Consumer Behaviour Towards Watches

Purchasing Luxury Goods: consumer behaviour of international students in the
UK

By
SRICHAN SRIVIROJ
2007

A Dissertation presented in part consideration for the degree of MSc in International Business.

i

Acknowledgement

I would like to express my deepest sense to my supervisor Dr. Nick Ellis for his patience, time, and guidance. I am also in debt for his valuable time in scrutinizing through this study, which could have never been accomplished without his excellence advice. I would like to thank all the students that took part in collecting valuable data towards this research.

I am thankful to Thada Pongsawang for his recommendations and suggestions in every stage of my work.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my beloved parents for their support and care, without them I would not have been able to complete my research.

Srichan Sriviroj

MSc International Business

ii

ABSTRACT
This study attempts to investigate young consumer behaviour towards purchasing luxury brand products in three countries including the United Kingdom,
Thailand and China. It describes the results from a survey of 144 students at various
Universities in the UK. Snowball sampling method was applied to distribute online questionnaire. In this study, the statistical data analyses in a form of SPSS with the help of Microsoft Excel were conducted by applying a method of inferential statistics
T-test and F-test. The combinations of qualitative and quantitative were used to aid the explanation of the results. This work mainly focuses on culture, motivation, status and material consumption, generation Y and gender. It indicates that there has been a change in culture suggesting that Eastern consumers purchasing preferences appears to imitate Western style behaviour. In terms of purchasing luxury brand items, UK and Thai consumers seems to have the same motivational factors whereas Chinese respondents show a different perspective.

References: Abe, S., Bagozzi, R.P., & Sadarangani, P. (1996), “An investigation of construct validity and generalizability of the self-concepts: Self-consciousness in Japan Alleres, D. (1997), Luxe…Strategies marketing, Economica, Paris (2 eds.). Anurit, J., Newman, K. & Chansarkar, B. (1999), Consumer Behaviour of Luxury Automobiles: A Comparative Study between Thai and UK Customers’ Anderson, p. & Hee, X. (1998), “Price influence of age segments of Beijing consumers”, Journal of consumer Marketing, Vol Ariga, M., Yasue, M., & Wen, G.X. (1997), “China’s generation III: Viable target segment and implications for marketing communications” Arunthanes, W., Tansuhaj, P. and Lemak, J.D. (1994), “Cross-cultural Business Gift Giving: A new conceptualization on theoretical framework”, International Bakewell, C. & Mitchell, W.V. (2003), “Generation Y female consumer decisionmaking styles”, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol Barnier, V. & Rodina, I. (2005), “Which luxury perceptions affect most consumer purchase behavior? A cross cultural exploratory study in France, The United Bearden, W., Netemeyer, G.R. & Teel, E.J. (1989), “Measurement of Consumer Susceptibility to Interpersonal Influence”, Journal of Consumer Research, BCG Corporation (1994) “The Luxury Industry in the European Union and Russia: New Tendencies and Potential”, Moscow, Russia, December. Belk, R.W. (1985), “Materialism: Trait Aspects of Living in the Material World”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol Bloch, H.P. and Richins, L.M. (1983), “A theoretical model for the study of product importance perceptions”, Journal of Marketing, Vol Bond, M. H. (1991), Beyond the Chinese face: Insights from psychology. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press. Brinberg, D. & Linda P. (1986), "Self-Monitoring and Product Conspicuousness on Reference Group Influence," in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol Campbell, C. (1997), “Shopping, Pleasure and the Sex War”, The Shopping Experience, Pasi Falk and Colin Campbell (Eds) Chan, A.K.K., Denton, L. & Tsang, A.S.L. (2003), “The art of gift giving in China. Chen, V. (1990), “Mien tze at the Chinese dinner table: a study of the interactional accomplishment of face” Cheng, C. (1993), “Little emperors make big consumers”, China Today, Vol. 42, April, pp Chu, G.C. (1985), “The changing concept of self in contemporary China”. In: A.J. Churchill, Gilbert A. (1999), Marketing Research: Methodological Foundations, 7th eds., The Dryden Press, Harcourt- Brace College Publishers Craig, S.C. & Douglas, P.S. (2006), “Beyond National Culture: implications of cultural dynamic for consumer research” International Marketing Review, Creswell, W.J. & Plano Clark, L.V. (2007), Designing and conducting mixed methods research, California: SAGE. Curwin, J. & Slater, R. (2002), Quantitative methods for business decision. 5th ed. Denzin, K.N. & Lincoln, S.Y. eds.(1998), Collecting and interpreting qualitative materials Dillman, D.A. (2000), Mail and Internet Surveys: The Tailored design method. New York: John Wiley. Dittmar, H. (1994), "Material Possessions as Stereotypes: Material Images of Different Socio-Economic Groups," Journal of Economic Psychology, Vol Douglas, M., & Isherwood, B. (1996/1979), The world of goods. New York: Routledge. Dubois, B. & Laurent, G. (1994), "Attitudes Toward the Concept of Luxury: An Exploratory Analysis," in Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research, Siew Dubois, B. & Duquesne, P. (1993), "The Market for Luxury Goods: Income Versus Culture," European Journal of Marketing, Vol Eastman K.J., Fredenberger, B., Campbell, D. & Calvert, S. (1997), “The Relationship Between Status Consumption and Materialism: A Crosscultural Comparison of Chinese, Mexican, and American Students”, Erickson, G.M. & Johny K.J. (1985), "The Role of Price in Multi-Attribute Product Evaluations," Journal of Consumer Research, Vol