Antecedents and Moderators of Behavioral Intention:Differences between the United States and Taiwanese Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relative influence of attitude toward the act, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control on consumers` purchase intention when consumers possess different levels of product knowledge (subjective and objective). The magnitude of the influence is compared across two different societies (U.S. and Taiwanese). U.S. (N = 295) and Taiwanese (N = 297) college students participated. The results showed that the relative importance of attitude toward the act, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control in predicting purchase intention varied across consumers with different levels of product knowledge (subjective or objective) for the U.S. participants. However, the moderating effect of product knowledge was less profound for the Taiwanese participants.