Exploring Chinese consumers’ luxury value perceptions: development and assessment of a conceptual model.

Abstract

With the dynamic growth of luxury consumption in China, understanding the Chinese consumers’ perceptions of luxury value is becoming important for luxury researchers and marketers. Although most studies conducted in developed countries have provided theoretical insight on luxury value perceptions, limited research has been carried out on Chinese consumers’ value perceptions of luxury products. This research explored the literature and evaluated multidimensional conceptual models to identify the factors that influence Chinese consumers’ self and societal luxury value perceptions. Thus, this research extends the understanding of why Chinese consumers buy luxuries, what does luxury mean to them and what variables influence their luxury value perceptions. Hence, from a theoretical point of view, the present study aims to fill the gaps in the research on luxury consumptions in China, and seeks to develop, propose and assess a conceptual model by explaining the key factors that influence Chinese consumers’ luxury value perceptions, based on the findings from existing literature and primary data collected from Chinese luxury consumers. The mixed methods research was selected for this study to develop and assess a conceptual model of Chinese consumers’ luxury value perceptions. To implement this, two stages of field research were conducted. The first stage of the field research used an inductive approach and selected 10 focus group interviews to explore, identify and clarify key variables which influence Chinese luxury consumers’ value perceptions. Based on the qualitative findings and literature, ten hypotheses were proposed and the study found that self and societal perceptions influence Chinese consumers’ luxury value perceptions. Moreover, self perception is influenced by societal perception. Hedonic pursuit value, uniqueness value and vanity value have a direct impact on self perception on luxury products. In addition, conspicuous value, social status value, conformity value and face saving value play an important role to influence Chinese consumers’ societal perceptions on luxury products. In the second stage of quantitative study, a survey questionnaire was designed to operationalise each of the hypotheses that developed the conceptual model. Based on 545 completed online survey responses collected from Chinese luxury consumers, data were analysed to test the reliability and uni-dimensionality of each of the constructs of the conceptual model. Each of the hypotheses of the conceptual model is tested through linear regression analysis. The test results confirmed that the independent variables positively and significantly impact on the dependent variables. This study provides a new theoretical insight into the phenomenon of luxury consumption by proposing a conceptual model of Chinese consumers’ luxury value perceptions. This research study would also help marketers to gain better understanding of consumer behaviours on luxury products to develop appropriate marketing strategies in the growing Chinese luxury market.