The effect of perceived social power on consumers’ purchase intentions for alternative modes of luxury brands acquisition

• Autor(a) principal: Coelho, Catarina Lima
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/35010
• topic: Social power; Powerful; Powerless; Risk; Decision-making; Luxury; First-hand; Second-hand; Counterfeiting; Entry-level luxury brands; Top-level luxury brands; Poder social; Poderoso; Impotente; Risco; Tomada de decisões; Luxo; Primeira mão; Segunda mão; Contrafação; Marcas de luxo de nível básico; Marcas de luxo topo de gama; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão

The present research examines the impact of perceived social power on individuals’ decisions for alternative modes of luxury brands acquisition, whether for first-hand, second-hand or counterfeit luxury goods. It also explores whether these decisions are moderated by the level of luxury of the brand, i.e. entry-level or top-level luxury brands. Thus, through an experimental study with a mixed design, this paper showed that high-power individuals are less willing to purchase counterfeit products than their powerless counterparts and that are also less price-sensitive. Also, it proposes that high states of social power lead to more conservative socially risky decisions than low states of social power in a purchasing context. Nevertheless, it can also lead to more risky decisions when purchasing products that carry high levels of financial risk. There was a consensual difference between groups: regardless of the perceived social power, individuals have more purchase intentions for authentic luxury products (first and second-hand) than for the non-authentic ones (counterfeits). However, while the purchasing intentions of the latter are identical among both authentic products, low-power individuals demonstrated a greater willingness to purchase second-hand luxury products than the first-hand ones. Moreover, contrary to expectations, low-power individuals show more propensity to buy counterfeit products than their powerful counterparts. The conclusions and implications of these results are discussed throughout the dissertation.