ارزیابی ارزش درک شده: اثرات تعدیل کننده حساسیت به اعتبار برند و حساسیت به نفوذ هنجاری Assessing perceived value: moderating effects of susceptibility to brand prestige and susceptibility to normative influence

1 Introduction Building a strong and competitive brand is essential in creating sustainable business advantages (Chen et al. 2013; Kotler and Pfoertsch 2007). Previous literature suggests that a brand’s perceived value is the key to its success in global markets, because perceived value is a richer, more comprehensive measure of consumers’ overall evaluation of a brand or service than purely its quality (Luo et al. 2014; Patterson and Spreng 1997). Consumers’ perceived value is defined as the trade-off between the benefits and the sacrifices for using a brand or product (Shyu 2014; Tsai and Ho 2013; Ulaga and Eggert 2006). Recent research has posited that perceived value is a factor having a more critical level of abstraction than other factors (e.g., satisfaction) (Hsu et al. 2013; Lam et al. 2010; Liu et al. 2015; Yang and Trappey 2012; Yang et al. 2013). Although previous studies provide precious insight into consumers’ perceived value of a brand, a major limitation warrants further research. Specifically, past studies often assess various antecedents of perceived value from a utilitarian perspective without considering intrinsic (or sociopsychological) benefits (Lam et al. 2010; Tai et al. 2012; Yeh 2012), which are essential for increased perceived value. For instance, previous literature suggests that perceived value can be substantially boosted by self-definitional benefits (i.e., intrinsic benefits) of a brand instead of utilitarian benefits (e.g., Stern 2006). The intrinsic nature of how consumers feel about a brand raises two important questions. First, it challenges the prevalent assumption that customers prefer a brand that only maximizes utilitarian utility (e.g., brand credibility). Second, it raises the question for whether there is an underlying consumer–brand relationship mechanism that facilitates perceived value of the brand in the facet of consumers’ susceptibility. Focusing on these two key research questions, this study applies social identity theory and self-congruence theory to explain how customers’ utilitarian and sociopsychological variables generate main effects or moderating effects in perceived value formation. In essence, this study advocates an overall perspective calling not only for utilitarian effects (e.g., credibility), but also for an integration with their sociopsychological consideration (e.g., susceptibility to normative influence). This study differs from previous research in two important ways. First, it is one of the first to build on the self-congruence theory to formally propose the concept of susceptibility to brand prestige (SBP). The self-congruence theory suggests that consumers evaluate brands using the same susceptibility by which they describe themselves (e.g., Ekinci and Riley 2003). In line with this theory, we define SBP as customers’ susceptibility and sensitivity towards a relatively high status product/ service positioning that is associated with a brand. While different consumers may have significant differences in terms of their susceptibility to a brand, such differences are seldom taken into account in the previous literature to explain the formation of perceived value.