High heels, a cross-cultural study between Chinese and Scottish females in the

age range of 18 to 25

by

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LITERATURE REVIEW1

Consumer Behaviour1

Chinese and Scottish Customers2

Perceived Extended Self4

Role of age transition 18-256

Summary8

REFERENCES9

APPENDIX14

LITERATURE REVIEW

The aim of this paper is to provide a brief review of literature. This chapter is divided into three sections. The first section provides the review of published researches on Chinese and Scottish consumer behaviour. The second section provides the review of published researches on extended self. The second section provides the review of published researches on the role of age transition.

Consumer Behaviour

The literature supports that satisfied customers are willing to buy more products or services, recommend them to others, and are less price sensitive. Hence, satisfaction is an essential factor related to a company's future profit by increasing the customer retention rate. Following the pioneering experimental study by Boeselie and Wiele (2002), customer satisfaction and product quality were emphasized by Bitner (1990) and Chang Villegas (2008).

This approach suggested that expectations influence customer satisfaction through perceived quality and disconfirmation. Following Berger (2009) and Chang and Villegas (2008), the expectation is confirmation theory was introduced by Barwise and Strong (2002), grounded by social psychology, and influenced by organizational behaviour. The theory posits that customer satisfaction is believed to result from a process of customers' comparisons between their expectations and perceptions of performance and that the confirmation or disconfirmation of those expectations predicts satisfaction (Barnett 2005 5). Positive disconfirmation occurs when performance perceptions of customers exceed expectations, which leads to satisfaction, whereas perceptions falling short of expectations result in negative disconfirmation, which induces dissatisfaction. Since then, this theory was used by researchers and industries with strong support.

According to Atuahene (2006), both expectations and perceptions have been found to influence customer satisfaction and subjective disconfirmation under various circumstances, and customer satisfaction is determined by the levels of prior expectations, the levels of perceived performance, and the degree and direction of disconfirmation. Many studies have tested the expectancy-disconfirmation theory, resulting in different views about comparison standards for expectations and interrelationships among the key variables (Chang Villegas 2008 4). Earlier studies focused on repurchase expectations as antecedents of satisfaction. Specifically, Grinstein (2008) emphasized the perceived quality at the post-consumption stage based on utility-oriented framework.

Chinese and Scottish Customers

China is one of the biggest emerging markets and has the fastest growing economy in the world. With the rapid growth of the Chinese economy and the related rise in personal income levels, a new group of wealthy individuals known as China's "new rich" has emerged in the society (Wasson 2005 75). According to a report released by Trinkaus (2008), China is now the world's third largest consumer of high-end fashions, accessories, and other goods, and Chinese consumers are expected to account for 29% of all global goods purchases by 2015. Bae (2008) asserted that purchasing behaviour of Chinese consumer is based on choice, buying channels which have changed dramatically over the past ten years. It is therefore to address the Chinese market as a homogeneous ...