With the digitalization of production and consumption environments, consumers are no longer merely targets of marketing, but key players in creating value jointly with companies by participating in various decision-making processes. Much virtual content in particular, such as fashion shows, exhibitions, games, social activities, and shopping, which fashion brands implement in virtual worlds, cannot be completed without consumers’ active engagement and interaction. Thus, this study considers consumers’ participation in virtual content provided by fashion brands as value co-creation in virtual worlds. This study aims to examine how consumer (i.e., consumer smartness) and fashion firm (i.e., perceived intellectual capital) factors influence value co-creation behavior intention in virtual worlds. Data were collected from 410 consumers in their 20s nationwide through an online survey, and a higher-order structural equation modeling analysis was conducted to test the research model. The results showed that both consumer smartness and perceived intellectual capital positively influenced customer participation behavior and citizenship behavior intentions. Specifically, perceived intellectual capital had a greater impact on value co-creation behavior in the virtual world than consumer smartness. The findings provide empirical evidence that the fashion firms’ intangible assets and consumers’ competence in the digital shopping environment encourage their intentions to co-create value in virtual worlds.

비건 화장품 시장이 급성장하는 가운데, 소비자의 환경 및 윤리적 가치 지향이 강화되고 있지 만, 이에 관한 연구는 제한적이다. 본 연구는 비건 화장품의 구매의도에 영향을 주는 소비자의 가치 인식과 환경 동기, 그리고 지각된 장벽 간의 관계를 분석하였다. 300명의 비건화장품 사용 경험이 있는 여성을 대 상으로 PLS-SEM 분석을 진행한 결과, 금전적 가치, 사회적 가치, 브랜드 가치, 감정적 가치, 품질 가치, 그리고 환경 지식이 구매의도에 큰 영향을 주는 것으로 확인되었다. 조절 효과 분석에서는 이미지 장벽과 가치 장벽이 중요한 요인으로 나타났다. 중요도-성능 지도 분석을 통해, 감정적 가치가 비건 화장품의 구 매의도를 강화하는 전략적 결정에 중요한 핵심 요인으로 드러났다. 본 연구는 비건 화장품 시장의 경쟁력 강화와 지속 가능한 소비 태도 활성화에 대한 이론적 및 실무적 기여를 제공한다.

This study aimed to identify the effects of shopping environmental stimuli on Chinese consumers’ functional and symbolic value perceptions toward luxury lifestyle fashion stores. An enhanced S-O-R (stimulus-organism-response) model was used as the theoretical foundation. Significant relationships were identified between shopping environmental stimuli and the perceived values.

Introduction In recent times, mass customization strategy has been actively adapted even in the food service industry, which provides services wherein consumers select the main ingredients of the food they order according to their preference. In this study, we examine the effect of mass customization strategies perceived by consumers in the food service industry. We also includes the external and internal environmental factors stimuli surrounding the situation of purchasing customized food items to better predict how consumer’s perceived value of mass customization might be formed within the context of service industry. Evidence shows that consumers’ perceived value is high for mass customization in food consumption service compared to food service for a fixed menu. The findings further suggest that this effects of mass customization on consumer perception is moderated by social influence (group vs. individual) and food type (utilitarian vs. hedonic). Theoretical Development Recent research in the field of mass customization has demonstrated that the advantage of designing consumer’s own products is in increasing consumer's perceived benefits while engaging in the customization of tangible products. These studies have shown that the mass customization provides consumers with a utilitarian value due to the purchase of optimized products that meet their individual needs and various values that are embedded in the customization process, such as hedonic value, self-expressive value, and creative achievement (Merle, Chandon, Roux, & Alizon, 2010; Yoo & Park, 2016), and that this value recognition leads to positive attitudes and behavioral responses such as high willingness to pay (Franke, Keinz, & Steger, 2009; Schreier, 2006), purchase intent, and loyalty (Yoo & Park, 2016). However, whereas research on mass customization focusing on tangible products has been actively conducted, research in the field of intangible services, is still lacking in two respects. First, there has been very little discussion of the effectiveness of mass customization strategies in the food service industry. Specifically, based on the stimuli-organism-response (S-O-R) framework, which states that environmental stimuli (S) lead to the formation of a customer perception (O) that induces consumers’ behavioral responses (R) (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974), existing research focused on the relationship of customer’s behavioral response to mass-customized food service (S-R relationship) (Kuo & Cranage, 2010; Wolf and Zhang, 2016), failing to embrace S-O relationship that focuses on how mass customization differs from a standard system in terms of how consumers perceive value. Considering that mass customization services can be regarded as a form of customer engagement strategy (Chathoth et al., 2014; Chathoth et al., 2016), it can be assumed that mass customization in services can induce positive consumer perception. Second, little research has yet examined situational factors that affect consumer response in purchasing mass customization of products/service. Considering that service environments play a significant role in service delivery by strengthening customer perceptions and retention (Baker, Parasuraman, Grewal, & Voss, 2002; Sherman, Mathur, & Smith, 1997), it is necessary to identify the internal and external environmental factors that limit or enhance consumers’ perceived value of the mass customization for