UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business ------------------------------- Truong Thi Phan Thiet ANTECEDENTS AND OUTCOME OF CONSUMER BRAND IDENTIFICATION: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM VIET NAM MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours) Ho Chi Minh City, Year 2014 123doc UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business ------------------------------- Truong Thi Phan Thiet ANTECEDENTS AND OUTCOME OF CONSUMER BRAND IDENTIFICATION: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM VIET NAM ID: 22120071 MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours) SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN THI MAI TRANG, Dr. Ho Chi Minh City, Year 2014 123doc ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratefulness to my supervisor Dr. Nguyen Thi Mai Trang for her professional guidance, intensive advice, valuable support, continuous encouragement that she gave me during the time doing this research. Secondly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to ISB Research Committee (IRC).
The critical comments and suggestions of committee have contributed significantly for me to complete this research. My truly thanks are also given to my ISB classmates as well as all people I know who participated in filling the questionnaires and provided the valuable information for this study. Last but not least, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all professors at ISB for their teaching and guidance during my last two-year master course. Truong Thi Phan Thiet November 2014.
i 123doc ABSTRACT The concept of consumer-brand identification (CBI) mentions the way brands help consumers articulate their identities. Based on prior researches in foreign countries, this study proposes and tests an integrative theoretical framework of the antecedents and consequence of CBI in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The conceptual model includes three drivers of CBI (brand distinctiveness, brand warmth, and memorable brand experiences), a moderator (product category involvement), and one outcome (brand advocacy) are posited and tested with survey data from a sample of 523 consumers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The results show that there are only two antecedents merged from items of three proposed drivers at the beginning: brand distinctiveness and memorable brand experiences.
The study confirms the positive influence of two new drivers to CBI, as well as the positive relationship between CBI and its consequence - brand advocacy. Further, this research find that product category involvement do not have moderate role in the effect of each antecedent to CBI. Finally, theoretical and managerial significance of the findings are discussed. Key words: Consumer-brand identification, Brand advocacy, Brand distinctiveness, Brand warmth, Memorable brand experiences, Product category involvement ii 123doc TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .ii TABLE OF CONTENTS.
vi LIST OF FIGURES. vi LIST OF TABLES. vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY. 6 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES. THE CONCEPT OF CONSUMER–BRAND IDENTIFICATION. ANTECEDENTS OF CBI.
Memorable brand experiences. OUTCOME OF CBI: BRAND ADVOCACY. PRODUCT CATEGORY INVOLVEMENT AS A MODERATOR. THE CONCEPTUAL MODEL.
MEASURES OF THE CONSTRUCTS. Consumer-brand identification. Memorable brand experiences. Product category involvement.
DATA ANALYSIS METHOD. Tests for reliability. Tests for validity. Tests for main effects.
26 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DATA RESULTS. THE RELIABILITY TEST: THE CRONBACH’S ALPHA TEST. EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS (EFA). Results of EFA for independent variables.
Results of EFA for dependent variables, mediate variable and moderator variable. Correlation analysis of new dependent variables and independent variables 37 4. Multiple regression analysis. Simple linear regression.
Assessment the moderator impact by Hierarchical Multiple Regression. EXPLANATION FOR THE FINDING RESULTS OF THE HYPOTHESES. 44 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND LIMITATIONS. LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH.
52 Appendix A: Guideline For Qualitative In-Depth Interview. 57 Appendix B: Bilingual Questionnaire English – Vietnamse. 58 Appendix C: Results of Total Variance Explained. 66 Appendix D: Scatter Plot, Histogram & Standardized for Multiple Regression.
67 Appendix E: Scatter Plot, Histogram & Standardized for Simple Regression. 70 v 123doc ABBREVIATION CBI Consumer-brand identification BA Brand advocacy BD Brand distinctiveness BW Brand warmth HCMC Ho Chi Minh City MBE Memorable brand experiences PCI Product category involvement LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2. The research process. 33 LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.
Scatter Plot Multiple Regression. Histogram Multiple Regression. Standardized for Multiple Regression. Scatter Plot Simple Linear Regression.
Histogram Simple Linear Regression. Standardized for Simple Linear Regression. 72 vi 123doc LIST OF TABLES Table 3. Coding of Consumer-brand identification item scales.
Coding of Brand distinctiveness item scales. Coding of Brand warmth item scales. Coding of Memorable brand experiences item scales. Coding of Product category involvement item scales.
Coding of Brand advocacy item scales. The results of collecting questionnaires. The results of Cronbach’ alpha. Pearson Correlations of all variables.
Result of KMO and Bartlett's Test. Total Variance Explained of Independent Variables. Rotated Component Matrix of Independent Variables. The results of Cronbach’ alpha for new variables in Refined model.
Total Variance Explained of CBI. Component Matrix of CBI. Total Variance Explained of Brand Advocacy. Component Matrix of Brand Advocacy.
Total Variance Explained of PCI. Component Matrix of PCI. Pearson Correlations of dependent and independent variables. Model Summary - Multiple Regression.
Residuals Statistics - Multiple Regression. ANOVA - Multiple Regression. Coefficients - Multiple Regression. Model Summary - Simple Regression.
40 vii 123doc Table 4. ANOVA - Simple Regression. Coefficients - Simple Regression. Correlations - Hierarchical Multiple Regression.
