1

Business research methods

proposal

Factors Influencing Customers’

Purchase Intention for Clothing

Product

Group 2 Wang Qinchao 1130200112

( leader)

Bao Zhiyuan 1130200002

2

Huang Xiaotong 11302000033

Yang Yuqiao 1130200150

Guan Jingxin 1130200026

Due: 04/11/13

3

Content

1.Introduction

--------------------------------------

-----3

1.1 statement of

problem------------------------------------------

------3

1.2 objectives of

research-----------------------------------------

------4

4

2. Literature

review--------------------------------

-----5

2.1 Dependent variable--customers’ purchase

intention--------------5

2.2 independent variable--brand

awareness---------------------------5

2.3 independent variable-- perceived

quality--------------------------6

2.4 independent variable--perceived

value----------------------------7

2.5 independent variable--purchase

convenience---------------------8

5

3. Hypotheses-------------------------

--------------------9

4. Data

source--------------------------------

-------------12

5.

Methodology---------------------------

----------------12

5.1 measurement of

variables----------------------------------------

--12

6

5.2 hypothesis testing

model-------------------------------------------

12

5.3 pilot

test---------------------------------------------

-----------------14

5.4 limitations

-------------------------------------------------

-----------14

Topic:

7

Factors Influencing Customers’

Purchase Intention for Clothing

Product

1. Introduction 1.1 Statement of problem 王王王王（，1130200112）

Buyer market has become more prominent and has developed

a lot since 1979, which implies companies should lock the

targets toward consumers according to the demand of

consumers (Li, A.Y.2008). Recently, along with the rapid

development of economy and technology, whatever product

field or service field have to face fierce competition.

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How to attract customers and what is their actual needs

are the main parts of Marketing Department for a company.

Nowadays, some enterprise take efforts to increase the

profit by promoting the brand and price, but sometimes it

is not effective. There is likely to be effective in the

short term. We think there are some other significant

factors impact on customers’ purchase intention.

However, according to the literatures and researches in

terms of clothes purchase intention, we found that most

of them merely focus on the factors and the proportion

and weight of them. Few researches apply the results into

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a specific field and put forward the suggestions based on

the results. So we will choose a kind of product as our

target to research. Because there are many products we

used in our daily life. Among large majority of products,

we choose to research the clothes field. Several reasons

are followed to illustrate why we choose it and why it

motivates us to do the research.

Firstly, clothes are fundamental consumption for

everyone in the daily life. As people’s life become

better and better, they pay more attention to the

appearance. In the simple consumption process which most

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of people have experienced, the factors impact on

purchase intention maybe not so simple. And people will

be interest in this topic because everyone is familiar

with it. At the same time, it means we can collect data

from our school’s students and it is help for our

research.

Secondly, there are a lot of people can not

consumption rationally maybe because they don’t know

specific factors impact on their purchase intention. This

research results can do favor with them.

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Moreover, there are many clothes brand companies want

to know how to be more attractive with customers so that

make more profit. Thus, making more companies earn much

more money and customers consumption rationally motivate

us to take it as the research target.

1.2 Objective of research 王王王王（，1130200112）

This study is mainly concerned with the following

research questions. What and how variables affect the

consumers' purchase intention in buying clothes? Are they

different from other products? The purpose of our

research is to find out what factors have positive or

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negative effect on purchase intention. Through the data

analyze of variables based on research model or theory,

we can make a conclusion and give some suggestions to the

field that is involved in this research. In short, the

pivotal process is to collect and analyze data, finding

out the correlation among these variables to convince our

hypotheses. Through the outcome of our research, we will

give some suggestions to different kinds of clothing

brand companies based on their current situation in the

competitive environment.

