Consumers' repurchase intention of luxury goods : examining the relationship among status consumption, need for uniqueness, materialism and affective response

Abstract

Status-conscious consumers buy luxury goods to satisfy their need for status. Luxury goods consumption has been a conspicuous practice throughout the best part of human history. Over recent decades, studies of status consumption have emerged incessantly, most of which focus on examining interpersonal influence, social influence, personal influence, socio-psychological factors and situational factors. Status consumption is an individual difference variable regardless of income level or social class. With the ever-changing consumer taste, the luxury goods market becomes increasingly complex and competitive. Thus far, little academic effort has been made to address the behavioral intention of status-conscious consumers although consumers' repurchase intention of luxury goods is a vital piece of information for luxury goods marketers. The act of repurchase consists of both intention and probability to purchase. It is a major building block for brand loyalty which provides luxury goods marketers with a competitive edge in business strategies. Given the fact that status consumption fulfills consumers' hedonic needs, affective response generated from luxury goods purchase behavior is linked to a display of wealth and symbolic meanings from one's social standing. However, studies of consumers{174} affective response influencing their repurchase intention of luxury goods are scant, which calls for in-depth research to help advance the existing literature by providing comprehensive theoretical models. The proposed model in this research is grounded in the traditional attitude model. The literature review shows that status-conscious consumers wish to meet their need for uniqueness and believe in the significance of materialism. In this study, the research variables of the theoretical model are need for uniqueness, materialism, status consumption, affective response, and repurchase intention. With specific research objectives, this research investigates consumers' repurchase intention, examines their motivation, and shows how status consumption affects affective response. A sample of 568 respondents was collected by a questionnaire survey. By cross-validating the results with holdout samples, the study model developed has strong predictive power. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) technique were employed in this study.This research is the first academic attempt to incorporate affective response into repurchase intention when analyzing luxury goods consumer behavior. With the use of the model developed in this study, indicative factors that affect the repurchase intention of luxury goods have been identified. Apart from the findings that are consistent with the proposed relationships discussed in previous studies, more intriguing results are found resultant of this research. Its findings show that affective response has the most direct and significant impact on repurchase intention. Status consumption is found to have a direct, positive, and significant relationship with affective response which in turn creates a direct, positive, strong effect on repurchase intention. In fact, about 60% of total variance in repurchase intention can be explained by both affective response and status consumption in the proposed theoretical model. About 42% in status consumption can be explained by two antecedent variables (i.e. need for uniqueness and materialism) and 15% in affective response can be explained by status consumption. The findings have further revealed some indicative factors that are particularly important for studying status consumption behavior. One of the most influential motivations of status consumption is to avoid consuming products that are similar to those of their surrounding significant others.