Smartphones Purchase Intention: Testing the Moderating Effect of Brand Image among Youths

Abstract

Brand image is crucial for smartphone manufacturers to differentiate their products and influence consumers' purchase intentions, as it affects product differentiation and brand competitiveness through consumers' perceived brand value. This research endeavours to investigate the impact of price value, product features, and social influence on smartphone purchase intentions with the moderator of brand image. The research collected 209 usable questionnaires from youths residing in Sarawak. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was used to analyse data. Results indicate that price value and product features positively influence smartphone purchase intention, while social influence does not affect the latter. Also, the result reveals that brand image is not the key factor for youths in Sarawak while purchasing smartphones. Practically, this study provides some new significant insights to smartphone manufacturers to be less reliant on boosting brand image to the youths in Sarawak, Malaysia.