2. Literature review

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2.1 Dependent variable--customers’ purchase

intention

王王王王（，1130200112）

Purchase intention is defined as the probability that

the consumer will purchase the product. According to

Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), an individual’s

performance of a certain behavior is determined by his or

her intent to perform that behavior [3], [8], [9]. Intent

is itself informed by attitudes toward the behavior,

subjective norms about engaging in the behavior, and

perceptions about whether the individual will be able to

14

successfully engage in the target behavior (George, 2004)

[11], [28]. Purchase intention also can be classified as

one of the components of consumer cognitive behavior on

how an individual intends to buy a specific brand or

product. Laroche, Kim and Zhou (1996) said. Purchase

intention is important to companies marketing research(

Woodruff and Gardial 1996). On the whole, the study of

purchase intention was recognized to be important by

reason of its long term implications (Ritti & Silver,

1986)

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2.2 Independent variable--brand awareness 王王王（ ，

1130200112）

Ability of a retailer and consumer to organize and

recall a brand is known as brand awareness (Aaker, 1996).

Brand recall means when retailer as well as consumers

watch a manufactured goods set, they can evoke a product

name completely, and brand acknowledgment signify

retailer and customers also has capability to recognize a

brand when it is prompt. Hoeffler & Keller (2002)

identified intensity and width as measures of brand

awareness. If a product has brand concentration and size

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simultaneously, then firstly the retailer and then

consumers will think of a particular brand whenever going

for buying if product has huge awareness. Furthermore,

brand name is very important factor in building a image

of the brand (Davis, Golicic & Marquardt, 2008). A brand

name offers a character that will help retailer and

consumers to spot service providers and to expect the

outcomes of the service (Turley & Moore, 1995). Brand

consciousness will have an impact on buying purpose as

customers have a tendency to pay money for a known and

famous product (Keller, 1993; Macdonald & Sharp, 2000).

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Brand consciousness makes customers to be aware with a

product from a creation group line and then build an

intension of purchase (Percy & Rossiter, 1992). A product

with high brand awareness will obtain more retailers as

well as consumer fondness because it has increased market

share and quality belief attached with it (Dodds et al.,

1991). In a word, brand awareness is a key factor to

impact on customers’ purchase intention.

2.3 Independent variable-- perceived

quality

王王王王（，1130200112）

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Apparent excellence is a user verdict on the total

creation advantages and negativity towards quality of the

product (Dodds et al., 1991). Aaker (1991) dibates that

apparent eminence can prove the outstanding segregation

of a creation or a service and results in being most

preferred in consumers thinking. Manufacturers, retailer

and consumers have always different analysis on the

decision regarding the quality magnitude (Aaker,1996).

Though patrons have enough information, they may be

inadequate in point in time and stimulation to do added

decision, and in the closing stages they can only choose

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minor vital information and make any decision on quality

(Wan, 2006). Perceived quality can be influenced by

concerns such as past experience, education picked out

jeopardy and provisional variables such as purchase

cause, pay for state, occasion force, and community

settings of customers (Holbrook & Corfman, 1985).

Garretson and Clow (1999) propose that recognized class

will sway customer trade idea, and Monore (1990) shows

that chosen out quality will optimistically control

purchase intention.

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2.4 Independent variable--perceived value 王王王（ ，

1130200112）

Prior research indicates that perceived value (i.e.,

the consumer’s perception of price) is formed based on

the actual (objective) price and the consumer’s reference

price (Winer 1986; Erickson and Johansson 1985). Zeithaml

(1988) defines perceived value as "the consumer's overall

assessment of the utility of a product based on

perceptions of what is received and what is given."

Monroe (1990) views customer value as "a consequence of

evaluating perceived quality and benefits in the product

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or service and perceived cost of acquiring and using

them." As such, value is defined as the trade-off between

benefits, i.e., the "get" component, and sacrifices,

i.e., the "give" component (Woodruff and Gardial 1996).

Several researchers have argued that the total perceived

value of a product being considered for purchase is

further broken down into two categories: acquisition

value and transaction value (Grewal, Monroe and Krishnan

1998; Lichtenstein, Netemeyer and Burton1990; Monroe

1990; Monroe and Chapman 1987; Thaler 1983, 1985; Urbany

etal. 1997). Acquisition value is the expected benefit to

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be gained from acquiring the product compared to the net

cost of paying for it (Thaler 1985). It can be thought of

as the difference between the price one would pay for

acquiring a product of this quality and the current

price. Transaction value comes from the feeling of having

received a good bargain or deal, which is independent of

quality consideration (Thaler 1983, 1985). Buyers are

thought to experience pleasure from the fact they buy the

product at a price less than the regular price, and/or

less than the price of other similar products in the

store (or another store). The total value received by the

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purchaser is thought to be the sum of acquisition value

and transaction value, both of which are considered

antecedents to actual purchase behavior. So perceived

price has significant impact on customers’ purchase

intention.

