Chinese consumers’ conspicuous perspectives: the context of smartphone purchase behavior.

Abstract

This study investigated the key antecedent factors of Chinese consumers attitudes towards smartphones, focusing on the conspicuous value. An analytical framework with three key themes in the smartphone purchasing attributes in relation to the conspicuous attitudes was validated based on Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using 426 survey data collected in China. It has been found that ‘conspicuous value’ was the basic perception which has a relation with three key factors, ‘fashionableness’ and ‘innovativeness’, and ‘instore shopping atmosphere’ in smartphone purchasing attributes. This implies that the analytical framework developed from this study is applicable to the research topic as a useful analytical tool kit. From the empirical study based on this framework, it has been found that only ‘fashionableness’ has the significant impact on their purchase intention, whereas, ‘innovativeness’ and ‘instore shopping atmosphere' did not have a significant impact on their purchase intention of smartphones. Chinese consumer behavior from the cultural context has attracted researchers so far, however, the practical and feasible analytical framework covering the cultural aspect and smartphone attributes has been lacked. This study proposed a practical analytical framework with the Chinese cultural value ‘conspicuousness’ and focus on the smartphone shopping attributes. Moreover, the empirical research outcome with the survey data based on the proposed framework can provide actionable implications for the relevant marketers and researchers.