The effects of product attractiveness, brand innovativeness, and monetary price on product evaluations: Cases of the Taiwan and United States of America mobile phone industry

Mobile phone market is a technology driven invention. People consider convenience to be one of the primary advantages when using mobile technology. Because of technological innovations and continuous improvement, cell-phones also provide powerful applications in many fields. Today, cell-phones are not only limited to communication devices, but also applicable in entertainment, medical fields, etc. Thus, the cell-phone use plays an important role in daily lives. Evidence shows that the permeability of mobile phones and the population of subscribers have rapidly risen.;No matter what the market status is, innovation is regarded as a vital factor for global market growth and is acknowledged to play a pivotal role in companies' competitiveness. Customers' demand for innovation has not declined. Moreover, the lack of innovativeness in new products usually leads to launching failure. Hence, firms should recognize the importance of providing a unique benefit that suits customers' needs. Nowadays, the issues of product design and brand are increasingly gaining attention in the mobile market. The present study examined innovation from product design and brand innovation from customers' perspectives. Both product attractiveness and brand innovativeness are proposed as the innovativeness indicators and information cues. In addition, product monetary price also is included in this study. Product attractiveness is considered an intrinsic cue. Brand innovativeness and monetary price construct are considered the extrinsic cues. Based on Zeithaml's proposed model (1988), this study discussed how these three different information cues (product attractiveness, brand innovativeness, and monetary price) influence consumers' product evaluations (perceived quality and perceived value), and subsequently, their behavioral intention (purchase intention). SEM was implemented to test proposed relationships among these constructs. Moreover, two types of customers' personality traits (consumer innovativeness and need for uniqueness) were explored in this study and were considered as moderators.