感知价值对酒店品牌依恋的影响机制:一个有调节的中介模型

Research on Mechanism of Perceived Value on Hotel Brand Attachment:A Moderated Mediating Model

品牌依恋不仅是建立消费者和品牌联系的纽带,还是酒店获得可持续竞争优势的战略武器。该研究首先检验了酒店消费者感知功能性价值、象征性价值和享乐性价值对品牌依恋的影响作用,其次检验了情感价值的中介作用,最后检验了酒店类型对中介关系的调节作用。结果表明:(1)消费者感知功能性价值、象征性价值、享乐性价值正向影响品牌依恋;(2)消费者感知功能性价值、象征性价值、享乐性价值对情感价值有显著的正向影响;(3)情感价值在消费者感知功能性价值、象征性价值、享乐性价值与品牌依恋之间起中介作用;(4)酒店类型调节了情感价值在象征性价值与品牌依恋之间的中介作用。

The number of hotels in China presently exceeds 42 million, leading to high levels of commercial competition. Attracting patrons in the context of fierce competition and establishing a good relationship as well as an emotional connection with them have become top priorities for hotel managers. Brand attachment forms the basis for forging a strong customer-brand relationship, holding strategic significance for hotel enterprises and brands in terms of acquiring sustainable competitive advantage. Currently, neither the mechanisms underlying brand attachment nor the factors influencing it are clearly understood. Value is a key concept for understanding and predicting consumer behavior. Sentimental value is a subjective and high-level need;it is the utility of experiencing an emotional state in the process of consumption. Different types of hotel customers have different consumption expectations. Economyhotel customers mainly pursue functional value. Luxury -hotel customer pay more attention to the symbolic and hedonic resources of the hotel. In view of these differences, this study first tests the relationship between perceived functional value, hedonic value, symbolic value, and brand attachment, and then tests the mediating role of sentimental value and the moderating role of hotel type. Data were obtained from a survey of 545 hotel customers and the hypothesis was tested using the structural equation model. The results show that the three antecedent variables (functional value, symbolic value, and hedonic value) were positively related to hotel customers' brand attachment. Second, sentimental value was positively related to hotel customersJ brand attachment. Third, sentimental value partly mediated the relationships between functional value, symbolic value, hedonic value, and hotel customers ' brand attachment. Fourth, hotel type moderated the mediating relationship between the symbolic value and brand attachment. Based on these results, this study makes two unique contributions to the extant literature. First, the study expands our understanding of what determines brand attachment by showing that sentimental value mediates the relationships between functional value, symbolic value, hedonic value, and brand attachment. Second, it shows that there are different ways to foster brand attachment among customers of economy hotels and luxury hotels. To satisfy the perceived functional value of economyhotel customers, the formation of brand attachment can be promoted. However, for luxury-hotel customers, their perceived symbolic value should be satisfied in order to form brand attachment. In addition to these theoretical contributions, this study has important practical implications for hotel marketers and customers. It provides a new insight on the relationship between customers and brands, from the perspective of value. Brand attachment is a new perspective in a hotel brandJ s relationship marketing. In developing a hotel brand strategy, managers should focus on the relationship between the brand and its customers. A good hotel brand not only provides consumers with functional and reliable products or services but can also establish an emotional connection with customers.