Personal Values in Brand Loyalty, an empirical research on the print newspaper market in China.

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Personal Values in Brand Loyalty,

an empirical research on the print newspaper market

in China.

MASTER THESIS

December 2008

Student: M.M. Jensema

Student number: 1342258

Supervisors: Drs. J.C.L. Paul

Drs.

W.A.

Prins

UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN

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Foreword

In front of you lies my Master thesis I have written in order to finalise my Master Business Administration, with specialisation Business Development at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.

In the period from March 2008 until July 2008 I have done research on the influence of personal values on customer behaviour for the print newspaper market in Shanghai. In the first place the research was performed at Bridgehead Media, the exclusive advertising agent for China Daily, the only national English language newspaper in China. I have done my internship with a lot enthusiasm and it was a huge disappointment at the moment company went bankrupt. However, after a lot of bad luck, I could continue my research and I am proud to show you the results.

Yet, the successful finishing of my thesis would not have been possible without the help of certain people, which I would like to mention.

First of all I would like to thank Drs. J.C.L. Paul for his comments we discussed over the skype phone and after my return for his time and comments on the many draft versions. I would also like to thank my second supervisor Drs. Prins for giving me feedback on my final draft version.

Furthermore I would like to thank my supervisor in China, Mrs. Janine Haitink for giving me so much space and individuality to explore the Chinese media world and for the time to do my research.

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Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to find out how personal values affect brand loyalty for a Chinese developed English language newspaper in China. The research focuses on two subjects. The first subject is brand loyalty where attitudinal brand loyalty and the direct variables that cause attitudinal brand loyalty are elaborated. The second subject is personal values. These values are based on an earlier research of Schwartz (1991), and are used to measure the relationship between personal values and the three variables (satisfaction, trust and commitment) of brand loyalty. This research has been done for the printed newspaper market in Shanghai. The focus of the research is the Chinese developed English language newspaper, ‘China Daily’. A factor analysis, a cluster analysis and a multiple regression analysis have been conducted with a sample size of 119 respondents in Shanghai. The results show that all the cultural dimensions of Schwartz are related in a positive or a negative way with the variables satisfaction, trust and commitment. Three out of the six cultural dimensions have the proposed relationship. These are hierarchy, which has a negative relationship with all the brand loyalty variables, egalitarianism, which has a positive relationship with all brand loyalty variables and conservatism that also has a positive relationship with the variables. The other cultural dimensions have a contrary relationship with the brand loyalty variables. The results show that mastery has a positive relationship with all the variables even though the expectation was negative. Autonomy and harmony have both different relationships for all variables that are remarkable according to the found literature. As a general conclusion can be said that personal values do have influence on brand loyalty. Personal values have a certain influence on their shopping behaviour, but how strong these values influence their decisions are for each country and person different. Therefore it is hard to generalize personal values related to nationality. However, from this research appears, that people who held different cultural values, have different attitudes towards brand loyalty and in this case towards the product “China Daily”.

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4.2.4. Schwartz’ values ...26 4.3. Conceptual Model ...29 5. HYPOTHESES ...31 5.1. Trust ...31 5.2. Satisfaction...33 5.3. Commitment ...34 6. METHODOLOGY ...36 6.1. Research Design...36 6.1.1. Qualitative Research ...36 6.1.2 Quantitative Research ...37 6.2. Data Collection ...37 6.3. Questionnaire...38 6.3.1. Components Questionnaire ...38 6.4. Data Analysis ...41

6.4.1. Data Frequency Distribution ...41

6.4.2. Means and Standard Deviations ...42

6.4.3. Explorative Data Analysis...43

7. DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS ...49

7.1. Factor Analysis ...49

7.1.1 Factor Analysis brand loyalty ...49

7.1.2. Factor Analysis Schwartz’ personal values...51

7.2. Cluster Analysis...52

7.3. Correlation and Regression analysis ...52

7.3.1. Correlation analysis...53

7.3.2. Multiple Regression analysis ...54

7.4. Results hypotheses...54

7.4.1. Results hypotheses brand loyalty variable trust ...54

7.4.2. Results hypotheses brand loyalty variable Satisfaction ...56

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8. CONCLUSION ...62

8.1 Introduction to the conclusion ...62

8.2. Conclusions ...63

8.3. Limitations of the research...65

8.4 Recommendations for further research ...66

8.5. Reflection...67

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1. Introduction and problem definition

The first chapter will cover an introduction to the topic, the aim of the research and the problem definition.

1.1. Preface

Facing globalisation, media plays an important role because of the easy access to information nowadays. Printed newspapers in this media world are special products, their lifetime is extremely short and only contains three attributes: content, advertising and delivery. They are still basically the biggest information medium for the majority of news consumers and give people a ‘special’ experience. An example is the noise of the cracking paper in your hands, instead of reading the newspaper on the Internet or by using your mobile phone (Vyas, et. al. 2007). Internet and mobile marketing however have become increasing competitors for printed newspaper agencies through the growing needs for flexibility, less time available and convenience. Not only these threats appear, personal commitment and identification also play a very important role for the consumer to buy a certain product and for a company to respond to it. Their direct environment like their culture, family, and friends influence consumers in their decision making process.

For companies to create competitive advantage, they have to intensify consumers’ psychology to make them transparent and to develop a product, which fits all the consumer needs (Anisimova, 2007).

How to develop a product that fits consumer needs? Companies have to achieve consumers’ commitment. They can realise this by developing a strong brand, which is a foundation for a long-term commitment between companies, brands and consumers (Aaker, 1991).

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For developing a strong brand, brand equity is one of the most important marketing instruments (Srivastava, 1991) and is considered as a key driver for a business’ success. Results of a strong brand can be higher purchase intentions and higher stock returns for the company (Cobb-Wallgren et. al 1995). Brand equity for consumers is the quality of the product, the relationship they have with the product and the type of personality a product gives to the consumer like an exciting and/or trustful product. In the end all companies want the consumer to re-buy their products each time. Relationship with consumers is therefore a very important aspect of brand building (Aaker, 1991).

What is the reason that one person is easier satisfied with a product than another and what is the reason that one person finds it very important to identify himself with a yacht and another person is not interested in these kinds of products? People’s nationality plays a role for these questions. Their environment and the people around them influence people in their attitude and behaviour towards customer behaviour (Schwartz, 1999).

Personal values play also an important role for their behaviour, which are influenced by their nationality and this research will mainly focus on the question how strong the influence of personal values is on the decision to buy and re-buy a product, also known as brand loyalty.

1.2. Background Information of the Research

In 2007, China led the World Association of Newspapers global top 100, ranking with 25 Chinese newspapers list by circulation volume (www.chinaherald.com).

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Chinese and English language newspapers. Next to censorship, foreign publishers are not allowed to control the editorial content of a magazine or a newspaper (Winfield, 2007).

In the English language media in Shanghai, China, a lot of magazines exist; diversify from free lifestyle magazines until subscribed business magazines. Focussing on the English language newspapers in Shanghai, two newspapers are found. Shanghai Daily, as a regional newspaper and China Daily as a national newspaper, which is published by a state-owned enterprise. Next to these Chinese printed publications foreign newspapers like the International Herald Tribune and Wall Street Journal Asia and are available in Shanghai.

This research will focus on China Daily, as she is the only national English language newspaper in China. China Daily is established in 1981. The daily circulation is approximately 300.00, one-third of which is distributed abroad in more than 150 regions and countries. As China Daily and Shanghai Daily are each others biggest competitors in the Shanghai newspaper market, it is very important for a company and their advertising agent to know the readers profile and there preferences. They need to get insight in the preferences of the reader about the product attributes and get their interest for the newspapers so that they can meet the needs of the reader in their best way.

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1.3. Problem definition

1.3.1. Research Objective

The research objective has to be defined, to get a good view of the problem and the aim of the research.

The aim of this research is to be able to do recommendations as a result of the research to the influence of personal values on brand loyalty. The focus of the research will be on China Daily, an English language printed newspaper in Shanghai.

1.3.2. Research Question

To achieve the research objective a research question has been formulated:

What is the effect of different national personal values on customer brand loyalty for the English language newspaper China Daily, in Shanghai, China?

1.3.3. Sub Research Questions

To be able to answer the research question, sub questions will be defined.

1. Which factors influence brand loyalty?

2. What different kinds of brand loyalty exist?

3. How can personal values be described?

4. What kind of relationship exists between cultural aspects and personal values?

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1.3.4. Preconditions

This research will only focus on the English language print newspaper China Daily in Shanghai, China. At the moment there are a few English language print newspapers in China who, are competing each other, like the Shanghai Daily and the China Daily in Shanghai as Chinese publications. Next to this restriction, the Chinese media is under strict censure regulations.

1.4. Methodology

In this paragraph the methodology of this research will be explained. The methodology will give an approach how the sub- research questions will be answered and after that the main research question. This research can be divided in a literature framework and an empirical research. These two researches need to be combined for a better view on the research problem (Jonker and Pennink, 2000).

When choosing a research approach, two possibilities are possible; an inductive approach or a deductive method can be made. A deductive method is when the theory and hypothesis are based on previously read literature. The hypotheses will be tested afterwards. The inductive method is, when the theory is developed after the analysis of the collected data (Braster, 2000).

The chosen approach for this research is the deductive method. The literature was first read to find theories, where after a selection is made for further research. Out of the theories a research model is developed in order to find the answers on the research question.

1.4.1. Literature Framework

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1.4.2. Empirical Research

Next to secondary data, primary data will be obtained by an empirical research.

A deductive method will be used to test the results from the literature framework. To develop a valid research, first a qualitative research has been done to get insight in the research problem, where after a quantitative research has followed.

This research will be a descriptive research, because of the research question, which is looking for answers about a certain degree to which variables are related (Maholtra, 2007). To get a good view of the research problem 12 in-depth interviews has been done with people, living in Shanghai for more than six months and are familiar with China Daily. All respondents have different demographic data. After the interviews have been done, a questionnaire has been developed to obtain data in order to test the proposed hypotheses. The data obtained from the questionnaire exist out of 119 respondents living for more than six months in Shanghai and who are familiar with China Daily.

The data are obtained through a single cross sectional design, which means that only one sample of the respondents is drawn from the target population (Maholtra, 2007).

The data will be used in a quantitative research. This research will measure, by making use of statistic tests; the hypotheses developed referring to the literature framework. Which tests will be used, will be described in chapter 6.

1.5 Outline

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2. Brand Equity

What is Brand equity and why is it so important for companies? The next chapter will give an outline of brand equity.

2.1 Background Brand Equity

2.1.1 Definition Brand Equity

Many perspectives have been developed on brand equity and definitions are defined closely. In this research we will use the definition of Keller (1991) and Aaker (1992) because they are seen as the founders of customer based brand equity. Many other authors have based their descriptions on the definitions of Keller and Aaker. Keller (1991) defines brand equity with a focus on the customer perspective. “A positive (negative) brand equity exist when the customer react more favourable to the product, price, promotion and distribution of the brand than they do to the same marketing mix element when it is attributed to a fictitiously named or unnamed version of a product or service”.

Aaker (1992) on the other hand describes customer brand equity as a set of brand assets and liabilities that are linked to the brand’s name and symbol and in this way add value provided by a product or service. Brand equity is interesting for organizations, because of high levels of brand awareness and a positive brand image can increase the chance of the brand choice and customer loyalty (Keller, 1991).

2.1.2. Diverse approaches of brand equity

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focus on brand name scores, Pork and Srinivasan (1994) use Keller and Aaker as their base for their research in brand equity focused on price.

Brand equity is a definition based on the perspectives, attitude and behaviour of the customer, however the organization takes advantages in the end, when customers purchase and re-purchase their product or service.

2.1.3. Advantages Brand Equity

Branding is a powerful element for companies to differentiate themselves from the competitor (Pappu, 2005). Regarding to differentiation, Porter (1990) describes differentiation as one of the key competitive positioning strategies for companies. Strategic impact through brand equity is accordingly recognized in the marketing literature (Aaker, 1992, de Chernatony and McDonald, 1998, Kapferer, 1994 and Keller, 1991). Keller (1991) indicates two main reasons that can create competitive advantages by creating brand on the customer. The first reason is a financial based motivation to estimate the value of a brand for accounting purposes. The second reason is a strategy-based motivation in order to improve the marketing productivity. Through higher costs and increased competitors, companies are searching for new ways to increase the efficiency of their marketing expenses.

2.1.4. Variables brand equity

Brand equity exists out of 4 different factors that can form customer brand equity (Aaker, 1992 and 1996). These perspectives are brand loyalty, brand name awareness, perceived brand quality, brand associations and other proprietary brand assets. They can be defined as:

- Brand Loyalty Æ “A deeply held commitment to re-buy or re-patronize a preferred product/service consistently in the future, thereby causing repetitive same-brand or same brand-set purchasing, despite situational influences and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behaviour” (Oliver, 1999).

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- Perceived Brand Quality Æ the assessment of the customer over the entire perceived service or product (Zeithamel, 1988)

- Brand Associations Æ everything the mind of the customer relate to the specific brand, these associations could be stronger, when a positive experience has been occurs (Aaker, 1991)

As brand equity exist out of 4 factors, however, this research will focus only on brand loyalty. Even though companies want customers to recognize their brand, have the right association with the brand and have a positive experience with the quality of the brand or product, in the end they want customers to purchase and re-purchase their product over and over again and spread a positive word about their product or brand. So a solid customer base is very important and therefore brand loyalty is needed.

In this research an existing product will be examined and therefore the focus will be on a solid customer base for the development of brand loyalty.

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3. Brand Loyalty

The next chapter will cover different approaches of brand loyalty and explain the difference between attitudinal and behavioural brand loyalty.

3.1 Background Brand Loyalty

3.1.1. Definitions of brand loyalty

Brand loyalty has been investigated for many years and different definitions of brand loyalty came up (Yooyong et. al. 2008, Oliver, 1999, Hallberg, 2003).

Kumar and Shah (2004) define brand loyalty as loyal customer behaviour; Hallberg (2003) defines brand loyalty as an emotional bonding with the product, which can lead to a higher level of repeated purchasing of the product. Jacoby and Chestnut (1978) focus on customer behaviour and attitude towards a product related to brand loyalty rather than only the repeated purchase for a product. Behaviour brand loyalty is according to them defined as a partial behavioural response, expressed over time of some decision-making unit, with respect to one or more alternative brands.

Uncles et.al. (2003) describe brand loyalty in more general way; “loyalty is something that customers may show to brands, services, stores, product categories and activities. They approach (brand) loyalty as a feature for people rather than for brands. They agree that there is no universally agreed definition for brand loyalty as concluded by Jacoby and

3.1.2. Brand loyalty model

Chestnut (1978) and Oliver (1999), instead of one universal definition they concentrate on three different conceptualisations for brand loyalty:

1. Loyalty primarily as an attitude that can lead to a loyal relationship or commitment with a brand (Model 1).

2. Loyalty expressed in terms of repeated purchase behaviour (Model 2).

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Below the three approaches are outlined in Figure 1.

Model 1

Model 2

Model 3

Strong attitudes & positive beliefs toward the brand

The influence of significant others, community membership and identity

Habitual revealed behaviour

Satisfactory experience & weak commitment to brands

Purchase situation, usage occasions & variety seeking

An individuals’circumstances and characteristics

Attitudinal loyalty to the brand

Behavioural loyalty to the brand

Co-determinants of buying brands

Figure 1. Conceptualisations of customer loyalty (Uncles et.al. 2003)

Model 1 describes brand loyalty as a customer attitude towards a product. It can be seen as a favourable set of stated beliefs towards the brand or product. For instance how the customer likes a particular product, how they feel toward the product and if they will recommend the product to others. This model can be linked to the definition of Oliver (1999), whereas he means that attitude is the key factor of a brands’ purchase.

Model 1 can be extracted as a relationship, which the customer creates with the product or brand. Loyalty as a kind of relationship can be linked to attitudinal brand loyalty. Attitudinal loyalty can be defined as the customers’ predisposition towards a brand as a function of the psychological process.

This includes attitudinal preferences and commitment toward a brand. Attitudinal loyalty is a commitment between the customer and the product rather than only behavioural loyalty that evolves out of repeated purchases (Jacoby and Chestnut, 1978).

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could be linked to behavioural brand loyalty. The definition for behaviour brand loyalty is a tendency for buying, usually or several times in a specific timeline a particular brand. Brand loyalty along with this model can be measured more easily than the brand loyalty from model 1 due to repeated purchases, which are facts instead of feelings and attitudes. Behavioural loyalty is the result from repeated satisfaction that leads into weak

commitment; the customer will buy the same product because of satisfaction instead of searching for an alternative

Model 3 is a contingency approach and approaches loyalty as a relationship between the attitude and behaviour. The model defines three important factors: individual’s current circumstances, their characteristics and the purchase situation. Budget and time pressure can be examples of the individual’s current circumstances; individual characteristics can be desire, habits and risks willing to take. Distinction should be made in here, because the attitude as written above, can be divided in attitude towards the brand an attitude towards the purchase decision. This model only focus on attitude towards the brand and explains that loyalty towards the brand doesn’t give full security, that the customer actually repurchase the product.

Model one and three can be combined because of the attitudinal focus. Marketing literature defines that attitudinal loyalty can be approached as a personal trait and a brand specific approach. These elements are specified in model one and three.

3.1.3. Attitudinal brand loyalty choice

All definitions above enclose either only the purchase behaviour or the attitudinal site of brand loyalty. For companies the best way to interpret brand loyalty is to take both sites in account, however in this research only attitudinal brand loyalty will taken into account. Attitudinal brand loyalty has to lead in the end to behavioural brand loyalty, which correspond with repurchases of the product (Hallberg, 2004).

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of the availability of information about behavioural brand loyalty in the empirical research.

3.2 Attitudinal Brand Loyalty

Paragraph 3.1 has showed the reason for using attitudinal brand loyalty; this paragraph will discuss attitudinal brand loyalty in detail.

Attitudinal brand loyalty gives a better understanding of the customers’ product choice. It is responsible for a long-term commitment, which results in a re-purchase (Reichheld, 2003). The focus should not only be on the objective part of brand loyalty, like the frequency of repurchases and the time between the purchases, but also on the subjective part of brand loyalty. This contains word of mouth advertisement and the development of a solid customer base, which can be referred to satisfaction and commitment, where the loyalty of the customer starts. Customers’ attitudes are generally recognized for influencing their purchase behaviour. All these reasons are the base for this research to focus on the subjective part of brand loyalty. Although, knowing that a company needs to focus on both attitude and behaviour of the customer to create maximum loyalty.

Oliver’s (1999) approach about brand loyalty focus the attitudinal aspect and therefore will be used in this research.

“A deeply held commitment to re-buy or re-patronize a preferred product/service consistently in the future, thereby causing repetitive same-brand or same brand-set purchasing, despite situational influences and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behaviour”.

3.2.1. Factors Attitudinal Brand Loyalty

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Much research has been done on factors that can influence brand loyalty, attitudinal brand loyalty in particular. The next factors that influence brand loyalty will be shortly defined: involvement, perceived value, brand trust, customer satisfaction and commitment and repurchase intention. Of these 6 factors, only the repurchase intention is particularly related to behavioural brand loyalty; hence this research won’t contain any further research to this factor. However, the other 5 factors can be related to attitudinal brand loyalty and can be divided into direct and indirect factors.

Commitment, trust and satisfaction are direct factors for attitudinal brand loyalty and will be further used in this research (Zboya, 2006).In the section below the factors perceived value and involvement would be discussed as an indirect factor for attitudinal brand loyalty.

- Perceived value can be characterized as the customers’ overall evaluation of the utility of a product based on perceptions, what is received and what is given (Punniyamoorthy, 2007). The factors satisfaction, trust and commitment influence the overall evaluation followed by the perceived value.

