Title: Integrating intrinsic motivation into the relationship between product design and brand attachment: a cross-cultural investigation based on self-determination theory

Authors: Faheem Gul Gilal; Jian Zhang; Rukhsana Gul Gilal; Naeem Gul Gilal

Addresses: Donlinks School of Economics and Management, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China ' Donlinks School of Economics and Management, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China ' Department of Business Administration, Sukkur IBA University, Airport Road Sukkur, Sindh, Pakistan ' School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, China

Abstract: Previous marketing investigations have broadly predicted brand attachment by linking extrinsic motives. However, intrinsic motives of attachment have been surprisingly disregarded in the literature. To address this gap, this study integrates intrinsic motivation into the relationship between product design and brand attachment. To this end, we studied individuals from three countries, and the self-determination theory was found to generalise across individuals from Pakistan, South Korea, and China. The effects of three product design dimensions on each form of psychological need satisfaction and the subsequent brand attachment were greater for Pakistanis than for Koreans and Chinese. In particular, relatedness satisfaction was found to be a stronger driver of brand attachment for Pakistanis and Chinese than for Koreans, whereas autonomy satisfaction was found to more promising at explaining consumer attachment to brands for Koreans than for Chinese. Competence and relatedness satisfaction failed to capture brand attachment for Koreans. Finally, implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Keywords: product design dimensions; brand attachment; intrinsic motivation; psychological need satisfaction; self-determination theory.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2020.103800

European Journal of International Management, 2020 Vol.14 No.1, pp.1 - 27

Received: 29 Oct 2017
Accepted: 29 Mar 2018
Published online: 29 Nov 2019 *

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