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2006302207217Original ArticlePerceived product Blackwell Science, LtdOxford, UKIJCInternational Journal of Consumer Studies1470-6423Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2005 quality and

satisfactionR. Tsiotsou

doi: 10.1111/j.1470-6431.2005.00477.x

The role of perceived product quality and overall satisfaction on purchase intentions
Rodoula Tsiotsou
Daily Sports Newspaper Protathlitis and National and Kapodistirako University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Abstract
The study investigated the effects of perceived product quality and overall satisfaction on purchase intentions. Moreover, the direct and indirect effects of values and involvement on purchase intentions were studied. The study utilized the survey questionnaire and used sport shoes as the product being researched. The sample consisted of 197 students who responded to an anonymous questionnaire. Five hypotheses were tested and four of them were conrmed by the data. Perceived quality had a direct and an indirect effect (through overall satisfaction) on purchase intentions, overall satisfaction had a direct effect on purchase intentions and involvement had an indirect effect on purchase intentions through overall satisfaction and perceived quality. The results of the study provide several theoretical and practical implications. Keywords Purchase intentions, satisfaction, involvement, perceived product quality, values, sport shoes.

Introduction

Purchase intentions are one of the main concepts studied in the marketing literature. The interest of marketing scholars on purchase intentions comes from its relation to buying behaviour. Several studies have reported a positive correlation between purchase intentions and purchase behaviour (Morwitz and Schmittlein, 1992; Morwitz et al., 1996). Moreover, marketing managers are interested in consumer purchase intentions in order to forecast sales of existing and/or new products and services. Purchase intentions data can assist managers in their marketing decisions related to

product demand (new and existing products), market segmentation and promotional strategies. Studies have reported an indirect effect of values (Pitts and Woodside, 1984) and involvement (Swinyard, 1993), and a direct effect of consumer satisfaction (Reichheld and Teal, 1996; Zeithaml et al., 1996; McQuitty et al., 2000) on purchase intentions. There is a debated issue on the relation between perceived quality and purchase intentions. Some scholars have found a direct relationship between perceived quality and purchase intentions (Carman, 1990; Boulding et al., 1993; Parasuraman et al., 1996), whereas some others have reported an indirect relation mediated by satisfaction (Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Sweeny et al., 1999). Despite its importance, purchase intentions have not been explained well in marketing. Consequently, the objectives of this study were (a) to develop a model that will incorporate some of the main concepts of marketing and explain their role on purchase intentions; and (b) to conduct an exploratory investigation of this model. Specically, values, involvement, satisfaction and perceived quality have been selected after an extensive marketing review of literature and the proposed model was formed (Fig. 1). The paper is organized as follows. First, the conceptual framework of the study is presented, followed by the research hypotheses and the methodology used. Then, the results of the study are presented along with their discussion and implications. Finally, the paper concludes with the limitations of the study and future research recommendations.
Conceptual framework Values

Correspondence Rodoula Tsiotsou, N. Plastira 57 Lykovrisi, TK 14123 Athens, Greece. E-mail: rtsiotsou@yahoo.gr

It has been suggested that values can be signicant predictors of many social attitudes and behaviours such as consumer behaviour. Several marketing researchers

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Involvement

Perceived product quality

Purchase intentions

Values

Overall satisfaction

Figure 1 Purchase intentions initial model.

have linked values to consumption behaviour and communication effects. Shopping selections such as weight loss, choice of college major, political party afliation and religious involvement, have been predicted by the importance ratings of values (Schwartz and Bilsky, 1990). The marketing literature suggests that values affect directly consumers choice criteria, and indirectly their attitudes, intentions and purchase behaviour (Pitts and Woodside, 1984). Marketing interest in values results from their abstract nature that can be useful in understanding the consumers product evaluation process. It has been argued that values affect choice criteria formed by consumers and inuence consumers recognition of a problem, information search and beliefs. The product class that is not related to consumers value system will be ignored. Values indirectly affect consumers attitudes, intentions and purchase behaviour (Pitts and Woodside, 1984). Sherrell et al. (1984) studied the relationship between values and brand attributes and purchase intentions (personal involvement). They suggested that the value systems of the individual inuence his/her attitude toward persuasive communications. Consumers become involved in situations where the stimulus information seems to be essential for accomplishing their goals or when it is important because of its particular value structure. However, some studies presented in the marketing literature recommend only an indirect effect of values on consumer behaviour. A study that investigated the

