International Journal of Hospitality Management 51 (2015) 19–29

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International Journal of Hospitality Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhosman

Does conspicuous decoration style influence customer’s intention to

purchase? The moderating effect of CSR practices
Yaoqi Li a , Hui Fu b,∗ , Songshan (Sam) Huang c
a
School of Management, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
b
Sun Yat-Sen Business School, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
c
School of Management, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Using an experimental research design, this study examines the main effect of conspicuous hotel decora-
Received 24 March 2015 tion style on consumer purchase intention, and tests the moderating role of corporate social responsibility
Received in revised form 12 August 2015 (CSR) practices and the mediating role of image perception on the relationship between conspicuous dec-
Accepted 18 August 2015
oration style and purchase intention with Chinese consumers. The results indicate that decoration style
had a critical role in explaining Chinese customers’ purchase intention. Specifically, a low conspicuous
Keywords:
decoration style led to stronger customer purchase intention than did a high conspicuous decoration style.
Conspicuousness of consumption
The relationship between conspicuous decoration style and customer purchase intention was found to
Decoration style
Image perception
be fully mediated by image perception. The findings emphasize the significance of CSR in influencing
Purchase intention Chinese customers’ purchase intention with hotels of a highly-conspicuous decoration style. Externally
CSR practice oriented CSR practices (i.e., corporate philanthropy, environmental protection) were found to be more
significant in moderating the relationship between conspicuous decoration style and purchase intention
than internally oriented CSR practice (i.e., employee treatment). Hotels engaging in philanthropy and
environmental protection, can not only elicit a positive response from consumers, but also help mitigate
the risks of a loss of organizational legitimacy as a result of high conspicuous decoration.
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
With its economic development, China is evolving from the lead-
ing producer of globally distributed goods to the world’s largest
consumer market (Siuta-Tokarska, 2013). Luxury hotels are spring-
ing up not only in tier 1 cities but also in tier 2–3 cities, hoping to
benefit from the economic transition and growing premium busi-
ness travel industry (Meadin, 2014). The annual growth rate of
star-rated hotels in China has been around 6% in the past three
years, whereas the equivalent figure for five-star establishments
was over 15% (Travel Daily, 2013). Moreover, competition in the
luxury hotel industry has become intensified with more brands
entering into the market. As a business strategy, many upscale
hotels attempt to distinguish themselves by unique decoration
styles. Some hotels even adopt an extremely conspicuous deco-
ration style to forge a prestigious and luxurious image.
From the perspective of conspicuous consumption (O’Cass,
2004), luxury hotels could use conspicuous marketing strategy to
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 2084114258; fax: +86 2084036924.
E-mail addresses: maloseyou@163.com (Y. Li), mnsfuh@mail.sysu.edu.cn
(H. Fu), Sam.Huang@unisa.edu.au (S. Huang).
build an image of exclusivity and upscale social status (Carr, 2005).
Likewise, marketing scholars refer to environmental psychology
theories (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974; Mosteller et al., 2014) and
argue that the atmospherics of a physical store influence a wide
variety of consumer evaluation and behavior through psycholog-
ical processes (Turley and Milliman, 2000; Heung and Gu, 2012).
The stimulus–organism–response (S–O–R) paradigm from envi-
ronmental psychology indicates that the organism (the consumer’s
evaluation) generates a response (consumer’s behavior) on the
basis of the stimulus from environmental cues (store atmosphere).
The environmental psychology theory contends that there are two
responses to the atmosphere, approach and avoidance (Mehrabian
and Russell, 1974). As an approach response, an individual tends
to exhibit positive behavior, such as high evaluation of a brand
or a desire to stay in a store. In contrast, the avoidance response
means that an individual demonstrates negative behavior such as
low evaluation of a brand or being reluctant to stay in a particular
facility. Thus, the environmental cue is one of the most impor-
tant factors that affect a consumer’s evaluation and behavior about
the corporation or the brand through the approach or avoidance
processes. Heung and Gu (2012) argued that the influence of envi-
ronmental cues is even more important in the hospitality industry
because most of the products in the hospitality industry are highly

