An Empirical Study of the Relationship Between Personal Values and Innovative Purchasing Behavior

Abstract

The present study investigated empirical associations between the self-reported importance of personal values and self-reports of innovative purchasing behavior for clothing at different levels of specificity. The thirty-six Terminal and Instrumental values from the Rokeach Value Survey operationallzed the personal values. Measures of "Fashion Consciousness," "Fashion Innovativeness," and "Spending for New Fashions" served as dependent variables. Correlations were computed between importance ratings of the values and the three dependent variables with the effects of social desirability response set controlled. As hypothesized, the value ratings were correlated more frequently with the most general level of self-reported consumer behavior among this sample of 314 middle class consumers.