Face consciousness and conspicuous luxury consumption in China
Journal of Contemporary Marketing Science
ISSN: 2516-7480
Article publication date: 12 June 2019
Issue publication date: 12 August 2019
Abstract
Purpose
Luxury consumption in China is featured by clear conspicuous purposes. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this phenomenon from the indigenous perspective of face consciousness.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on Ho’s (1976) framework of gaining vs losing face process, the authors decomposed the construct of face consciousness into two dimensions, namely, desire to gain face and fear of losing face, and developed a multi-dimensional scale for face consciousness. Then, a survey that consisted of 338 participants was conducted to test the relationship between face consciousness and luxury consumption.
Findings
The face consciousness scale was shown to be reliable and valid. Furthermore, the authors found both desire to gain face and fear of losing face had a unique contribution in explaining why Chinese consumers purchase luxury products.
Originality/value
This paper fills the gap in the extant literature by developing a multi-dimensional face consciousness scale, providing convenience for empirical research in future. Moreover, this research shows that Chinese consumers’ luxury consumption behavior contains both promotion and prevention motivation.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos 71172129 and 71472123).
Citation
Zhang, X.-a. and Wang, W. (2019), "Face consciousness and conspicuous luxury consumption in China", Journal of Contemporary Marketing Science, Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 63-82. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCMARS-01-2019-0002
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited