The effect of materialism and impression management purchase motivation on purchase intention for luxury athleisure products: the moderating effect of sustainability

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to identify the consumption mechanism by which consumers' materialism creates purchase intentions for luxury athleisure products through impression management purchase motivation and to verify the moderating effect of sustainability in this mechanism. Design/methodology/approach This study conducted a scenario-based online survey by dividing into two groups according to the sustainability of luxury brand products (non-sustainable vs sustainable). Structure equation modeling (SEM) was performed to verify the hypotheses. Findings The SEM results showed that materialism has a positive effect on the purchase intention of luxury athleisure products. It was also confirmed that impression management purchase motivation mediates the relationship between materialism and purchase intention. As a result of examining the moderating effect of sustainability, materialism directly affects purchase intention for unsustainable products, but only indirectly affects sustainable products through impression management purchase motivation. Research limitations/implications This study expanded the research on luxury brands by providing the consumption mechanism of luxury athleisure considering sustainability. Practical implications Luxury brand marketers should strategically motivate consumers to purchase by activating materialistic tendencies such as ownership and display for general athleisure products and using impression management purchase motivation for sustainable products. Originality/value This study explored unresolved research areas on the consumption mechanism of luxury athleisure by identifying the mediating role of impression management purchase motivation in the relationship between materialism and luxury consumption and exploring the moderating role of sustainability.