Consumer Repurchase Behaviors of Smartphones

Researchers give a great deal of attention to consumer intentions to repurchase. Henkel et al. concluded that satisfied consumers have increased service usage levels and increased intentions of future usage; moreover, while examining the importance of satisfaction, Cronin, Brady, and Hult discovered that consumer satisfaction and repurchase intentions can be increased by offering added value and quality services. Repurchasing and the factors that influence it were investigated by many scholars. Repurchasing behavior is defined as a consumer's actual behavior of purchasing the same product or service on more than one occasion. The majority of consumer purchases are repeat purchases. Consumers often repeatedly buy similar products from similar sellers, and most purchases represent a series of events rather than a single isolated event. Retention is another common term for repurchase, which is considered to be one of the most important variables in relationship marketing. Repurchase is the actual behavior of the consumer; however, intention to repurchase is defined as the consumer's decision to participate in future activities.

It can be inferred that keeping existing consumers is more important than attracting new consumers in a competitive environment such as the smartphone market. Most marketing research focuses on consumer satisfaction and consumer intention to use products and services, with the assumption that consumer satisfaction indicates repurchase. However, it is essential to study a variety of consumer behaviors in order to more comprehensively understand consumer repurchase behaviors; therefore, it is necessary to examine factors that deviate from consumer satisfaction-centered repurchasing research. Thus, this study analyzes other factors affecting intention to repurchase.

Oliver found that consumer satisfaction differs from the joy experienced when purchasing products or services, and their expectations were anticipated to be better than their experiences. In addition, the study found that consumer satisfaction is reflected in the evaluation of one's emotions about a product or service. Rust, Zahorik, and Keiningham showed that consumer satisfaction (a consumer's willingness to revisit or recommend) has a strong impact on loyalty. They also found that consumer satisfaction is influenced by various aspects (product, service quality, store attributes, and corporate marketing activities). Wen et al. suggested that satisfaction positively affects online repurchase intention.

Social influence is regarded as a critical element in decision-making by people in sociology and in behavioral science. In this study, social influence refers to the extent to which people's social networks influence their behaviors - i.e., the ways in which a person's beliefs, attitudes, thoughts, and actions change as a result of their social interactions. This definition is rooted in social influence theory.

The TRA suggests that a person's behavioral intentions depend on their attitude toward the behavior, along with other subjective norms. A subjective norm is the influence had by the people in one's social environment on one's behavioral intentions (i.e., the perception of whether people who are important to them think that they should perform the behavior in question). The concept of subjective norms greatly influenced the formation of the measures of social influence in these two models, as well as many other studies. Venkatesh and Davis believed that, in voluntary settings, social influences are more likely to operate indirectly through utilitarian outcomes.

Currently, word of mouth - a form of social influence - as a marketing communication strategy is famous and globally characterized as a cost-effective and persuasive promotional tool.

Law, Hui, and Zhao used Oliver's definition of loyalty as "a deeply held commitment to rebuy or repatronize 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 behavior". In other words, they viewed loyalty as a consumer attitude rather than a consumer behavior. Behavioral loyalty is solely viewed as a repurchase of the product or service. Dixon et al. found that loyal consumers are expected to consistently repurchase despite competitive efforts. Emotional loyalty is the ultimate type of loyalty, in which consumers choose a particular brand because they have a personal connection with the brand, regardless of price, convenience, or other external factors. Attractive looks, novel materials, and atypical design technology bring positive emotions to consumers, thereby providing emotional value to them.

Arruda-Filho et al. recruited iPhone users for interviews and conducted a netnographic analysis that showed consumers may experience social value due to the possession and use of smartphones. They found that consumers may think of iPhone ownership as a symbol of luxury and high social status. In addition, sharing the experience of using smartphones also helps consumer interpersonal relationships. When consumers perceive higher social value from a product/brand, they show greater brand loyalty behaviors, such as disseminating positive information and paying premium prices. Pihlström and Brush revealed that, when consumers perceive greater emotional value in a product/brand, they show more brand loyalty - as measured by repurchase intentions, willingness to pay, and positive word of mouth.

Because repetition is a central feature of everyday life, habit research is important for understanding consumer behaviors. Approximately 45% of people's behaviors are repeated almost daily, usually in the same context. Chiu et al. and Limayem and Cheung found that consumers tend to purchase products habitually.

Studies by Anderson and Sullivan and Jones and Sasser emphasized the need for extensive research on repurchase intentions. In particular, research on consumer psychology actively seeks to secure long-term competitive advantages through favorable relationships between companies and consumers. In a number of previous studies, researchers suggested that, when consumer satisfaction (consumer empirical performance) increases with superior quality of products and services, consumers are more willing to return for purchase. Therefore, companies can expect to increase their sales and establish a sound consumer base by getting consumers to repurchase. Despite the importance of the intention to repurchase, most research focuses on consumer satisfaction, only one factor of that intent.