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Dr. D. ARAVAZHI IRISSAPPANE Assistant Professor Department of Commerce Contact No.- 9994083566 Email: shankiphd@gmail.com |
B. SHANKARDEVI Ph.D. Research Scholar Kanchi Mamunivar Centre for Postgraduate Studies (Autonomous) Pondicherry University, Puducherry – 605008, India SHANKARDEVI B NO. 9, 1ST MAIN ROAD,BHARATHIDHASAN NAGAR MUDALIARPET,PUDUCHERRY – 605004 Contact No.- 9345583566 Email: shankiphd@gmail.com |
This empirical study has made an attempt to investigate the effect of emotional intelligence on customers’ adoption of Samsung mobile devices. Four emotional dimensions “ well-being , self-control , emotionality , and sociability ”, have been considered while preparing the questionnaire which was developed by Petrides, another questionnaire using five dimensions “ Idealization, Memories, Pleasure, Intimacy and Uniqueness” was constructed for measuring brand love and five point Likert scale was used for purpose of analysis. The questionnaire was distributed among 360 students who use Samsung mobile devices, and based on the values derived from Structural Equation Model (SEM) it is detected that Self-control and Emotionality have a positive relationship with Brand Love factors when compared to Well-being and Sociability .
Keywords : Emotional Intelligence (EI), Brand love, Consumers, Mobile Phones.
The feeling of love toward a brand is a quite recent brand-consumer relationship constructs and researchers (Ahuvia 2005, Caroll and Ahuvia 2006, Whang, Allen, Sahoury and Zhang 2004) have shown interest for this interpersonal construct which is yet novel when applied to brands. More researchers aims at measuring the feeling of love, a consumer might hold for a brand (Caroll and Ahuvia 2006). Uncovering and measuring dimensions of love and consequences of love for a brand may help better understanding the construct and its consequences. During the past few years, Samsung has become, one of the most successful mobile phone firms in the world and it competes with its competitors through different types of products and services (Keller, 2001; Park et al., 2006). Samsung has been able to gain a good market share and becomes a giant provider of mobile devices. Many people are eager to find out the reason for real motivation among consumers of Samsung products. Albert et al. (2008) extracted eleven dimensions that could emerge to describe people’s feeling of love and the special type of relationships they have with the brands they love. Carroll and Ahuvia (2006) explained that satisfied consumers’ love was bigger for brands in product categories perceived as more hedonic and for brands that offer more in terms of symbolic benefits. Brand love, in turn, was linked to higher levels of brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth and the investigation indicates that “satisfied consumers tend to be less loyal to brands in more hedonic product categories and to engage in more positive word-of-mouth about self-expressive brands”. Hwang and Kandampully (2012), have studied the role of emotional aspects in younger consumer-brand relationships. They tried to study the roles of three emotional factors including self-concept connection, emotional attachment, and brand love in the context of younger consumer-luxury brand relationships. Hosseinali Aziziha et al. (2014) studied the effect of emotional intelligence on customers’ adoption of Apple mobile devices and detected a positive and meaningful relationship between emotional intelligence and love brand for Apple mobile devices.
Brand Love
Ahuvia (1993, 2005) has examined the concept of love applied to various object categories (places, ideas, consumption objects) and proposes a feeling of love toward an object composed of 12 characteristics (excellence, irreplaceability, sense of meaning, etc.). The starting point of Ahuvia’s thesis is the Aron et al. (1986) theory whereby love is the inclusion of others in the self. Whang et al. (2004) has measured the feeling of love of bikers toward their motorcycles using an interpersonal love scale. Results indicate that bikers love for their machines is made of passion (Eros), possessiveness (Mania) and altruism (Agape). Caroll and Ahuvia (2006, p.5) define brand love as: “the degree of passionate emotional attachment a satisfied consumer has for a particular trade name” and describe love through five characteristics: (1) passion for the brand, (2) attachment for the brand, (3) positive evaluation of the brand, (4) positive emotions in response to the brand and (5) declaration of love for the brand. All this research helps understand what the feeling of love is in a consumption context. The love feeling is linked to a lot of different behaviors, emotions or feeling in the interpersonal relationship literature. In a consumption context, Caroll and Ahuvia (2006) demonstrate a positive direct effect of brand love on both loyalty and word of mouth. Thomson et al.’s (2005) emotional attachment construct is linked to four attachment behaviors (proximity maintenance, emotional security, safe haven, separation distress) and predicts brand loyalty and the willingness to pay a premium price. Our survey contains love items but also items which measure other constructs usually considered as outputs of love . Several characteristics of passion could explain its link with positive word of mouth. According to Sternberg (1986) or Shimpand Madden (1988), the passion component of a romantic relationship leads to infatuation. Passion is also considered as the motivational dimension of love.
Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to monitor one's own and other people's emotions , to discriminate between different emotions and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior. There are three models of EI. The ability model, developed by Peter Salovey and John Mayer , focuses on the individual's ability to process emotional information and use it to navigate the social environment . The trait model as developed by Konstantin Vasily Petrides, encompasses behavioral dispositions and self perceived abilities and is measured through self report. T he mixed model is a combination of both ability and trait EI. It defines EI as an array of skills and characteristics that drive leadership performance, as proposed by Daniel Goleman (Wikipidea) .
EI as explained in Trait model is "a constellation of emotional self-perceptions located at the lower levels of personality. In lay terms, trait EI refers to an individual's self-perceptions of their emotional abilities. This definition of EI encompasses behavioral dispositions and self perceived abilities and is measured by self report , as opposed to the ability based model which refers to actual abilities, which have proven highly resistant to scientific measurement. Trait EI should be investigated within a personality framework. The TEIQue ( Trait EI Questionnaire) provides an operationalization for the model of Petrides and colleagues, that conceptualizes EI in terms of personality. The test encompasses 15 sub-scales organized under four factors: well-being , self-control , emotionality , and sociability .
1. To investigate whether there is any impact of Consumers Emotional intelligence using Samsung Mobile phones on Brand love dimensions.
Hypothesis of the study :
H0: There is no significant relationship between the four factors of Emotional Intelligence and Brand love dimensions.
H1: There is a significant relationship between the four factors of Emotional Intelligence and Brand love dimensions
This empirical study has made an attempt to investigate the effect of emotional intelligence on customers’ adoption of Samsung mobile devices. Four emotional factors including Well-being, Self- control, Emotionality and Sociability are measured using TEIQue. The study also uses another questionnaire which measures brand love and it was classified into five dimensions namely Idealization, Memories, Pleasure, Intimacy and Uniqueness, both questionnaires are designed in Likert scale (Aaker, 1996; Mayer et al., 1999).
The data is gathered among Student respondents from a Public funded HLI in Puducherry. Student’s consumption behaviors and perceptions resemble that of the typical users; i t is for such reasons, many leading researchers use student respondents.
The sample size of this study is 360 respondents. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of emotional intelligence on customers’ adoption of Samsung mobile devices. Two questionnaires were used to analyze Emotional Intelligence and Brand love and both the questionnaires are found to be valid, since the Cronbach alphas are measured as .816 and .795 respectively.
Structural Equation Model (SEM) is used to determine the strength of the relationship between unobserved variables (Latent variables). The result is displayed with a path diagram resulting from the Structural modeling analysis from AMOS. The findings for the structural equation model shows that the strength of the relationship between the latent or unobserved variables.
Fig.1 demonstrates the summary of the participants’ characteristics, such as Family income, Age and Gender. Out of the 360 respondents, 60 % of the participants were female and the remaining 40 % of them were male students.
Fig.1. Personal characteristics of the participants
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Source: Computed result based on collected data. Grouping Variables: Family income, Age & Gender.
The above charts depicts that, most of the participants were under the age 21-26 and brand love features were mostly influenced in the family income level of 1 lakh to 5 lakhs.
Table 1: Result of Goodness of Fit
| Indices | Result | Suggested Value |
| RMSEA | 0.08 | < 0.10 |
| GFI | 0.97 | >0.90 |
| AGFI | 0.92 | >0.90 |
| Chi-Square | 2.19 | < 3.00 |
| P-Value | 0.01 | > 0.05 |
Source: Computed result from Structural Equation Model.
Table 1, confirms the result of Goodness of Fit. The RMSEA, Chi-Square and the P-value is according to the suggested level and this confirms that the Model is Fit. Relationship between Brand love dimensions (Exogenous Variable) and Well-Being, Sociability (Endogenous Variable) is greater than significant value. Theoretically, it means that Brand love dimensions are not having an impact on Well-being and Sociability. Secondly the relationship between Brand love and Self-control, Emotionality is less than the significant level value. Theoretically, it means that Brand love dimensions are having a positive impact on Self-control and Emotionality.
From the values given above, the study concludes that the Model is fit and it is proved that Self-control and Emotionality have a positive relationship with Brand Love factors when compared to Well-being and Sociability.
Fig. 2. The relationship between Emotional intelligence factors and Brand love dimensions
Source: Computed Path diagram From SEM model.
This study which is undertaken among the students of a Public funded HLI in Puducherry , who are interested in having Samsung Mobile products and services. The result of this study has confirmed that Emotionality is the most important component of emotional intelligence, which creates sufficient motivation to purchase Samsung mobiles. In addition, it appears that self-control is another important factor influencing people to become interested in Samsung mobile services. Finally, Well-being and Sociability is considered the least important item, which is influencing brand among Samsung followers.
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