relationship between values and fashion innovativeness suggested that values are not directly related to consumer behaviour but through the formation of beliefs, attitudes and life styles (Goldsmith et al., 1989). Goldsmith (1988) suggested that social values are related to consumer behaviour. He found that values such as self-respect, a sense of accomplishment and a sense of belonging are positively related to fashion innovativeness. People involved in fashion and interested in being well-dressed rated higher values such as excitement, fun and enjoyment in life, being well-respected and accomplishment. Thus, social values affect consumers attitudes and motivate their involvement (Goldsmith et al., 1990; Goldsmith and Stith, 1992). Goldsmith et al. (1991) reported that fashion leadership is also related to specic social values such as excitement and fun and enjoyment in life. Similar results were found in a replicated cross-cultural study in the United States and the United Kingdom (Goldsmith et al., 1993). Finally, it has been suggested that products with which consumers are heavily involved are more likely to reect social values (Goldsmith et al., 1994). Gift giving and effort in gift selection have been related to social value segments independently from cultural background (Beatty et al., 1991).
Involvement

Involvement has received widespread attention in marketing and has been the topic of interest in attitude, consumer behaviour, persuasion and advertising research. Product involvement is the perceived relevance of a product class based on the consumers inherent needs, interests and values (Zaichkowsky, 1985). Involvement is distinguished to situational and enduring. Situational involvement refers to the use of a product in a specic situation, whereas enduring involvement refers to the use of a product in all purchase situations. Enduring involvement has been also related to consumers values. Thus, according to the values a consumer holds, he/she will be more or less involved in a product (Celsi and Olson, 1988; Houston and Walker, 1996). Zaichkowsky (1985) distinguished involvement into two categories: product involvement and brand-decision involvement. Product involvement refers to the interest consumer nds in a product class.

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Brand-decision involvement is the interest taken in making the brand selection. The most known approach taken to explain the role of involvement is the Elaboration Likelihood Model introduced by Petty et al. (1983). The Elaboration Likelihood Model explains consumer attitude change through the central and the peripheral route. The consumers attitude change occurs because the individual does not have knowledge about a product and cannot make objective evaluations. According to the Elaboration Likelihood Model, when the central route is used, the attitude change is a result of diligent considerations (pros and cons of the issue are considered); whereas when the peripheral route is used, attitude changes because there are positive or negative cues associated with the issue. Thus, depending on the level of involvement the central or the peripheral route is used. In highinvolvement situations, individuals making decisions will use the central route; whereas when there is lowinvolvement, the peripheral route is used. Involvement has been found to be related to programme-induced emotions in advertising (Tsiotsou, 1997), to ad processing (Macinnis and Park, 1991) and to donation behaviour (Tsiotsou, 1998, 2004). Involvement has been also related to information processing and search behaviour (Bloch et al., 1986), brand loyalty and brand commitment (Beatty and Kahle, 1988; Knox, 2003), money spent and buying frequency (Shim and Kotsiopulos, 1993). Warrington and Shim (2000) have proposed a four-quadrant classication model of product involvement and brand commitment to be used for consumer segmentation. Product involvement has also been found to have a direct effect on the level of satisfaction (Richins and Bloch, 1991), as well as a mediator between mood and shopping intentions (Swinyard, 1993). In a crosssectional, longitudinal study of car owners, Richins and Bloch (1991) found that overall consumers with high product involvement were slightly more satised with their cars than low-involvement consumers over the term of ownership. Swinyard (1993) attempted to answer the question whether mood effects vary with different levels of consumer involvement. He reported that the effect of mood on shopping intentions was moderated by the level of involvement. Involved consumers in a good mood evaluated a shopping experi-

ence more favourably than when in a bad mood. Finally, involved consumers reacted more strongly to good and bad shopping experiences. Mano and Oliver (1993) dened involvement as the inherent need for fulllment, value expression, or interest the consumer has in the product. They summarize the consequences of involvement: higher motivation, heightened arousal and increases in cognitive elaborations. They report that involvement is related to emotional reactions and is not associated with dissatisfaction or satisfaction. A study conducted by Oliver and Bearden (1980) indicated that involvement raises evaluations prior to product use and these expectations carry over to postuse evaluations. Moreover, high- and low-involved consumers satisfaction process differs. Low-involved consumers used the expectancy-attitude scheme whereas high-involved consumers used the attitudedisconrmation and attitude-satisfaction scheme. However, one should be cautious about these results because the study had several limitations.
Satisfaction

