Literature review范文：The purchase decision of automobiles in Malaysia
10-16, 2021
Literature review范文-马来西亚汽车采购决策。文献综述是对特定主题或领域相关文献的描述。文献综述旨在描述、评估、总结和澄清相关主题的内容。这样做是为了在当前的研究中提供更清晰的图像和信息。在本章中，Literature review文献综述将捕捉过去的发现，如信息、想法、数据和证据，这些信息、想法、数据和证据是从特定的角度编写的，以实现特定的目标或表达特定的观点来支持当前的研究。下面就一起来看一下留学生dissertationLiterature review部分写作范文。
Literature review范文
Literature review is description of the literature relevant to a particular topic or field. Literature review seeks to describe, evaluate, summarize and clarify the content of the relevant topic. It is done in order to give a clearer image and information in the current research study. In this chapter, the literature review will capture the past findings like information, ideas, data, and evidence that written from a particular standpoint to fulfill certain aim or express certain views to support the current study.
营销人员需要更深入地了解当他们有购买产品的欲望时，可能吸引和影响消费者的因素，以便与客户建立牢固而长久的关系。在购买汽车时，有许多因素和因素可能会影响购买决策。在这一章中，研究人员提出了一些发现和论点。
Marketers need to understand more in depth on the factors that may attract and influence consumer when they have a desire to purchase a product so they can build strong and long relationship with customer. When it comes to purchase a car, there are many factors and element that might influence and affect purchasing decision. In this chapter there are some findings and arguments from the researchers.
2.1 Transportation 运输
基本上，运输是用于将物品和乘客从一个位置移动到另一个位置的任何设备。将物品或人员从A点移动到B点的过程。常见的交通工具包括飞机、火车、汽车和摩托车或自行车等两轮装置。运输方式包括公路、水路、航空、铁路、电缆、管道和空间。交通可以是公共的，也可以是私人的，具体取决于使用情况。私人交通仅由车主负责，车主自行操作车辆，公共交通运营通过私人企业或政府完成。
Basically transportation is any device used to move items and passengers from one location to another. The process of moving and carrying items or peoples from point A to point B. Common transportation can be found include planes, trains , automobiles and two-wheel devices such as motorcycles or bicycles. Modes of transport include road, water, air, rail, cable, pipeline and space. Transport may be public and private determine by the usage. Private transport is only subject to the owner of the vehicle, who operates the vehicles themselves and public transport operations is done through private enterprise or by government.
在经济方面，运输是专业化的必要条件。纵观历史，交通一直是扩张的动力。它允许更多的贸易和更广泛的人口传播。经济增长始终依赖于运输能力和合理性的提高。交通使文明成为可能，没有交通就没有贸易，没有贸易就没有城镇。
In the aspect of economic, transport is a necessity for specialization. Throughout the history, transport has been a spur to expansion. It allows more trade and wider spread of people. Economic growth has always been dependent on increasing the capacity and rationality of transport ( Stopford, 1997 ). Transportation helps make civilization possible and without it, there could be no trade, without trade there could be no cities and towns.
2.2 Automobile 汽车
汽车或小汽车是一种轮式车辆，可自行运输汽车和乘客。汽车不是一个发明家一天发明的。汽车的历史反映了世界范围内发生的演变。汽车的历史始于第一辆蒸汽、电力和汽油发动机汽车。17世纪80年代在俄罗斯，伊万·库利宾开始研制带有蒸汽机的人力脚踏马车。1791年，他完成了这项工作，其特点包括飞轮、制动器、变速箱和轴承，这些也是现代汽车的特点。他的设计有三个轮子，沙皇政府看不到潜在市场，私人开发也很少，因此车辆没有进一步开发。
An automobile or car is a wheeled vehicle that carries its own motor and transport passengers. The automobile was not invented in a single day by a single inventor. The history of the automobile reflects an evolution that took place worldwide. History of automobile starting with the first steam, electrical and gasoline-engine cars. In 1780s in Russia, Ivan Kulibin started working on human-pedaled carriage with a steam engine. He finished working on it in 1791 with its features included flywheel, brake, gearbox, and bearing which are also the features of a modern automobile. His design had three wheels and the Czarist government unable to see the potential market and there was little private development, therefore the vehicle was not developed further.
早期的蒸汽动力汽车非常笨重，只能在坚固如铁的平坦表面上使用。后来的蒸汽车变得越来越大，越来越重，他们最终能够拉一列满载货物和乘客的火车。1798年，奥利弗·埃文斯获得了美国第一项汽车专利，埃文斯展示了他第一辆成功的自行式汽车。他的蒸汽动力汽车能够在陆地上用轮子行驶。
The steam powered vehicles in the early stage were so heavy that they were only practical on a perfectly flat surface as strong as iron. The later steam vehicle got bigger and heavier and they eventually capable of pulling a train of many cars filled with freight and passengers. The first automobile patent in the United states was granted to Oliver Evans in 1798 and Evans demonstrated his first successful self-propelled vehicle. His steam-powered vehicles was able to travel on wheels on land.
第一辆马车大小的汽车是1871年在美国发明的，由蒸汽驱动。汽车是由J.W.博士发明的。卡尔·哈特，威斯康星州拉辛卫理公会主教教堂的牧师。他们规定，在200英里的赛道上，车辆的平均速度应能保持在每小时5英里以上。蒸汽机由燃烧燃料驱动，燃料加热锅炉中的水，产生蒸汽，蒸汽膨胀并推动活塞，活塞转动曲轴，曲轴转动车轮。在那里，蒸汽汽车继续发展，到20世纪初取得了重大进展。
The first carriage sized automobile was invented in 1871 powered by steam in the United States. The automobile was invented by Dr.J.W. Car hart, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in Racine, Wisconsin. They stipulated that the vehicle would able to maintain an average speed of more than five miles per hour over a 200mile course. Steam engines powered by burning fuel that heated water in a boiler, creating steam that expanded and pushed pistons that turned the crankshaft, which turned the wheels. At there, Steam car development continued, leading to significant advances by the early 1900s.
1928年，一个匈牙利名字Anyos Jedlik发明了一种早期类型的电动机，他创造了一个由他的新电动机驱动的小型模型汽车。1834年，佛蒙特州铁匠托马斯·达文波特发明了美国第一台直流电动机，他将电动机安装在一辆小型模型车上。1885年，德国人卡尔·本茨用汽油驱动的内燃机制造了他的第一辆汽车。1886年1月29日，奔驰获得了汽车专利，并于1888年开始生产第一辆汽车。到了1900年，许多国家都有可能谈论一个全国性的汽车工业。在老牌汽车时代，汽车被视为一种新奇的东西，而不是真正有用的设备。故障频繁，燃料难以获得，适合旅行的道路有限，快速创新导致一辆年久的汽车几乎一文不值。
In 1928, a Hungarian name Anyos Jedlik who invented an early type of electric motor, created a small model car powered by his new motor. In 1834, Vermont blacksmith Thomas Davenport, the inventor of the first American DC electrical motor, installed his motor in a small model car. A German name Karl Benz built his first automobile in 1885 with gasoline-powered internal combustion engines. Benz was granted a patent for his automobile on 29 January 1886 and began the first production automobile in 1888. By 1900, it was possible to talk about a national automotive industry in many countries. Throughout the veteran car era, automobiles were seen as more of a novelty than a genuinely useful device. Breakdowns were frequent, fuel was difficult to obtain, road suitable for travelling were limited and rapid innovation caused a year-old car nearly worthless.
