A Study of Online Conformity Behavior and Brand Loyalty－Moderating Effects of Online Reference Group and Product Type

• Main Authors: Seak-Phoon Goh, 吳雪芬
• Other Authors: Kuang-Wen Wu
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/6y75q2

碩士 === 逢甲大學 === 國際貿易所 === 100 === Nowadays, it is becoming more convenient to shop online. More and more consumers have been enjoying online shopping and it has become a trend. Furthermore, consumers normally take notice of other people’s opinions when making decisions, and they may change their initial decisions if these opinions are contrary to their own. Even the purchasing environment may be isolated; there are no interruptions, but the conformity behavior will still occur during online shopping. Therefore, brand loyalty is a critical strategic thrust for suppliers in trying to gain advantages in this competitive market environment. This study hypothesizes that social intelligence is the antecedent of online conformity behavior. Furthermore, different product categories may have different effects on consumers’ attitudes; so this study uses the product categories as the moderator variables. This study aims to investigate the relationship between social intelligence and online conformity behavior with respect to brand loyalty, and whether this relationship will be difference in four different product categories. The questionnaires are administered through an online survey in Taiwan, and this study focuses on consumers who have experience with online shopping. A product category pretest and full questionnaire pretest are conducted. This study finds that social intelligence positively affects online informational conformity and online normative conformity. Furthermore, both online informational conformity and online normative conformity positively affect endogenous brand loyalty and exogenous brand loyalty. It will help the companies to adopt marketing strategies if they have a better understanding of consumers’ preferences in different product categories.