Taiwanese college students' purchase intention toward Chinese sportswear brands

This research aimed to study factors influencing Taiwan College students’ purchase intention toward Chinese sportswear brands and also examined the usefulness of the Cognitive-Affective Model of Buying Intention for predicting Taiwan college/university students’ purchase intentions toward Chinese sportswear brands. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), the study found that normative influence positively affected brand consciousness, and brand consciousness also positively affected emotional value. Brand consciousness neutrally affected perceived quality. However, perceived quality and emotional value both negatively affected purchase intention (PC= -0.5 & -0.1; p < .05). Although the findings of this paper cannot be generalized to other consumer products or other segments of society, results revealed that college students in Taiwan are less likely to purchase Chinese sportswear brands due to quality concern and lack of an emotional connection. In conclusion, Chinese sportswear brands need to focus on increasing product quality and their brand’s emotional attributes in order to be successful in the Taiwan sportswear market.