- Involvement is an important factor for satisfaction; it involves a long-term commitment on customer’s side, which refer to the customer’s attitudinal side including feelings, thoughts and behavioural response to a particular product. It interacts with product performance and also has influence on customer satisfaction and product preference. An indirect relation with brand loyalty is concluded and consequently not further used as direct factor of brand loyalty.

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3.2.2. Satisfaction

Satisfaction can be defined as an affective response to a purchase situation (Babin and Griffin, 1998, Oliver, 1999). Satisfaction can be seen as a learning curve from previous experience with a product and will give explanation for post-experience behaviour. Examples are complaining, word of mouth advertising and repurchase intention (Punniyamoorthy, 2007, Omar et. al. 2007). In practice the relationship marketing has emphasized customer satisfaction as a key driver for the overall marketing performance and as a major driver for brand loyal customer behaviour. Satisfaction appears when the product performance meets the expectations of the buyer. When the performance fails, dissatisfaction can occur. So when a company wants to gain loyal customers, she should confirm that their product would satisfy the customer in their desires and needs (Oliver, 1999).

3.2.3. Brand Trust

Brand trust can be seen as the key driver for a long-term relationship (Punniyamoorthy, 2007). Reichheld and Schefter (2000) emphasize, that gaining customer brand loyalty have to start with getting customers’ trust. Trust is an important factor for the customer - organisation relation and is also seen as the start for commitment between customers and firms. Trust can be defined as the expectations held by the customer, that the provider is dependable and can be relied on to deliver on its promise (Doney and Cannon, 1997). The expectations of customers can occur through personal needs, experiences in the past and possible changes for the future.

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3.2.4. Commitment

Commitment is a powerful psychological concept and can be referred to customers’ ultimate relationship characters, encompassing beliefs, attitudes and behaviour towards a particular brand and their relationship towards that brand (Gordon, 2003). It represents the customers’ feelings about maintaining a relationship with a product or brand and the resistance to change to another product (Hess, 1995).

Personal connections and relationships based on commitment are sensible for product failure because of involvement and emotional cost (Burnham, 2003). Commitment expresses the process, which supposes, that a customer is loyal, because she or he has a positive attitude towards a product or brand and is a result of personal involvement with the product or brand.

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4. Customer Values

This chapter will contain an illustration of the relationship between customer values and their purchase behaviour and an explanation of the cultural impact on personal values.

4.1. Values and customer behaviour

4.1.1. Customer Values

Human values are defined as desirable goals, varying in importance, that serve the guiding principles in people’s lives (Schwartz, 1993). The definition for values has become a consensus between scientists. A generally accepted definition of values can be defined as abstract ideals, positive or negative, not tied to any specific object or situation and representing a person’s belief about modes of conduct and ideal terminal modes. Values also can be defined as global beliefs that transcendentally guide actions and judgements across specific actions and situations (Rockeach, 1968). Due to these descriptions; values have influence on customer behaviour, due to the fact that values have influence on a person’s belief and actions in specific situations.

An important factor in the research on values and customer behaviour is the difference between values and attitudes. Even though they are two closely related factors, attitudes are orientations towards certain objects or situations. An attitude is the result of the application of a general value in specific objects or situations (Becker and Connor, 1981).

4.1.2. Personal values and customer behaviour

Several authors consider customer values as a keystone in customer’s decision-making process (Homer and Kahle, 1988 and Kilbourne et.al. 2005).

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According to literature, a relationship between values and customer behaviour does exist, but the exact relationship is still not yet defined. Kim (2002) emphasizes, that customers who buy products not only base their choice on the provided functional or performance benefits, but they also wants products to express their personality, status and association. For example luxury goods give people a certain status.

Pitts and Woodside (1983) confirm the relationship between values and customer behaviour, but aren’t sure about the direct relation between values and attitude towards the product or brand.

Another approach towards the relationship between values and customer behaviour is from Gutman (1982). He describes the “means-ends chain model” to illustrate this relationship. The means-end chain model is a model, where the “means” can be defined as objects/ products or activities in which people engage; “ends” are valuated as states being such as happiness and security. The means-end chain model tries to illustrate how products facilitate the achievement of desired end states.

A research that has been done in different way is the research of Brunso et.al (2004) and Kahle et.al. (1988). They illustrate that despite other researches about this relationship, lifestyle plays an important role as well. Their framework is consistent with the means-end chain model of Gutman (1982), especially in the hierarchical structure. On top of the hierarchy, personal values are abstract and trans-situational, combined to cognitive categories. On the bottom of this approach customer perceptions are illustrated as situation specific. Lifestyle here is illustrated as a system of cognitive structures that connects situation specific product perceptions with increasingly abstract levels and in the end to personal values. According to this research, not only values are important factors for customer behaviour, but also lifestyle plays a decisive role in this relationship.

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4.2. Cultural Values

4.2.1. Culture

It is hard to define one best definition of “culture”; as no universal definition is accepted caused by the fact, that culture can be approached from many directions. The direction that involves the personal and cultural value aspect is the definition of Tung(1996).

He defines culture as a set of shared beliefs, values, attitudes and logical processes, which provide cognitive maps for individuals or social groups to perceive, think, reason, act, react and interact. The definition describes, that culture can’t be seen as a static happening, because it happens over time. Consistent with this definition, culture is an evolutionary process that involves changes and priorities in values, attitudes and behaviour on individual and group level. Hofstede (1979) is a generally known researcher, who has done many researches on the cultural aspect; he defines culture as the collective programming of the mind, which distinguishes the members of one category of people from those of another.

4.2.2. Cultural Values

Culture plays an important role in the personal value aspect. It can be referred to the norms, beliefs and customs of individuals or in a group that leads to common behaviour (Schwartz, 1993). Psychology that has focused on the cultural impact on personal values concludes, that they shape the thoughts and the behaviour of a person or a group (Watkins and Gnoth, 2005). Values as mediators in the culture-value aspect implies, that values differ between cultures where they can be traced to environmental conditions, different thoughts and behaviours, that are linked to personal values (Grunert and Schernhorn, 1990).

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4.2.3. Measurement cultural values

To measure cultural values many approaches are available. Some generally known approaches are the Rockeach Value Survey (1973), where two sets of values are considered in order to fulfil the objectivity of the measurement. VALS is a measurement approach where both lifestyle and personal values are involved and where demographics play a heavy role. Kahle (1986) on the other hand, is a one of the most well known researchers in measuring values. He has developed “the List of Values” based on Feathers, Maslow and Rockeach (1973), as an accomplishment to their methods.

Even though, these approaches and researches are all generally known, two writers in the theme of cultural values are most quoted: Hofstede (1984) and Schwartz (1992).

