The relevance of sustainability labeling for Chinese consumers perception of the luxuriousness of, and purchase intent for sustainabilitu-labelled exotic leather accessories

Abstract

This study explored the relevance of sustainability labelling for Chinese consumers’ perception of the luxuriousness of, and purchase intent for sustainability-labelled exotic leather accessories. The Wiedmann, Hennigs and Siebels’ Luxury Value Perception Scale (2007), as well as the Vigneron and Johnson’s (2004) Brand Luxury Index (BLI) model as adapted by Kim and Johnson (2015) served as the conceptual framework for the study. An online questionnaire was distributed across China and completed by willing participants. Qualtrics, a reputable international market research platform, used their extensive database of consumers for sampling purposes and managed to collect 526 completed and usable questionnaires. All participants had visited South Africa in the last five years or have the intention of visiting in the next five years. Both males and females were included in the study provided that they fell into the millennial generational cohort as of the year 2019 (born between 1979 and 2000). Data analysis was achieved through exploratory factor analysis and the calculation of the Cronbach alpha coefficients and eigenvalues. The outcome of the factor analysis for the sample identified three factors instead of the four factors proposed by the original Wiedmann, Hennigs and Siebels (2007) scale, namely “Pleasure”, “Others” and “Financial”. It seems that the Chinese millennials in this study considered everything that exotic leather accessories can do for them on a functional an individual level as one concept, named “Pleasure”. Additionally, respondents indicated that the “Pleasure” value perception was also the most important to them. Social items of the original scale loaded on the “Others” factor and although a little less important than the “Pleasure” factor, it is particularly important to the respondents in this study to know what others think of people who use certain exotic leather accessories. Finally, Financial items of the original scale loaded on the respondents’ “Financial” factor, which was considered to be the least important for the respondents in this study. A repeated measures ANOVA was performed to investigate whether the sample differed with regard to their perceptions of the factors “Pleasure”, “Others” and “Financial”. Post hoc analyses showed that there were significant differences with regard to all pairwise comparisons. The highest score was obtained on Pleasure, followed by Financial and Others. The outcome of the factor analysis for the sample’s perception of the luxuriousness of the four different sustainability-labels identified one identical factor for each of the four labels, instead of the five factors of the revised Kim and Johnson (2015) scale. The factor was named “Luxuriousness”. A repeated measures ANOVA was performed to investigate whether the sample differed with regard to the respondents’ perceptions of the luxuriousness between the four labels, however post hoc analyses revealed no significant differences with regard to any pairwise comparison. The outcome of the factor analysis for the sample’s purchasing intent, based on Spears and Singh’s (2004) scale indicated that the respondents had in all four cases a very strong purchasing intent for the sustainable exotic accessories, with only small differences between the four differently labelled exotic leather accessories. A repeated measures ANOVA was performed to investigate whether the sample differed with regard to their purchase intentions for the four labels. Post hoc analyses showed that there was a statistically significant difference between respondents’ purchase intent for Label 2 and Label 4, as well as a statistically significant difference between respondents’ purchase intent for Label 3 and Label 4. Respondents’ purchase intentions for both Labels 2 and 3 were therefore significantly higher than their purchase intent for Label 4. According to the results, there were statistically highly significant strong, positive correlations between the respondents’ most important Pleasure luxury value perception and their Purchase Intent for all four labels. Therefore, the more important the Pleasure luxury value perception becomes, the stronger becomes the respondents’ Purchase Intent for all four sustainability labelled accessories. Results of this study make positive contributions for various role players within the exotic leather industry. Manufacturers, retailers and marketers can all benefit from the results of the study. Recommendations for industry and future research are made.