International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 9, Issue 12, December 2019 350 ISSN 2250-3153 http://dx.doi.org/10.29322/IJSRP.9.12.2019.p9640 www.ijsrp.org Consumer's Attitude Towards Global Luxury Car Brand Purchase Intention: Development of a Conceptual Model S. Sumith De Silva * , Prof. Dr. Ali Khatibi ** , Dr. S. M. Ferdous Azam *** * Ph.D., Candidate, Management and Science University, Malaysia ** Vice President for Business and social Sciences, Director: Graduate School of Management, Management and Science University, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia *** DOI: 10.29322/IJSRP.9.12.2019.p9640 http://dx.doi.org/10.29322/IJSRP.9.12.2019.p9640 Abstract- The consumption of luxury brands is influenced by a number of factors such as consumers’ attitude, identity, personality, mindset, values, social influence and financial power, etc. Researchers have conducted a number of scholarly studies on consumption of luxury brands in rich Western countries, and have analyzed the behavioral outcomes of consumers in terms of hedonism, prestige, uniqueness, quality, and conspicuous consumption. However, little research has been conducted on the consumer behavior of luxury consumption in emerging countries, such as Sri Lanka. As a consequence of globalization, Sri Lanka today has an emerging wealthy class of consumers that wish to enjoy the luxurious living of the Westernized rich, including the ownership of luxury car brands such as Bentley, Porsche, Ranger Rover, etc. Using Sri Lanka as a test case, this paper proposes a new conceptual model that could be applied to the study of consumption of luxury brands across emerging markets to determine the consumer attitude towards luxury. Index Terms- Luxury brands, brand love, brand consciousness, consumer attitude, lifestyle, brand identity, Sri Lanka, self- identity, social value, experiential value I. INTRODUCTION arketers have often sought to learn the characteristics of particular consumers and to understand their attitudes toward brands. A few studies have considered automobile purchasing behavior in emerging markets (Sedzro, et. al., 2014). According to (Wiedmann, Hennigs, & Siebels, 2007) understanding the consumer perceptions and culture is a challenge for the brand marketers. The consumer attitude towards the purchase of luxury brands has a positive correlation with the purchase intention (Sharda, & Bhat, 2018). Luxury brands have started to stream into Asian markets to chase the new wealthy consumers that are emerging in countries such as Sri Lanka and Asian markets, especially China has played a greater role in the global consumption for luxury (Koch & Mkhitaryan, 2015). Consumers associate the concept of luxury with terms such as: upscale, great taste, high quality, high class, etc. Consumers do satisfy their utilitarian necessities through luxury brands, but Dubois, Laurent, & Czellar, (2001) discussed social and psychological restraints that have existed in societies as long ago as in ancient Greece. According to Shukla (2011) compared with the Europe, the consumers in Asia have exhibited subjective influence of the individual with greater brand love towards luxury brands. Vigneron and Johnson (1999) proposed five main factors that influence consumers’ decision making for luxury brands; conspicuousness, uniqueness, social (bandwagon appeal), emotional (hedonism), and quality. Most researchers do concur that recognition of luxury exists on two distinctive dimensions: the individual situation and the general population (Campbell, 1987). Wiedmann, Hennigs, and Siebels (2007) described that the luxury value has three fundamental dimensions and they are functional value, social value and individual value. Studies by Elinder (1961), Levitt (1988), Fatt (1964) and Roostal (1963) have shown that because of the similarity of the segments across countries, globalized brand consumption can occur in different cultures through standardized communications. Product classes such as luxury cars, fashion, leather accessories, jewelry, etc. have shown similarity in appeal to consumer segments from different cultural backgrounds across countries (Dawar & Parker, 1994). Sri Lanka is a rapidly developing country in the south Asian region. The Sri Lankan government has made significant efforts to attract foreign direct investment for number of development projects. This economic development has given Sri Lankan consumers new optimism and they are becoming more conscious about their living conditions. Increased education has also expanded consumerism in Sri Lanka, as its citizens have become more familiar with how other consumers live throughout the world. As the economy grows, so do imports (Arif, et. al., 2017). With its new hope and economic prosperity, and positive trajectory, many multinational corporations are considering to enter into Sri Lankan market. Because of the rapidly changing consumer profiles of these developing countries, there is a need to explore the perceptions and attitudes of luxury buying brand purchasing behavior in these markets (Roy, Jain, & Matta 2018). The appreciation of global luxury brands has been affected by globalization and greater multicultural interactions (Jiang et al., 2014). Despite the amount of abundant research conducted on luxury branding, there is a significant dearth of research on the actual buying behavior and thought process of individual consumers buying luxury brands (Miller and Mills, 2012). Consumer identity plays a big role as a stimulus in creating a M