Evaluative criteria for purchasing leisurewear: Taiwanese and U.S. students in a U.S. university
The purpose of this research was to provide exploratory information relating to the young consumer market in terms of purchase criteria for leisurewear. Data were obtained from 105 Taiwanese and 126 U.S. students at a major mid-western U.S. university. Direct hand-in questionnaires were employed to obtain a higher usable questionnaire rate. Purchase criteria used for this survey were price, style, brand, fabrication, size/fit, media exposure, colour, country of origin, and quality. Several factors under each criterion were provided. Students were asked to rank the importance of each criterion/factor. Results indicated that much similarity existed between these two groups of students in purchasing leisurewear. However, U.S. students rated highest (in descending order) price, size/fit, style and quality while Taiwanese students ranked highest (in descending order) price, style, quality and size/fit.
International Visitors' Aesthetic Preferences for Hawaiian Printed Fabrics
The diversity of Hawai'i's visitors and unexamined assumptions about their preferences for features of the Islands' distinctive apparel products led to a study of the impact of national culture on visitors' assessments of design elements typical in aloha shirt fabrics. Computer technology was used to manipulate design variables of representative fabrics, and a questionnaire based on these variables was administered to an intercept sample of 231 Hawai'i visitors from Australia, China, Japan, Korea, and the mainland United States. Subjects responded to thirty statements about print characteristics by indicating agreement on 5-point Likert-type scales. Significant differences existed among national groups' preferences for print features, including aesthetic character, motifs, colors, and size of print elements. Marketers of regionally distinctive apparel products are urged to approach visitor markets as heterogeneous national groups. Apparel scholars are encouraged to develop modes of research that accommodate the diversity of consumers' aesthetic responses with the complexity of visual stimuli.
Clothing attitudes and evaluative criteria used by employed women differing in feminine-role orientation and work orientation : emphasis on the single-again adult /
l e v e l than in the middle socioeconomic l e v e l . The r e l a t i o n s h i p between c l o th in g va lues and general va lues has been i n v e s t i g a t e d by severa l r e s e a r c h e r s (Creekmore, 1963; L ap i t sky , 1961). Clo th ing va lue s c a l e s were developed to c o in c id e with the Allpor t -Vernon-L indzey Scale o f Values which was based on S p ra n g e r ' s s i x types o f man. The va lues inc luded a r e : (1) T h e o r e t i c a l , (2) Economic, (3) A e s t h e t i c , (4) S o c i a l , (5) P o l i t i c a l , and (6) R e l ig io u s . L ap i t sky dropped t h e t h e o r e t i c a l and r e l i g i o u s va lues and added a second s o c ia l va lue la b e le d Socia l I I which r e f l e c t e d a d e s i r e to o b ta in s o c ia l approval th rough c l o t h i n g . The r e s u l t s o f L a p i t s k y ' s s tudy suppor ted th e hypo thes i s t h a t the a e s t h e t i c and economic c l o th in g va lues would have more dominant p o s i t i o n s in t h e value c o n f ig u r a t io n s o f women than would o t h e r c l o th in g v a l u e s . Ryan (1966, p. 105) , in summarizing th e r e s e a r c h p e r t a i n i n g to c l o t h i n g va lues and general v a l u e s , s t a t e d : . . . t h e ev idence so f a r sugges ts t h a t our general va lues a r e r e f l e c t e d in c l o t h i n g va lues and t h a t th e s e in tu rn a r e r e l a t e d to s p e c i f i c c l o t h i n g a t t i t u d e s , i n t e r e s t s , cho ices and to behav ior in th e s e l e c t i o n and use o f c l o t h i n g . Eva lua t ive c r i t e r i a a re th e d e s i r e d outcomes from th e cho ice or use o f an a l t e r n a t i v e (Engel , Blackwell & K o l l a t , 1978, p. 388). They a r e expressed in terms o f product a t t r i b u t e s o r s p e c i f i c a t i o n s used to compare p ro d u c t s . C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s o f e v a l u a t i v e c r i t e r i a t h a t a r e o f concern to marke te rs inc lude th e number used , th e s a l i e n c e , and th e de te rminance o f each . S a l i e n t c r i t e r i a a r e th o s e cons ide red im por tan t in th e consumer-dec is ion p ro ces s . Determinance r e f e r s to c r i t e r i a