The Impact of Imitation Strategy on Perceived Quality and Purchase Intention：The Moderator Role of Product Involvement

• Main Authors: Lin, Chuan-Chih, 林傳智
• Other Authors: Ho, Shu-Hsun
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/04060665798290876472

碩士 === 靜宜大學 === 企業管理學系 === 102 === Imitators usually replicate the appearance of leading brands to visually deceive or mislead consumers. In general, copycat strategies are categorized as theme copycat and attribute copycat. Theme copycat involves abstract feelings, including benefits and values brought about by copying a leading brand such as the same country of origin; attribute copycat involves more specific feelings, including replication of a leading brand’s text, font, and external packaging. Past literatures mostly focus on discussions of attributes related copycat strategies, while researches on theme copycat strategies remain scarce. In addition, literatures on product involvement generally focus on brands or advertisements, rather than the impact of product involvement on brand copycat strategies. Hence, based on the findings of past researchers, this study attempted to add new ideas to the research with the academic theory as the basis. In this study, the copycat strategies are divided into theme copycat and attribute copycat in order to explore the impact of copycat strategies on consumers’ perceived quality, whether or not product involvement produces significance interferences on the relationship between copycat strategies and perceived quality, and the impact of perceived quality on consumers’ purchase intention. Findings show that: (1) “Theme” copycat leads to higher quality perceived by consumers, followed by “attribute” copycat; (2) Product involvement has a significant impact on the relationship between “theme” copycat and consumers’ perceived quality; (3) Product involvement produces no significant interferences on “attribute copycat” and consumers’ perceived quality; (4) Consumers’ perceived quality has a significant impact on the purchase intention. The academic contribution of the study findings lies in applying copycat strategies in the exploration of perceived quality and consumers’ product involvement in order to make up for the inadequacy of literatures on copycat strategies. As for the practical contributions, manufacturers may adopt the study findings as a reference to gain an insight into the relationship between copycat strategies and perceived quality. Furthermore, consumers’ product involvement may also be taken into consideration as market factors that contribute to the implementation of target decision-making.