Factors influencing male consumer puchase intentions a study of care products in ho chi minh city

The research question measures the impact offactors "beliefs in product attributes, personal image, normative influences, andattitudes toward applying skin care products" to men's consum

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

-Phan Van Nam

FACTORS INFLUENCING MALE CONSUMER PURCHASE INTENTION:

A STUDY OF SKIN CARE PRODUCTS

IN HO CHI MINH CITY

MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours)

Ho Chi Minh City - Year 2015

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

-Phan Van Nam

FACTORS INFLUENCING MALE CONSUMER PURCHASE INTENTION:

A STUDY OF SKIN CARE PRODUCTS

IN HO CHI MINH CITY

ID: 22120095

MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours)

SUPERVISOR:

Dr VO THI NGOC THUY

Ho Chi Minh City - Year 2015

I hereby declare that this thesis titled “Factors influencing consumer purchaseintention: A study of private labels in Ho Chi Minh City” is definitely my own workand effort and that is has not been submitted anywhere for any award Where othersources of information have been used in this thesis, they have seriously been cited.Signature: Phan Van Nam

Date: 08/02/2015

This thesis has been implemented with the contributions and encouragements fromfaculty of International School of Business - University of Economics Ho Chi MinhCity, family, and friends I would like to express our gratitude to all of their supports.Without these supports, I would have had a tough time

Firstly, I would like to give big thanks to my supervisors at International School ofBusiness - University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Professor Nguyen Dinh Thoand Doctor Vo Thi Ngoc Thuy Their knowledge, experiences and helps have reallybeen useful for me to make this thesis such as their encouragements, and patience inproviding valuable regards and recommendations on previous drafts Without theirguidance, my thesis would not have been completed

Secondly, I would like to address the deep appreciation to people who had read andgave the information and advices that have made my thesis possible

Finally, I would like to thank all people in Ho Chi Minh City who had cooperated toanswer my questionnaire

TABLE OF CONTENT

ABSTRACT 8

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 9

1.1 Background 9

1.2 Management problems and questions 9

1.3 Research objectives and values 10

1.4 Scope 10

1.5 Structure of study 10

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW, HYPOTHESES AND RESEARCH MODEL 12

2.1 Introduction 12

2.2 Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) 12

2.3 Normative factors impact on men purchasing behaviors 13

2.3.1 Family 13

2.3.2 Spouse 14

2.3.3 Friend 14

2.4 Product attributes impact on men purchasing behaviors 14

2.4.1 Quality 15

2.4.2 Packaging 15

2.4.2 Price 15

2.4.3 Brand 16

2.5 Personal image 16

2.6 Men’s attitudes toward applying skin care products 17

2.7 Purchase intention 18

2.8 Research Model 19

2.8.1 The relationship between Personal Image and Normative Influences 19

2.8.2 The relationship between Beliefs in Product Attributes and Attitudes 19

2.8.3 The Relationship between Personal Image and Attitudes 20

2.8.4 The relationship between Normative Influences and Behavior Intention 20

2.8.5 The relationship between Attitudes and Behavior Intention 21

2.9 Summary 21

Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 22

3.1 Introduction 22

3.2 Research design 22

3.2.1 Qualitative research 22

3.2.2 Quantitative research 22

3.3 Population, sample size and sampling method 23

3.4 Data collection 24

3.5 Data analysis 24

3.6 Research process 25

3.6.1 Adjust the scale 25

3.6.2 Pilot study 25

3.6.3 Formal study 25

3.7 Measurement scale 26

3.7.1 Beliefs in product attributes 27

3.7.2 Normative influences 28

3.7.3 Personal image 28

3.7.4 Attitudes toward applying skin care products 29

3.7.5 Purchase intention 29

3.8 Summary 30

Chapter 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS 32

4.1 Introduction 32

4.2 Descriptive of statistics 33

4.3 Reliability analysis (Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient) 34

4.4 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) 35

4.5 Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) 35

4.5.1 Introduction for CFA 35

4.5.2 CFA factor “Beliefs in product attributes” testing 36

4.5.3 CFA 3 factors personal image, attitudes toward applying skin care products and

purchase intention testing 38

4.5.4 CFA factor “Normative influences” testing 40

4.5.5 Composite reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE) testing 41

4.5.6 CFA for whole model testing 42

4.6 Structural equation modeling (SEM) 45

4.6.1 SEM result 45

4.6.2 Model estimations by bootstrap 47

4.6.3 Hypothesis testing 48

4.7 Summary 49

Chapter 5: CONCLUSIONS 50

5.1 Introduction 50

5.2 Research findings 50

5.3 Limitations and direction for further research 52

5.4 Managerial implications 53

5.5 Conclusions 54

REFERENCES 55

APPENDIX A: Reliability analysis (Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient) 62

APPENDIX B: Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) 67

APPENDIX C: Qualitative questionnaire 70

APPENDIX D: Quantitative questionnaire 74

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: Research model 19

Figure 3.1 Research process 26

Figure 4.1: CFA factor beliefs in product attributes (Standardized estimates) 38

Figure 4.2: CFA factor personal image, attitudes toward applying skin care products and purchase intention (Standardized estimates) 40

Figure 4.3: CFA factor normative influences (Standardized estimates) 41

Figure 4.4: CFA result for whole model (Standardized estimates) 44

Figure 4.5: Estimated structural model (Standardized estimates) 47

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1: Timeline of research implement 25