Hofstede (1984) has done many researches on the cultural aspect in organizations. He has based his research on 117.000 IBM employees in 40 different countries. The result of his research is a four-dimension division, which represent different cultures. These dimensions are: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism and masculinity/femininity. The dimensions can be generalized and are now a base for many further investigations on the cultural aspect (Siew et.al. 2006).

Hofstede (1984) has developed these 4 cultural values, that represent different countries and with these values the cultural distance can be measured. Cultural distance is the extent to which one country’s culture is similar or different from another country’s culture (Kogut and Singh’s, 1988). Out of researches is fulfilled, that the cultural distance isn’t suitable for all circumstances. Most of the researches done with the values of Hofstede found out, that Hofstede’s cultural values in organizational environment are suitable.

4.2.4. Schwartz’ values

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The ten motivationally distinct, broad and basic cultural values are derived from three universal requirements of the human condition (Schwartz, 1992):

- Needs of individuals as biological organisms - Requisites of coordinated social interaction - Survival and welfare needs of groups.

The ten personal values are intended to cover all core values recognized around the world (Schwartz, 1992). They are derived from the Values Theory, which clarifies a structural aspect among the personal values. All action a human being does have any psychological, practical and social consequences that can cause conflicts or can be harmonious with the pursuit of other values (Schwartz, 1992).

The 10 basic values described are (Schwartz, 1992):

1. Self-Direction: Independent thought and action; choosing, creating, exploring, choosing one’s own goals.

2. Stimulation: Excitement, daring, novelty, and challenge in life.

3. Hedonism: Pleasure and sensuous gratification for oneself and enjoyment in life. 4. Achievement: Personal success, capability and influence on people and events. 5. Power: Social status and prestige, control or dominance over people and resources. 6. Security: Safety, harmony, and stability of society, of relationships, and of self. 7. Conformity: Restraint of actions, obedience, honouring parents and elders, politeness. 8. Tradition: Respect, devotion, commitment, and acceptance of the customs and ideas, that traditional culture or religion provide the self.

9. Benevolence: Preserving and enhancing the welfare of those with whom one is in frequent personal contact, loyalty, honesty, and responsibility.

10. Universalism: Understanding, equality, appreciation, tolerance, and protection for the welfare of all people and for nature.

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Schwartz (1999) his focus on national cultures has resulted in seven types of cultural dimensions. These dimensions are:

1. Conservatism. A society that emphasizes close-knit harmonious relations, the maintenance of status quo and avoids actions that disturb traditional order.

2. Intellectual autonomy. A society that recognizes individuals as autonomous entities, who are entitled to pursue their own intellectual interests and desires. 3. Affective autonomy. A society that recognizes individuals as autonomous entities,

who are entitled to pursue their stimulation and hedonism interests and desires. 4. Hierarchy. A society that emphasizes the legitimacy of hierarchical roles and

resource allocation.

5. Mastery. A society that emphasizes active mastery of the social environment and individual’s rights to get ahead of other people.

6. Egalitarian commitment. A society that emphasizes the transcendence of selfless interests.

7. Harmony. A society that emphasizes harmony with nature.

These dimensions on which cultures can be compared by considering three issues that confront all nations around the world:

- The first issue considers the nature of the relationship between the individual and the group. Conservatism and both intellectual and affective autonomy can be placed in this issue.

- The second issue contains the guarantee for responsible behaviour that will preserve a social fabric. Hierarchy and egalitarianism belong to this issue.

- The last issue encloses the relationship between a human kind to the natural and social world. The cultural dimensions mastery and harmony can be represented in this issue.

Consequently, these three issues include the seven cultural dimensions and in that way all the personal values obtained by Schwartz.

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Schwartz ’research is also more up to date and the data was obtained from more different countries, as an example the addition of countries from East Europe. He also has added an extra factor in his cultural dimensions, which is called egalitarianism. This dimension specifies the personal values to be able to investigate more cultures (Steenkamp, 2001). The next section will show the conceptual model, in order to illustrate relationships from the literature written above.

4.3. Conceptual Model

The conceptual model below is developed referred to chapters 2, 3 and 4. The model shows presumably relationships from the literature framework.

Hierarchy Mastery Egalitarianism Autonomy Conservatism Trust Satisfaction

-+

+

-+

Brand Loyalty Commitment Harmony

Model 1: Conceptual model of personal values and brand loyalty.

The conceptual model is a report of the literature framework. Three topics have been described in here: brand loyalty, customer values and cultural values.

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The cultural dimensions are hierarchy and mastery, egalitarianism, autonomy and conservatism and harmony. How strong the relationships between the cultural dimensions and the direct variables of brand loyalty are, will be measured in chapter 6 and 7. The cultural dimensions represent the personal values of the customer. The arrows most right in the model are the relationship between the direct variables of brand loyalty on brand loyalty. Measurement has to be done to find out, how strong these variables are linked to brand loyalty for the print newspaper market in Shanghai.

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5. Hypotheses

5.1. Trust

The definition of trust is described in paragraph 3.2.3. Trust is defined there as the expectations held by the customer and the reliability on the product or brand (Doney and Cannon, 1997). Another approach of defining trust is, “the willingness of the average customer to rely on the ability of the brand to perform its status function” (Morgan and Hunt, 1994). The cultural dimensions of Schwartz can be linked to the factor trust in a customer relationship. To start with ‘hierarchy’, a negative relation can be proposed, because trust appears often in a collectivist surrounding, where people rely on the judgement and recommendations of others (Doney et.al. 1998). Hierarchy stands for power, authority and dominance, which aren’t factors that can be linked to a collectivist surrounding. Therefore hypothesis 1 can be ascertained:

H1A: The cultural dimension hierarchy has a negative relation with the brand loyalty factor trust.

For the cultural dimension ‘mastery’ counts the same explanation as for hierarchy as the factors belonging to ‘mastery’ are independent, ambitious and capable. These factors can be seen as individual factors, which fit in an individual surrounding.

Hypothesis 2A will be:

H2A: The cultural dimension mastery has a negative relation with the brand loyalty factor trust.

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H3A: The cultural dimension egalitarianism has a positive relation with the brand loyalty factor trust.

‘Autonomy’ as the fourth cultural dimension contains the personal values self-direction, hedonism and stimulation. These values are creativity, exploring, curious, pleasure and challenge and excitement. The fifth cultural dimension ‘conservatism’ will be combined with the sixth dimension ‘harmony’ as their personal values lie very close to each other. This dimension contains respect, acceptance, safety, harmony, stability and obedience. Research has been done on conservative and harmonious customers, who will stay with the same product because the product meets the needs of the customer. As they like commitment and safety, why should they switch to another product? On the other hand, people who have personal values connected with autonomy are switching faster to another product to try and explore if another product will fulfill their needs and expectations (Alhabeeb, 2007).

