The impacts of brand equity, brand attachment, product involvement and repurchase intention on bicycle users

Abstract

The 15th Conference of the Parties (COP) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen was over on 19 December 2009. Undoubtedly, people will pay more attention to global warming and green life in the future. Enhancing protection of ecology is a key point in future development of world bicycle industry. Bicycle industry in Taiwan has complete upper, middle and lower systems. As bicycle companies in Taiwan gradually focus on medium and high end bicycles and total export reached USD1.2 billion in 2009. This shows increasing added values. In such a competitive environment, bicycle brands must offer various product types to meet needs of different consumers. Brands are important intangible assets to a company and under great attention of major world players. Therefore and this study aims at impacts of brand equity, brand attachment, product involvement and repurchase intention on bicycle users when selecting bicycle brands and engaging in activities. Target included users in bicycle recreation on bicycle lanes in areas north of Taichung. A total of 400 questionnaires were issued in convenience sampling; 350 valid questionnaires were collected and verified with LISREL. The conditions were: brand equity has positive influence on brand attachment, repurchase intention and product involvement; product involvement has positive influence on brand attachment and repurchase intention and indirect influence on brand attachment through product involvement. Through product involvement and brand attachment, it has indirect influence on repurchase intention. Suggestions were proposed against the preceding conclusions as reference on marketing strategies and operation management in developing own brands by bicycle companies in Taiwan. Key words: Bicycle, brand equity, brand involvement, brand attachment, repurchase intention, Structural Equation Modeling.