2.5 Independent variable--purchase

convenience

王王王王（，1130200112）

Researchers agree that convenience has a major impact

on consumers´ buying decisions. Convenience can be

defined as the time and effort consumers use in

purchasing a product or service rather than a

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characteristic or attribute of a product (Brown, 1990).

The convenience orientation is manifested in the use of

various home-shopping modes and pick-up and delivery

services (Brown, 1990, Berry et al., 2002; Luqmani et

al., 1994). It is in the stages prior to purchase where

the consumer evaluates the different channels for

purchase, assessing the use of time, effort and waiting

time. This is why the consumer has assessed various

alternatives by which to make the purchase and seeks to

provide added value. This added value is that which is

considered convenience (Seiders et al., 2000). Thus,

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assuming that consumers will seek to optimize their

choices, the selection of choosing to use the Internet

over other traditional methods by the consumer is based

on the choice of that alternative which provides the

greatest perceived utility or net value. The choice may

differ from one consumer to another even for the same

product, and the same consumer may even make an

alternative choice for the same category of product that

might differ from an earlier choice. Likewise, the

assessment of perceived utility in the selection of a

channel will be determined by the subjective probability

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that the final outcome of the purchasing process

(Bhattacherjee, 2001) will increase when using that

distribution channel. This assessment of perceived

utility would be determined by all the attributes of the

total purchase experience including both the tangible and

the intangible attributes (waiting time, effort,

opportunity costs). Previous research has shown that

consumer trust of the Internet and specific websites is

fundamental to participating in online marketing (Ha and

Stoel, 2009; Pavlou and Fygenson, 2006). Purchasing

convenience becomes a major factor impact on purchase

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intention.

3. Hypotheses

3.1 brand awareness 王王王王（，1130200033）

Brand awareness means the ability of potential buyers

to recognize or recall a brand in the certain products.

It relates to the associations of product category and

bra8nd . Brand awareness is divided into 3 distinct

levels , the lowest level of brand awareness is brand

recognition, which is determined by the memory test, such

as through the telephone survey, given a particular

product category of a series brand name, asked

respondents to answer which brand they've heard. Although

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it needs to make brand and product related, but this

connections do not need be very strong. Brand recognition

is the lowest level of brand awareness, but it is also

the most important. The first mention awareness is a

special state, which is the highest level of brand

awareness . Specifically, this means that the brand

status is higher than other brands in people’s heart. If

the enterprise has this brand awareness, it will have a

strong competitive advantage. Moreover, Reyne Rice (2012)

demonstrate that brand awareness had a positive

relationship with purchase intention and it also had an

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influence at maintain the long term business. That means

consumers would like to buy the product that has high

degree of brand awareness Hence, we predicted that:

H1:brand awareness positively affects the

purchase intention.

3.2 perceived quality 王王王王（，1130200002）

According to Wang, M.(2007), consumers’ recognition

and purchase are the premises of selling’s success, and

are based on the perceptions of clothing’s quality. So we

can assume that clothing’s quality and consumer purchase

intention has a positive correlation. It means that the

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clothing has better quality; consumers will have more

purchase intention.

H2. University student customers prefer the

clothing have good quality, which will

correspondingly enhance consumer purchase

intention.

3.3 perceived value 王王王王（，1130200150）

Kwom and Schumann (2001) reported that the results of

their experiment gave support for the concept that the

expected future price can influence perceived value and

customers’ purchase intention. So we can assume that the

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student customers’ perceived value for the clothes can

have an effect on their decision, which means whether or

not they are willing to purchase the clothes.

Based on the real experience, if the perceived value

people have is close to the actual market price, it is

easier for them to accept the price and buy the goods.

The same logic can be used in this case. If the students

tend to accept the market price, they are more likely to

buy the clothes.

So according to the literature research and the real

experience, we assume that the perceived value of the

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clothes can have an impact on the university student

customers’ purchase intention for the clothes.

H3: The perceived value of the clothes can have

an impact on the university student customers’

purchase intention for the clothes.

3.4 purchase convenience（王王王，1130200026）

According to Alicia and Roberta J(2011), under high

involvement, purchasing via the Internet offers

significant cost saving and time benefits to consumers,

the effect of Internet convenience on intention to

purchase via the Internet is positive. So we can assume

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that purchase convenience and consumers’ purchasing

intention is positive.

H4: Customers prefer purchase clothes in

convenient way are provided to consumers of

loyalty program, which will correspondingly

enhance consumer loyalty.

4. Data source 王王王王（，1130200112）

We use the primary data provided by our questionnaire

and send the questionnaire through both computer and

paper directly to the respondents. During the research,

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we use the convenience samples method (Cooper and

Schindler, 2011) to randomly choose 250 students in UIC

to ask them to do our questionnaire and collect 224 valid

questionnaires in total. Our respondents include 100

males and 124 females. Besides, we sent the

questionnaires through deferent channels: 30

questionnaires are from internet and 194 through paper.

The paper questionnaires were randomly sent to students

in F204, canteens and the library in UIC.

5. Methodology

5.1 measurement of variables（王王王，1130200150）

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We have done a self-administrated questionnaire about

this project. The questionnaires are focus on the

university students and distributed mainly to the

students who are studying in UIC and BNU. Also a part of

the questionnaires are sent through the internet to the

students in other universities. Totally we have

distributed 250 questionnaires, after excluding the

questionnaires with some error, which are the response

error and the participant error, only 224 questionnaires

are valuable.

5.2 hypothesis testing methods 王王王王（，130200002）

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In this research, we will test whether brand

popularity, perceived quality, perceived price and

purchase convenience would affect consumers’ purchase

intention. According to the variables’ definitions and

measurements that we had mention before, here we could

establish the regression models below:

A multiple regression model with one dependence

variable (purchase intention) and four independence

variables (brand awareness, perceived quality, perceived

price and purchase convenience ). That is:

Y =β0 +β1 Bi + β2 PQi + β3 PPi + β4 PCi +εi

Bi = Brand awareness

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PQi = Perceived quality

PPi = Perceived value

PCi = Purchase convenience

β0= Differential effects of factors other than brand

awareness, perceived quality, perceived price and

purchase convenience of clothing.

β1= Differential effect of Brand awareness of clothing

β2= Differential effect of Perceived quality of clothing

β3= Differential effect of Perceived value of clothing

β4= Differential effect of Purchase convenience of

clothing

εi = Random errors

To test the overall significance of the multiple

regression model we design the hypothesis as:

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H0: β1=β2=β3=β4=β5=β6=0

H1: At least one coefficient is different from zero.

5.3 pilot test （王王王，1130200033）

Before starting to ask UIC students to do our

questionnaire, we have a pre-test. We sent our

questionnaire to 20 persons to do first, and find the

problem in our questionnaire. We find that some students

said that there are some wordy questions that not easy to

understand in our questionnaire. Additionally, some of

the expression of some question may make them confuse.

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For these reasons, we decided to change some questions

and tell students what they need to do then make sure

they would like to do questionnaire.

5.4 limitations 王王王王（，1130200112）

The present study exist some limitations which we should

note in the future. Because of convenience and ease to

operate, the samples are selected using non-probability

procedure. Therefore, the sample may not fully represent the

entire consumers. Besides, this research conducted to

analysis the purchase intention for buying clothes, but most

questionnaire are written by the students in United

40

International College, therefore the age mainly focus on 18-

25. To some extent, it mainly shows the young generation's

idea rather than some middle age people. From the economic

perspective, comparing to the middle age people, young

generation has a relative low consumption ability which may

be influence the perceived value.Then, also because of the

source of sampling, more female consumers participate in

the study and thus were slightly over-represented in the

sample, and there are some personality difference may

conduct some errors into the results and conclusion.

However, we ignore this element. In term of variables

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choosing, based on research related to purchase intention

before and some secondary data, we selected brand

awareness, perceived quality, perceived value and

purchase convenience as our variables contributes to

purchase intention, which means that some other variables

used to be researched but excluded in this research.