到了1930年，今天汽车中使用的大部分机械技术都被发明出来了，有些东西后来被重新发明并归功于其他人。现代时代通常被定义为今年之前的25年。然而，现代汽车在技术和设计方面与古董有所不同。如果不考虑汽车的未来，现代时代已经是一个日益标准化、平台共享和计算机辅助设计的时代。
By the 1930, most od the mechanical technology used in today’s automobile had been invented and somethings were later re-invented and credited to someone else. The modern era is normally defined as the 25years preceeding the current year. However, there are some technical and design aspect that differentiate modern cars from antiques. Without considering the future of the car, the modern era has been one of increasing standardization, platform sharing, and computer-aided design.
世界汽车市场一直由发达国家的制造商主导。发展中国家的制造商首先服务于本国市场，然后寻求出口并将市场扩大到国外。2010年，估计全世界有10亿辆汽车和轻型卡车在公路上行驶。美国大约有2.5亿辆汽车在运营。2009年，中国是汽车销售的最大趋势，目前中国已成为世界最大的汽车市场。由于汽油成本高，所有主要汽车制造商在2011年都在大力推广其小型高效汽车。
The world automobile market has been dominated by manufacturers from developed countries. Develop country manufacturer first served their own local market and then sought to exports and expand market to foreign countries. In 2010, estimation of 1billion cars and light trucks are on the road around the world. There are approximately 250million vehicles in operation in the United States. In 2009, China was the biggest trend in auto sales and China has become the world’s largest car market currently. All major car manufacturers aggressively pushing their smaller, high efficiency vehicle in 2011 because of the high gasoline costs (Phukett Research 2008, Retrieved 2010-09-09)
汽车现在已经成为全球最大的交通工具，而且数量还在不断增加。在过去几十年中，世界汽车工业已成为领先的制造业。汽车市场目前由西欧、日本、美国和韩国等发达国家主导。这个国家贡献了世界90%以上的生产和出口。仅与德国、日本、加拿大的汽车贸易就超过1万亿美元，占世界出口的一半。较小的新兴国家也以惊人的产量增长率缩小了差距，马来西亚是其中之一。许多新兴国家知道，他们可以开发自己的汽车，在世界市场上出口，并直接与黑社会竞争。
Car has become the biggest transportation that can be found around the globe right now and the numbers keep increasing. In the past decades, the world car industry has become a leading manufacturing sector. The automotive market now is strongly dominated by advanced country like Western Europe, Japan, United State and South Korea. This country contributed to more than 90% of the world production and exports. The trade of car exceeds 1000billion dollars with Germany, Japan , Canada alone contribute to half of the world exports (United Nations, 2007).Smaller emerging countries also closing the gap with spectacular production growth rates and Malaysia is one of the country included. Many emerging countries know that they can develop their own car, export in the world market and compete directly with the triad.
马来西亚在二十年前已经从一个以农业为基础的国家转变为工业化国家。马来西亚发现的天然气和石油进一步刺激了增长。马来西亚的汽车使用可分为两类：个人使用和商业使用。对于个人使用，消费者购买汽车是为了他们自己的使用和目的，也称为最终用户。马来西亚的消费者也购买商务用车，例如出租车和公司用车，他们使用汽车在日常工作中赚取收入。
Malaysia has transformed from an agriculture-based country two decades ago to industrialization. The discovery of gas and oil in Malaysia had further spurred the growth. The usage of car in Malaysia can be categorized into 2 groups, personal use and business use. For personal use, consumers purchase the car for their own use and purpose also called end user. Consumers in Malaysia also purchase car for business use for example taxi and company car, they use car to earn and generate revenue in daily working basis.
926年，当马来亚福特汽车公司在新加坡注册成立时，马来西亚开始了汽车工业。后来与新加坡分离，这打乱了计划，因为预期的国内市场大幅减少。政府在20世纪60年代末开始处理汽车装配和零部件制造的申请。早在1980年，马哈蒂尔·穆罕默德（博士命令马来西亚工业发展局（Malaysia Industrial Development Authority）对该项目进行可行性研究时，就提出了马来西亚制造汽车的想法。日本汽车制造商三菱合作协助马来西亚，宝腾萨加是市场上第一辆马来西亚汽车，紧随其后的是宝腾威拉、伊斯瓦拉、瓦哈、佩尔达纳等。
In 1926, the automobile industry began in Malaysia when Ford Motor Co of Malaya incorporated in Singapore. Then later came the separation from Singapore, which upset the plans as the expected domestic market was substantially reduced. The government began processing applications for auto assembly and components manufacture in the late 1960s. The idea for a made in Malaysia car was mooted as far back as 1980 when Dr Mahathir Mohamad ordered the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority to carry out a feasibility study of the project. Japan automaker Mitsubishi works together to assist Malaysia and Proton Saga was the first Malaysia car in the market followed by Proton Wira, Iswara , Waja , Perdana, etc.
营销人员需要更深入地了解当他们有购买产品的欲望时，可能吸引和影响消费者的因素，以便与客户建立牢固而长久的关系。在购买汽车时，有许多因素和因素可能会影响购买决策。在这一章中，研究人员提出了一些发现和论点。
Marketers need to understand more in depth on the factors that may attract and influence consumer when they have a desire to purchase a product so they can build strong and long relationship with customer. When it comes to purchase a car, there are many factors and element that might influence and affect purchasing decision. In this chapter there are some findings and arguments from the researchers.
2.1 Transportation 运输
基本上，运输是用于将物品和乘客从一个位置移动到另一个位置的任何设备。将物品或人员从A点移动到B点的过程。常见的交通工具包括飞机、火车、汽车和摩托车或自行车等两轮装置。运输方式包括公路、水路、航空、铁路、电缆、管道和空间。交通可以是公共的，也可以是私人的，具体取决于使用情况。私人交通仅由车主负责，车主自行操作车辆，公共交通运营通过私人企业或政府完成。
Basically transportation is any device used to move items and passengers from one location to another. The process of moving and carrying items or peoples from point A to point B. Common transportation can be found include planes, trains , automobiles and two-wheel devices such as motorcycles or bicycles. Modes of transport include road, water, air, rail, cable, pipeline and space. Transport may be public and private determine by the usage. Private transport is only subject to the owner of the vehicle, who operates the vehicles themselves and public transport operations is done through private enterprise or by government.
在经济方面，运输是专业化的必要条件。纵观历史，交通一直是扩张的动力。它允许更多的贸易和更广泛的人口传播。经济增长始终依赖于运输能力和合理性的提高。交通使文明成为可能，没有交通就没有贸易，没有贸易就没有城镇。
In the aspect of economic, transport is a necessity for specialization. Throughout the history, transport has been a spur to expansion. It allows more trade and wider spread of people. Economic growth has always been dependent on increasing the capacity and rationality of transport ( Stopford, 1997 ). Transportation helps make civilization possible and without it, there could be no trade, without trade there could be no cities and towns.
