The Research On The Relationship Between Customers’ Self-congruity And Patronage Intention

Most scholars agree that self-congruity can influence consumers’ shoppingbehavior (Sirgy,1982;1985). The term "self-concept" denotes the "totality of the individual’s thoughts and feelings having reference to himself as an object" and has been constructed from a multidimensional perspective, containing actualself and ideal self. Then the self-congruity also contain actual self-congruityand ideal self-congruity. But, because of the influence of product attributes, subculture and other factors, there are not recognized conclusions about when consumers pay close attention to actual self or ideal self and most conclusions are focused on product choice or more suitable for cross-culture research (Landon,1974; Gues-ter et al.,2000). Schenk&Holman has introduced the conceptof situational self-image in brand choice area. This situation-specific image includes attitudes, perceptions and feelings the individual wishes other individualsin the situation to formulate about his/her character, and appropriate behavior.The situational self-image is focused on the situational things and can be used in store choice area. So, whether consumers self-concept choice will be influenced by specific situation? Maybe in a specific situation, we can know clearly the relationship between actual/ideal self-congruity.Nowadays, people’s consumption conception changes from "principle of parsimony" to "principle of pleasure". The hedonic consumers who go shopping i n order to pursuit happiness and escape from upset of daily life increase a lot.Because of their shopping behavior’s specificity, hedonic consumers were concerned by a lot of researchers (Babin et al.,1994; Holbrook&Hirschman,1982). According to the theory of self-discrepancy, people can gain confidence and positive affect through narrowing the distance between actual-self and ideal-self (Higgins,1987). So, whether hedonic shoppers prefer to patronize an idealcongruent store to get more happiness? Or, for consumers driven by hedonicmotivation, will the influence of ideal self-congruity on patronage intention bestronger?Based on the self-congruity theory and self-discrepancy theory, the research investigated the relationship among hedonic shopping motivation, actual/idealself-congruity and patronage intention and made the hypothesis. We used Regression Analysis and other methods to test hypotheses, and found the followingconclusions:First, the impact of actual/ideal self-congruity on patronage intention has been supported. Consumers express and enhance self-concept by choosing stores,and then they prefer the store congruent with their self-concept.Second, there was no significant difference between the impacts of actual/ideal self-congruity on patronage intention. That is, self-consistency motivationand self-enhancement motivation is in harmony.Third, the hedonic shopping motivation positively moderated the relationship between ideal self-congruity and patronage intention, while the moderate impact on the relationship between actual self-congruity and patronage intention has not been supported. The influence of ideal self-congruity on store choice isstronger when hedonic shopping motivation becomes strong.Based on the previous discussion, the research explored the difference bet ween the impact of actual/ideal self-congruity on store’s patronage intention. But, for the limitations of sample, the conclusion was not been rigorous, and needed more exploration. Based on the current consume trends and situational self-image theory, the research introduced the moderate variable--hedonic shopping motivation, and in a more specific context to analyze the relationship between self-congruity and patronage intention. The perspective of the research is more focused, and the explanation of the impact of self-congruity is more meticulous and clear. In some degree, the research can enrich the research of self-congruity, especially the appliance in marketing. Based on our research, the retailmanagers can develop the segmentation, position and promotion strategies, to enhance the match between consumers’ self-concept and store i-mage and attractmore customers.