The Impact Of Self-identity Threat On Purchase Intention For New Luxury Goods

Consumption has many meanings in the modern consumer society.Consumption is not only to satisfy an individual's basic needs,but is also tied to his/her self-expression.Consumption is far beyond the pursuit of its functional values,and used as a vehicle for displaying status,expressing concepts,constructing self-identity,and/or maintaining one's inner peace and harmony.Consumer anxiety arises owing in part to dramatic societal changes in recent years,which results in an individual's perceived lack of self-worth and perceived threat to self-identity as well.Hence,further study on the values implicit in consumption behavior is highly merited.Against this backdrop,this study proposes a conceptual framework to investigate the consumption behavior of new luxury goods based on the extant findings in research areas of social psychology and consumer sociology,aiming to reveal the key determinants of consumers' purchase intention for new luxury goods.Specifically,this study examines the impact of the consumer's perceived threat to self-identity on his/her intention to buy new luxury goods.Moreover,it is proposed that self-construction and the presence of others may respectively moderate the relationship between self-identity threat and the purchase intention for new luxury goods,and that the threat of psychological needs may mediate the influence of self-identity threat over consumers' intention to buy new luxury goods.Four experiments are designed and conducted to test the hypotheses.The SPSS software is employed to analyze the data.Specific findings are as follows.First,self-identity threat exerts positive effects over consumers' intention to buy new luxury goods.Under the circumstance of self-identity threat,consumers characterized by an interdependent self-construction are more likely to buy new luxury goods than the ones with an independent self-construction.Additionally,the presence of others can enhance the relationship between self-identity threat and the purchase intention for new luxury goods.Finally,the threat of psychological needs can fully mediate the relationship between consumers' self-identity threat and purchase intention of new luxury goods.Findings of this study are conducive to extending the research on the consumption behavior related to new-luxury goods.By providing the evidence on the importantmoderating effects of self-construction and the presence of others,this study helps reconcile the inconclusive findings in extant literature on the relationship between self-identity threat and consumption behavior.By conceptualizing the mediating effect of the threat of psychological needs and providing empirical evidence accordingly,this study enhances our understanding of how consumers' perceived threat to self-identity can translate into their intention to buy new luxury goods.Additionally,findings of this study can enlighten marketers of new luxury goods to make more effective marketing strategies,which is particularly meaningful under the circumstance of consumption and industrial upgrade in contemporary China.