2.2 Automobile 汽车
汽车或小汽车是一种轮式车辆，可自行运输汽车和乘客。汽车不是一个发明家一天发明的。汽车的历史反映了世界范围内发生的演变。汽车的历史始于第一辆蒸汽、电力和汽油发动机汽车。17世纪80年代在俄罗斯，伊万·库利宾开始研制带有蒸汽机的人力脚踏马车。1791年，他完成了这项工作，其特点包括飞轮、制动器、变速箱和轴承，这些也是现代汽车的特点。他的设计有三个轮子，沙皇政府看不到潜在市场，私人开发也很少，因此车辆没有进一步开发。
An automobile or car is a wheeled vehicle that carries its own motor and transport passengers. The automobile was not invented in a single day by a single inventor. The history of the automobile reflects an evolution that took place worldwide. History of automobile starting with the first steam, electrical and gasoline-engine cars. In 1780s in Russia, Ivan Kulibin started working on human-pedaled carriage with a steam engine. He finished working on it in 1791 with its features included flywheel, brake, gearbox, and bearing which are also the features of a modern automobile. His design had three wheels and the Czarist government unable to see the potential market and there was little private development, therefore the vehicle was not developed further.
早期的蒸汽动力汽车非常笨重，只能在坚固如铁的平坦表面上使用。后来的蒸汽车变得越来越大，越来越重，他们最终能够拉一列满载货物和乘客的火车。1798年，奥利弗·埃文斯获得了美国第一项汽车专利，埃文斯展示了他第一辆成功的自行式汽车。他的蒸汽动力汽车能够在陆地上用轮子行驶。
The steam powered vehicles in the early stage were so heavy that they were only practical on a perfectly flat surface as strong as iron. The later steam vehicle got bigger and heavier and they eventually capable of pulling a train of many cars filled with freight and passengers. The first automobile patent in the United states was granted to Oliver Evans in 1798 and Evans demonstrated his first successful self-propelled vehicle. His steam-powered vehicles was able to travel on wheels on land.
第一辆马车大小的汽车是1871年在美国发明的，由蒸汽驱动。汽车是由J.W.博士发明的。卡尔·哈特，威斯康星州拉辛卫理公会主教教堂的牧师。他们规定，在200英里的赛道上，车辆的平均速度应能保持在每小时5英里以上。蒸汽机由燃烧燃料驱动，燃料加热锅炉中的水，产生蒸汽，蒸汽膨胀并推动活塞，活塞转动曲轴，曲轴转动车轮。在那里，蒸汽汽车继续发展，到20世纪初取得了重大进展。
The first carriage sized automobile was invented in 1871 powered by steam in the United States. The automobile was invented by Dr.J.W. Car hart, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in Racine, Wisconsin. They stipulated that the vehicle would able to maintain an average speed of more than five miles per hour over a 200mile course. Steam engines powered by burning fuel that heated water in a boiler, creating steam that expanded and pushed pistons that turned the crankshaft, which turned the wheels. At there, Steam car development continued, leading to significant advances by the early 1900s.
1928年，一个匈牙利名字Anyos Jedlik发明了一种早期类型的电动机，他创造了一个由他的新电动机驱动的小型模型汽车。1834年，佛蒙特州铁匠托马斯·达文波特发明了美国第一台直流电动机，他将电动机安装在一辆小型模型车上。1885年，德国人卡尔·本茨用汽油驱动的内燃机制造了他的第一辆汽车。1886年1月29日，奔驰获得了汽车专利，并于1888年开始生产第一辆汽车。到了1900年，许多国家都有可能谈论一个全国性的汽车工业。在老牌汽车时代，汽车被视为一种新奇的东西，而不是真正有用的设备。故障频繁，燃料难以获得，适合旅行的道路有限，快速创新导致一辆年久的汽车几乎一文不值。
In 1928, a Hungarian name Anyos Jedlik who invented an early type of electric motor, created a small model car powered by his new motor. In 1834, Vermont blacksmith Thomas Davenport, the inventor of the first American DC electrical motor, installed his motor in a small model car. A German name Karl Benz built his first automobile in 1885 with gasoline-powered internal combustion engines. Benz was granted a patent for his automobile on 29 January 1886 and began the first production automobile in 1888. By 1900, it was possible to talk about a national automotive industry in many countries. Throughout the veteran car era, automobiles were seen as more of a novelty than a genuinely useful device. Breakdowns were frequent, fuel was difficult to obtain, road suitable for travelling were limited and rapid innovation caused a year-old car nearly worthless.
到了1930年，今天汽车中使用的大部分机械技术都被发明出来了，有些东西后来被重新发明并归功于其他人。现代时代通常被定义为今年之前的25年。然而，现代汽车在技术和设计方面与古董有所不同。如果不考虑汽车的未来，现代时代已经是一个日益标准化、平台共享和计算机辅助设计的时代。
By the 1930, most od the mechanical technology used in today’s automobile had been invented and somethings were later re-invented and credited to someone else. The modern era is normally defined as the 25years preceeding the current year. However, there are some technical and design aspect that differentiate modern cars from antiques. Without considering the future of the car, the modern era has been one of increasing standardization, platform sharing, and computer-aided design.
世界汽车市场一直由发达国家的制造商主导。发展中国家的制造商首先服务于本国市场，然后寻求出口并将市场扩大到国外。2010年，估计全世界有10亿辆汽车和轻型卡车在公路上行驶。美国大约有2.5亿辆汽车在运营。2009年，中国是汽车销售的最大趋势，目前中国已成为世界最大的汽车市场。由于汽油成本高，所有主要汽车制造商在2011年都在大力推广其小型高效汽车。
The world automobile market has been dominated by manufacturers from developed countries. Develop country manufacturer first served their own local market and then sought to exports and expand market to foreign countries. In 2010, estimation of 1billion cars and light trucks are on the road around the world. There are approximately 250million vehicles in operation in the United States. In 2009, China was the biggest trend in auto sales and China has become the world’s largest car market currently. All major car manufacturers aggressively pushing their smaller, high efficiency vehicle in 2011 because of the high gasoline costs (Phukett Research 2008, Retrieved 2010-09-09)
汽车现在已经成为全球最大的交通工具，而且数量还在不断增加。在过去几十年中，世界汽车工业已成为领先的制造业。汽车市场目前由西欧、日本、美国和韩国等发达国家主导。这个国家贡献了世界90%以上的生产和出口。仅与德国、日本、加拿大的汽车贸易就超过1万亿美元，占世界出口的一半。较小的新兴国家也以惊人的产量增长率缩小了差距，马来西亚是其中之一。许多新兴国家知道，他们可以开发自己的汽车，在世界市场上出口，并直接与黑社会竞争。
Car has become the biggest transportation that can be found around the globe right now and the numbers keep increasing. In the past decades, the world car industry has become a leading manufacturing sector. The automotive market now is strongly dominated by advanced country like Western Europe, Japan, United State and South Korea. This country contributed to more than 90% of the world production and exports. The trade of car exceeds 1000billion dollars with Germany, Japan , Canada alone contribute to half of the world exports (United Nations, 2007).Smaller emerging countries also closing the gap with spectacular production growth rates and Malaysia is one of the country included. Many emerging countries know that they can develop their own car, export in the world market and compete directly with the triad.
马来西亚在二十年前已经从一个以农业为基础的国家转变为工业化国家。马来西亚发现的天然气和石油进一步刺激了增长。马来西亚的汽车使用可分为两类：个人使用和商业使用。对于个人使用，消费者购买汽车是为了他们自己的使用和目的，也称为最终用户。马来西亚的消费者也购买商务用车，例如出租车和公司用车，他们使用汽车在日常工作中赚取收入。
Malaysia has transformed from an agriculture-based country two decades ago to industrialization. The discovery of gas and oil in Malaysia had further spurred the growth. The usage of car in Malaysia can be categorized into 2 groups, personal use and business use. For personal use, consumers purchase the car for their own use and purpose also called end user. Consumers in Malaysia also purchase car for business use for example taxi and company car, they use car to earn and generate revenue in daily working basis.