effective implementation of the mass customization strategy. The aim of the present research is to empirically examine the effects of mass customization on consumer responses. It is hypothesized that consumers’ perceived value might be high for mass customization in food consumption service (compared to food service for a fixed menu) (H1), which is consistent with previous literature on consumer responses to mass customization in tangible. Furthermore, the current research further includes various environmental stimuli surrounding the situation of purchasing customized food items to better predict how consumer’s perceived value of mass customization might be formed within the context of service industry. Based on the assumption that (a) people's choice of consumption is affected by the expectations of how others evaluate their decisions (Ariely & Levav, 2000; Calder & Burnkrant, 1977) and that (b) consumers are more concerned about social norms and therefore make similar choices to blend in resulting in uniformity at the group level (Tice, Butler, Muraven, & Stillwell, 1995), it is expected that consumers sometimes feel compelled to refrain from choosing favorites because of how they expect to be perceived by others, hindering consumer’s benefits of mass customization. In addition, there are two food types based on the goal of consuming food: utilitarian food and hedonic food (craving for sweetness, e.g., desserts) (Wansink, Ittersum, & Painter, 2004; 2005). In pursuing the hedonic goal, the consumer tendency to engage in various behaviors is strengthened by the desire to express one’s personality to others (Ariely & Levav, 2000; Ratner & Kahn, 2002). Accordingly, in the present research, we explore the perceived value of mass customization moderated by social influence (H2), and food type (H3). In this model, social influence (group vs. individual), which is the factor outside the scope of customizing process, is regarded as an external variable and food types (utilitarian vs. hedonic), divided according to the purpose of food consumption, as an internal variable. Method We used a 2 (customization: low vs. high) × 2 (social influence: individual vs. group) between subject experiment conducted on the subjects regarding two types of food service: utilitarian food (main course) and hedonic food (dessert). We assigned 208 participants randomly to one of four conditions. Participants were asked to imagine they were visiting the high customized restaurant with their colleague together (vs. alone) that provide high customized service (vs. low customized service) and saw a menu for a food item. Modified from Kuo and Cranage (2010) study, two level of customized menu scenarios were used in this study. In the high customization scenario, participants are told that they were in a restaurant where they were offered to customize their dishes with choices of ingredients. In the low customization condition, participants were told that they were in a restaurant where they ordered among fixed menu items. Based on pretest result, we used pasta, which is entrée for the utilitarian food, and use ice-flake, which is dessert for the hedonic food. After reading the scenario, participants provide their perceived value of mass customization ratings of the service process. Results and Conclusion First, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed a significant effect of mass customization demonstrating that on perceived value, participants who read mass customization service condition had a higher perceived value on their food than participants in the fixed menu condition (H1). Second, in order to examine whether social influence (H2) and food type (H3) moderate the effect of mass customizatino on consumer perceptions, a moderated moderation model was performed a bootstrapping procedure with 5000 samples using the PROCESS model 3 (Hayes, 2016). The result revealed a significant three-way interaction effect among level of customization (high vs. Low), social influence (group vs. individual), and food types (utilitarian vs. hedonic). As the level of customization increases, the overall perceived value increases; however, it is confirmed that, when making decisions about food in a group situation, there are restrictions on perceiving the value that the consumer can customize and feel as compared to the individual situation. Finally, impact of social influence on the perceived value of customization is moderated by food type (hedonic vs. utilitarian). In other words, in hedonic food consumption situation, the modeartion effect of social influence on the perceived value of customization is weakened. Consumers are more likely to appreciate the process and consider it more palatable when they use mass customization service in restaurant. However, when people are conscious of the presence of others, the act of selecting food ingredients according to one’s own preference is restricted. Therefore, even if customized food is ordered in the presence of the group, its perceived value will be as lower than that of a fixed menu. In addition, when people use mass customization service in hedonic food consumption situations, regardless of group influence, they perceive that the value of customized menu is higher than that of the fixed menu. We expect that the study findings and framework will provide practical and theoretical implications such as the development of theories on food service situations, as well as aid restaurants in establishing marketing strategies. In addition, identifying internal and external environmental factors that limit consumers’ perceived value of mass customization will enable restaurants to find a suitable menu composition method to enhance and maintain customers’ perceived value and build a promotional strategy accordingly.

