Consumer values and the perceived attributes of a product elicit consumptive behaviors. The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to test the psychometric properties of three scales (MVS; Richins & Dawson, 1992; PRS, Richins, 1994; PERVAL scale, Sweeney & Soutar, 2001) that measure consumer values and the perceived attributes of a product within a licensed sport merchandise (LSM) setting, and (b) to examine the relationships among items across the three scales for commonalities, and to examine the relationships between consumer values (CV) and perceived product attributes (PPA). Statistical analyses indicated that the psychometric properties of the MVS, PRS, and PERVAL scales could be improved substantially. A principal components analysis (PCA) indicated nine interpretable dimensions; five that could be categorized as CV dimensions (Social Approval, Materialism, Covetousness, Prestige/Status, and Escape) and four that could be categorized as PPA dimensions (Price/Quality, Nostalgia, Craftsmanship, and Aesthetic Beauty).
As we noted above, consumers are likely to have different preference criteria according to their value systems. Compared to attitudes, values generally carry greater importance in a person's life and are more abstract and general (Schwartz, 1992). Values are often expressed by various motivational types of goals (Schwartz, 1992 and Schwartz and Bilsky, 1990). However, it is uncertain how individuals establish their values, such as honesty, security, power, and so forth. In addition, it is not clear that values themselves are sufficient in explaining consumption behaviors. As a result, several researchers have used the means-end chain approach (Gutman, 1982, Reynolds and Gutman, 1988 and Vinson et al., 1977). For instance, Gutman distinguished values from product attributes in that values are end states that one desires to be, which may or may not be actualized. Product attributes are the product features that provide the desired benefits, which may gratify specific values (Gutman). Vinson et al. classified an individual's value system into several dimensions (i.e., global values–domain-specific values–evaluative values). Within the classification, global values are the beliefs that guide one's thought process, while evaluative values are specifically related to product attributes that elicit one's beliefs. These lead to evaluation of the properties of a product, which elicits behavior. In this vein, an individual's perceived attributes of a product tends to be an evaluation of information available to the individual, such as cost, craftsmanship, aesthetic appearance, and so forth.
This study examined the psychometric properties of three values scales: the MVS (Richins & Dawson, 1992), the PRS (Richins, 1994), and the PERVAL scale (Sweeney & Soutar, 2001). In addition, we investigated the relationships among the items across the three scales in an attempt to distinguish between the items measuring “consumer values” that influence product purchases and the items representing “perceived attributes” of a product.
