Effect of Perceived Value on Memories, Attitudes, and Loyalty: Social Enterprise Products

사회적기업 제품의 지각된 가치가 기억, 태도, 그리고 충성도에 미치는 영향

Purpose - Various social issues have arisen since the beginning of the 21st century therefore, enterprises that disregarded social issues have become unsustainable, and social enterprises have appeared to address these issues. A social enterprise is a social mission-focused organization that uses a market-based strategy and has a vulnerable business structure. To be self-sustainable, a social enterprise should make consumers aware of the value that it provides and secure its profitability through consumer consumption. From this perspective, this study investigates the relationship between perceived value (utilitarian and hedonic) and loyalty, and examines how memory and attitudes play mediating roles between perceived value and loyalty. For these purposes, the author developed a structural model consisting of several variables. In this model, perceived value, which was utilitarian and hedonic, was proposed to affect the memory and attitudes toward social enterprise products, thus increasing loyalty. Therefore, memory and attitudes were proposed as core mediating variables between perceived value and loyalty. Research design, data, and methodology - To analyze the proposed model, data were collected from 582 respondents and analyzed using SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0. To test unidimensionality and the nomological validity of the measures of each construct, we employed a scale refinement procedure. The results of the reliability test with Cronbach's α and confirmatory factor analysis warranted the unidimensionality of the measures for each construct. In addition, the nomological validity of the measures was warranted from the results of the correlation analysis. The result of the overall model analysis demonstrated a good fit (χ²=529.881, df=144, χ²/df=3.680, p-value=0.000, GFI=0.905, NFI=0.948, CFI=0.961, RMR=0.036, RMSEA=0.068). Results - The findings are summarized as follows. First, the hedonic and utilitarian value of social enterprise products had positive effects on memory and attitudes. Second, the hedonic value of social enterprise products more strongly affects memory and attitudes than utilitarian value. Third, memory and attitudes had positive effects on loyalty. Lastly, memory had a stronger effect on loyalty than attitudes. Conclusions - The purchase rate of social enterprises' products increases only if the products are included in the "information search" and "alternative evaluation" processes in consumers' purchase decision-making processes. Therefore, a social enterprise must actively promote the fact that it pursues a social value, and shares both the hedonic and utilitarian values of its products. Accordingly, because hedonic value has a more significant impact on a company and attitudes, a social enterprise should develop hedonic values for product consumption, thereby leading consumers who care about value consumption to purchase its products. Moreover, a social enterprise must maintain good memories and attitudes for consumers because memory does not change over time, although attitude does. The limitations of this study and suggestions for future research are as follows. This study viewed "consumer loyalty" as the success factor of social enterprises, thereby considers an "increase in sales" as the success factor. Therefore, in future studies, diverse factors, including social contribution and word-of-mouth intention, should be regarded. In addition, future studies need to thoroughly review and make assurances about the relationship between memory and attitude.