Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate factors affecting Taiwanese women’s purchase of luxury goods. The sample was obtained from the social hierarchy section of the third survey in the fifth phase of “Taiwan Social Change Survey” conducted under the “Taiwan Social Change Survey Project”. As this study focused on female consumers of luxury goods, the subjects were limited to female consumers who had reached a certain level of economic status. Female consumers whose household monthly income was no more than NT$30,000 were excluded. The valid sample comprised 685 participants, and 1355 participants had missing values. The binary logistic regression analysis of the data suggested that “education level” and “reference group” were key factors affecting women’s purchase of luxury goods. In the aspect of education level, this study validated Bourdieu's argument that cultural capital can be converted into economic capital in specific conditions. However, cultural capital cannot be obtained without persistent investment of time and economic cost. Since highly educated women have relatively better economic conditions, they may have more consumption of luxury goods. In terms of the influence of relatives or friends who also buy luxury goods (reference group), the influence was found positively and significantly related to women’s purchase of luxury goods. This finding confirmed that women’s purchase of luxury goods is affected by reference groups. The above findings offered a different view of the new phenomenon in Taiwanese consumption culture.