Cultural orientation and materialism in Jordan: Consumer perceptions of brand luxury

The demand for luxury goods is growing in new emerging markets, especially in Middle Eastern countries like Jordan (Gutsatz & Heine, 2018; Shukla & Purani, 2012). Further, the luxury market is reducing the gap between those who can and cannot access luxury goods. Traditionally, purchasing luxury products was limited to wealthy customers, but the market has changed to include more middle-class customers and various age groups, thus providing new types of luxury products to satisfy mass global market demand for prestige and to follow trends. In addition, new media channels and rapidly developing technology are helping the luxury industry promote and reach those customers across the world. Moreover, consumer perceptions and preferences keep changing, and the orthodox approach of studying culture and consumer behaviour needs to be considered from different perspectives and contexts as sociocultural diversity within countries increases in reaction to globalisation (Cleveland & Bartsch, 2019). These factors lead to a call for more research on the influence of culture and materialism on consumer purchasing behaviour for luxury goods. The goal of this thesis is to investigate the cultural orientation aspects and factors influencing Jordanian customers to purchase luxury goods. This research provides empirical evidence that adds to the area of brand luxury studies by investigating the cultural orientations (vertical-horizontal) dimensions of individualism and collectivism. The interrelated values reflecting the motives of buying luxury goods addressed in this research are social factors (bandwagon effect and status consumption) and individual values (materialism). Furthermore, the investigation expands theoretical knowledge by exploring customer perceptions of brand luxury and their evaluations of the various dimensions of luxury brands to understand what influences their purchase intentions.The methodology adopted in this research is a quantitative approach using an online survey from a research panel provider in Jordan. The sample of luxury brand customers who purchased a luxury item (e.g. jewellery, watches or fashion accessories) in the last 12 months were asked to reflect on their perceptions of luxury and how it affects their purchase intentions. In total, 532 valid responses were collected and used for data analysis. Structural equation modelling was adopted to test the proposed hypothesis in the theoretical model. The research findings show a significant impact of the vertical dimensions of cultural orientation on materialism. While, the relationship between materialism and purchase intentions was found to be insignificant, it was mediated by the influence of status consumption and the bandwagon effect. The results also reveal the evaluation of brand luxury perceptions of Jordanian customers. The findings provide in-depth insights that contribute to the literature from the context of Jordan and offer significant implications for practice and theory. This helps better understanding of the luxury market and consumer behaviour for both scholars and practitioners in the Middle East, and Jordan in particular.