Hence to these reasons hypotheses 4A and 5A are ascertained as:

H4A: The cultural dimension autonomy has a negative relation with the brand loyalty factor trust.

H5A: The cultural dimension conservatism has a positive relation with the brand loyalty factor trust.

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5.2. Satisfaction

Satisfaction can occur during a time interval of buying the same product through price and quality experience. Talking about experience all customers can have experience with a certain product, but what makes it interesting, is the expectation the customer had before they bought the product. When customers have expectations, because others have told them about, a subjective and indirect experience appears.

The cultural dimensions of Schwartz can be linked to the factor satisfaction’ in a customer relationship. Starting with ‘hierarchy’ and ‘mastery’ a negative relationship can be proposed, because these two cultural dimensions contain individualistic factors (Bloemer and Dekker, 2003).

Therefore hypothesis 1B en hypothesis and 2B will be expressed as:

H1B: The cultural dimension hierarchy has a negative relation with the brand loyalty factor satisfaction.

H2B: The cultural dimension mastery has a negative relation with the brand loyalty factor satisfaction.

The cultural dimension ‘egalitarianism’ contains factors that are related to a communal surrounding and equality. Customers with these values base their experience on others, which results in a sooner satisfaction than people who have their own expectations and the experience is solely based on their own experience. Hypothesis 2B will be ascertained as:

H3B: The cultural dimension egalitarianism has a positive relation with the brand loyalty factor satisfaction.

‘Autonomy’ can have a negative relationship with the brand loyalty factor satisfaction, because of the personal values related to this dimension. Curiosity, pleasure and challenge are values for customers switch easily to other product than stick with the same product. Hence, hypothesis 4B is formulated as:

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The cultural dimensions ‘conservatism/harmony’ contains factors that cover tradition, stability and safety. So, when these customers are happy and satisfied with the product, they won’t change their preferences easily with every new product introduced in the market and will stay therefore with the same product. Unknown is either they are actually satisfied or the search for a new product is too difficult (Spreng et.al. 1996).

Due to this explanation hypothesis 5B will be expressed as:

H5B: The cultural dimension harmony has a positive relation with the brand loyalty factor satisfaction.

H6B: The cultural dimension harmony has a positive relation with the brand loyalty factor satisfaction.

5.3. Commitment

Commitment is a result of trust build by customers towards a brand or product. Customers only commit a product relationship, if they have confidence in the provider’s ability that will constantly meet their expectations in the future and whenever they don’t hurt their behaviour in any way (N’Goala, 2006).

The cultural values ‘hierarchy’ and ‘mastery’ could have negative influence on the brand loyalty factor commitment. These dimensions represent independency, ambitiousness and social status, which are related to individuality, power and achievement. These hierarchical and mastery values want to prove themselves instead of being in a stable relationship (Lacey, 2007). Hence hypothesis 1C and 2C are ascertained as:

H1C: The cultural dimension hierarchy has a negative relation with the brand loyalty factor commitment.

H2C: The cultural dimension mastery has a negative relation with the brand loyalty factor commitment.

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Hypothesis 3C is extended to find out if egalitarianism values like loyalty will have a positive relationship with commitment.

H3C: The cultural dimension egalitarianism has a positive relation with the brand loyalty factor commitment.

Commitment can be divided into 2 different approaches: one is the functional commitment and the other is the personal commitment (Fournier, 1998). Personal commitment occurs, when benefits from the product for personal commitment appear like affiliation, meaning and cognitive consistency (Hess, 2005). These components can be linked to customers with conservative values, because these values like security, stability and conformity are simulate to the values for personal commitment. Customers with outgoing, exploring and challenging characteristics, sooner switch from product or brand to try and experience new things (Hess, 1995). As a result the following three hypotheses will be expressed:

Hypothesis 4C: The cultural dimension autonomy has a negative relation with the brand loyalty factor commitment.

Hypothesis 5C: The cultural dimension conservatism has a positive relation with the brand loyalty factor commitment.

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6. Methodology

Chapter 6 presents a methodological view of the empirical tests. The first section will contain an introduction of the research design, secondly the data collection and the explanation of the questionnaire will be outlined and in the last section, the data will be described and analysed.

6.1. Research Design

This research focuses on the print newspaper market in Shanghai. The focus is of people from different countries in the print newspaper market in Shanghai. Therefore personal values can differ for people from different countries (chapter four).

The data is first obtained through a qualitative research and afterwards through a quantitative research. To measure the respondents’ characteristics and their personal values, a questionnaire is developed. Paragraph 6.3 will explain the questionnaire.

6.1.1. Qualitative Research

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6.1.2 Quantitative Research

To collect data to test the hypotheses, a questionnaire has been developed. The questionnaire has been divided into 17 structured questions with open-, scale- and multiple-choice possibilities. Structured questions are a suitable way for analysing data, so all the questions are structured. The questions contain multiple-choice and scale answers as choice for the respondents. The scale answers contain a five-point Likert Scale to measure the behaviour and attitude of the customer (Maholtra, 2006).

6.2. Data Collection

To collect data a non-probability sampling technique is used. Because of unexpected circumstances, a probability sampling was impossible. A judgemental sampling technique is used to make sure that the respondents of the target group could be approached. The respondents were asked, if they were familiar with China Daily before the questionnaire was handed over. The target group for this empirical research are men and women, who are familiar with the English language print newspaper ‘China Daily’. The readers of China Daily are foreigners, expatriates and high-level Chinese readers in the age between 18 and 65 and living in Shanghai for at least six months.

The place where the interviews were held is Shanghai. An ‘on the street’ approach is chosen, because of restricted time and money and to obtain as much useful data as possible.

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6.3. Questionnaire

For a descriptive research a questionnaire as measurement technique is mostly used. It is a simple way to administer and the obtained data is most of the time reliable (Maholtra, 2006).

6.3.1. Components Questionnaire

The questionnaire (Appendix) has been developed to get good insight in the personal values of the respondents, their purchasing behaviour of the newspaper and how loyal they are to the newspaper. The first five questions are mentioned to get insight in the purchasing behaviour of the respondent, whether they are familiar with China Daily and how often they buy China Daily. Question four focuses on the loyalty to one or more newspapers and question five faces the repurchase intention of China Daily.

To be able to measure the items correctly, a selection has been made from earlier studies to require construct validity of the scales.

For each factor the items related to the questionnaire will be conceptualised.