Table 3.2: Sources of questionnaire 29

Table 4.1: Descriptive of statistics 33

Table 4.2: Correlation between 4 components 37

Table 4.3: Correlations between 3 components 39

Table 4.4: Summarizes the results of testing the scales 42

Table 4.5: Compares CFA results of between the two times implementations 43

Table 4.6: Correlations between 5 concepts 45

Table 4.7: Results of testing the causal relationships between studied concepts 46

Table 4.8: Estimated result by the bootstrap with N = 1000 46

Table 4.9: Summary result of testing hypothesis 49

The research aims to some factors affecting on men's intention to buy male skin careproducts in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Fishbein and Ajzen’s theory of reasonedaction model is applied as a theoretical framework to conduct the research; it is alsosupported factor "personal image" The research question measures the impact offactors "beliefs in product attributes, personal image, normative influences, andattitudes toward applying skin care products" to men's consumer purchase intention onbuying male skin care products Based on research purposes, a questionnaire wasdeveloped and distributed selectively to Vietnamese male consumers aged 23 to 55years in Ho Chi Minh City who work both indoors and outdoors 250 appropriatequestionnaires were collected and then tested model fit by confirmatory factor analysisand structural equation modeling in Amos version 22 The results of the study confirmthat all factors "beliefs in product attributes, personal image, normative influences, andattitudes toward applying skin care products" have effects on purchase intention inbuying men's skin care products among Ho Chi Minh male consumers Therefore,applying theory of reasoned action to explain men's purchase intention to skin careproducts in Ho Chi Minh City is appropriate

Key words: Skin care products, cosmetic, personal image, product attributes, purchase

intention, normative influences

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background

Nowadays, with development of technology, science, society, economy and education,people tend to have more demand for a better life Relating to the development ofpurchasing power in consumers and market trend that people become more conscious

of hygiene and beauty (Souiden & Diagne, 2009), so beauty care industry grows upsharply, especially in Vietnam This is the desired market for both domestic andmultinational companies Thus they enter to this market continually to gain big profit.Most of people would like to be beautiful, healthy and good looking Previously, it issaid that beauty products have always been regarded a "specialty" for women ratherthan men, but now, it can be easy to see that Vietnamese men need more beauty forthemselves People are interested in a smooth and bright skin with an ideal body shapefor a perfect personal image (Nair et al., 2007)

Men’s tending to use cosmetics is sharply increasing, particularly among the youth.Goods for men exhibited separately and rich, from body deodorant, hair styling gel,perfume, shower gel, shampoo, cleanser and lip balm As a result, men pay moreattention to support patterns of beauty and are more sensitive to the productsalternatives, like many products are launched to the market to convince customers tobelieve that its can improve their appearance

As the demand for beauty is not something reserved for the weaker sex again, themarket for male cosmetics is fertile ground for business Of course, in Vietnam, therevenue figures for male cosmetics cannot have fast growth, but also growing day byday

1.2 Management problems and questions

While it is assumed that make up is as a joneses of young people in their 20s, somemarket research shows that the most buying customers are the middle classentrepreneurs who are trying hiding destruction of age, smoking, and stress Although,

buying more skin care products, approximately 80% men mainly purchase by otherssuch as wife, company (Sukato & Elsey, 2009).

1.3 Research objectives and values

The study investigates attitude towards applying skin care products and normativeinfluences on men’s purchase intention The focus is the impact of personal imageand beliefs in product attributes on men’s using attitudes To do so, the study canpermit to understand more thinking of men about personal image, what they feelafter using cosmetics and what customers trust before buying cosmetics, both ofthem are market trends and purchasing evaluation in skin care market of men in

Ho Chi Minh City

The study also examines components in society that affected on men’s personal image

It is important to understand both relationship between men’s behavior and normativeinfluences, to set up marketing mix strategy for not only men but also people who isimportant for them such as family, wife, friend From those things above, allcompanies will find out appropriate way to expand and develop skin care market formen in Vietnam, especially in Ho Chi Minh City

2014 to the ending of Sep 2014 The study will finish at the end of Oct 2014

1.5 Structure of study

The structure of the study is divided into five chapters Chapter 1 gives an overview ofthe research topic Chapter 2 presents the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and researchmodels Chapter 3 shows the methodology for testing the model scales and theproposed hypotheses Chapter 4 illustrates the analysis of information and research

results Chapter 5 summarizes the results of the study, the contributions and limitations

of the study to guide the further research

2.2 Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)

This study uses the theory of reasoned action (TRA) as a theoretical frame-work toillustrate male consumer purchasing behavior regarding skin care products in Ho ChiMinh City, Vietnam, which is developed by Martin Fishbein and Icek Ajzen in 1980.The structure of TRA is described in the formula below

= and SN =

online travel shopping behavior (Lee, Qu & Kim, 2007); mobile chat services(Nysveen, Pederson & Thorbjornsen, 2005); adopting banking channel (Wan, Luk &Chow, 2005); food products purchasing (Choo, Chung & Pysarchik, 2004) and settingscultural in some countries such as U.S.A (Lee & Littrel 2005; Ulaga & Eggert, 2006);Norway (Nysveen, Pederson & Thorbjornsen, 2005), Australia (Patterson 2004); HongKong (Wan, Luk & Chow, 2005); and Taiwan (Shih & Fang, 2004)).

