Factors Leading to Consumer Perceived Value of Smartphones and its Impact on Purchase Intention

Abstract Purpose - The aim of this research is to find the impact of consumer perceived value (CPV) on smartphone purchase intention among Malaysian working professionals. The research intends to find whether or not social value, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, economic value and brand image have a direct or indirect effect on smartphone purchase intention. Design/methodology/approach - Data is collected through an administered online survey with convenience sampling. A total of 302 samples were collected in Kuala Lumpur area. Demographic profile classification, reliability test, sample adequacy, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) path analysis is conducted to analyze the data using IBM Amos statistic 22. Findings - The findings show that social value and perceived ease of use do not have a direct or indirect effect on smartphone purchase intention among Malaysian working professionals. However, perceived usefulness, economic value and brand image have an indirect effect on smartphone purchase intention. Practical implications--The research is useful for managers and marketers, to understand the consumer perceived value (CPV) of latest generation smartphone among Malaysian working professionals. These type of consumers in the smartphone industry are important and vital for smartphone companies due to their high income and purchase decision making power. Originality/value--The study proposes and validates a new model by combining Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and selected CPV variables which may impact Smartphone purchase intention among working professionals. Keywords: Purchase Intention (PI), Consumer Perceived Value (CPV), Social Value (SV), Economic Value (EV), Perceived Usefulness (PU), Perceived Ease of Use (PEU) and Brand Image (BI) Introduction Nowadays, maximizing consumer Perceived Value (CPV) by identifying factors influencing it is one of the biggest challenges that companies are facing around the globe. They have seen their product image that is projected to the public leading to failure and brand unpopularity. Perhaps, this concern is nowhere more evident than in the smartphones Industry where the world global consumers have witnessed the failure of phone industry giants such as Nokia and Motorola due to the inconsistent analysis of consumer perceived value evolution related to new technology (Fishman, 2014; Surowiecki, 2013). A smartphone is a user friendly cellular telephone and is a revolutionized new invention with an integrated computer and other features not originally associated with the telephones such as a web browsing, an operating system and the ability to run software applications (Margaret, 2007). The smartphone has become extremely popular today and still growing, nevertheless, the notion of CPV in the smartphone industry has captured the attention of several smartphone manufacturers. Several researchers have been interested in the notion of CPV associated with purchase intention. The first author who addressed the importance of the CPV was Zeithaml (1988) as consumer's overall evaluation of the utility of product based on perceptions of what is received and what is given, Monroe (1990) established a simple concepts of the ratio between perceived benefits and perceived sacrifices which drive purchase intention, then Sheth et al (1991) introduces the five dimensions value of consumers viz. social, epistemic, conditional, functional and emotional value), Woodruff (1997) talks about the value hierarchy of the model, Holbrooks (1994) takes about the typology of costumer value, also several other theories have been developed recently such as the theory of personal related value and the perceived value purchase (Sanchez and Iniesta, 2006). According to International Data Corporation (IDC) (2015), 4.8 million units of smartphones were shipped in Malaysia in 2015. …