Abstract
As sports are globalized, sports products are sold nationally and internationally. To sell more sports products to sports consumers, sports consumers shopping characteristics are an important area in sports marketing research. However, previous studies have not investigated specific shopping patterns in athletic apparel (Durvasula, Lysonski, & Andrews, 1993; Fan & Xiao, 1998; Hafstrom, Chae, & Chung, 1992; Hiu, Siu, Wang, & Chang, 2001; Lysonski, Durvasula, & Zotos, 1996; Sproles & Kendall, 1986; Walsh & Vincent, 2001). These studies focus only on general consumer’s shopping behaviors. The purpose of this study was to apply a consumer decision-making model to specific shopping styles involving athletic apparel and to examine specific shopping pattern differences between selected university students in the United States and South Korea. This study analyze the effect of seven factors: brand, quality, recreation, confusion, fashion, impulse, and price consciousness on a revised scale of Consumer Style Inventory (CSI), invented by Sproles and Kendall (1986), following a pilot study.
Nationality, gender, college classification, and interaction were compared, based upon four research questions, to determine if any significance existed among the seven factors. For this study, there were 822 American and 841 Korean college students from a total of 1,720 samples, enrolled in LAP classes at a university in the southeastern region of the United States and South Korea, were usable data. In order to analyze four research questions for this study, descriptive statistics, 2 X 2 X 4 MANOVA, ANOVA, and mean comparisons were performed. An alpha level of .05 was set.
As a result, American and Korean college-aged consumers demonstrated different shopping patterns on quality, recreation, confusion, fashion, impulse, price, and brand consciousness. Moreover, male and female college-aged consumers were different shopping patterns in relation to on quality, confusion, price, and brand consciousness. Also, there were no statistically significant differences on quality, recreation, confusion, fashion, impulse, price, and brand consciousness in relation to college classifications. Finally, in the interaction tests among nationality, gender, and college-aged classifications, there was an interaction between nationality and gender on quality, price, and brand consciousness.
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