The study add personal image to TRA in order to increase the predictability of maleconsumer behavior toward buying skin care products in Thailand It is very importantbecause men have purchased skin care products for improving their “personal image”(Sturrock & Pioch, 1998; Thompson & Hirschman, 1995), which describes the image

of a good working person, a citizen who are discerning in this context

2.3 Normative factors impact on men purchasing behaviors

People are strongly influenced by the reference group (family, spouse, and friend).According to Sukato and Elsey (2009), families possibly convince consumers intopurchasing a particular product Moreover, Antoinette (2007) notes that women (wife

or partner) have an influence on men behavior such as men will buy skin care productseasier or take care more on themselves if they are encouraged and accepted by peoplewho surround them There are many groups that affect a person's behavior A referencegroup includes groups directly (face to face) or indirectly effect to attitude or behavior

of a person such as family, spouse and friend which they have regular communicationrelations These groups influence attitudes and self-concepts of people, because peopleoften want to integrate into it Moreover, these groups also create the pressure required

to follow common standards and may impact the choice of products and brands in thereality of that person

2.3.1 Family

Each family has its own values, culture and is representative for a special referencegroup with family members that frequently exchanging information on consumingproducts and further purchases The interaction between family members is a basicbackground in influencing purchase intention within a family (Blythe, 2005) Recent

studies of purchase behaviors in shows that the family structure is changing in thesociety; traditional family with 3 generations was gradually being replaced by a nuclearfamily model containing couple or lone-parent families(Copley, 2004) These changespartly influence buying behavior, personal consumption targets associated with theconsumption of the family of upcoming buying decisions, and thereby rules for familyconsumption will influence any decisions prior the personal real purchase (Solomon etal., 2006).

2.3.2 Spouse

Scanzoni (1977) states that nowadays the role of women in the family is changing,becoming more and more important, this has a lot influences on decisions in familysuch as buying behavior, handling of finance, division of housework The statement isconsisted of Vietnamese social context because in many families, wife took the leadingrole Not only that, women are focused on health issues They often search solutions toimprove health for themselves and their families So in matters of skin care, womenhave more power to influence her husband choosing skin care products

2.3.3 Friend

Friends can influence a consumer by giving feedback how they perceived givenproducts or services, or affecting to values and aspire of consumer, or impacting on thetype of behavior displayed of consumer (Solomon, Barnossy, Askegaard and Hogg,2006) In Vietnam, where parents living with children until children grow up, so theirinfluence can be basic Except for the time with the family, the rest time of men is usedfor work and learning, which means they will be in contact with friends, co-workersduring this period Men’s behaviors will be affected less or more by friend Therefore,friends will be important elements in normative influences

2.4 Product attributes impact on men purchasing behaviors

Product attributes are the characteristics or features that describe a specific product andwill effect on consumers’ purchase decision (Hossain, 2007) Product attributes can betangible (can include characteristics such as size, color, weight, volume, smell, taste,touch, quantity, and material composition) or intangible (can include characteristics

such as price, quality, reliability, and beauty/aesthetics) This study only mentionsquality, packaging, brand, and price as skin care product attributes based on qualitativeanalysis.

2.4.2 Packaging

Packaging is the appearance of product Packaging helps enclosing, protectingproducts and making products more convenient for distribution, storage, sale, use andalso for preservation of products from the manufacturers to the user or consumer.Packaging can be known as an important link in the system from the beginning ofproduction to the end of user In each country, packaging has specific criterions inaccordance with local culture (Soroka, 2002) Good packaging is also one of attractingcontents, on which people are easy to know expired day, ingredient, and instruction.When do not understand about product, people will select through the package of its.Products with beautiful, clear package are prioritized to purchase

2.4.2 Price

Price is the cost to customers in exchange for buying product It is determined by anumber of factors including market share, competition, material costs, product identityand perceived value of the customer with the product The companies are in theposition to fix the selling price of products according to many factors in the market asthe relevant actors in order to buy or sell a product, or sustain under the surroundingconditions of market as that price is still in a price range by the group of market makers

related to supply and demand while the buyers make a decision how much they arewilling to pay for products (Schneider, 2003) According to Datamonitor's "MaleGrooming Trends: Profiting in 2009 and Beyond" report, released in March, price isconsidered as primary factors on men in order to purchase their personal care products.More than 50 percent of all male respondents answer that price has either "high" or

"very high" impact on their product purchasing This result is a significantly higherresponse rate than other factors, even though "ease of use" or "habit/preferred brand"are realized as the important factors in men perspectives as well (Antoinette, 2009)

2.4.3 Brand

Brand is a name or images that exist in every consumer’s thinking (Mooij, 1998) and itrepresents company and can differentiate the goods and services from the rivals’(Aaker, 1991; Keller, 1998) A brand is an intangible asset, sometime it is the mostvaluable asset of company In addition, a brand is also including quality of products,packaging, promotion, advertising, distribution as well as its overall presentation(Murphy, 1998) Following the consumers’ perspective, brand name is a guarantor ofreliability and quality in products (Roman et al., 2005) Vietnamese people generallyand men particularly tend to buy and use brand name products, especially foreign brandname with a view to highlight their personality in different situational contexts

2.5 Personal image

Personal image is the perception that people has about someone, affects success of thatperson in every aspect of life, career, and love Factor that impacts on personal image isthe beauty values of the society that a person lives in (Goldsmith, Moore & Beaudoin,1999) In the Vietnamese society, a popular skin for men is brown as honey or whitecute as Korean actresses And a very important standard for Vietnamese men skin was

no acne and scarring Beauty values for personal image change from time to time.Comments of normative groups on personal image of men would contribute tochanging men's attitudes towards the use of skin care products under positive (Belk,1978)

