Impact of Human Value, Consumer Perceived Value on the Motivation of

Symbolic Consumption

Jing Liu, Chengjun Wang, Yang Liu, Jie Qin City University of Hong Kong

Paper presented in the 4th International Forum on PR and Advertising, Amherst, MA, USA.

Customers are “value-driven” (Levy, 1999) Two approaches in consumption process:

Human value refers to the inherent value system of human beings which works as a independent force in influencing consumption attitude; Consumer perceived value is the self-reported result of customers who evaluate the product, in which both human value and branding, market strategy works together.

Conceptualization

Human values: Priority of Human Needs (Maslow 1946, 1954)

Human Value System

A list of values in previous consumer surveys (Beatty et al., 1985; Kahle, 1983; Kahle et al., 1986) was adopted:

(1) excitement (to experience stimulation and thrills)(2) warm relationship with others (to have close

companionships and intimate friendships)(3) self-fulfillment (to find peace of mind and to make the

best use of your talents)(4) being well-respected (to be admired by others and to

receive recognition), (5) fun and enjoyment in life (to lead a pleasurable, happy

life)(6) security (to be safe and protected from misfortune and

attack) (7) self-respect (to be proud of yourself and confident with

who you are)(8) a sense of accomplishment (to succeed at what you want

to do). * a seven-point scale with 1 for “not important at all” to 7 for

“extremely important”.

Measurement of Human value

Maslow (1946; 1954), Bruce and Jagdish (1991, p. 161) Five consumption values influencing consumer choice

behavior: functional value, social value, emotional value, epistemic value, and conditional value.

Social value is defined as the perceived utility acquired from an alternative’s association with one or more specific social groups.

Holbrook and Corfman (1985) demonstrated, with consideration of the threefold mix of extrinsic and other-oriented (active) dimension, social value is manifested by status, which mainly concerned about success, impression and management.

Social Value

Symbolic consumption is crucial in the construction of meaning and location of social status in daily life, in which people make consumption choice not only from the utility but also from the symbolic meaning of the product.

All consumption has symbolic meaning, that’s why we study the motivation of symbolic consumption which is the key component of consumption attitude.

Symbolic consumption and social value

(1) I tell my friends as soon as I buy an apple product.

(2) I show my friends as soon as I buy an apple product.

(3) I often bring my apple to public places. (4) I like to bring and use my apple in public. (5) I always quickly recognize those who use apple

in crowds. *A seven-point-scale is used. 1 for “totally disagree” to 7 for “totally agree”.

Measurement of the Motivation of Symbolic Consumption

H1a The value of self-accomplishment is positively related to symbolic consumption.

H1b The value of self-esteem is positively related to symbolic consumption.

H1c The value of belonging/love is positively related to symbolic consumption.

H1d The value of safety is positively related to symbolic consumption.

Hypotheses 1

Consumer value entails subjective hierarchical preferences based on individuals’ situation-specific comparison of one object with another.

Typology of consumer value(Holbrook, 1994; 2006; 1985)

Consumer value

Extrinsic Intrinsic

Self-oriented Economic value Hedonic value

Other-oriented Social value Altruistic value

Sweeney and Soutar's (2001, p. 210)(1) Emotional value, the utility derived from the feeling or affective states that a product generates(2) Social value (enhancement of social self-concept), the utility derived from the product’s ability to enhance social self-concept(3) Functional value (price/value for money), the utility derived from the product due to the reduction of its perceived short term and longer term costs(4) Functional value (performance/quality), the utility derived from the perceived quality and expected performance of the product

Four dimensions of consumer values

H2a The emotional value is positively related to symbolic consumption.

H2b The social value is positively related to symbolic consumption.

H2c The price value is positively related to symbolic consumption.

H2d The quality value is positively related to symbolic consumption.

Hypotheses 2

Mediation: social and psychological discrepancy. H3a The discrepancy between the actual and the

expected income is positively related to symbolic consumption.

H3b The discrepancy between the actual and the expected education level is positively related to symbolic consumption.

H3c The discrepancy between the actual and the expected psychological status is positively related to symbolic consumption.

Hypotheses 3

Survey, November 2010. Randomly selected undergraduate students ,

City University of Hong Kong. 80 classes selected, 24replies (20

permissions and 4 rejections) 350 questionnaires, 301 retrieved, 288 valid.