Model Summary - Hierarchical Multiple Regression. ANOVA - Hierarchical Multiple Regression. Coefficients - Hierarchical Multiple Regression. Summary of hypotheses testing result.
47 viii 123doc CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1. RESEARCH BACKGROUND From the early 2000s, Vietnam has applied sequenced trade liberalization, a two-track approach opening some sectors of the economy to international markets while protecting others. In July 2006, Vietnam updated its intellectual property legislation to comply with TRIPS, and it became a member of the WTO on 11 January 2007. At a result, more and more international brands enter to the domestic market.
The customers have more options when making purchase decision. Besides, the explosive growth in internet use is fundamentally changing Vietnam’s economy and society. Internet surpassed newspapers and radio to become popular media in Vietnam, according to Net Index survey in 2011 (Sem Vietnam, 2011). Accordingly, e-mail (60%) and text messaging (73%) are two means of connecting online vogue.
Seeing news online, accessing the portal home page and searching via engines are three online activities most common in turn accounted for 97%, 96%, and 96% of the participants (Sem Vietnam, 2011). Sem Vietnam (2011) also reports the number of users participating in social networks increased from 41% in 2010 to 55% in 2011. The Vietnamese, especially the youth, now can easily approach the information of products, and interested in the concepts “brand” and “personal identification” more than ever. This matter is clearly indicate when Vietnamese people making purchase decision for high-involvement products.
For tangible products, when the information tends to digital and online from universities to offices, there is a tendency of increasing rapidly in need of high-tech devices such as laptop in Vietnam. Laptop becomes one of important and popular devices for both academic and business purposes. However, since 2009, sales of laptop have been influenced greatly from the powerful explosion of smart mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Results of the survey research firm NDP are conducted in the end of 2012 recorded a spectacular growth of tablet devices and smartphones, and this has contributed to the pressure that makes the number of laptops in global decrease.
This tendency is not exclusive of Vietnam. The narrower the laptop market is gradually narrow due to the sharply increasing of smart phones and tablets, the competition between laptops manufactures is fiercer. In 2013, 1 123doc this fight in laptop market even more decisive. For services, to adapt with integration trend, the need to learn and improve foreign languages in general, and English in particular is rising dramatically.
At a consequence, the language center, especially in big city as Ho Chi Minh City race to catch up the growing up trend. According to the Department of Education and Training in Ho Chi Minh City, in 2009, the city had 207 foreign language training institutions, accounting for 41.24% of the total number of training institutions hours culture of the city. By 2010, this number had increased to 217 (Nam Tu & Nguyen Tuan, 2010). However, in contrast to the amount of development, the quality of teaching has exposed many shortcomings of concern.
There still no formal assessment of the quality of teaching in these language centers, people who need to study usually search references in the individual posts on the internet. According to Nielsen Research Company, although the index of consumer confidence Vietnam increased in the first quarter of 2013, including significant demand for technology products; nevertheless, choosing the products that align finance ability still the mainstream of customers. The development of the internet in Vietnam creates for consumers the easier approach to market information, reliable research results, and expert opinion. Basing on this facilitation, consumers could make decision deliberately and wisely.
Thus, competition becomes harsher and the role of brand becomes more important. From the early decades of the 21st century, in generally Vietnam enterprises have certain awareness of the importance and significance of branding issues and its role for the development of the corporation. Branding is one of the important determinants of corporate positions, which contribute significantly to improving efficiency competitiveness. However, the concept of the corporate brand in Vietnam remains largely derived from short-term goals, immediate benefits, under the pressure of sales, lack of long-term vision, and even contains emotional nature.
In fact, many businesses are not fully aware of the need to build and brand development, wasting a lot of time and may miss many good opportunities benefit due to there are no explicit brand strategy. Besides, Vietnam corporations still not appreciated the contribution of elements related to customer identification in branding. During the last decade of 20th century to first ten years of the 21st century, many 2 123doc researchers have confirmed that one of fundamental aspects of the human condition is striving for a sense of self (Belk, 1988; Berger & Heath, 2007; Brewer, 1991; Kleine, Kleine, & Kernan, 1993; Tajfel & Turner, 1985). Furthermore, what a person buy, own, and consume define himself or herself to others as well as to ourselves, or we can say succinctly as Belk (1988, p.
160), “we are what we have”. In this domain, brands have the ability to embody, inform, and communicate desirable consumer identities (Bhattacharya & Sen, 2003; Escalas, 2004; Escalas & Bettman, 2003, 2009; Fournier, 1998, 2009; Lam, Ahearne, Hu, & Schillewaert, 2010; Levy, 1959; Strizhakova, Coulter, & Price, 2008; Tsai, 2005). Just as brands create functional and emotional value for consumers (de Chernatony et al., 2011), brand advocacy is one form of value creation by customers in this way. Consumers become “brand advocates” when they are highly involved with a brand, and offer invaluable positive word of mouth (WOM) about the brand to others (Wragg, 2004).
This is the way to enhance competitive edges for businesses. Besides, a growing body of studies has focused on what it means for consumers to identify with brands and the implications of such consumer-brand identification for both consumer behavior and effective brand management (e., Chernev, Hamilton, & Gal, 2011; Escalas & Bettman, 2003, 2009; Lam et al. In other approach, Stokburger-Sauer et al. (2012) have defined the antecedents and consequences of consumer-brand identification.