and products, which stimulates the attitude serving as self-expression function. The affective function is the other essential aspect of attitude based of the functional theory of attitude. Consumers who have stronger personal motivations consider luxury brands purchase can make a better life and in- dulge in the joy brought from that,which make the attitude serving as affective function. In sum,functional attitudes are the important mediators between motivations and purchase intention. Since the data for analysis were to be col- lected by questionnaires from respondents in China, the scales of all the variables were translated into Chinese by two bilingual scholars of linguistics. With convenience sampling method, some respondents whose income is more than 5000 yuan each month were recruited first. Then we get more respondents by snowball sampling, which is ag- gregated to 526 with the validity rate of 89%. Hypotheses are tested using 15 regression models and the mediation mechanisms are tested using the classic three-step model. The results show that the attitude plays a significant me- diating role between motivations of luxury brands and purchasing intention. Social attitudes mediate the relationship between social motivations and purchase intention. Specifically, the conspicuous and bandwagon motivations affect the purchase intention through self-presentation and the need for uniqueness affect the purchase intention through self-expression. The affective attitude is a key mediator of the relationship between personal motivations and pur- chase intention. At last we propose an integrated model of the psychological mechanism of Chinese consumers＇ luxu- ry brands consumption behaviors, which will give implications for government to manage luxury markets and for en- terprise to capture consumers＇ psychology and behaviors. This is the first study to open the ＂black box＂ of the rela- tionship between motivations and purchase intention of luxury brand based on functional theory of attitude.