Assessing the role of product category involvement and relationship

proneness in the satisfaction, WOM and purchase intention, with

moderating effect of perceived price fairness.

Introduction:
There is a need to develop a framework to explore the relationship proneness, product category
involvement and customer involvement to better understand the process of building customer
satisfaction, their intention to buy the products and the relationship with the perceived price of
the product which they are being payed. Product category involvement and relationship
proneness emerge as the key factors that explain and further the understanding of consumer
behavior (De Wulf et al., 2001). Therefore, this study aims to examine customer satisfaction
formation, through product category involvement and relationship proneness with purchase
intention and word of mouth by applying the moderating effect of perceived price fairness. In
this study, the mediating roles of product category involvement and relationship proneness in
highlighting the relationship between satisfaction, purchase intention and WOM with the
moderating effect of perceived price fairness. This study used apparel items as the context,
because clothes have generally recognized as high-involvement products (Kim and Jin, 2006;
Radder and Huang, 2008) they directly affect a consumer’s self-image and project an aspirational
self-image to others (Simmel, 1957; Roach-Higgins and Eicher, 1992; Rudd and Lennon, 2000;
Kim, 2005; Michaelidou and Dibb, 2006; Tiggemann and Lacey, 2009; Hourigan and Bougoure,
2012; Khare, 2014; Strubel and Petrie, 2016). Clothes reflect personality, class, position and
status (Khare, 2014). This study aims to explore the role of these variables in the relationship
between satisfaction, purchase intention WOM, perceived price fairness, relationship proneness
and product category involvement.
MODEL:

Perceived
price
fairness
Relationship
proneness

Purchase
intention

satisfaction
Word of mouth
(WOM)

Product
category
involvement

Hypothesis:
H1. There is a positive relationship between Satisfaction and purchase intention.
H2. There is a positive relationship between Satisfaction and WOM.
H3. There is a mediating effect of Relationship proneness between satisfaction and purchase
intention.
H4. There is a mediating effect of Relationship proneness between satisfaction and WOM.
H5. There is a mediating effect of Product category involvement between satisfaction and
purchase intention.
H6. There is a mediating effect of Product category involvement between satisfaction and WOM.
H7. There is a moderating effect of perceived price fairness between satisfaction and relationship
proneness.
Literature Review:
Satisfaction
If customers are satisfied with their experiences, they are likely to be willing to purchase a
product and recommend it to others. Satisfaction seems as a basic element in the body of
knowledge pertaining to marketing and customer behavior (Chuah et al., 2017; Giovanis and
Athanasopoulou, 2018; Meesala and Paul, 2018; Terblanche, 2018; Olya et al., 2019).
Satisfaction is an affective state along ward consumer’s relationship (Palmatier et al., 2006)
satisfaction is an outcome of marketing activities (Anderson et al., 1994), and a determinant of
loyalty (Lopes and da Silva, 2015; Casidy and Wymer, 2016; Atulkar and Kesari, 2017; Díaz,
2017; Grosso et al., 2018). Customer satisfaction refers to the customer’s emotional state caused
by the interaction of the customer and service provider along with the passage of time (Crosby et
al., 1990). satisfaction is an aggregation of all previous transaction-specific evaluations and is
updated after each specific transaction (Jones and Suh, 2000). The satisfaction construct in
loyalty research is conceptualized as cumulative satisfaction, rather than a transaction-specific
satisfaction judgment (Harris and Goode 2004). Customer satisfaction has generally been studied
in past research as a unidimensional construct that measures the overall satisfaction with the
service organization as a result of the aggregate judgement of all interactions and touch points
with the service organization (Yang and Peterson, 2004; Chen and Tsai, 2008) Extant literature
found that customer satisfaction is considered one of the most significant determinants of
customer loyalty (Pérez and Del Bosque 2015, Akbari, Mehrali et al. 2019).

Purchase Intention:

Buying intention is a future projection behavior that will significantly contribute to the
configuration of attitudes. Study of consumer judgment process is consequently extremely
important for understanding consumer purchase intention (Puth, Mosert and Ewing 1999;
Schiffman and Kank 1991). Purchase intentions have been recognized as a part of consumer
behaviors. Consumer purchase behavior may change from time to time due to factors such as
social lifestyles. “an individual awake plan to make an attempt to purchase” The product relates
with the quality perception (Spears & Singh, 2004). The purchase intention represents the
possibility that consumers will plan to purchase a certain product or service in the future (Wu et
al., 2011). refers to the consumer tendency to purchase a brand routinely (Diallo, 2012). Purchase
intention is the likelihood that a customer will buy a particular product (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975; Dodds
et al., 1991; Schiffman and Kanuk, 2000). Bagozzi and Burnkrant (1979) defined purchase intention
as personal behavioral tendency to a particular product. Spears and Singh (2004) defined purchase
intention as “an individual’s conscious plan to make an effort to purchase a brand”. Purchase intention is
determined by a consumer’s perceived benefit and value (Xua, Summersb, and Bonnie, 2004; Grwal et
al., 1998; Dodds et al., 1991; Zeithaml, 1988). Purchase intention referred to the subjective judgment
by the consumers that is reflected after general evaluation to buy products or services (Hsu,
1987; Dodds et al., 1991; Blackwell et al., 2001 and Shao et al, 2004). It is an interdisciplinary
science that involved psychology, sociology, social psychology, cultural anthropology and
economic concepts Asshidin,Abidin,& Borhan et al. (2016).
Word of Mouth:

Word of Mouth is the powerful tool to influence people and also can influence their buying
behavior. This can be proved according to (Richins & Root-Shaffer, 1988) stated that Word of
Mouth has been shown to play major role for customers’ buying decisions. According to Hennig-
Thurau et al. (2004, 39) define Word of Mouth as being: “Any positive or negative statement
made by potential, actual, or former customers about the product or company which is made
available to a multitude of people and institutions via the internet”. WOM is regarded as informal
communication that takes place between interested parties (Tan & Lee, 2019) Yang et al. (2012)
opine that WOM is an effective and credible tool for providing useful information that can
influence the levels of consumers’ attitude, perception, and purchasing behavior.

Relationship Proneness:

RP plays a decisive role in fostering retailer–consumer relationships (De Wulf et al., 2001;
Fernandes & Proença, 2008). It is conceptualized as ‘a consumer’s relatively stable and
conscious tendency to engage in relationships with retailers of a particular product category’ (De
Wulf et al., 2001, p. 38).
Perceived price fairness:
In the service context perceived price is playing significant role in decision making. Customers’
perception of price has been studied in terms of price perception (Munnukka, 2005; Varki and
Colgate, 2001), price fairness perception (Bolton et al., 2003), and price equity (Bolton and
Lemon, 1999). Price is an important element in consumers’ purchases; therefore, it has a large
influence on consumers’ judgments regarding service (Herrmann et al., 2007).

Methodology:
This study employed a self-administered survey to collect data from adult consumers (i.e. 18
years and older) who had purchased an apparel in the city of Faisalabad. Apparel items are
highly involved products in the women society and thus provide a suitable platform for the study
to explore the mediating variables that are mentioned in the research model. Survey method is
used in this study. Data were collected using a face-to-face method the respondents were
approached directly. The survey is based on Questionnaire. The response rate of this method is
often higher than that of other methods. First part of the questionnaire based on demographics
and the other part consists on the items. The questionnaire started by asking respondents to think
about a specific store in which they usually purchased clothes. With this store in mind, the
respondents were instructed to answer questions related to the study constructs (satisfaction,
product category involvement, relationship proneness, purchase intention, WOM and perceived
price fairness). on a five -point Likert scale that ranged from 1“strongly disagree” to 5“strongly
agree.”

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Base Article:
Menidjel, C., Benhabib, A., Bilgihan, A., & Madanoglu, M. (2019). Assessing the role of product category
involvement and relationship proneness in the satisfaction–loyalty link in retailing. International Journal of
Retail & Distribution Managemen.

Note:
Product category involvement’s literature remaining.
Due to some health issue couldn’t able to work on SPSS, I will complete the sheet this week
Inshaa Allah.