Abstract:
The aim of the present thesis is to develop a conceptual framework of how
consumers' choice of products may be influenced by the human values that they
endorse. The framework combines a traditional model of human value influence
based in expectancy-value theory (e.g., Scott and Lamont's (1973), Gutman's (1982)
and Lindberg, Garling and Montgomery's (1989) attribute-mediation approach), with
a new approach based on product meanings, judgements and psychological
functions. From the union, a product meaning approach to value influence is
suggested which outlines two structures of the value-attitude-behaviour system.
Firstly, when consumers are evaluating a product's utilitarian meaning and making a
piecemeal judgement, human values may influence the importance of the product's
tangible attributes that in turn influence product preference. Secondly, when
consumers are evaluating a product's symbolic meaning and making an affective
judgement, human values may influence product preference directly.
The meaning and judgement elements of the conceptual framework and the
traditional attribute-mediation approach were examined in three studies; Study 1
found that the attribute-mediation approach could not fully account for the influence
of human values on product preference (Hypothesis 1) and that the inability was
greatest for products, such as red meat and overseas holiday destinations, which are
likely evaluated on their intangible attributes of symbolic meanings and aesthetics
(Hypothesis 2). The second and third studies tested whether the two routes of value
influence uncovered in Study 1, that is, the route proposed in the attribute-mediation
approach and the alternative, direct route, result from consumers evaluating different
product meanings and making different types of judgements. Study 2 developed
scales that measure the general publics' product meaning and judgement preferences,
and Study 3 associated the meaning and judgement preference scales with the
influences of human values on automobile and sunglasses ownerships; confirming
the product meaning approach hypothesis that a consumer's preference for utilitarian
meaning and for a piecemeal judgement to symbolic meaning and an affective
judgement should be greater when his or her human values have an indirect influence
on product preference (e.g., via the importance of the product's tangible attributes) than when his or her human values have a direct influence.
Besides modelling the cognitive structure through which human values operate
when consumers attend to utilitarian and symbolic meanings and make piecemeal
and affective judgements, several propositions were made that consumers have a
cross-product tendency to prefer the same meanings, judgements and routes of value
influence, and that each route of value influence serves a specific psychological
function. Concerning the latter, the propositions were made that when consumers
attend to symbolic meaning and directly apply their human values, the application
serves an expressive psychological function (e.g., self-consistency and social
approval), and hence should be associated with greater psychological identification
with the product, greater importance assigned to human values in general (e.g., value
relevance), and a preference for terminal values to instrumental values. Conversely,
when consumers attend to utilitarian meaning and indirectly apply their human
values via tangible attribute importances, the application serves an instrumental
psychological function (e.g., utility maximisation and control of the environment),
and hence should be associated with a weaker psychological identification with the
product, weaker value relevance, and a preference for instrumental values to terminal
values. Study 4 assessed these propositions by examining the results of Studies 1-3
in detail and by analysing a fourth data set. Support was found for most of the
propositions.
Qualifications and limitations of the product meaning approach to the influences
of human values on consumer choices are discussed, as are the implications of the
approach for human value theory and consumer research.