Methods

Results

Component

Self-

accomplishment

and esteem

Belonging

and love

Safety and

enjoyment

Fun and

excitement

Q1 (9

accomplishment).830

Q1 (4 self-fulfillment) .756

Q1 (5 be respected) .693

Q1 (8 self-respect) .676

Q1 (7 security ) .887

Q1 (6 enjoyment) .701

Q1 (1 belonging) .896

Q1 (3 relationship) .701

Q1 (2 excitement) .934

Table 1 Factor Analysis of Human Value Scale

*KMO .873 (df = 36, p = .00)

Table 2 Factor Analysis of Perceived Consumption value

Component 

Emotional

value

Social

Value

Functional

Value 1(Price)

Functional

Value 1(Quality)

Q8 (7 desirable) .842  

Q8 (6 enjoyable) .836  

Q8 (9 feel good) .788  

Q8 (8 relaxing) .787  

Q8 (10 fun) .753  

Q8 (5 consistent) .574  

Q8 (17 impression) .893  

Q8 (18 achieve acceptance) .861  

Q8 (16 good relationship).842  

Q8 (15 recognizable) .795  

Q8 (13 worthy).799

Q8 (11 price reasonable).754

Q8 (12 valuable).753

Q8 (14 economical).729

Q8 (4 quality bad) recode.838

Q8 (1 quality trustable).625

Q8 (3 quality satisfactory).621

Q8 (2 quality good).612

Table 2 Factor Analysis of Perceived Consumption value (continued)

*KMO .919 (df = 153, p = .00)

Unstandardized Coefficients

Independent Variables B Std. Error t Sig.

(Constant) 20.256 1.208 16.766 ***

Discrepancy of psychology .069 .096 .719 .473

Discrepancy of education .458 .272 1.686 .093

Discrepancy of income -.156 .300 -.520 .604

Gender -1.258 .779 -1.615 .108

Grade -.577 .408 -1.415 .158

Emotional value 2.122 .374 5.671 ***

Social value 1.353 .373 3.622 ***

Price value .159 .370 .430 .667

Quality value 1.116 .370 3.020 **

Self accomplishment and

respect-.605 .366 -1.653 .099

Safety and enjoyment -.385 .379 -1.017 .310

Belonging and warm

relationship-.166 .363 -.458 .647

Fun and excitement .903 .364 2.480 *

Table 3 Regression Predicting Symbolic Consumption from Discrepancy of Expectation and Reality, Human Value and Consumption Value

* p < .05 ** p < .01 *** p < .001

Significant effects concentrated on the layer of consumer perceived value, only the positive effect of functional value 2(price) on the motivation of symbolic consumption has not been supported.

Neither the demographic/psychological status nor human value and is significant in the model except for the dimension of fun and excitement.

it is not the current nor the expected demographic (income, education) and psychological status moderate the effect of human value on the motivation of symbolic consumption.

It is the perceived consumption value which is evoked by the branding, product design working in the process of mediating the effect of human value on the motivation of symbolic consumption.

Interpretations

The layer of consumption value is supported to be significantly related to symbolic consumption.

The result confirms the validity to predict symbolic consumption based on individuals’ consumption values.

The significant effect of emotional value implies that the affective factors may predict the consumption of products as symbols.

And the positive effect of social value reveals that there is much possibility that symbolic consumption is indeed adopted by individuals to enhance their social status and attract attention in public.

The price value is not supported to be related to symbolic consumption. It implies that when individuals consume products as symbols of status or attention, they probably consider much less about the price than the quality and the brand impression.

Discussion

Discrepancy Variables Defect of the measurement of discrepancy variables. For example, expected psychological status.

Human value variablesExtracted from the psychological needs model developed by Maslow. The specific definitions of safety, enjoyment, self accomplishment and other dimensions are not clarified, which results in the deficiency of the correspondent measurement. Measurement focusing on the abstract level of psychological needs, which wanders around the underlying belief system of human being.

Why not significant

Respect and

self-

accomplishment

Safety and

fun

BelongingExciteme

nt

emotional value Pearson Correlation.177** .081 .148* -.043

Sig. (2-tailed).003 .172 .013 .475

social value Pearson Correlation-.112 -.150* -.091 .128*

Sig. (2-tailed).060 .012 .127 .031

Functional value Pearson Correlation.034 -.103 .030 .114

Sig. (2-tailed).572 .083 .617 .055

functional

value2(quality)

Pearson Correlation.083 .129* .085 -.047

Sig. (2-tailed).166 .030 .156 .429

N 283

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Table 4 Correlations of human value and consumption value

Further test for discussion

Inconsistence of social value defined by human values system(Maslow, 1946&1954; Holbrook, 1985) and that by consumer perceived value scale(Sweeney & Soutar, 2001).

Sweeney and Soutar (2001, p. 210)Social value means one appreciated one brand or product as it would enhance one’s social self-concept or to improve one’s social status.Conceptually consistent while actually not the same thing.

Thanks For Your Attentions.