926年，当马来亚福特汽车公司在新加坡注册成立时，马来西亚开始了汽车工业。后来与新加坡分离，这打乱了计划，因为预期的国内市场大幅减少。政府在20世纪60年代末开始处理汽车装配和零部件制造的申请。早在1980年，马哈蒂尔·穆罕默德（博士命令马来西亚工业发展局（Malaysia Industrial Development Authority）对该项目进行可行性研究时，就提出了马来西亚制造汽车的想法。日本汽车制造商三菱合作协助马来西亚，宝腾萨加是市场上第一辆马来西亚汽车，紧随其后的是宝腾威拉、伊斯瓦拉、瓦哈、佩尔达纳等。
In 1926, the automobile industry began in Malaysia when Ford Motor Co of Malaya incorporated in Singapore. Then later came the separation from Singapore, which upset the plans as the expected domestic market was substantially reduced. The government began processing applications for auto assembly and components manufacture in the late 1960s. The idea for a made in Malaysia car was mooted as far back as 1980 when Dr Mahathir Mohamad ordered the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority to carry out a feasibility study of the project. Japan automaker Mitsubishi works together to assist Malaysia and Proton Saga was the first Malaysia car in the market followed by Proton Wira, Iswara , Waja , Perdana, etc.
Literature review范文
2.3 Purchasing decision of automobile 汽车采购决策
The experience owning a car is relatively infrequent occurrence that constitutes one of the important expenditure. Car is durable product and when developing it, insight into what aspect of the product are most important to consumer is useful. This ensuring the product design fits to and communicates the aspects that are important to consumers. Of course focus on one aspect doesn’t mean that other aspects can be neglected. The importance of certain product aspects in buying durable product differs with demographic characteristics, such as age, gender and social class.
In previous research, relations between the importance of functional and expressive product aspect and variables such as age, gender, social class have been indicated (Henry, 2002; Holt, 1998; Williams, 2002). Family members may play different roles in making decision within the family. They may contribute information and they may decide where to buy, time to buy, which brand and how to use the product. For past research, found that family members roles played differ with regard to the product being purchased, the stage in the decision-making process and characteristics of families and spouses (Blech and Ceresino, 1985;Davis, 1976; Piron, 2002; Webster, 1995). These roles may change from time to time due to changes in the environment, such as economic development, which lead to adjustment in the role structure of the decision-making process.
Some researcher have questioned the nature of rationality in making purchasing decision, stressing the underpinning and social construction of collective rationality. The cultural and political influences at work, and representing human rationality in the behavioral terms (Wensley, 1997; Patton, 1996). One of the demographic variable is concerning the influence of gender on certain product aspects. Henry(2002) concluded that females use less functional purchase critea than males.
Williams (2002), who respondents indicate the importance or several criteria for nine types of products, found that performance, durability, reliability, style , quality , appearance and etc were important to females. Research shows that males more indicate functional item that are valued for their instrumental value as their favorite possessions. Dittmar et al. (1995) found that men tend to buy instrumental items, while women tend to buy symbolic emotional aspects of self. Females more sensitive to the color of an electronic scanner than males, which points to the more attention to aesthetic aspects. ( Smith, 1995 )
The relation of age also an important aspect and Henry (2002) found that younger consumer use more expressive purchase criteria. Wallendorf and Arnould (1988) found that younger people focused more on hedonic pleasures in choosing their favorite objects. Older people are more sensitive to utilitarian brand image aspects ( Hsieh et al. 2004). In the other hand, Wallendorf and Arnould (1988) found older people less likely to choose functional as opposed to display items as favorite possessions. Based on these finding conducted by researchers, they found that younger peoples are likely to pay more attention to aesthetic and symbolic products than elder people. They expect older people to more toward utilitarian aspects in buying durable products, and will assess whether this applies to functionalities as well as quality and ease of use.
In marketing and consumer science, there is a long history of studying purchase decision process and a considerable amount of conceptual and empirical work exists relating to how consumers make decisions (Lehto, 1997). However , Moreau and Dahl (2005) stated that majority of it has focused on understanding the ways in which consumers learn about, construct preference for, and choose among existing standard product or services designed to meet their previous identified needs. Branding has been subject to considerable research and debate by many researchers. Despite this interest, there are some areas where research is limited, dated, or contradictory (Glynn et al., 2007)
In the past decades, economy of China has grown at an extremely pace resulting in a booming number of affluent and middle class consumers. Despite the worldwide economic downturn in 2008, China’s appetite for high-end product has shown a strong upward momentum. Germany luxury carmaker BMW saw sales in China jump by 44 percent in June of 2009, while United States sales fell by more than 20 percent (Knowledge@Wharton, 2009). Consumers’ consumption needs have been largely influenced by the cultural, economical, social and environmental factors. A lifestyle analysis perspective could serve such a purpose, as lifestyle concept provides an approach to understand consumers’ everyday needs and wants (Michman and Mazze, 2009).
When come to purchase a car, consumer always face numerous decisions related to product itself, its purchase and intended usage. Researchers have extended considerable effort to have better understanding on how such decisions are framed. Among the myriad parameters that influence the purchasing decision and consumption of a product are its country of origin . Marketer and researchers generally agreed that a product’s country of origin is actually important in consumer decision making.
The role of consumer behaviour in improving and protecting environmental quality is important to sustainable communities. Studies based on survey research suggest that there is a positive relationship between attitudes of the environmental concern and environmentally friendly consumer behaviour (Minton and Rose, 1997; Robert and Bacon 1997; Robert, 1996; Gatersleben and Steg, 2002). With respect to consumer behaviour, automobile emissions are the single largest contributors with almost 50 percent of personal pollution to several pollutants including carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.
2.4 Factors influencing the purchase decision of automobile 影响汽车采购决策的因素
2.4.1 Brand image 品牌形象
Fierce competition forces firms to adopt strategies that create competitive advantage for the firm. A well established brand name is one way of achieving this aim. Firms invest heavily in developing a brand and it is a very pricey process but has high returns once succeed is achieved. Brand image can be recognized as one of the core area of the marketing research field and many researchers have done researches based on this element.
Brand image keep changing as the environment changes for example many brand start up unknown and slowly build a positive brand image through stages. Some brand will rapidly build with their name while some may die-off and disappear in a short period of time. A good example of brand still survive and compete strongly in the market is Nike sport wears. Researchers found that market is more important than factories because factories may rust away, packages become obsolete, product will lose relevance, but a good brand name can last forever. Brand image is established when consumers develop ideas, expectation and feeling towards certain brands as they learn, memorize and become accustomed to them.
Many firms do not always invest heavily creating a new brand name each time they develop a new product, however a more economical strategy being used to introduce a new product. Instead of giving a new brand name to a new product, an existing well known and established brand name is extended into the new product category which in other words, brand extension is used. It is a fact that developing a new brand requires more fund to invest compare to create a brand extension which is what motivates firms prefer brand extensions more than creating a new brand. The brand is one of the most important asset that a firm owns. A firm with a high brand equity achieves high perceptions of the brand by the customers, greater loyalty from customer, high profit margin, less threaten by competitors’ marketing actions, less price sensitive by customer, higher support of middleman, higher marketing promotion effectiveness, increasing licensing and brand extension opportunities (Keller, 2008, p.49).