Understanding consumer insight in luxury watch purchase is crucial in the current situation where the industry is recovering from a downturn. Today, the consumer does not only purchase a luxury watch to impress others as in the past. Using the means end chain approach, this study discovers that branding, together with design, function and price are key attributes that customers consider. Consequently, the consumer benefits from having a sense of personal identification. In addition, today the consumer perceives the benefit of luxury watch purchase as an investment. Therefore, they seek product distinction, durability, and a value-work product, in order, to serve the perceived value of capital investment. The results of the study reflect a changing trend in the luxury consumer. Prestige value is not the only key factor determining the purchase decision as was found in previous studies. Therefore, the luxury watch players, in an effort to elicit increased sales, should consistently build the brand profile by offering both functionality and design. Furthermore, communication of focus on quality leads to durability that would be considered as an investment asset from generation to generation. Introduction In the luxury watch industry, despite the start of a recovery, from a downward trend, the growth rate is forecast to be at a slow pace (ReportLinker, 2017; Deloitte, 2016). The global luxury watch players face the challenge of decreasing demand as per the change in consumer behavior (Financial Time, 2017). Like other luxury goods, the luxury watch is considered as a product that is not entirely necessary but the drive behind the buying intention is due solely to the personal desire of the consumer In addition, individual perception as well as consumer purchasing power, has a strong link with decision making. Why a consumer buys a luxury watch today is rather different from why they bought one ten years ago (Adams, 2017). This study is conducted in order to understand luxury watch consumer insight using the means end theory, in ways of appropriation, and examine variations in consumer willingness-to-pay (Gengler & Mulvey, 2017). Luxury consumption behavior There are numerous studies to be found that explore luxury product consumption starting from extrinsic themes like consumer purchasing power (e.g. Veblen, 1899), consumer characteristics (e.g.Dubois & Laurent, 1993); (O'cass & McEwen, 2004), consumer behavior (Vigneron & Johnson, 1999; Kastanakis, & Balabanis, 2012) to intrinsic themes like consumer motivation (e.g.Xiao-hui, 2006; Truong & McColl, 2011), consumer perception (e.g. Zhan & He, 2012; Vigneron & Johnson, 2017) and at a more subjective level of consumer value (Sukhdial, Chakraborty, & Steger, 1995; Moraes, Carrigan, Bosangit, Ferreira, & McGrath, 2017; Vigneron, & Johnson, 2017). This is because the nature of the consumer has changed. The current consumer does not view purchasing a luxury item as a vehicle to impress others but much more to serve their own perspectives (Wiedmann, Hennigs & Siebels, 2009). Thus to cope with this downtrend, it is necessary, nowadays, for luxury brand suppliers to have a deep and detailed understanding of customer insight. Means end chain theory (MEC) and laddering MEC has been regarded as one of the most felicitous theories in consumer research since 1980 (Grunert et al. 2001). It was developed to help understand consumer insight in the decision making process (Gengler, Mulvey, & Oglethorpe, 1999) starting from how the consumer thinks about a product and why they buy it. Through MEC (Olson and Reynolds, 1983; Gutman, 1982; Howard, 1977; Young and Feigin, 1975), the researcher and marketer can discover the salient meanings consumers associate with products, both in services and behavior. The chain explains the linkage; starting from attributes through to consequences, and then to values in the form of a hierarchial model Gutman, 1982; Gengler, Mulvey, & Oglethorpe, 1999; Leao and Mello, 2007). Beginning with the first level, attributes are characteristics of the product/service the consumer is expecting which can be both tangible and non-tangible features. However, attributes will mean nothing to the consumer, without so called consequences (Klenosky, 2002). At the second level of the hierarchical model, consequences are benefits that take part in explaining why those attributes are important to consumers (Olson and Reynolds, 1983). The consumer is looking for particulars benefits when purchasing that certain product or service (Voss and Gruber, 2006). The final level is value. The consumer judges the benefit of the product based on the