ABSTRACT

Despite the importance of consumers’ need for uniqueness in behavioural studies, branding antecedents such as consumer brand identification and brand personality have not been fully investigated. This study aims to investigate the impact of these factors on consumers’ brand attitude and purchase intention in the car industry by uncovering the moderating role of brand origin and gender via a non-linear structural equation modelling approach. The survey approach is applied as the primary data collection method through which a total of 381 usable responses were obtained. Nonlinear structural equation modelling is employed to examine the hypothesized relationships among the latent variables. In addition, a synergic statistical approach is also applied to compare the proposed and rival models. Surprisingly, the study unveiled that the relationships between consumers’ need for uniqueness and consumer purchase intention are only significant at the moderate to high level, not at the lower level. The same effect is detected in the relationship between consumer brand identification and brand attitude. The outcomes of the multi-group analysis show that the hypothesized relationships among all variables vary across gender and brand origin. Furthermore, based on the statistical results and the theoretical argument presented, the rival model is accepted in favour of the initial proposed model.

摘要

尽管消费者在行为研究中对独特性的需求很重要，但消费者品牌识别和品牌个性等品牌先行因素尚未得到充分研究。本研究旨在通过非线性结构方程模型方法揭示品牌起源和性别的调节作用，研究这些因素对汽车行业消费者品牌态度和购买意愿的影响。调查方法被用作主要的数据收集方法，通过该方法总共获得了 381 份可用的回复。非线性结构方程模型用于检查潜在变量之间的假设关系。此外，还应用了一种协同统计方法来比较提出的模型和竞争对手的模型。出奇，该研究表明，消费者对独特性的需求与消费者购买意愿之间的关系仅在中高水平显着，而在较低水平则不显着。在消费者品牌识别和品牌态度之间的关系中也发现了同样的效果。多组分析的结果表明，所有变量之间的假设关系因性别和品牌来源而异。此外，基于统计结果和提出的理论论据，竞争模型被接受，有利于最初提出的模型。多组分析的结果表明，所有变量之间的假设关系因性别和品牌来源而异。此外，基于统计结果和提出的理论论据，竞争模型被接受，有利于最初提出的模型。多组分析的结果表明，所有变量之间的假设关系因性别和品牌来源而异。此外，基于统计结果和提出的理论论据，竞争模型被接受，有利于最初提出的模型。