Brand, Identity and Reputation: Exploring, Creating New Realities ...

Culture‘s Influence on Consumer Purchase Attitudes Toward Luxury Fashion
Brands Over the Internet: Development of Conceptual Framework
Jaehee Jung, University of Delaware, U.S.A.
Introduction
Consumers hesitate to buy luxury fashion products over the Internet despite the fact that e-commerce has been one of
the important retail channels for companies around the world. Although the demand for luxury online sales is on the
increase (Okonkwo, 2005), luxury brands face unique challenges of selling products online. Some have raised the
issues of the compatibility of the Internet with luxury brands, while others have suggested that the Internet is purely a
communication channel for luxury brands (Okonkwo, 2009). Given the fact that brand-related experiences are a core
part of luxury brands (Atwal & Williams, 2009), there might be more fundamental issues for luxury brands, including
many fashion products, as to why they have not been successful in transferring consumer demand over the Internet.
Despite the increased consumer interest for luxury fashion brands and proclivity toward clicking a mouse to
browse/purchase products over the Internet, particularly among younger demographics, little to no information is
available on consumer attitudes toward purchasing luxury fashion brands over the Internet. In addition, there is no
Information on how cultural characteristics would play a role in consumer purchasing behaviors toward luxury fashion
brands over the Internet.
Purpose
The proposed study aims to develop a conceptual framework capturing culture‘s influence on consumer‘s purchase
attitudes toward luxury fashion brands over the Internet in a cross-cultural context between the U.S. and China. As
Chinese e-commerce is developing at a dazzling speed, one out of every three Chinese Internet users, or one out of 10
Chinese people is shopping online (Internet World Stats, 2010). However, luxury fashion brands are yet to offer their
products to Chinese consumers over the Internet. Cultural orientations are believed to influence consumer perceptions
toward luxury fashion brands, which in turn influence consumer behaviors over the Internet. Consumers in different
regions have different cultural characteristics and these cultural characteristics are likely to influence consumer
perceptions about luxury fashion brands and what they expect of them to be associated with their purchase and
consumption. Similarly, consumers of different cultures may have different retail expectations about consumer
products and expectations about luxury products may be a lot more specific and demanding given the fact that
consumers have to pay the premium prices.
Top-Down Dynamic Between Luxury Brands and Consumers and Cultural Characteristics
Consumers look up to luxury brands and this relationship between consumers and luxury brands can be characterized as
being ‗top-down‘ as luxury brands cater to consumers who seek ostentatious consumption to stamp their superiority and
maintain distance from the mass (Okonkwo, 2009). According to Hofstede‘s (1980, 1991) cultural dimensions, cultures
with high Power Distance, mostly Eastern collectivistic countries such as China, understand that less powerful members
of institutions and organizations accept that power is distributed unequally. In fact, Chinese consumers are known to be
highly respective of authority (Lau, 1999) and they look for opinion leaders like celebrities when making purchase
decisions. Because Chinese society is known to have a greater degree of collectivism and power distance than the U.S.,
it is presumed that the top-down dynamic between luxury brands and consumers to a large extent would be more
suitable in the Chinese cultural context. This means that luxury brands of premium image should be well respected in
China and consumers would be more willing to buy luxury products to emulate social class that is being pursued and
respected within China. In addition, luxury fashion brands are often used to enhance one‘s social status via public
display and because Chinese society considers social status and saving face by means of wealth important (Graham &
Lam, 2004), luxury fashion brands should be more appealing to Chinese consumers than they are to U.S. consumers.
China is a group-oriented and Confucian-based culture where personal interaction has been a long tradition.
Confucianism defines rules for interactions among people, as well as their roles and obligations to one another to
maintain harmony among people who are not equal in power emphasizing hierarchical relationships. Despite the
increased interest for Internet shopping, it is not clear to what extent buying products over the Internet would be suitable
to this culture as Chinese consumers may view interactions with sales associates in a brick-and-mortar store more
favorably over shopping in the virtual store when purchasing products. For products that consumers have to pay
premium prices, the interaction between the customer and sales associates can be a symbol of social status in such as
way that customers expect to be treated better by sales associates during their shopping experience. Therefore,
consumers in China will be less willing to buy luxury fashion products over the Internet than consumers in the U.S.
Top-Down Dynamic and Use of Social Media
The top-down dynamic between luxury brands and consumers may influence not only the level of desire for luxury
products, but may also impact the use of social media (e.g., facebook, twitter) by luxury fashion brands. While luxury
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