There are numerous definition of the term brand image found in the literature. The American Marketing Association (cf.Kotler, 2000, p. 404) defines a brand as a name, sign, symbol, design, or combination of them. A brand has been seen as essentially being a seller’s promise to deliver a specific set of features, benefits, and services consistently to the buyers (Kotler, 2000). Therefore the brand is not only just a name, the important is to develop a deep set of positive associations for the brand image. Consumer chooses brands to received emotional benefit they believe such as prestige and status.
Brand name is a name, term, design or all the above used by a firm to differ themselves from their competitors. Brand image can be said as the set of association elaborated in imaginative capacity of the consumer, who allows the brand to reach higher volume of sales than product without a brand name (The Marketing Science Institute). A good brand image brought up by promotions and advertisements and by communicating a well defined brand image allows consumers to identify need satisfied by the brand.
Thakor and Katsanis (1997) claimed that a positive brand image can make up for a country of origin’s inferior image and a product holds a famous brand, it can delete consumers’ negative perception of that particular country. Brand image is important because consumer believed and perceived that the quality and brand name are interrelated. More research has discovers that the level of consumer loyalty, trust and intention to purchase have relation with a good brand image. Therefore, brand is a way to show an individual status and identity and rank among their social group. Doyle (1998) stated that successful brands have created wealth by attracting and retaining customers as a result of combining an effective product, distinctive identity, and added values in the mind of the consumer.
The quality of the product is an important aspect when forming a perception about the brand. The customer evaluates the brand according to his or her perceptions of quality which is sometimes more difficult than actually delivering high quality (Aaker, 1990, p. 48). Consumer who has strong attitudes about the quality of the brand tend to transfer positive attitude to the product. Car quality is often hard to evaluate prior to purchase and buyers may have to rely on car manufacturers’ reputations and consumers’ reactions to cars are often emotional and unconscious (Seidel et al., 2005). The reassurance, disctinctiveness, and image of an established brand elevate the perceived value of a car. Therefore, a prestige brand is able to follow premium pricing strategies. The commercial importance of brands is undoubtedly evident and benefits of a great brand include short-term gain on recognition to long-term competitive advantage which translated into revenues and profits.
Valuing brands is not a straightforward task because there is no formal market for buying and selling brands. Simon and Sullivan (1993) who extract brand equity from the firm’s intangible assets. Using market value of the firm, this technique focuses on a forward-looking perspective and takes into account new information. Several researchers have attempted to quantify brand equity by focusing on the consumer perspective. Srivinivasan (1979) measures brand equity by testing preferences for different primary health care physicians.
Kim et al. (2003) value brand equity on different dimensions, which include brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality and brand image. The firm seeks to communicate the message about a brand is known as brand identity (Aaker, 1991, 1996). This communication is undertaken via the product, the brand name, symbols, logo, historical roots, brand’s creator and advestising (Kapferer, 1998). However, the message that a firm seeks can be different to what consumer perceives, which referred to as the brand image. Buyer may assume or expect a thing about a firm without any objective evidence and they will hold an opinion (Hague and Jackson, 1994).
A brand that is established and has the patronage of consumers is said to possess brand loyalty. Brand loyalty can be defined as a strongly motivated and long standing decision to purhase a product or service to the extent that buyers become loyal to a specific brand (Dibb et al., 2001, p. 271). It can be extremely advantageous to the seller because they require much cheaper cost to retain customers than attract new ones.
Buying a new car is considered a big investment and final decision is usually made after careful consideration. The automobile market consists of several car-type segment, for example mini car, sedan cars, and sport car. This market structure allows car makers to serve better to their customers, as different car types match with different customer needs. Brands names convey informations about various aspect of a product that are difficult to quantify such as reputation, status and heritage. This is particularly so in the car market where brand names play a traditionally important role in purchase decision for various reasons.
2.4.2 Lifestyle 生活方式
A successful business operation normally dependent upon an adequate knowledge of consumer behaviour and lifestyle market segmentation strategies has become more significant and important. Lifestyle of potential consumer is viewed as one aspect of an overall marketing strategy which allow company to develop a more lifelike portrait of customer. Lifestyle analysis enhances target marketing and makes niche marketing feasible. Consumer lifestyles change from time to time. Adjustment to changing consumer lifestyles are important in order for marketing to progress smoothly ( Ronald D. Michman, Edward M. Mazze, Alan James Greco, 2003).
Well and Tigert (1977) stated that lifestyle segmentation has been a useful concept for marketing and advertising planning purposes. Lifestyle has been defined as how one lives but in marketing, lifestyle describes the behaviour of individuals, a small group of interacting people and large group of people acting as potential consumers. The concept represent a set of ideas quite distinct from that of personality. The lifestyle relates to economic level at which people live, how they spend the money, and how they allocate their time (Anderson and Golden, 1984).
Lifestyle segmentation research measures people’s activities in term of:
How they spend their time
What interests they have and what importance they place on their immediate surroundings
Their views of themselves and the world around them and some basic demographic characteristics.
The most widely used approach to lifestyle measurement has been activities, interests and opinions rating statement (Wells and Tigert, 1977). The marketers and consumer researchers generally focus on identifying the broad trends that influence how consumers live, work, and play. It allows a population to be viewed as distinct individuals with feeling and tendencies, addressed in compatible segments or groups to make more efficient use of mass media.
Researchers tend to equate psychographic with the study of lifestyles. Market Researchers used Psychographic research to describe a consumer segment so as to help an organization better reach and understand its customers. Lifestyle pattern provide broader views of consumers so that marketers can think more intelligently. The basic premise of lifestyle research is that the more marketers know and understand about their customers, the more effectively they can communicate with and serve them better (Kaynak and Kara, 1996). Majority of lifestyle studies have been carried out in the western countries, lifestyle analysis in some countries like Turkey is surely lacking.
Prior research has shown that employed consumer lifestyle to predict and profile natural segments of users for a number of products and services (Fournier et al., 1992). Researchs on alcohol in particular tied lifestyle to levels of consumption for beer, wine and spirits ( Lesch et al., 1991). Considerable practical relevance is added through the fact that insight into lifestyle activities of consumers with specific brand preferences and benefit orientation support managerial decisions on selecting, combining and designing media.
2.4.3 Country of origin 原产地
Building strong brands has become a marketing top priorty for many organizations today because it yield a number of advantages and strong brands help firm establish an identity in the market place. In buying process, consumers are not only concern about the quality and price of a product but they also concern other factors such as the brand’s country-of-origin. Many consumers use country-of-origin stereotypes to determine products for example, “Japanese electronics are reliable”, “German cars are excellent”,
Many consumers believe that a “Made in . . .” label means a product is “superior” or “inferior” depending on their perception of the country. Countries with a favorable image generally find that their brands are readily accepted than those from countries with less favorable image.
Country of origin effect refers to how consumers perceive products made in a particular country. In developing a corporate imagery for a product, the importance of various marketing mix variable such as product appearance, brand image and name are firmly established, as well as that of the imagery elicited by a product’s country of origin. Nagashima (1970) defined imagery of the country of origin as the picture, reputation, stereotype that businessmen and consumers attach to product of a specific country. This image is created by such variables as representative products, national characteristics, economic and political background, history and traditions.
Roth and Romeo (1992) defined country image as the overall perception consumers forms of products from a particular country, based on their prior perception of the country’s production , strengths and weaknesses. Research has identified ways with which country of origin is credited to impact consumers’ evaluation of product, for example consumers’ cognitive processes may include self-perception, expressed as a desire to match self and product image (Sirgy et al., 1991). The country of origin may directly affecting consumers’ attitude towards the brand of a country instead of through product attribute ratings (Wright, 1975).
In globalized competition, many multinational companies have moved or outsourced their production to low-cost locations or countries. Although developing countries can assist corporations in enhancing cost advantages but corporations also face the risk of potential loss due to negative country of origin effect (Cho and Kang, 2001; Trent and Monczka, 2005). It has been evident that where a product is made can have an impact on consumer product evaluation and purchase decision (Bilkey and Nes, 1982; Gaedeke, 1973; Han and Terpstra, 1988; Okechuku, 1994). Consumers’ sensitivity level to country of origin has become an important issue for marketers, many researchers focused their attention on the relative importance of country of origin information and other product cues such as price and store name.
Several explanations have been proposed to interpret how consumer react to country of origin information. “Halo effect” and “Summary effect” are two of the most common ones. Halo effect model serve as a cognitive cue for consumers to infer their beliefs regarding other attributes of a product and thus overall product evaluation (Erikson et al., 1984). Summary effect model in the other hand suggested that consumers recode and abstract their knowledge about a country’s products into their image of the country’s image serves as hint to infer quality of product from that country. Among many determinants of a country image, stage of economic development of a country has been the most common cited one and customers typically hold unfavourable feeling and have lower quality perceptions toward product made in less developed countries (Cordell, 1993; Kaynak and Cavusgil, 1983).
Automobile manufacturers are rapidly competing to persuade consumers to purchase their brands. A knowledge of the different evaluation criterion for selecting cars further improves the firm’s capability to influence a purchase. M.Sadiq Sohail (2004) carried out a study on Malaysian consumers’ perception towards product originated from Germany. The study reveal that Malaysian consumers take note of product originating from Germany and they are able to critically assess products from different dimensions. Malaysian consumers evaluate product dimensions differently based on the country of origin and also have different preferences for product based on country of origin (Sohail 2004a; Sohail 2004b). On the choice of products made from Germany, Malaysian consumers have shown a high preference for automobile.
Srikatanyoo and Gnoth (2002) defined that consumer are generally known to develop stereotypical beliefs about products from particular countries and the attributes of those products. Therefore the country of origin image has power to arouse importers’ and consumers’ belief about product attributes, and to influence evaluation of product and brands. Since consumers’ perception of a particular country of origin influence their evaluation of products from that country, this will influence their purchase intention, preference and choice of a particular brand name.
2.4.4 Environmentally friendly 环保
Environmentally friendly product or green products are designed to minimize the environmental impact when they are being used or consumed. Green products are interesting to firms because green issues and social responsibility are becoming important to consumers. Brown and Dacin (1997) found that a companys’ efforts toward social responsibility, including environmental sustainability, will lead consumers to give their product better evaluation than product from less responsible organizations.
The automobile industry has made remarkable positive contributions to the world economy and people’s mobility throughout the globe, but its products and processes are a significant source of environmental impact. There is still a lack of literature investigating high involvement purchases of green products. (Goldstein et al., 2008; Hage et al., 2009; Thøgersen, 1996). Better understanding of green consumer is important for business and environmental reason. According to some researchers, Western societies and Asian societies differ in their perception of environmental values. People in the West tend to associate environmental values with altruism, whereas environmental concerns are typically correlated with traditional values by their Asian counterparts.
Researchers have made few contributions pertaining the importance of environmental attitudes and behavior, but these related studies have been limited to behavior or to products that typically garner lower consumer involvement. The green consumption behavior has to be done across product categories that are more expensive which is car and this able to reflect more on the consumers’ image, have higher social risk or require more research prior to purchase. The intention to purchase hybrid cars have increase and that become a variable that related to intention to purchase a high involvement environmentally product. The reason hybrid cars demand increased was due to the rising gas prices and advocacy for global sustainability have increased the emphasis on environmentally vehicles (Hybrid Cars.com, 2008).
The experience owning a car is relatively infrequent occurrence that constitutes one of the important expenditure. Car is durable product and when developing it, insight into what aspect of the product are most important to consumer is useful. This ensuring the product design fits to and communicates the aspects that are important to consumers. Of course focus on one aspect doesn’t mean that other aspects can be neglected. The importance of certain product aspects in buying durable product differs with demographic characteristics, such as age, gender and social class.
In previous research, relations between the importance of functional and expressive product aspect and variables such as age, gender, social class have been indicated (Henry, 2002; Holt, 1998; Williams, 2002). Family members may play different roles in making decision within the family. They may contribute information and they may decide where to buy, time to buy, which brand and how to use the product. For past research, found that family members roles played differ with regard to the product being purchased, the stage in the decision-making process and characteristics of families and spouses (Blech and Ceresino, 1985;Davis, 1976; Piron, 2002; Webster, 1995). These roles may change from time to time due to changes in the environment, such as economic development, which lead to adjustment in the role structure of the decision-making process.
Some researcher have questioned the nature of rationality in making purchasing decision, stressing the underpinning and social construction of collective rationality. The cultural and political influences at work, and representing human rationality in the behavioral terms (Wensley, 1997; Patton, 1996). One of the demographic variable is concerning the influence of gender on certain product aspects. Henry(2002) concluded that females use less functional purchase critea than males.
Williams (2002), who respondents indicate the importance or several criteria for nine types of products, found that performance, durability, reliability, style , quality , appearance and etc were important to females. Research shows that males more indicate functional item that are valued for their instrumental value as their favorite possessions. Dittmar et al. (1995) found that men tend to buy instrumental items, while women tend to buy symbolic emotional aspects of self. Females more sensitive to the color of an electronic scanner than males, which points to the more attention to aesthetic aspects. ( Smith, 1995 )
The relation of age also an important aspect and Henry (2002) found that younger consumer use more expressive purchase criteria. Wallendorf and Arnould (1988) found that younger people focused more on hedonic pleasures in choosing their favorite objects. Older people are more sensitive to utilitarian brand image aspects ( Hsieh et al. 2004). In the other hand, Wallendorf and Arnould (1988) found older people less likely to choose functional as opposed to display items as favorite possessions. Based on these finding conducted by researchers, they found that younger peoples are likely to pay more attention to aesthetic and symbolic products than elder people. They expect older people to more toward utilitarian aspects in buying durable products, and will assess whether this applies to functionalities as well as quality and ease of use.
In marketing and consumer science, there is a long history of studying purchase decision process and a considerable amount of conceptual and empirical work exists relating to how consumers make decisions (Lehto, 1997). However , Moreau and Dahl (2005) stated that majority of it has focused on understanding the ways in which consumers learn about, construct preference for, and choose among existing standard product or services designed to meet their previous identified needs. Branding has been subject to considerable research and debate by many researchers. Despite this interest, there are some areas where research is limited, dated, or contradictory (Glynn et al., 2007)
In the past decades, economy of China has grown at an extremely pace resulting in a booming number of affluent and middle class consumers. Despite the worldwide economic downturn in 2008, China’s appetite for high-end product has shown a strong upward momentum. Germany luxury carmaker BMW saw sales in China jump by 44 percent in June of 2009, while United States sales fell by more than 20 percent (Knowledge@Wharton, 2009). Consumers’ consumption needs have been largely influenced by the cultural, economical, social and environmental factors. A lifestyle analysis perspective could serve such a purpose, as lifestyle concept provides an approach to understand consumers’ everyday needs and wants (Michman and Mazze, 2009).
