An Investigation of the Relationship between Social Influence and Consumer Behavior

This study intended to test the research model developed to investigate the relationship between social influence and consumer behavior synthetically and concurrently. To develop this model, the constucts discussed to relate social influence are reviewed in the existing literatures and examined the relationship among these constructs.

Previous studies were fragmentary in that reference group influenced group members' brand choice and that the extent of influence varied with the nature of the product were studied separately. But this study tested the research model considered synthetically and concurrnetly the factors to be related to social influence. That is, this study empirically tested that each of reference group factors and product factors influenced consumers' brand buying intention in relation which dimension of the two dimensions of social influence : normative social influence and informational social influence. And this study investigated if there were the significant differences of normative social influence in brand buying intention between the persons scoring high in ATSCI and low in ATSCI.

The study contents and results are summarized as follows.

First, the theoretical validity are examined to provide the logical basis of the related variables of social influence and their causal relation through the literature review. Also, the relationship of the constructs is confirmed and the combination possibility of the causal relation of those constructs are explored.

Second, on the basis of the literature review, the model systemized the causal relation of the related variables of social influence is developed. This model includes reference group factors, productc factors, normative social influence, informational social influence and brand buying intention. And ATSCI(attention-to-social-comparison-information) as a moderating variable is included concurrently.

Third, this study describes the research model of the causal relation among those constructs by previous conceptual and empirical research on this topic. And the research model is tested through the covariance structure modeling of LISREL.

Fourth, the findings reveal that the overall goodness of fit index of the model was comparatively good and the model set in this study was significant. But the hypotheses about the relationship between group cohesiveness and normative social influence, the relationship between brand distinction and informational social influence and the relationship between group similarity and informational social influence are rejected.

KEY WORDS : reference group factors, product factors, social influence, normative social influence, informational social influence, attention-to-social-comparison-information, brand buying intention