FUNCTIONALITY, SYMBOLISM, AND QUALITY: ANTECEDENTS OF PURCHASE INTENTION FOR SPORTS FOOTWEAR IN BRAZIL
(R2024-122691)

AUTHORS

Ítalo Dantas, Feevale University; Marcelo Curth, Feevale University; ALAN FERREIRA, Sports Science School of Rio Maior / Polythenic Institute of Santarém; Vera Pedragosa, CICEE - Centro de Investigação em Económicas e Empresariais / Universidade autónoma de Lisboa.

ABSTRACT

Given the social growth of leisure sports in Brazil, we observed the expansion of the consumption of sports footwear, consequently generating a gap in the attributes that precede such consumption. To this end, we surveyed 185 people from Brazil who practice physical/sports activities for leisure and wear sports footwear. We use the product and brand scales to investigate their effects on perceived quality (PQ) and purchase intention (PI) in their functional and symbolic dimensions. We analyzed the data by PLS-SEM using the R software. We discovered a significant relationship between the functional dimensions of the product and brand on PQ but no direct influence of the variables on PI, except for the PQ itself. Preliminary conclusions indicate that investments in improving of sports performance of the footwear have become more relevant than in their image or aesthetics.