Consumer satisfaction has been extensively studied in marketing over the last few decades. However, marketing scholars have not yet agreed upon a generally accepted denition of satisfaction. Giese and Cote (2000), after conducting a review of literature and consumer interviews, dened satisfaction as a summary affective response of varying intensity with a specic time point of determination and limited duration directed toward focal aspects of product acquisition and/or consumption. Consumers satisfaction has been considered one of the most important constructs (Morgan et al., 1996; McQuitty et al., 2000), and one of the main goals in marketing (Erevelles and Leavitt, 1992). Satisfaction plays a central role in marketing because it is a good predictor of purchase behaviour (repurchase, purchase intentions, brand choice and switching behaviour) (McQuitty et al., 2000). Due to its importance, various theories and models have been developed in an effort to dene the construct and explain satisfaction in different products/services and consumption stages. The expectancy-disconrmation paradigm (Oliver, 1980), the perceived performance model (Churchill and

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Suprenant, 1982), as well as attribution models (Folkes, 1984), affective models (Westbrook, 1987) and equity models (Oliver and DeSarbo, 1988) are only some of the main theoretical bases developed to explain consumer satisfaction. The above approaches have raised several issues and debates among marketing scholars. Some of the questions refer to (a) the application of each model; which of the models are best applicable in different consumption situations and for different products? (Erevelles and Leavitt, 1992); (b) the measurement of satisfaction; different measurement instruments should be used for different products and services? and (c) The denition of satisfaction; should it be dened with focus on the response (construct) or on the process (model) (Giese and Cote, 2000)? Another issue related to satisfaction is the measurement of the construct. Two are the most widely used approaches, the transaction-specic and overall satisfaction. The transaction-specic approach views satisfaction as an emotional response to the most recent transactional experience (Oliver, 1993), whereas the overall satisfaction perspective denes satisfaction as a cumulative evaluative response. Satisfaction with products and services has been studied extensively. Satisfaction is an important predictor of customer loyalty (Yang and Peterson, 2004), and the strength of the relationship between the two is strongly inuenced by customer characteristics such as variety seeking, age and income (Homburg and Giering, 2001). Demographic variables such as education and age have also been found to be good predictors of the level of customer satisfaction (Tsiotsou and Vasioti, 2006). Satised customers tend to use a service more often than those not satised (Bolton and Lemon, 1999), they present a stronger repurchase intention, and they recommend the service to their acquaintances (Zeithaml et al., 1996). It has been suggested that satisfaction has a direct effect on repurchase intentions (Reichheld and Teal, 1996), though some scholars have found that the effect of consumer satisfaction on repurchase intentions is mediated by adjusted expectations (Yi and La, 2004).
Perceived quality

riority. Perceived quality differs from objective quality. Perceived product quality is a global assessment characterized by a high abstraction level and refers to a specic consumption setting (Zeithaml, 1988). Objective quality refers to the actual technical excellence of the product that can be veried and measured (Monroe and Krishman, 1985). Perceived product quality acts as a mediator between extrinsic cues and perceived customer value (Dodds et al., 1991), whereas it has been argued that price is one of most important extrinsic cue of product quality (Rao and Monroe, 1989). However, Zeithaml (1988) posits that a general price and quality relationship does not exist if other cues are used as well. There are contradicted ndings on the inuence of perceived quality on purchase intentions. In some studies, perceived quality has been found to have a positive direct effect on purchase intentions (Carman, 1990; Boulding et al., 1993; Parasuraman et al., 1996), whereas others report only an indirect effect through satisfaction (Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Sweeney et al., 1999). Moreover, there is no agreement whether there is an interaction effect between perceived quality and satisfaction on purchase intentions. Some researchers have suggested that there is no interaction effect (Llusar et al., 2001), whereas some have reported an interaction effect between the two constructs on purchase intentions (Taylor and Baker, 1994). Rust and Oliver (1994) proposed two differences between perceived quality and satisfaction. They considered perceived quality as a more specic concept based on product and service features whilst satisfaction can result from any dimension (e.g. loyalty, expectations). Moreover, a company can have a certain degree of control over perceived quality. Thus, it is suggested that when perceived quality and satisfaction are regarded as overall assessments, perceived quality is understood as an antecedent of satisfaction and therefore precedes it (Llusar et al., 2001, p. 721).
Hypotheses

