Personal values and mall shopping behavior: The mediating role of attitude and intention among Chinese and Thai consumers

Abstract

Personal values are important determinants of consumer behavior. While previous research has identified values (i.e., openness to change and self-enhancement) which guide consumers' mall shopping behavior, they have been set in a Western cultural context. By adopting a value-attitude-behavior (VAB) model, this study examines what and how personal values influence consumers' mall shopping behavior in two non-Western countries, namely China and Thailand. The results confirm the existence of the causal flow of VAB. Chinese are guided by self-transcendence and self-enhancement values, whereas Thais are guided by openness to change values. Shopping intention is found to mediate the attitude-behavior link in the Chinese sample and improves the predictive power of values towards behavior. Although a relatively weaker mediating effect is found in the Thai sample, shopping intention does not lead to stronger predictive power of values. © 2011 Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy.