Difference of Product Interest and Relation to Innate Innovativeness, and Perceptive Construct of Products according to Consumers' Gender

Abstract

This study investigated difference of product interest and its relation to consumers` innate innovativeness according to gender as well as compared the perceptive construct of products between male and female consumers. A survey involving male and female college students was conducted in the Daegu and Gyeong-buk areas in December 2013. Subsequently, 400 responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlations, independent sample t-test, reliability analysis, ANCOVA, and multidimensional scaling. Among 45 products, male respondents showed a significantly high degree of interest over 12 categories such as watches, desktop computers, cars, sports products, and video games compared to females. The female sample showed a significantly high degree of interest for 29 product categories such as clothing, movies, skin care shops, cosmetics, eating-out, teeth whitening, coffee, cameras, and performances compared to males. Innovative male consumers were interested in traveling, movies, clothing, eating-out, running shoes, and wallets; however, female consumers` innovativeness was significantly related to previously determined items of interest. Two dimensions explaining the male consumers` products perception construct were `hard versus soft` and `usual versus special`. Instead, female consumers` were `special versus usual` and `expressive versus functional`.