Luxurymarket in china - Dissertation Example

Several studies strongly suggest that effective CSR initiatives can create a positive impact on the public consumers’ behaviour particularly with regards to their intention to purchase the product. However, there is no available study that can prove whether or not the CSR initiatives made by the luxury fashion brands can positively affect the purchasing behavior of the Chinese consumers. To examine the impact of CSR and CA on consumers’ behaviour and intention to purchase luxury clothing in China, an online research survey study was conducted for this purpose.

After testing the relationship between independent variables (i.e. “CSR”, “CA”, and “CSR + CA”) will significantly affect the dependent variables (i.e. “willingness to purchase” and “willingness to pay a premium price”), the research findings show that only CA can directly affect the Chinese consumers’ willingness to purchase and willingness to pay a premium price for luxury clothing brands in China. Since the Chinese consumers expect luxury fashion clothing brands exert an effort to become socially responsible, this study highly recommends that the luxury clothing companies should develop and implement a “high-fit, proactive initiatives” in order to strengthen their corporate and brand image, increase the customers’ brand loyalty, build a stronger relationship with the community members, establish trust among the public consumers, and increase the overall satisfaction of the customers.

The selling of luxury fashion clothing is one of the most lucrative and highly competitive industries in China today. As of 2012, the Chinese consumers were considered as the world’s biggest group of consumers for luxury items (PR Newswire, 2013). Even though the economy of China has transformed from being a command economies to a market economy, it remains a fact that this country is highly governed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) (Woo, 1999). It means that the Party is part of its political background which strongly influences the people’s social life and activities (China.

org, 2013; Woo, 1999). The Chinese government officials are among the biggest group in China who pays a premium price for luxury products (CNBC, 2013). To help reduce red tape or corruption in China[1], General Secretary Xi Jinping – the leader of CCP has publicly announced the banning of its government officials from purchasing luxury items (BBC News, 2013; Chow, 2012; RT, 2012). Among these luxury items include clothing and apparels sold by Burberry, Calvin Klein, Chanel, Christian Dior, Fendi, Gucci, Prada, and Vogue among others (Branigan, 2011).

There is a strong possibility that the total annual sales and profit of luxury brands in China would decrease because of Jinping’s advocacy (Harilela, 2012). In general, consumers are more willing to purchase products sold by responsible companies (Berry and McEachern, 2005; Auger et al., 2003). For this reason, it is necessary to closely examine how the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives could affect the purchasing behaviour of the Chinese consumers.