The Comparison of consumer purchase intention between UK and Bangladesh culture towards luxury products in the fashion industry (GC01411)

Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction.

1.1 Aims.

1.2 Objectives.

1.4 Justification for choice of theme.

2.0 Literature review.

2.1. Culture.

2.1.1. Defining Culture.

2.1.2. Elements of Culture.

2.2 Purchase intention.

2.2.1 Cross-Cultural Consumer purchase intention.

2.3 Luxury fashion goods.

2.4 The relations between consumer culture and luxury product purchase.

2.5 Hypotheses.

2.6 Conceptual framework.

3.0 Research methodology.

3.1Research Philosophy.

3.2 Research approach.

3.2 Research method: qualitative vs. quantitative.

3.4. Data Collection Method.

3.5. Sampling Methods.

3.6 Data Analysis.

4.0 Potential Outcomes of This Research.

5.0 Ethical Consideration.

6.0 Schedule / Gant chart

6.0 Conclusions.

References.

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Aims

Hollensen (2014) said culture refers to the knowledge, belief, custom, morals, and other habits gained by people in society. In terms of consumer purchase intention, culture refers to the customs, values and beliefs of customers towards a particular product (Doole and Lowe, 2012). Mirabi et al. (2015) stated that consumer purchase intention has a significant impact on product quality, brand image and brand loyalty, product knowledge and involvement. Younus et al. (2015) said in this highly competitive, problematic and competitive marketplace it is essential for marketers to identify consumers’ exact features and needs. Heine and Phan (2015) said luxury fashion goods include a wide range of necessary and ordinary product items including accessories, jewelry, apparel, perfume and eyewear. The aim of the proposed study is to critically analyze how to purchase intention towards luxury fashion goods are influenced by consumer culture in UK and Bangladesh

1.2 Objectives

To theoretical analyze the relationship between consumer culture and luxury brand purchase
To analyze the impact of consumer culture on purchase intention in the luxury fashion industry
To evaluate how consumption of luxury fashion goods differ between the UK and Bangladeshi culture
To empirical test the relationship between consumer culture and purchase intention between the UK and Bangladeshi culture
To provide recommendation for the luxury fashion brands to influence consumer cultural purchase intention

1.4 Justification for choice of theme

In the current business world, UK is one of the leading fashion markets that have been able to attract a significant percentage of customers (Joung, 2014). Most importantly, the young customers contribute towards the success of the UK fashion industry, whereas this contribution is worth about £14.05 billion in a year (Rath et al., 2015). On the other hand, Bangladesh, a developing country in South-Asia, is experiencing rapid cultural and technological changes. Most importantly, the young generations are following more western culture and using more technologies than ever before (Rahman, 2014). In addition, globalization and technological advancement are motivating educated and urban consumers towards global fashion brands. Essentially, the availability of the internet at reasonable prices is influencing young and fashionable customers to be kept in touch with global brands and their products.

A study World Bank discloses that Bangladesh is experiencing radical inclination of internet users, where internet users increased from 1% in 2006 to 18.25% in 2016 (Azad and Hassan, 2016). This technological advancement is leading the people in Bangladesh towards individualistic society and the practice of western culture (The Independent, 2018). According to Gani et al. (2016), these Scio-economic and cultural changes are increasing the demand for luxury fashion products in Bangladesh. However, very poor researches have been done on how much cultural factors influence consumer purchase intention towards luxury goods in Bangladesh vs. the developed country like the UK. Therefore, this proposed study focuses on the comparison between the two cultures (the UK and Bangladesh) to identify how cultural differences affect the consumer purchase intention towards luxury fashion products.

2.0 Literature review

2.1. Culture

2.1.1. Defining Culture

Experts define the term “culture” in different ways. According to Kroeber and Kluckhohn (2015), culture is the traditional ideas and attached values along with the patterns, symbols as well as artifacts that influence the behavior of individuals. Mullins (2013) defines culture as the way of how people understand, decide and communicate in society. Usunier and Lee (2013) also provided a similar definition by explaining the culture as the configuration of learned behavior and the outcome of that behavior of peoples in society. Crowell (2018) stated that a country’s culture can be analyzed using three key theoretical approaches: social conflict theory (that focuses on cultural traits), structural-functional theory (that views society as an interconnected and complex system), and sociobiology (that focuses on human biology). A country’s culture is measurable. According to Laurenson (2014), culture can be measured by language, individualism vs. collectivism, communication styles, visual design, and social media matrix.

2.1.2. Elements of Culture

Mullins (2013) identified seven key elements that are closely related to the cultural concept. These are values, attitudes, education, religion, language, social institutions, aesthetics, and technologies. Lumen (2018) said the key elements of culture are values and beliefs, norms, symbols and language. Farooq (2011) identified six elements of culture: language, symbols, norms, values, beliefs, and cognitive elements. Hofstede et al. (2016) identified six cultural dimensions that vary from country to country. These six dimensions are power distance, individualism vs. collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity, uncertainty avoidance, long vs. short-term orientation, and indulgence vs. restraint. Power distance refers to the degree to which power is distributed unequally. People accept a hierarchical order in a high power distance society like Bangladesh, where everybody holds a place without any further justification (Hofstede, 2018)…………..

Proposal for Postgraduate