2.6 Men’s attitudes toward applying skin care products

Women have focuses on their appearance for long times ago They try to take care oftheir personal image for being more attractive and taking advantages in competition inlife (Blanchin et al., 2007) In addition, it is said that shopping and grooming withappearance is just for women but now changing gender perception in society arecreating acceptation for men to illustrate some feminine characteristics includingpreening, dressing and showing emotions (Conseur, 2004) Currently, appearance,personal image and youth are becoming more and more important in this society Somany men have turned and pressed on their appearance more than in the past becausenot only women want to be good-looking and young but men also Previously, most ofstore for male cosmetic and skin care products are bound to few products but now thereare many kinds of skin care products available for men such as facial foam for men,day and night cream, anti-aging cream, sun protection and etc (Chanintorn & Jiraporn,2010)

L’Oréal, Nivea, Romanal, Xmen and Oriflame can be good examples because thesebrands have launched men section to respond to their men’s customer needs Therefore,men have become more comfortable about buying products and service to improve orenhance their personal appearance and men move beyond the basic of washing andshaving to embrace more sophisticated products and grooming concepts (Imogen,2005) Nowadays, men are seen as consumers and consume more and more, not onlymen are interested in motor, information technological equipment and electronicproducts, etc but also navigate to which are popular for female such as clothes,accessories and jewelry and cosmetics, etc (Conseur, 2004) Taking care of theirpersonal image and health is becoming popular for both men and women So this trendcan be an effect on men’s behaviors toward applying skin care products for aestheticdemand Even though these trends encourage men to take care and concern more onthemselves, almost men are not daring to use skin care products because these productsare related to a female so the consumption of cosmetics by men is still labeled gay(Blanchin et al., 2007)

2.7 Purchase intention

Consumer purchase behavior is always the most interesting filed of researchers It isthe process of individuals, groups, or organizations that they use to choose products,services to satisfy demand and the influences of it on the consumer and society(Kuester, Sabine, 2012) This process is a combination of many factors includingpsychology, sociology, social anthropology, marketing and economics Normally,buying process including five steps is that step 1: recognizes problem, it meansidentifying something a consumer needs, step 2: searches for information, which meanssearching consumer’s knowledge bases or external knowledge sources for information

on the product, step 3: the possibility of alternative options, meaning whether searchesinformation of many alternatives, step 4: the intention to purchase the product and thenimplements the actual purchase of the product, step 5: evaluates after purchasing (Peterand Donnelly, 2007)

It can be seen that purchase intention is an important step in buying behavior, afterconsidering and evaluating the product (Chen, 2008; Grewal et al., 1998) Purchaseintention expresses the willingness of consumers to buy products or services in theshort term buying decision (Wu et al., 2011, Fandos and Flavian, 2006) Today, manystudies show that purchase intention is impact by familiar influences, social groups Infact, the more purchase intention obtains, the more possibly purchase decision takesplace (Espejel et al., 2008)

is proposed as follows:

H1: Normative influences positively affect the personal image

2.8.2 The relationship between Beliefs in Product Attributes and Attitudes

The study of Siu and Wong (2002) investigates 5P marketing mix such as price,product, promotion, people (salesperson), and place (store distribution) for cosmetic

H1H3

H4

H5

H2

Beliefs in product attributes

Personal image

Attitudes toward applying

skin care products

Normative Influences

Purchasing intention

product attributes in Hong Kong Anderson and He (1998) find quality, price, brand,packaging, advertising, and salesperson as influential attributes when Chinese customerconsiders using cosmetics in China Additionally, Johri and Sahasakmontri (1998)reveals that consumers’ attitudes toward green cosmetic products evaluate a productbased on its origin and flavor, color, performance, brand messages, price, whether it issafe for skin, trial, outlet atmosphere, packaging, ingredients, and whether it was tested

on animals Therefore, attributes affecting buying skin care products are expected toinclude price, quality, packaging, promotion, salesperson, advertising, brand, and type

of distribution Consequently, the research investigates how those products attributeseffect on the attitudes of Vietnamese male consumer toward buying skin care products.Thus, the second hypothesis is proposed as follows:

H2: Beliefs in product attributes positively affect male consumers’ attitudes towardapplying skin care products

2.8.3 The Relationship between Personal Image and Attitudes

Beaudoin, Moore and Goldsmith (1998) implies that attitudes toward buying apparelare linked to personal image because purchasing apparel satisfies various needs, such

as personal image or personal identify Like apparel, skin care cosmetics have symbolic

or communicative value (Coulter, Feick & Price, 2002) Person perception changespositively toward to cosmetics when they affect personal appearance (Belk, 1978).Accordingly, Coulter, Feick, and Price (2002) found that personal image had aninfluence toward applying and buying cosmetic products for women in Hungary Inthis study, personal image will be examined in men and therefore it is expected thatpersonal image influences the attitudes of male consumers in the purchase of skin careproduct in this study Hence, the third hypothesis is proposed as follows:

H3: Personal image positively affects male consumers’ attitudes toward applying skincare products

2.8.4 The relationship between Normative Influences and Behavior Intention

Shih and Fang (2004) find that normative influences such as spouse, family,colleagues, expert, and celebrity endorsement make influences on behavioral intention

in adopting Internet banking for customers in Taiwan In this study, normativeinfluences include spouse, family, and friend The fourth hypothesis is proposed asfollows.

H4: Normative influences positively affect the purchase intention of skin care products

2.8.5 The relationship between Attitudes and Behavior Intention

Sukato and Elsey (2009) find that attitudes toward applying skin care productsdemonstrate a great indicator toward behavioral intention about the adoption of maleskin care products This study proposes to consider the influence of attitudes towardusing skin care products upon the intention to buy skin care products So, the fifthhypothesis is proposed as follows:

H5: Attitudes positively affect the purchase intention of skin care products

2.9 Summary

Chapter 2 reviews the components of the theory of reasoned action Theory of reasonedaction has 5 components: beliefs in product attributes, normative influences, personalimage, attitude toward applying skin care products, and purchase intention Researchmodel is built to represent the relationships between components In this model therelationships are assumed as follow: normative influences positively affect the personalimage, beliefs in product attributes positively affect male consumers’ attitudes towardapplying skin care products, personal image positively affects male consumers’attitudes toward applying skin care products, normative influences positively affect thepurchase intention of skin care products, attitudes positively affect the purchaseintention of skin care products The next chapter will present the research method that

is performed to adjust and evaluate the scales, and test the fit of the model with marketinformation with assumptions set out

Chapter 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Introduction

Chapter 3 presents the research method that is performed to adjust and evaluate thescales of concepts, and test the fit of the model with market information withassumptions set out This chapter consists of six main components: (1) research design,(2) population, sample size and sampling method, (3) data collection, (4) data analysis,(5) measurement scale, (6) research process

3.2 Research design

This study applied deductive approach in order to confirm and reject all issues thatwere form base on previous research and theories According to Bryman & Bell (2007)and Chanintorn & Jiraporn (2010) noted that deductive approach begins with a generalideas (such as theory, laws, principles) and based on them, specific hypotheses areformed which could be tested in order to support the general ideas Moreover, bothqualitative and quantitative research implemented to collect primary data in thisstudy

3.2.1 Qualitative research

Qualitative research is collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data by observingwhat people did and said The nature of this type of research is exploratory andopen-ended Small numbers of people are interviewed in-depth and/or a relativelysmall number of focus groups were conducted (Kirk & Miller, 1986) In this study,participants were asked to respond to general questions and the interviewer or groupmoderator probed and explored their responses to identify and defined people’sperceptions, opinions and feelings around skin care products and to determine thedegree of agreement that existed in the group

3.2.2 Quantitative research

Quantitative research is a quantitative approach that will be adopted as it is highlystructured to find out men behavior toward skin care products Quantitative research isassociated with exploring connections between variables (Bryman & Bell, 2007)

Quantitative research is appropriate to use under a positivist paradigm and naturalscience approach, which helpes explain the links between theory and research (Bryman

& Bell, 2007)

3.3 Population, sample size and sampling method

Data analysis methods used in this study is analyzing the structure of linear models.The researchers in this field agree that this method requires a large sample size because

it is based on the theory of large sample distribution (Raykov & Widaman, 1995).However, how was the large sample size, it was currently not clearly defined; itdepends on the estimation method Researchers have said that if the use of MLestimation method, the minimum sample size from 100 to 150 (Hair & CTG, 1998), aminimum of 200 (Hoelter, 1983), a minimum of five samples for an estimatedparameter (Bollen, 1989) This study targeted the men who were at the age rangebetween 23-55 years old and living in Ho Chi Minh City as the respondents for thequestionnaire survey The questionnaires were selectively distributed to 422participants who worked in other occupations The sample size was selected usingpurposive sampling techniques

The reason for selecting this sample was that during this age 23-55 years, men were intheir working period; earning their own income, and therefore they were affordable tobuy skin care products Further, it is stated that men with healthy and young-lookingskin have better opportunities in occupational achievements in this competitive era(Sukato & Elsey, 2009) Therefore, skin care products were very necessary for maleconsumers during their working period

Ho Chi Minh City had been selected for the collection sample of this study for threereasons First reason, this was a city with a dynamic economy and most developed inVietnam, where many manufactories, department stores and large shopping malls arelocated and people with quite high incomes reside Second reason, people being thetarget market for skin care products live mainly in Ho Chi Minh City Because it was adynamic economy, so every citizen had to be highly competitive to seek a job and most

of them were involved in career development And men thought that maintaining a

youthful appearance could help enhancing career achievements Third reason, thesample focused on Ho Chi Minh male residents but not rural, because rural men werenot as likely to groom themselves, and they did not concern about youth looking skin.Their lifestyles were less competitive and relatively relaxed than male citizens.

3.4 Data collection

Primary data was collected using a structured questionnaire which was a administered survey; then, delivered the questionnaires to the respondents participating

self-in the study personally to ensure an acceptable response rate for the study

The questionnaires for qualitative research were randomly distributed to 14 men and 9women who work in other occupations by face-to-face interview and network Theyanswered three main question for collecting data about knowledge of skin care product,why they knew or purchased it and what is important things when select it The resultwas most of them accounting for 78.26% (9 men and 9 women) knew or used topurchase skin care products through advertising, introduction of their friend andfamily According to them, to purchase a skin care product, they concerned aboutquality, brand and price The purposes of men for purchasing and using skin careproducts was improving their personal image, taking care their skin

Based on the result from qualitative research, the study was carefully build up thequantitative research for gathering all concrete information to analyze and answer allthe issues in management problems and questions Primary data was seen as valuableand essential data in the research regarding to an exclusive result

3.5 Data analysis

The raw data after collected by questionnaires was entered into SPSS version 22software and used cronbach’s alpha and exploratory factor analysis method to rejectunsatisfied variables Other satisfied variables then were estimated model fit andhypotheses by confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling method.After that, bootstrap method was used to reassess all parameters of model which wereestimated by ML method

3.6 Research process

3.6.1 Adjust the scale

Adjust the scale in this study based on the process offered by Churchill (1979).However, the method of confirmatory factor analysis CFA was used to assess the value

of the scale instead of the traditional method MTMM (multitrait-multimethod)proposed by Churchill Base on theory TRA and scales of them on the internationalmarket, scale was adjusted

3.6.2 Pilot study

Due to differences in culture and level of economic development, the scales had beenestablished in the developed countries were not really suitable for Vietnam market, sothe scales were adjusted through qualitative research Then this draft scales werecontinuously adjusted through the preliminary quantitative study with sample n = 80.Methods used to adjust the scale were cronbach alpha and exploratory factor analysis.According to Nunally & Burntein (1994), the observed variables had item-totalcorrelation below 0.3 will be removed Then, the observed variables had factor loadingbelow 0.4 in EFA will continue to be rejected (Gerbing & Anderson, 1988) Theremaining variables would be included in the formal scale

Qualitative Interviews face to face and distribute

questionnaire on networking 6/2014 Ho Chi Minh CityQuantitative Interviews face to face and distribute

questionnaire on networking 7/2014 Ho Chi Minh CityFormal Quantitative Interviews face to face and distribute

questionnaire on networking 9.2014 Ho Chi Minh City

Figure 3.1 Research process

3.7 Measurement scale

The research measurement scale had been developed from a comprehensive review ofrelevant literature focusing on male consumer behavior in purchasing intention of skincare products that was published all over the world Some questions were edited and

Literature Review measurementDraft

scale

Qualitative Research

(n= 23)

Main measurement scale

Main

survey-Quantitative Research

(n= 422)

Cronbach Alpha

• Cronbach alpha test

• Item- correlation test

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)

• Exploratory factor analysis test

• Factor loading and total variance extracted test

• Confirmatory factor analysis test

• Composite reliability and average variance extraction

• Unidimensionality, convergent and discriminant test

CFA

• Theoretical model and hypotheses test

• Theoretical model estimation by bootstrap

SEM

modified to apply to the research site, Ho Chi Minh City The questionnaire had beendesigned in English, and then translated into Vietnamese Corrections have been made

on the basis of changes in the translation All the measure scales used in TRA model(beliefs in product attributes, attitudes, normative influences, and purchase intention)(Fishbein & Ajzen, 1980) and the measure of personal image (Dodd, Linaker, andGrigg, 2005) were previously established A five point likert scale ranging fromstrongly agree to strongly disagree was adopted as the scale for the statements in thequestionnaire and method of data collection was through personal mode

The questionnaire included three main sections both in English and Vietnameseversion All of questions used in quantitative questionnaire were adapted from previousstudies and changed to fit Vietnamese context

Section A was a question to clarify respondents and only selected men who knew aboutskin care products but had not bought them

Section B composed 30 questions divided into 5 main parts in order to measure 5factors First of all, beliefs in product attributes including quality, package, brand nameand price had totally 12 questions; secondly, there were 4 questions about personalimage; thirdly, was attitudes toward applying skin care products with 4 questions; next,normative influences consisting of family, spouse and friend had 6 questions; lastly,were 4 questions of purchasing intention The detail of 30 questions was presented atTable 3.2 below

Section C consisted of 5 questions regarding personal information of the respondentssuch as age, married status, occupation, education and monthly income

Overall, the questionnaire proposed to access quantitative data had totally 36 questions(see questionnaire at appendix D)

3.7.1 Beliefs in product attributes

Belief in product attribute was named BE BE was measured by four componentsquality, packaging, brand, price as follows:

Quality of product was denoted as QUA QUA was measured by compounds inproducts, and level of impact on skin of compounds (Dhadhal, Chitralekha, 2011) For

skin care products, quality was very important component in product attributes (Sukato

& Elsey, 2009) Thus, quality scale included 3 observed variable represented for threeproperties to choose skin care products

Criteria for selection of men's product packaging was that the packaging of theproducts was well done and attractive, on which the instructions had to be clear(Dhadhal & Chitralekha, 2011) If packaging was convenient for using, it would havecreated positive attitudes on product (Montajula, 2014) Therefore, packaging denotedPAC was measured by three variable named PAC1, PAC2, PAC3

As presented in chapter 2, price was amount of money for buying product It wasdetermined by a number of factors including market share, competition, material costs,product identity and perceived value of the customer with the product Product buyingmoney should be commensurate with the quality received (Dhadhal & Chitralekha,2011) People usually buy expensive products to hope getting high quality (Vidhya &Tamizhjyothi, 2013) Pilot result showed that men still believed in low price skin careproducts, some of them work effectively against the skin (Chin, 2005) Hence,component price (PRI) was estimated by three observed variables from PRI1 to PRI3

3.7.2 Normative influences

Normative influences (NORM) were measured with six items relating to spouse(SPO1, SPO2), friends (FRI1, FRI2), and family (FAM1, FAM2) The respondentswere asked to rate their opinion such as “Generally speaking, I want to do what myparents think I should do” (Kirsten, 2008) or “I frequently chat with my friends when Iwant to purchase skin care items” (Chin, 2005)

3.7.3 Personal image

To measure personal image (PER), men were asked to rate their opinion towardapplying skin care products in four questions from PER1 to PER4 that reflected theirpersonal image such as “I think applying skin care products give me confidence” and “I

do not feel it is important to keep up with the latest trends in skin care products”(Sukato & Elsey, 2009)

3.7.4 Attitudes toward applying skin care products

To measure this concept, respondents were asked to rate their attitudes toward applyingskin care products (ATT) with four items from ATT1 to ATT4 such as: “Applying skincare products is a good idea.” (Sukato & Elsey, 2009) or “Purchasing skin careproducts is pleasant.” (Catherine , Ahlam & Laila , 2012)

3.7.5 Purchase intention

Purchase intention (INT) was measured by four items from INT1 to INT4.Respondents were asked as “The probability that I will buy skin care products is high”(Wong, Francis, Lee, Lin & Low, 2012) or “I plan to purchase new skin care products

in the future”(Kyung, 2012) to rate their purchase intention on skin care products

Table 3.2: Sources of questionnaire

Beliefs in product attributes

Quality

QUA1 Quality is an important factor in purchasing skin

QUA2 The products match my skin-style

PAC2 There are clear instructions on the package

regarding its contents an product application

PAC3 The products have options of various convenient

to use packages

Montajula (2014) Brand

BRA1 Brand name is the leading factor for selecting

PRI3 Some low-priced skin care products are effective

for men’s skin Chin (2005)

Personal image

PER1 I think applying skin care products give me

confidence

Sukato & Elsey (2009)

PER2 I do not feel it is important to keep up with the

latest trends in skin care products

PER3 I think I will feel better about myself after using

skin care products

Chin (2005)

PER4 I believe using skin care products will help me

with my social life

Attitudes toward applying skin care products

ATT1 Applying skin care products is a good idea

Sukato & Elsey (2009)

ATT2 I like toapply skin care products

ATT3 Purchasing skin care products is pleasant

Catherine , Ahlam & Laila (2012)

ATT4 Purchasing skin care products is necessary Normative influences

Family

FAM1 Generally speaking, I want to do what my

FAM2 My family think that I should purchase skin care

FRI1 I frequently chat with my friends when I want to

purchase skin care items

Chin (2005)

FRI2 Negative comment from friends would make me

stop buying the skin care products

research and direct interview, sending an online survey panel with sample n = 23.Formal research was quantitative research that was implemented by direct interviewand sending an online survey panel with sample n = 422 All scales were tested bycronbach’s anpha and exploratory factor analysis After adjustment, the results showedthat the scale meets the requirements and were ready for formal quantitative research.This chapter also described information about the sample of formal study The nextchapter would illustrate analysis methods for information and research results,including the assessment of the scales by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) andtesting model by structural equation modeling (SEM).

by reliability analysis (cronbach’s alpha coefficient) and exploratory factor analysis(EFA) Secondly, these scales are continuously assessed by confirmatory factoranalysis (CFA) Finally, there are results of testing model and hypotheses by structuralequation modeling (SEM) Both CFA and SEM are implemented by AMOS version 22.Chapter 4 consists of four components: (1) descriptive of statistics, (2) reliabilityanalysis (Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient), (3) Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), (4)Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), (5) Structural equation modeling (SEM).

4.2 Descriptive of statistics

Table 4.1: Descriptive of statistics

Demographic profile Frequency Percentage (%)

Majority of the sample focused on the age group “23-35”, accounting for 87.6% Thetwo other age groups “36-45”, “46-55”comprised less than which represent 8.8% and3.6% respectively of the sample

The data above frequently described that almost men who take part in the survey aresingle, nearly 69.2% This single group was much more two times than the marriedgroup, about 30.8% Table 4.1 presented a very small proportion only graduated highschool, accounting for 6.8% The largest group is university, about 64.4% The next

biggest group had 15.6% of the sample is master The other smaller groups had 10.0%and 3.2% is college and vocational school respectively General speaking, 80% ofrespondents graduated university and master.

Staff is the largest group in the sample, about 45.6% of total The second biggestgroup, accounting for 21.2% is manager group Over 30% remaining is minor groups.They are 12.8% for own business, 15.6% for worker, 4.8% for others includingengineer, designer, doctor

Proportion of men had income more than 5 million VND is nearly 80% Specifically,the largest group accounting for 44.8% is “5 – less than 10 million VND”, “10 – lessthan 15 million VND” group is 14.8%, “Over 15 million VND” group is 17.6% Thelast group “less than 5 million VND” is appropriate 22.8%; some of them may payattention to skin care products

4.3 Reliability analysis (Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient)

Reliability of the data will be checked by Cronbach’s Alpha test to make sure theinternal consistency reliability for item scales, before using data to analyze Normally,the indicator value ranges between 0 and 1 and the rules for comparison is that thealpha index can be acceptable if it is equal or above 0.5 (George and Mallery, 2003).Some items will be deleted if their correlation is low among each variable or not Thecoefficient correlation (r) is defined that: above 0.7 (strong correlation), from 0.3 to0.7 (moderate correlation) and from 0.0 to 0.3 (weak correlation)

The model focused on the relationship between 5 factors: factor “beliefs in productattributes” was measured by 4 components and 12 variables; factor “normativeinfluences” was measured by 3 components and 6 variables; factor “attitudes towardapplying skin care products”, “personal image” and “purchasing intension” weremeasured by 4 variables The Conbach’s Alpha coefficient of 5 factors was completelyabove 0.6 The correlation coefficient of observed variations in the composition wasgreater than 0.3 (appendix 1) So variables measuring components are used insubsequent analyze EFA

4.4 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)

The items satisfied to scale measurement test are continued to be analyzed byexploratory factor analysis method The KMO (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure ofSampling Adequacy) index describes whether it is appropriate to run factor analysis Itshould be from 0.5 to 1 (Kaiser, 1974) The signification level of Barlett’s test fortesting the null hypothesis that the variables in the population correlation matrix areuncorrelated, would be smaller than 0.05 (p<0.05)

Testing KMO and Barlett's in Factor Analysis of beliefs in product attributes hadresults sig = 0.000 and the coefficient of KMO > 0.5, those were considered good andsuitable to be used in this research The EFA results showed that at Egigenvalue value

= 1 with extracted factor method, Varimax rotations are allowed 4 componentsextracted from the 12 variables According to the analysis, 12 used variables hadloading coefficient greater than 0.4, met the requirements should not rule out thevariable scale It was similar to factor normative influences, both Testing KMO andBarlett and loading coefficient had achieved good results Varimax rotations wereallowed 3 components extracted from the 6 variables (appendix 2) There was nodisturbance observed variables between components, hence the name of the originalcomponents was still preserved 3 other factor were unidimesional scale, whileconducting EFA, all observed variables unchanged, the value of KMO, sig, and thetotal variance extracted were satisfactory and ready to conduct confirmatory factoranalysis (CFA)

4.5 Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)

4.5.1 Introduction for CFA

Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is one of statistical technique that was used toidentify the factor structure of a set of observed variables CFA allows testing therelationship between observed variables and their existence latent constructs Anotherway, CFA is used to testing the relevance between the actual data and model(Campbell & Fiske, 1959) The fit of the whole model in fact was judged by the criteria

of relevance as follows:

* Chi-Square χ2

Chi-square denotes the overall relevance of the entire model in the sense p value = 0.05(Joserkog & Sorbom, 1989) This fact is not practice because χ2 was very sensitive tothe large sample size and strength testing; in fact most of studies use the index χ2 / df

to assess

* Chi-Square/degrees of freedom χ2 / df

Ratio Chi-Square/degrees of freedom: χ2/df is used to measure the appropriate level ofmodels Some authors suggest 1 <χ2 / df <3 (Hair et al., 1998); others suggest χ2 is assmall as possible (Segar & Grover, 1993) and that χ2 / df <3: 1 (Chin & Todd, 1995).Additionally, in some actual studies, this indicator is distinguished into 2 cases: χ2 / df

<5 (with samples N> 200); or <3 (when the sample size N <200), the model isconsidered to be in good agreement (Kettinger & Lee, 1995)

* Other fit indexes

GFI (good fit index), TLI (Tucker Lewis Index), CFI (comparative fit index) havevalues > 0.9 were considered a good model fit If this value is 1, the model will beperfect (Segar & Grover, 1993; Chin & Todd, 1995) The index RMSEA (root meansquare error of approximation), RMR (root mean square residual) request <0.05, themodel fits well In some cases this value < 0.08 models are acceptable (Taylor,Sharland, Cronin & Bullard, 1993)

* The level of probability

If values of probability > 0.05, it is considered a good model fit (Arbuckle and Wothke,1999; Rupp and Segal, 1989) This means that hypothesis H0 cannot be rejected(hypothetical model is good), that is not model being better the current model Instudies in the fields of social sciences, causal relationships proposed reliability at 99%(p=0.01), 95% (p = 0.05), 90% (p=0.1) (Cohen, 1988)

4.5.2 Test CFA factor “Beliefs in product attributes”

Factor “Beliefs in product attributes” was measured by 4 components, CFA result wasshowed in Figure 4.1 This sub-model had chi-squared/df = 2.062 < 3 (p= 0.000) Otherindicators showed that sub-model fit the studied data (GFI = 941 > 0.9, TLI = 930 >

0.9, CFI = 949 > 0.9, RMSEA = 0.065 < 0.8, standardized RMR = 0528 < 0.8) Allcomponents including quality, packaging, brand name and price did not correlatebetween the errors of the observed variables, so achieved unidimensionality.Correlations between all components are different from 1 (table 4.2) Hence,components quality, packaging, brand name and price achieved discriminant validity.

Table 4.2: Correlation between 4 components

Figure 4.1: CFA factor beliefs in product attributes (Standardized estimates) 4.5.3 CFA 3 factors personal image, attitudes toward applying skin care products and purchase intention testing

Personal image, attitudes toward applying skin care products and purchase intentionscales are unidimensionality scales These scales were evaluated through a saturatedmodel for assessing the discriminant validity between the concepts In figure 4.2,Saturate model had df = 46, CFA analysis showed that this model fit the data research(Chi-square/df = 2.538 <3, GFI = 0.930 > 0.9, TLI = 0.944 > 0.9, CFI = 0.961 > 0.9;RMSEA = 0.079 < 0.08) The factor personal image, attitudes toward applying skincare products and purchase intention are no correlations between the errors of the