Study On Factors Influencing Car Upgrade Purchase Behavior In China

In recent years, people’s income has gradually increased, while China’s economy has been booming. When the basic material needs have been met, more and more people tend to seek for the spiritual pleasure. For the people who have cars, most of them will purchase a new one sooner or later. Car replacement cycle is generally5‐8years, which is to say, the first car owners of China is now facing the problem that whether to replace their old cars or not. And since2007, car sales have increased significantly every year, it is apparent that in the next few years, more and more consumers will change for a new car. When buying cars again, most consumers will choose to buy a new car which is much better than the old ones, because people’s hierarchy of needs have improved. This is called car upgrade purchase phenomenon which is widespread in our daily life. Since China’s automobile industry started late, the upgrading of consumption in the country is still a relatively new concept, and the research to the car upgrade purchase is basically a blank. Therefore, this paper attempts to explore the factors that influence car upgrade purchase behavior from the perspective of consumers’ in order to help the auto companies understand the needs of car upgrade consumers.By reading a lot of literature on car upgrade purchase behavior, compared with repurchase behavior, I build the theory model of factors influencing car upgrade purchase behavior. Customer perceived value, brand‐personality congruence and switching barriers are the three main factors of car upgrade purchase behavior. Customer perceived value is defined as the customers’ overall utility which gained throughout the process of purchasing and using the car products. Switching barriers are the factors that make switching products become difficult. Brand‐personality congruence is the difference between self‐concept and brand personality.A market research is done in Wuhan in this study. By reliability and validity testing, the author finds that the survey is reliable and effective, and then analyzes the research data with the method of canonical correlation analysis. Finally the theory model has been proved through empirical research. Perceived value and brand‐personality have a positive impact on car upgrade purchase behavior, switching barriers have a negative impact on car upgrade purchase behavior. Besides, brand‐personality congruence can enhance the relationship between customer perceived value and car upgrade purchase behavior. This study is of great significance from both theoretical and realistic perspectives.