When come to purchase a car, consumer always face numerous decisions related to product itself, its purchase and intended usage. Researchers have extended considerable effort to have better understanding on how such decisions are framed. Among the myriad parameters that influence the purchasing decision and consumption of a product are its country of origin . Marketer and researchers generally agreed that a product’s country of origin is actually important in consumer decision making.
The role of consumer behaviour in improving and protecting environmental quality is important to sustainable communities. Studies based on survey research suggest that there is a positive relationship between attitudes of the environmental concern and environmentally friendly consumer behaviour (Minton and Rose, 1997; Robert and Bacon 1997; Robert, 1996; Gatersleben and Steg, 2002). With respect to consumer behaviour, automobile emissions are the single largest contributors with almost 50 percent of personal pollution to several pollutants including carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.
2.4 Factors influencing the purchase decision of automobile 影响汽车采购决策的因素
2.4.1 Brand image 品牌形象
Fierce competition forces firms to adopt strategies that create competitive advantage for the firm. A well established brand name is one way of achieving this aim. Firms invest heavily in developing a brand and it is a very pricey process but has high returns once succeed is achieved. Brand image can be recognized as one of the core area of the marketing research field and many researchers have done researches based on this element.
Brand image keep changing as the environment changes for example many brand start up unknown and slowly build a positive brand image through stages. Some brand will rapidly build with their name while some may die-off and disappear in a short period of time. A good example of brand still survive and compete strongly in the market is Nike sport wears. Researchers found that market is more important than factories because factories may rust away, packages become obsolete, product will lose relevance, but a good brand name can last forever. Brand image is established when consumers develop ideas, expectation and feeling towards certain brands as they learn, memorize and become accustomed to them.
Many firms do not always invest heavily creating a new brand name each time they develop a new product, however a more economical strategy being used to introduce a new product. Instead of giving a new brand name to a new product, an existing well known and established brand name is extended into the new product category which in other words, brand extension is used. It is a fact that developing a new brand requires more fund to invest compare to create a brand extension which is what motivates firms prefer brand extensions more than creating a new brand. The brand is one of the most important asset that a firm owns. A firm with a high brand equity achieves high perceptions of the brand by the customers, greater loyalty from customer, high profit margin, less threaten by competitors’ marketing actions, less price sensitive by customer, higher support of middleman, higher marketing promotion effectiveness, increasing licensing and brand extension opportunities (Keller, 2008, p.49).
There are numerous definition of the term brand image found in the literature. The American Marketing Association (cf.Kotler, 2000, p. 404) defines a brand as a name, sign, symbol, design, or combination of them. A brand has been seen as essentially being a seller’s promise to deliver a specific set of features, benefits, and services consistently to the buyers (Kotler, 2000). Therefore the brand is not only just a name, the important is to develop a deep set of positive associations for the brand image. Consumer chooses brands to received emotional benefit they believe such as prestige and status.
Brand name is a name, term, design or all the above used by a firm to differ themselves from their competitors. Brand image can be said as the set of association elaborated in imaginative capacity of the consumer, who allows the brand to reach higher volume of sales than product without a brand name (The Marketing Science Institute). A good brand image brought up by promotions and advertisements and by communicating a well defined brand image allows consumers to identify need satisfied by the brand.
Thakor and Katsanis (1997) claimed that a positive brand image can make up for a country of origin’s inferior image and a product holds a famous brand, it can delete consumers’ negative perception of that particular country. Brand image is important because consumer believed and perceived that the quality and brand name are interrelated. More research has discovers that the level of consumer loyalty, trust and intention to purchase have relation with a good brand image. Therefore, brand is a way to show an individual status and identity and rank among their social group. Doyle (1998) stated that successful brands have created wealth by attracting and retaining customers as a result of combining an effective product, distinctive identity, and added values in the mind of the consumer.
The quality of the product is an important aspect when forming a perception about the brand. The customer evaluates the brand according to his or her perceptions of quality which is sometimes more difficult than actually delivering high quality (Aaker, 1990, p. 48). Consumer who has strong attitudes about the quality of the brand tend to transfer positive attitude to the product. Car quality is often hard to evaluate prior to purchase and buyers may have to rely on car manufacturers’ reputations and consumers’ reactions to cars are often emotional and unconscious (Seidel et al., 2005). The reassurance, disctinctiveness, and image of an established brand elevate the perceived value of a car. Therefore, a prestige brand is able to follow premium pricing strategies. The commercial importance of brands is undoubtedly evident and benefits of a great brand include short-term gain on recognition to long-term competitive advantage which translated into revenues and profits.
Valuing brands is not a straightforward task because there is no formal market for buying and selling brands. Simon and Sullivan (1993) who extract brand equity from the firm’s intangible assets. Using market value of the firm, this technique focuses on a forward-looking perspective and takes into account new information. Several researchers have attempted to quantify brand equity by focusing on the consumer perspective. Srivinivasan (1979) measures brand equity by testing preferences for different primary health care physicians.
Kim et al. (2003) value brand equity on different dimensions, which include brand loyalty, brand awareness, perceived quality and brand image. The firm seeks to communicate the message about a brand is known as brand identity (Aaker, 1991, 1996). This communication is undertaken via the product, the brand name, symbols, logo, historical roots, brand’s creator and advestising (Kapferer, 1998). However, the message that a firm seeks can be different to what consumer perceives, which referred to as the brand image. Buyer may assume or expect a thing about a firm without any objective evidence and they will hold an opinion (Hague and Jackson, 1994).
A brand that is established and has the patronage of consumers is said to possess brand loyalty. Brand loyalty can be defined as a strongly motivated and long standing decision to purhase a product or service to the extent that buyers become loyal to a specific brand (Dibb et al., 2001, p. 271). It can be extremely advantageous to the seller because they require much cheaper cost to retain customers than attract new ones.
Buying a new car is considered a big investment and final decision is usually made after careful consideration. The automobile market consists of several car-type segment, for example mini car, sedan cars, and sport car. This market structure allows car makers to serve better to their customers, as different car types match with different customer needs. Brands names convey informations about various aspect of a product that are difficult to quantify such as reputation, status and heritage. This is particularly so in the car market where brand names play a traditionally important role in purchase decision for various reasons.
2.4.2 Lifestyle 生活方式
A successful business operation normally dependent upon an adequate knowledge of consumer behaviour and lifestyle market segmentation strategies has become more significant and important. Lifestyle of potential consumer is viewed as one aspect of an overall marketing strategy which allow company to develop a more lifelike portrait of customer. Lifestyle analysis enhances target marketing and makes niche marketing feasible. Consumer lifestyles change from time to time. Adjustment to changing consumer lifestyles are important in order for marketing to progress smoothly ( Ronald D. Michman, Edward M. Mazze, Alan James Greco, 2003).
Well and Tigert (1977) stated that lifestyle segmentation has been a useful concept for marketing and advertising planning purposes. Lifestyle has been defined as how one lives but in marketing, lifestyle describes the behaviour of individuals, a small group of interacting people and large group of people acting as potential consumers. The concept represent a set of ideas quite distinct from that of personality. The lifestyle relates to economic level at which people live, how they spend the money, and how they allocate their time (Anderson and Golden, 1984).
Lifestyle segmentation research measures people’s activities in term of:
How they spend their time
What interests they have and what importance they place on their immediate surroundings
Their views of themselves and the world around them and some basic demographic characteristics.
The most widely used approach to lifestyle measurement has been activities, interests and opinions rating statement (Wells and Tigert, 1977). The marketers and consumer researchers generally focus on identifying the broad trends that influence how consumers live, work, and play. It allows a population to be viewed as distinct individuals with feeling and tendencies, addressed in compatible segments or groups to make more efficient use of mass media.
Researchers tend to equate psychographic with the study of lifestyles. Market Researchers used Psychographic research to describe a consumer segment so as to help an organization better reach and understand its customers. Lifestyle pattern provide broader views of consumers so that marketers can think more intelligently. The basic premise of lifestyle research is that the more marketers know and understand about their customers, the more effectively they can communicate with and serve them better (Kaynak and Kara, 1996). Majority of lifestyle studies have been carried out in the western countries, lifestyle analysis in some countries like Turkey is surely lacking.
Prior research has shown that employed consumer lifestyle to predict and profile natural segments of users for a number of products and services (Fournier et al., 1992). Researchs on alcohol in particular tied lifestyle to levels of consumption for beer, wine and spirits ( Lesch et al., 1991). Considerable practical relevance is added through the fact that insight into lifestyle activities of consumers with specific brand preferences and benefit orientation support managerial decisions on selecting, combining and designing media.
2.4.3 Country of origin 原产地
Building strong brands has become a marketing top priorty for many organizations today because it yield a number of advantages and strong brands help firm establish an identity in the market place. In buying process, consumers are not only concern about the quality and price of a product but they also concern other factors such as the brand’s country-of-origin. Many consumers use country-of-origin stereotypes to determine products for example, “Japanese electronics are reliable”, “German cars are excellent”,
Many consumers believe that a “Made in . . .” label means a product is “superior” or “inferior” depending on their perception of the country. Countries with a favorable image generally find that their brands are readily accepted than those from countries with less favorable image.
Country of origin effect refers to how consumers perceive products made in a particular country. In developing a corporate imagery for a product, the importance of various marketing mix variable such as product appearance, brand image and name are firmly established, as well as that of the imagery elicited by a product’s country of origin. Nagashima (1970) defined imagery of the country of origin as the picture, reputation, stereotype that businessmen and consumers attach to product of a specific country. This image is created by such variables as representative products, national characteristics, economic and political background, history and traditions.
Roth and Romeo (1992) defined country image as the overall perception consumers forms of products from a particular country, based on their prior perception of the country’s production , strengths and weaknesses. Research has identified ways with which country of origin is credited to impact consumers’ evaluation of product, for example consumers’ cognitive processes may include self-perception, expressed as a desire to match self and product image (Sirgy et al., 1991). The country of origin may directly affecting consumers’ attitude towards the brand of a country instead of through product attribute ratings (Wright, 1975).
In globalized competition, many multinational companies have moved or outsourced their production to low-cost locations or countries. Although developing countries can assist corporations in enhancing cost advantages but corporations also face the risk of potential loss due to negative country of origin effect (Cho and Kang, 2001; Trent and Monczka, 2005). It has been evident that where a product is made can have an impact on consumer product evaluation and purchase decision (Bilkey and Nes, 1982; Gaedeke, 1973; Han and Terpstra, 1988; Okechuku, 1994). Consumers’ sensitivity level to country of origin has become an important issue for marketers, many researchers focused their attention on the relative importance of country of origin information and other product cues such as price and store name.
Several explanations have been proposed to interpret how consumer react to country of origin information. “Halo effect” and “Summary effect” are two of the most common ones. Halo effect model serve as a cognitive cue for consumers to infer their beliefs regarding other attributes of a product and thus overall product evaluation (Erikson et al., 1984). Summary effect model in the other hand suggested that consumers recode and abstract their knowledge about a country’s products into their image of the country’s image serves as hint to infer quality of product from that country. Among many determinants of a country image, stage of economic development of a country has been the most common cited one and customers typically hold unfavourable feeling and have lower quality perceptions toward product made in less developed countries (Cordell, 1993; Kaynak and Cavusgil, 1983).
Automobile manufacturers are rapidly competing to persuade consumers to purchase their brands. A knowledge of the different evaluation criterion for selecting cars further improves the firm’s capability to influence a purchase. M.Sadiq Sohail (2004) carried out a study on Malaysian consumers’ perception towards product originated from Germany. The study reveal that Malaysian consumers take note of product originating from Germany and they are able to critically assess products from different dimensions. Malaysian consumers evaluate product dimensions differently based on the country of origin and also have different preferences for product based on country of origin (Sohail 2004a; Sohail 2004b). On the choice of products made from Germany, Malaysian consumers have shown a high preference for automobile.
Srikatanyoo and Gnoth (2002) defined that consumer are generally known to develop stereotypical beliefs about products from particular countries and the attributes of those products. Therefore the country of origin image has power to arouse importers’ and consumers’ belief about product attributes, and to influence evaluation of product and brands. Since consumers’ perception of a particular country of origin influence their evaluation of products from that country, this will influence their purchase intention, preference and choice of a particular brand name.
2.4.4 Environmentally friendly 环保
Environmentally friendly product or green products are designed to minimize the environmental impact when they are being used or consumed. Green products are interesting to firms because green issues and social responsibility are becoming important to consumers. Brown and Dacin (1997) found that a companys’ efforts toward social responsibility, including environmental sustainability, will lead consumers to give their product better evaluation than product from less responsible organizations.
The automobile industry has made remarkable positive contributions to the world economy and people’s mobility throughout the globe, but its products and processes are a significant source of environmental impact. There is still a lack of literature investigating high involvement purchases of green products. (Goldstein et al., 2008; Hage et al., 2009; Thøgersen, 1996). Better understanding of green consumer is important for business and environmental reason. According to some researchers, Western societies and Asian societies differ in their perception of environmental values. People in the West tend to associate environmental values with altruism, whereas environmental concerns are typically correlated with traditional values by their Asian counterparts.
Researchers have made few contributions pertaining the importance of environmental attitudes and behavior, but these related studies have been limited to behavior or to products that typically garner lower consumer involvement. The green consumption behavior has to be done across product categories that are more expensive which is car and this able to reflect more on the consumers’ image, have higher social risk or require more research prior to purchase. The intention to purchase hybrid cars have increase and that become a variable that related to intention to purchase a high involvement environmentally product. The reason hybrid cars demand increased was due to the rising gas prices and advocacy for global sustainability have increased the emphasis on environmentally vehicles (Hybrid Cars.com, 2008).
Literature review范文中同时提到关于环境态度和行为的重要性，研究人员几乎没有做出什么贡献，但这些相关研究仅限于行为或消费者参与度较低的产品。绿色消费行为必须跨越更昂贵的产品类别，即汽车，这能够更多地反映消费者的形象，具有更高的社会风险，或者在购买前需要更多的研究。Literature review范文总结购买混合动力汽车的意愿有所增加，这成为与购买高环保产品意愿相关的变量。混合动力汽车需求增加的原因是汽油价格上涨和全球可持续性的倡导增加了对环保汽车的重视。本站提供各国各专业留学生dissertation写作指导服务，如有需要可咨询本平台。
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