Perceived quality has been dened as the consumers judgment about a products overall excellence or supe-

The study attempted to investigate the role of consumer values, involvement, perceived product quality and overall satisfaction on purchase intentions. After reviewing the relevant literature, the hypotheses for the study were constructed:

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H1: Involvement with the product is positively related to perceived product quality. H2: Consumers values are positively related to overall satisfaction with the product. H3: Overall satisfaction with the product is positively related to purchase intentions. H4: Perceived product quality is positively related to purchase intentions. H5: Perceived product quality is positively related to consumer overall satisfaction. The above hypotheses assisted in developing the model on Fig. 1. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of perceived product quality and overall satisfaction on purchase intentions. Moreover, the direct and indirect effects of involvement with the product and consumer values on purchase intentions were studied.
Methodology

Means a lot to me, Valuable, Needed, Interesting to me, Exciting to me, Appealing to me, Fascinating to me, Involving. The original instrument consisted of a context free 20-item scale which measures the motivational state of involvement (Zaichkowsky, 1985). However, studies have shown that the revised, shorter version of the PII might be equally reliable to the original instrument (Zaichkowsky, 1994), and for this reason it was used in this study. The PII has a reported reliability of 0.90 and has been used extensively in the marketing literature to measure consumer involvement with products, advertising and purchase decisions (Goldsmith and Emmert, 1991; Tsiotsou, 1998). Values To measure values, the List of Values (LOV) developed by Kahle (1986) was used. The LOV is an instrument for measuring values that has been used by many researchers and particularly by consumer behaviour scholars. The LOV consists of nine values (Rokeachs terminal values abstracted and reduced): sense of belonging, excitement, fun and enjoyment in life, warm relationships with others, self-fulllment, being wellrespected, a sense of accomplishment, security and self-respect. The LOV is an instrument widely used by marketing researchers and has shown reasonable validity and reliability (Beatty et al., 1985; Kahle et al., 1986; Tsiotsou, 1998). The LOV has testretest reliabilities ranging from 0.85 to 0.92 (Beatty et al., 1985). Moreover, LOV has advantages that facilitated this research. LOV includes only nine values and it does not take much time to be completed. It is also public property so that no permission was necessary for using it or needed to pay for it. Part III consisted of three items (using a 5-point Likert scale) referring to perceived product quality, overall satisfaction and purchase intentions.
Results

The study utilized the survey questionnaire and used sport shoes as the product being researched. Simple random sampling technique was used to gather information for the study. An anonymous questionnaire was given to 226 university students in December 2004. Total 197 questionnaires were used for the analysis of the data (87.2% response rate). Though the use of college students may limit generalizations of the ndings, a relatively homogeneous sample could be considered a good way for testing the model of the study.
Instrumentation

The questionnaire consisted of four parts. Part I measured values, Part II consisted of a battery of questions related to perceived product quality, overall satisfaction and purchase intentions, Part III measured involvement with sport shoes and Part IV gathered demographic data. Involvement The revised version of the Personal Involvement Inventory (PII) developed by Zaichkowsky (1985, 1994) was used to measure involvement with sport shoes. The revised PII is a 7-point bipolar scale consisting of 10 pairs of adjectives: Important to me, Relevant to me,

Approximately 63% of the respondents were female and 37% male, with a range of age from 17 to 45 (mean = 21.64, median = 21). Most of them were rsttime students (90%), whereas a 10% had already a bachelor degree in another major. The majority of the

