Abstract
The purpose of this study is to predict consumers’ purchase intentions toward mass customized apparel products by assessing consumers’ 1) attitudes toward behavior, 2) perceptions of social pressures by others (i.e., subjective norm), 3) perceptions of ease or difficulty in the co-design process (i.e., perceived behavioral control), 4) desire for uniqueness, and 5) perceived risk. In the context of apparel mass customization, due to the lack of relevant studies regarding three major determinants (attitude toward behavior, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control), the Theory of Planned Behavior (Azjen, 1985, 1991) was used with a mock mass customized business wear Internet shopping site. The findings of this study indicated that attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, desire for uniqueness, and perceived risk significantly combined together to predict purchase intention. Attitude, subjective norm, and desire for uniqueness, among the five predictors, had significant relationships with purchase intention toward customized products on a mass customized apparel Internet shopping site. This modified T.P.B. with addition of desire for uniqueness yielded an improvement on the basic T.P.B. structure. The results of this study supported the T.P.B. as a prediction tool in examining purchase intention, and desire for uniqueness can be considered as a theoretical contribution of this study.
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