perceived value, in the mind of the customer (Gutman, 1982; Olson and Reynolds, 1983; Costa, Dekker, and Jongen, 2004). It is notable that the higher the hierarchial level, the greater the level of abstraction (Woodruff & Gardial, 1996). Using the MEC helps gain consumer insight information which allows the luxury brand supplier to offer products which are best suited for their targeted consumers (Petison, Thongthou and Lekmoung, 2012). Methodology By its nature, the MEC is adopted as a qualitative research method. In order to understand why a consumer is interested in a product and makes a purchasing decision (Smith and Swinyard, 1999); the decision making process can be revealed using the laddering interview (Gutman, 1982; Olson & Reynolds, 1983; Ozguven, 2012). Through the laddering interview, researchers decide to apply a soft laddering interview; an open answer question, rather than hard laddering interview; or a fixed answer question, to enjoy the benefits of go by the flow (Ozguven, 2012). Furthermore, soft laddering interview is well suited to the elite in a sense that interviewer can adjust questions depending on answers and ambience (Harvey, 2011). In this study a total of 30 luxury watch consumers; 18 females and 12 males, who recently bought luxury watches in 2017 were interviewed. This is because the researchers want to obtain the most up to date information. This group of consumers tended to purchase a luxury watch every year. The most popular brands these consumers purchased are Rolex, Patek Philippe, Panerai and Audemars Piguet. In face to face time, a semi structure interview was applied based on Reynolds and Gutmam (2001), who suggested questions such as; What affects your purchasing decision?, How do you feel about the product? Why do you want to wear this watch? etc. All interviews were recorded and verbatim transcripts produced. Content analyses were applied following the interviews. The preliminary categorization was into groups of attribute consequence and value, and recurring words with similar meanings collected in clusters. Research triangulation was applied to ensure validity. The researchers created a hierarchical value chain for each consumer then analyzed the findings by using LaddermapTM software. Results According to the content analysis process, a total of 28 attributes, 22 consequences, and 15 values were found in the study. Through the LaddermapTM software analysis only 7 attributes, 11 consequences, and 9 values can be reported as in figure 1. Figure 1: Hierarchial value map of luxury watch purchase Brand is the most important attribute from the viewpoint of the luxury consumer followed by design, price and function. For example, one consumer mentioned that “…brand helps one who wears it by identification…it reflects a certain lifestyle…wearing a Rolex is easy to take care of because of its quality as well as the ease to wear on any occasion…it is value for money… but more than this as it constantly appreciates in value.…” In addition, brand is a key attribute that leads to two most important consequences which are personal identification and investment. However, impressing others, which used to be a key rationale for purchasing luxury product is found to be absent from the top consumer benefits nowadays. However, today, luxury brand consumers are more concerned with distinction, durability, and value-work product as a consequence of watch purchase. For example, one consumer said that “…normally, women do not wear Pannarai. I love to be different…so I bought a limited edition….I wear it constantly for both work and leisure activities…although the price is high, I feel secure with the price paid…it has a warranty and good after- sales service…” Among reported values, monetary satisfaction is found to be the most the important followed by self- image and pleasure. For example, one consumers said that “…I always buy Rolex…my parents also use Rolex. From my parent’s experience of use, it was made aware that the Rolex is fabulous due to its quality and resale price. …I have never ever changed my mind about Rolex…it is excellent value as an investment…I am happy and satisfied with the money I have spent…” This study also found other consumers who expressed their satisfaction with money invested in comparison with another investment options such as gold or stocks. Moreover, it is an investment that can be passed on to their children. Discussions and Implications Nowadays, brand, design, price and function are the key attributes that luxury consumers focus on. Luxury brand suppliers should pay particular attention to a design that reflects the unique identity