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respondents were single (93%), some were married (1.4%) and only one was divorced. Causal modeling (path analysis) procedures were used to test the model t and estimate the model coefcients. A path analysis was used to represent direct, indirect and moderate causal effects among the variables of interest and test the overall t of the model to determine if the model is consistent with the observed correlations. The analysis of the data produced correlations in the initial model (Table 1) that ranged in strength from low (0.142) to high (0.714). The hypothesized model was tested using the observed correlations. It was concluded that the model did not t the data when the actual correlations were compared with the reproduced correlations. There were ve cases where the differences between the observed and reproduced correlations were larger than 0.05 indicating that several paths were missing from the model. However, four paths were signicant at the 0.05 level as shown on Fig. 2 the path from involvement to perceived product quality (0.000), the path from perceived product quality to purchase intentions (0.021), the path from overall satisfaction to purchase intentions (0.006) and the path from perceived product quality to overall satisfaction (0.000). The rst revision of the model included an extra path leading from involvement to overall satisfaction. The
Table 1 Observed and reproduced correlations between variables

path was signicant at the 0.05 level (0.025) and improved the t of the model (R2 = 0.523). The correlation differences suggested four other revisions. However, these paths were not statistically signicant and did not improve the t of the data so there were not included in the nal model. The direct, indirect and total causal effects represented by the model are summarized in Table 2. Beginning with purchase intentions, the outcome of ultimate interest, the determinant with the largest total causal effect (0.383) was perceived product quality, with most of that total effect due to the direct effect (0.215). However, overall satisfaction had a

0.443* Involvement

Perceived product quality

0.215*

r = 0.204

0.126*

0.659*

Purchase intentions

Values 0.005

Overall satisfaction

0.256*

Figure 2 Purchase intentions revised model. *Signicant at the 0.05 level.

Values Observed correlations Values Involvement Perceived product quality Overall satisfaction Purchase intentions Reproduced correlations Values Involvement Perceived product quality Overall satisfaction Purchase intentions
a

Involvement

Perceived product quality

Overall satisfaction

Purchase intentions

1.000 0.204 0.184 0.142 0.151 1.000 0.204 0.090a 0.075a 0.030a

1.000 0.443 0.417 0.288

1.000 0.714 0.398

1.000 0.410

1.000

1.000 0.443 0.317a 0.177a

1.000 0.713 0.397

1.000 0.409

1.000

Differences between reproduced and observed correlation is greater than 0.05.

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Table 2 Summary of causal effects in the revised model


Outcome Overall satisfaction (R 2 = 0.510) Perceived product quality (R 2 = 0.196) Purchase intentions (R 2 = 0.190) Determinant Perceived product quality Values Involvement Involvement Perceived product quality Overall satisfaction Direct 0.659* -0.005 0.126* 0.443* 0.215* 0.256*

Causal effects Indirect Total 0.659a -0.005a 0.417a 0.443 0.383a 0.256a

0.291

0.168

*Direct effect signicant at the 0.05 level. a Total effect may be incomplete because of unanalysed components.

larger direct effect (0.256) on purchase intentions, though its total effect was smaller (0.256) due to the lack of indirect effects. Approximately 19% of the variance of purchase intentions was explained by these two determinants. The only determinant of perceived product quality was involvement with a relatively large effect (0.443), though it explained only about 20% of the variance. The primary determinants of overall satisfaction were perceived product quality with a total effect of 0.659, followed by involvement with a total effect of 0.417. Values did not exert any effect on overall satisfaction. These determinants accounted for approximately 51% of the variance of overall satisfaction. In conclusion, the revised model in Fig. 2 seems to be consistent with the data collected on this study and provide some new insides into the antecedents of purchase intentions.
Discussion and implications