Satisfaction is the first factor and is covered in question 6. According to Babin and Griffin (1998) satisfaction can lead to a higher purchase level. Items for measuring satisfaction are related to earlier researches from Oliver (1999), Babin and Griffin (1998), Westbrook (1987) and Fornell, 1992). Satisfaction is covered through 6 questions referred to Babin and Griffin.

The following questions cover the variable satisfaction: “When I’m satisfied with the newspaper, I buy the newspaper more often. “When I’m satisfied about the newspaper, I will recommend it to others”. When the newspaper meets my expectations, I will recommend it to others”. The following questions will cover satisfaction directly related to the product: “ As convinced reading the newspaper, I don’t switch easily to another newspaper.” I am pleased that I buy the newspaper”. I believe the newspaper meet my expectations.

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confident expectations of the brand’s reliability and intentions in purchase situations required to the customer. In their definition brand reliability and customers expectations are mentioned. These two elements in his definition can be illustrated as: reliability based on customers’ confidence with the newspaper and ‘the brand, which meets the expectations of the customer’. Customer intentions can be measured by asking ‘if the newspaper would make any effort to satisfy the customer’ and ‘whether the customer could rely on the newspaper’. The first two questions in question 6 contain the expectation factor and the last two the intention factor.

Question 8 covers commitment and the questions are based on several researches. Pritchard et.al. (1999) have done research on the measurement of repurchase commitment They mention two factors in their commitment definition: a cognitive (attitudinal) part and an informative part. Preference for a newspaper in different ways asked covers the attitudinal part of the newspaper. The preference gives meaning to the attitude in a way, that they feel committed to the newspaper or that they don’t feel any involvement and commitment towards the newspaper. The informative part contains the way customers change to another product or brand, when they receive information about another product. The question: “When other newspapers have my interest, I will change to another newspaper, is referred to the informative part.

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The schedule below shows question 9 considering the 10 personal values of Schwartz.

Values Description Statements faced in questionnaire

1. Power Social Status, control over

other people and resources

I want to make my own decisions.

2. Achievement Personal success,

demonstrating competence according to social standards

I want to be successful in life. I think it is important to be ambitious. I want to show how capable I am.

3. Hedonism Pleasure for themselves It is important to do things in life that give me pleasure.

It is important for me to have a good time.

4. Stimulation Excitement, challenge I always look for new things to try. I like to take risks.

5. Self-direction Independent, exploring It is important to me to be independent.

6. Universalism Understanding,

appreciation for the welfare of other people

I want to make others feel good about them.

7. Benevolence Enhancement of the

welfare of people closely related

I like to help people around me.

It is important for me to respond to the need pf others.

8. Tradition Respect for, commitment

and acceptance of customs and ideas that traditional culture and religion impose on the self.

I have respect for the people closely around me.

I belief in the ideas and customs closely related people rely on me.

9. Conformity Social togetherness It is important for me to be loyal to my

friends.

I want to devote myself to people close to me.

10. Security Safety, harmony, stability I want to live in secluded surroundings. I avoid anything that endangers my safety.

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Questions 10 until 15 are demographic related questions, which can be used for the cultural part of the research. Schwartz (1992) describes, that the six cultural dimensions based on the ten personal values from his research can be linked to different kinds of cultures. The demographic data can have influence on the personal values.

One remarkable item has appeared in the questionnaire. In question 6, referred to satisfaction, the item ‘I believe the newspaper meets my expectations’, is also placed in question 7. In question 7, the topic is trust and is the question more focused on the brand, than the newspaper in general. The questions are developed according to various researches. For question 6 this item comes from the authors Babin and Griffin (1998) and Westbrook (1987). For question 7 this item comes from the authors Delgado-Ballester et.al (2003). Both mean to say, that these items can be measured through the same question. This is not strange, because the items satisfaction and trust lie very closed to each other and have influence on each other. How these items correlate with each other will be analysed through a correlation analysis in chapter seven.

6.4. Data Analysis

In this paragraph, the data of all the respondents will be analysed in order to get a view of the data of the respondents. The topics that will be mentioned are the frequency distribution of the gender, age and nationality. The means and standard deviations of the items will be examined and the normality distribution will be tested together with missing values, outliers and extreme values.

6.4.1. Data Frequency Distribution

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judgemental interview technique. This can have influence on the reliability of the results and the objectivity of the population.

Figure 2. Frequency Distribution of Nationalities

6.4.2. Means and Standard Deviations

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for the scores can be the nationality of the respondents. In the cluster analysis, we take a look to see if respondents from the same country or continent have similar scores.

Looking at the scores of the standard deviation, all the items have a score below 1, which means that all the items have a deviation from the mean, which is less than one time the standard deviation.

6.4.3. Explorative Data Analysis

In this analysis, outliers, extreme values, missing data, normal distribution of the variables and eventually mistakes can be discovered and solved here before any other analysis can be properly done. The analyses will be examined per variable of brand loyalty. The cultural dimensions of Schwartz will be analysed together. First the variables of brand

loyalty will be analysed, starting with the items of satisfaction. Looking at the output of the explorative data analysis, there are no missing values in the

items of satisfaction. To see whether items have a normal distribution, a Shapira Wilk Test has been examined for all variables. This test, compared to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test shows stronger results in earlier researches. “The test provides a superior omnibus indicator of non-normality judged over the various symmetric, asymmetric, short and long-tailed alternatives and over all the sample sizes used” (Yazici and Yolacan, 2007).

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kurtosis on the other hand has a positive value, the distribution is more peaked than the normal distribution.

In the table below the items of satisfaction are showed with their skewness and kurtosis.

Variables satisfaction Skewness Kurtosis

Don't switch as convinced - 0,41 - 0,86

Buy same newspaper more often 0,23 - 0,44 Pleased when buying the newspaper 0,49 0,06

Recommendation to others - 0,16 - 0,28

Newspaper meet expectations - 0,05 - 0,46 Meet expectations will recommend 0,13 - 0,54 Table 2. Variables Satisfaction

Looking at the results, none of the items is normal distributed. The negative kurtosis means, that these items have an extremely normal distribution. Reason for non-normality can be the amount of respondents that is less than required. Another option can be extreme values in answers given in the questionnaire.

When looking at the stem and leaf plots, only one item can be found as an outlier, namely the item ‘newspaper meet expectation’. In the Box diagram another outlier can be found in the ‘Pleased when buying the newspaper’ item of satisfaction.

These values are outliers because these respondents are quite extreme with their answers in the questionnaire. These values are kept as outliers and will be taken into account for every other analysis and for the results of the analyses.

The next explorative data analysis will be done for the variable trust with all the related items. From the analysis appears, that there are no missing values in the data. The normality distribution can also be found through a Shapira-Wilk Test.