of the brand and distinguishes it from competitors. This is a consistent finding of Subhadip, Jain, &Matta (2018) that the luxury product ought to reflect its own creativity, artistry, and uniqueness. Moreover, consumers prefer a luxury watch that offers various functions that they can be used with ease on any occasion. In addition, the luxury consumer does not only purchase a watch that represents their self-image and bring in pleasure value, but also monetary satisfaction which is found to be most important nowadays so that the luxury watch player should advertise their brand based on this distinctive study finding. Durability is a reflection of quality brand. Warranty is the linkage between quality and value for money. Monetary satisfactory also comes from the benefits of investment and a generation to generation heritage.

To date, in various methodological and theoretical domains, consumer value has been investigated to provide a comprehensive analytical framework that encompasses the full range of consumption-related phenomena. Consumer value is regarded as an important marketing concept since it deals with an issue closely related to the product positioning and competitive advantages (Woodruff, 1997). In the current marketplace, brands have often collaborated with retailers to extend their products and gain a competitive advantage in positioning the products effectively in the targeted market. Therefore, it is important for brands to understand how consumers perceive extended products when they are sold in retail stores so that they can locate the perceived position closer to the ideal point of a target segment. Thus, this study aims to examine measurement invariance in measures of consumers’ perceived value and its effect on prediction to allow researchers to compare predictions across groups. Drawn from a theory of consumption values (Sheth, Newman, & Gross, 1991) and related literatures, this study considered perceived value as a multidimensional construct as well as the expected outcome of an evaluative judgment. Likert-type items with seven-points were used for measuring four latent factors including social value, monetary value, convenience value, and epistemic value. Using a total of 869 data from participants in the U.S., multigroup confirmatory factor analysis was performed to examine measurement invariance of consumers’ perceived value for two groups using different types of brand and retailer collaborations. The high-end brand and low-end retailer group had 444 participants, and the low-end brand and high-end retailer group had 425 participants. Based on the sequential testing procedure, the current study confirmed the consistent structure of the measurement instrument of consumers’ perceived value across groups. However, the factorial invariance of monetary value could not be established. The findings of this study contribute to providing insights on the methodological perspective by investigating whether or not the measurements of consumers’ perceived value yield measures of the same qualities in different shopping contexts.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the differences in fashion shopping orientation and perceived value according to the level of use of mobile fashion shopping. Furthermore, the effect of fashion shopping orientation on perceived value was analyzed. To estimate the level of use of mobile fashion shopping, respondents were classified into four different groups in terms of their frequency of buying fashion products and the period for which they had bought fashion products. The survey was limited to adults aged 20-40 years who had purchased fashion products in a mobile shopping mall. The questionnaire was carried out from April 15, 2015 to April 22, 2015 and 430 sets of useful response data were analyzed using SPSS 17.0. The results of this study were as follows: First, fashion shopping orientation for mobile shopping consumers was divided into four factors as follows: convenience/ economic shopping, ostentation/trend shopping, enjoyment shopping, and impulse shopping. Second, there was a significant difference in all the fashion shopping orientation factors except for convenience/economic shopping according to each classified group: short/few, long/few, short/many, and long/many. In addition, there was a significant difference in perceived value according to each group. Third, all the fashion shopping orientation factors except for impulse shopping had a significant influence on perceived value. Fourth, fashion shopping orientation factors had a slightly significant influence on the perceived value according to each group.