The purpose of the study was to develop a model that will include values, involvement, satisfaction and perceived quality, and explain their role on purchase intentions. This research provides an improved understanding of the role of these variables on purchase intentions. The inclusion of values in the proposed model as an antecedent of purchase intentions is one of the unique aspects of the study. A new product, sport shoes were selected as the product under investigation because they have not been researched before in mar-

keting. The ndings of the present study provide several theoretical and practical implications. Four out of the ve hypotheses of the study were conrmed, indicating that the proposed model had an adequate t. Involvement with the product was positively related to perceived quality, overall satisfaction and perceived product quality had a direct positive effect on purchase intentions, and perceived quality was an antecedent of consumer overall satisfaction. Only values did not have any signicant effect (direct or indirect) on purchase intentions and was not signicantly related to overall satisfaction. Thus, consumer involvement, overall satisfaction and perceived product quality can be used as predictors of purchase intentions. The results of the study provide some new evidence on the antecedents of purchase intentions, their impact and the relationships between them. Both perceived quality and overall satisfaction had almost the same direct effect on purchase intentions (0.215 and 0.256, respectively), and acted as mediators between involvement and purchase intentions. However, both variables explained only a small portion (20%) of the variance of purchase intentions indicating the existence of other variables. Furthermore, the results conrm previous ndings such as the positive direct effect of perceived quality on purchase intentions (Parasuraman et al., 1996) and its indirect effect on purchase intentions through satisfaction (Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Sweeney et al., 1999). The above studies reported either only the rst relationship or the second relationship, whereas this study provides evidence that both, the direct and

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indirect effects of perceived quality on purchase intentions exist. Overall, the study manifests the dominant role of perceived quality on consumer satisfaction and purchase intentions. When the perceived quality of a product is high, consumers are satised and more likely to purchase it again. Involvement was found to have only an indirect effect on purchase intentions through overall satisfaction (the added path) and perceived product quality. Because involvement (0.126) and perceived product quality (0.659) signicantly inuence satisfaction, they can be used as predictors of consumer satisfaction. Thus, the more involved a consumer is with a product, the higher his/her satisfaction with that product is. This nding contradicts the results of Mano and Oliver (1993) who have reported that involvement is not related to satisfaction, and conrms the ndings of Richins and Bloch (1991). Furthermore, product involvement (0.443) was found to be a signicant predictor of perceived product quality. Managers need to understand the important role of involvement, perceived product quality and satisfaction in order to be able to predict purchase intentions and consequently purchase behaviour. All the above variables provide several managerial implications and are important issues in the development and implementation of marketing strategies aimed at building and maintaining market share. Perceived product quality seems to play an important role in both consumer satisfaction and purchase intentions. Marketing communication strategies (promotional activities and advertising messages) should be designed so that they emphasize product attributes and cues that will enhance consumers perceived product quality. External cues such as price, brand name and objective quality information have been found to be related to perceived product quality and consumers product evaluations (Rao and Monroe, 1989; Dodds, 2002). Managers can use these cues to enhance consumers perceptions of product quality. As stated purchase intentions have been found to change over time (e.g. due to price increase, promotional offerings) (Morrison, 1979; Infosino, 1986; Manski, 1990), marketing managers need to be aware of changes in consumer satisfaction, involvement and perceived quality levels to be able to predict future consumer behaviour.

Involvement with a product is signicantly related to consumer satisfaction, perceived quality and purchase intentions. Marketers might try to keep consumers involved with a product and offer new motives (promotions, messages) to do so. Because high-involved consumers are active product information seekers (Warrington and Shim, 2000), marketers can successfully target them with point-of-purchase displays, targeted promotional strategies and quality customer service (Shim and Kotsiopulos, 1993). Finally, consumer involvement, perceived quality, consumer satisfaction and purchase intentions should be used for segmentation purposes in order to identify homogeneous groups of consumers, target the most protable segments and implement effective marketing communication strategies.
Limitations and future research

To test the proposed model a single product class was used for a narrowly dened market segment. The data were collected from university students of a Greek city and may not reect geographic differences among students. Attention should be given to the small variance of purchase intentions (20%) explained by the model, indicating either poor measurement of the constructs (e.g. satisfaction and perceived product quality) or the existence of other antecedents. Future research could study other consumer groups such as older populations, with different socioeconomic status and lifestyles. The model could be tested for investigating differences between men and women and other consumer segments (e.g. highinvolved vs. low-involved consumers) and could be further examined by using other product categories and consumer groups. Sport shoes are relatively low-priced, high-involvement products and future studies could test the model for low-involvement products as well. Finally, the role of values on satisfaction, perceived product quality and purchase intentions need to be further investigated.
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