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Variables trust Skewness Kurtosis

Confidence with newspaper 0,35 - 0,03

Newspaper brand meets expectation - 0,16 - 0,03 Newspaper makes effort for

satisfying

0,06 - 0,39

Rely on the newspaper 0,43 - 1,07

Table 3. Variables Trust

The scores on the kurtosis and skewness show the same results as the items of satisfaction. Also for these items count that because of the negative kurtosis, they have an extreme non-normal distribution.

To find out whether there are outliers or extreme values, we take a look at the stem and leaf plots. In these plots only one item contains an outlier, which is the item ‘the newspaper makes effort for satisfying’. The box diagram shows even as the stem and leaf plot one outlier for this variable. The profile of the respondent referred to this value has given no extraordinary answers in the questionnaire. The value will be kept as an outlier and be taken into account for every analysis.

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Variables Commitment Skewness Kurtosis Preference for the newspaper 0,15 - 0,53 Preference will not easily

change

- 0,27 - 0,48

Interest other newspaper will cause switch

- 0,14 - 0,77

No preferences towards the newspaper

- 0,25 - 1,2

Dissatisfieness will result in switching

- 0,26 - 0,71

Loyal to the newspaper - 0,12 - 1,3

Table 4. Variables Commitment

The steam and leaf plots show, that only the item ‘Preference will not easily change’ has an outlier. The box diagram shows for the same item an outlier.

This outlier will be kept as an outlier in the database. This respondent is quite extreme with his answers in the questionnaire. These values are kept as outliers and will be taken into account for every other analysis and for the results of the analyses.

To examine whether the data referred to the questions about the lifestyle of the respondents have a normal distribution, another exploratory data analysis has been done. The items represent the 10 personal values of Schwartz. Per personal value a couple of lifestyle questions are asked in the questionnaire.

From the analysis appears that there are no missing values in the data. To examine whether the data have a normal distribution a Shapira-Wilk Test will be examined.

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Variables Lifestyle Skewness Kurtosis Important doing things that

give pleasure

0,01 - 0,54

Important to have a good time - 0,33 - 0,70 Always look for new things to

try

- 0,38 - 0,70

Like to take risks - 0,29 - 0,66

Important to make own decisions

- 0,03 - 0,63

Important to be independent - 0,14 - 0,78 Want to be successful in life - 0,27 - 0,78 Important to be ambitious 0,06 - 0,79 Show how capable a person is 0,44 - 0,67

Like to help people - 0,18 - 0,11

Important to respond to the need of others

- 0,14 0,23

Want to make others feel good to themselves

0,18 - 0,42

Want to live in secluded surroundings

0,13 - 0,31

Avoidance of anything with danger

0,03 - 0,20

Important to be loyal to friends - 0,30 - 0,59 Want to devote to people

around

0,35 - 0,44

Have respect for people around - 0,37 0,14 Belief in ideas and customs of

people closely related

- 1,31 2,05

Table 5. Variables Lifestyle Items

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and in the other items referred to this value of Schwartz. Because the extreme values appear for one person at the time, the extreme values stay as an extreme value in the database. Whenever comes out, that further analyses aren’t reliable or valid through these extreme values, they will be changed into the next value possible to be not extreme anymore. The same counts for the outliers in found in the items.

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7. Data Analysis and Results

To answer the research question, statistical analyses have been examined.

This section will present the results of the statistical analyses. With these results, the proposed hypotheses will be accepted or rejected. First a factor analyse will be examined to identify a new smaller set of uncorrelated items to replace the original correlated items (Maholtra, 2006). These uncorrelated items represent the questions from the questionnaire regarding the direct variables of brand loyalty; trust, satisfaction and commitment. A second factor analysis has been conducted, with items from the questionnaire referred to the personal values of Schwartz. After that a cluster analysis will be examined to check whether the respondents can be divided into the same ‘clusters’ as Schwartz has divided his respondents. Schwartz has placed his respondents into the seven cultural dimensions he developed regarding his ten personal values. A cluster analysis has been conducted to investigate whether the respondents from this research can be placed in the same clusters as Schwartz did. The cluster analysis has been based on the nationality of the respondents. With these results a correlation analysis and a multiple regression analysis will be examined to be able to give an answer to the research question.

7.1. Factor Analysis

7.1.1 Factor Analysis brand loyalty

The aim of this factor analysis is to find out, if the items related to the variables trust, satisfaction and commitment can be reduced to one new factor that can represent the items. This counts as well for the items related to Schwartz’ cultural dimensions.

One requirement the data have to comply with is an existing correlation between the regarding items. The Bartlett test spherity and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin tests show if the items related to the variables trust, satisfaction and commitment are correlated. For these items the Bartlett test spherity for Approx. Chi2 is 805,909 and this test has a significance level of 0,000. The significance level represent that the variables used are correlated.

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comply with the requirements of a factor analysis. The kind of factor analysis used is a principal components analysis. This kind of factor analysis determines the minimum amount of factors that will give a maximum variance and is the most common used factor analysis (Maholtra, 2006). The rotation method used, is the orthogonal rotation with a varimax procedure. This method minimizes the amount of variables with high factor loadings on a factor. The interpretation of the analysis will be easier and therefore is used. To make sure that multicollinearity doesn’t have an influence on the results of the factor analysis, a close look has been taken at the interrelated correlations and these correlations are not extremely high, so multicollinearity will not have influence on the results.

The determination of the factors has been calculated by the eigenvalues and have to be equal or higher than 1 to determine the amount of factors. In this case 5 factors are determined (appendix 3.1). The determination can also be based on the cumulative percentage of variance. The requirement for this kind of determination is a minimum of 60%. In appendix 3.1 is showed, that actually 4 factors can be used and still have a high reliability and validity. The result shows the items developed for three variables are now divided into 5 variables. Factor 1 can be called trust and contains all the items developed in the questionnaire. Factor 2 contains 3 items of satisfaction and as described in chapter 6, they are related to satisfaction in general, where factor 3 contains two items of satisfaction, that are related direct to the product. The factors will be called satisfaction 1 and satisfaction 2. The fourth factor contains two items of commitment and factor 5 contains the other two factors of commitment. Factor 4 can be related to the attitudinal part of commitment and factor 5 can be related to the informative part of commitment. Factor 4 will be called commitment 1 and factor 5 will be called commitment 2.

For the internal validity between the items within the determined factors, a Cronbachs’ alpha test has been examined for each factor. The result shows that for four of the factors the items placed in the factors are internal consistent. The values of the Cronbach’s Alpha are respectively: 0.810, 0.745, 0.699, 0.666 and 0,593. The requirement for internal consistency within a factor is a minimum of 0,6 (Maholtra, 2006). This means that the items placed in factor 5 doesn’t have an internal consistency.

Personal Values in Brand Loyalty, an empirical research on the print newspaper market in China.