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2015.08.008
0278-4319/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
20 Y. Li et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 51 (2015) 19–29
intangible by nature (Kotler et al., 2013), but consumers are accus-
tomed to evaluating a service organization from tangible cues such
as the physical environment (Bitner, 1992).
Despite the extant studies in the marketing management lit-
erature on the atmospheric effects on consumer evaluation and
behavior, research on consumer responses toward atmospherics in
the hospitality industry is still limited. Thus far, most of such studies
have been conducted in the restaurant contexts. For example, Ryu
and Jang (2007) investigated the influence of environmental per-
ceptions on behavioral intention regarding upscale restaurants. Liu
and Jang (2009) examined the relationships among dining atmo-
spherics, emotional responses, perceived value, and behavioral
intention in Chinese restaurants. Heung and Gu (2012) studied the
effects of restaurant atmospherics on the satisfaction and behav-
ioral intention of consumers. Jang et al. (2011) examined the
influence of restaurant atmospherics on consumers’ positive and
negative emotions which in turn affect their behavioral intention.
Hyun and Kang (2014) explored the impact of restaurant envi-
ronmental and non-environmental cues on customers’ emotional
responses and behavioral intentions. In summary, most studies
of atmospheric effects on consumer responses in the hospitality
industry have focused on the dining settings. Little research has
explored the influence of atmospheric effects in the hotel context.
This study extends the current research in three aspects: first,
it examines consumers’ reactions to a hotel’s decoration style with
either a high or low degree of conspicuousness; second, it tests the
moderation effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices
and the mediation effect of image perception between decoration
style and consumers’ intention to visit; and third, from a practi-
cal point of view, it sheds light on decoration strategies for luxury
hotels. We explore the relationships between these variables in
an experimental study based on conspicuousness theory and con-
sumer behavioral theory.
The paper is structured as follows. The next section reviews the
literature on the atmospheric effect, conspicuousness of decora-
tion style, CSR practice, image perception, and customer behavior.
The hypotheses and research framework are developed and pre-
sented in the literature review. Then, the experimental methods
are described and the empirical results of the hypotheses tests are
reported. Subsequently, the main findings are reported followed by
discussions on theoretical and managerial implications.
2. Theoretical background and hypotheses development
2.1. Atmospheric effect and customer behavior
The S–O–R paradigm proposed by Mehrabian and Russell (1974)
explains that stimuli are antecedents that influence individuals’
emotional status and evaluation toward the target. Donovan and
Rossiter (1982) applied the S–O–R paradigm to a business context
and assumed that stimuli are operationalized as environmen-
tal cues. The S–O–R paradigm expounds that atmospheric effects
from the physical store environment influence a wide variety of
consumer evaluations toward the service providers through the
psychological process (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974; Turley and
Milliman, 2000; Heung and Gu, 2012; Mosteller et al., 2014).
Empirical studies in the marketing literature have also verified
the importance of service stores’ atmospheric effects on consumer
evaluation and perception (Turley and Milliman, 2000; Heung and
Gu, 2012).
A store’s environmental cues are essential sources of atmo-
spheric effects (Liao et al., 2012). According to Baker (1986),
the store environmental cues can be classified into three dimen-
sions: social, design, and ambient. As noted by Liao et al. (2012),
social environmental cues relate to the store’s employees (e.g.,
the number of staff, the receiver style, and interactions between a
hairdresser and consumers), design environmental cues are those
elements that can be visual by nature in the service store (e.g.
color, layout, cleanliness, and decoration), and ambient environ-
mental cues are the non-visual elements of a store referring to
the intangible factors in the environment (e.g. light, music, color,
and temperature). Liao et al. (2012) proposed that each of the
store environmental cues – social, design and ambient environmen-
tal cues – affect consumers’ attitudes and evaluation toward the
service provider. The empirical results imply that an appropriate
environment can satisfy consumer preferences and improve con-
sumers’ evaluation of the quality of products and services through
the impression process (Jang et al., 2011; Heung and Gu, 2012;
Mosteller et al., 2014). Loureiro et al. (2013) demonstrated that
environmental cues could affect customer evaluation of a service
provider’s performance by changing the customer’s attitude and
mood toward the service store. Most studies of environmental cues
have focused on functional and psychological attributes, such as
lighting, music, symbolism, color, display, temperature, and qual-
ity of building construction. Service stores are paying increasing
attention to atmospheric cues and attempting to develop favorable
store environment to attract the appropriate target consumers for
increased profits (Seock, 2009). As one of the most common ele-
ments of store environmental cues in practice, the decoration style
has yet received little attention in academic research. This study
focused on the effects of the conspicuousness of hotel decoration
on customer evaluation.
2.2. Conspicuousness of decoration style and customer evaluation
In the postindustrial era, the search for status enhancement via
consumption prevails in the Western world (Wong and Ahuvia,
1998). The conspicuousness of product consumption is a global
phenomenon in contemporary society (Piron, 2000). According to
the theory of the leisure class, conspicuousness could be a pur-
poseful conduct in which considerations of status predominate
(Veblen, 2007). The conspicuousness of consumption is defined as
an activity to describe the acquisition and display of possessions
to achieve the purpose of status enhancement (Chaudhuri et al.,
2011; Ordabayeva and Chandon, 2011). It is inevitably associated
with luxury services or products (e.g., a luxury hotel) in that con-
sumption focuses most on the pursuit of social status (Han and
Hyun, 2013). Piron (2000) explained that people purchase luxury
products or services to achieve a high degree of exclusivity or sym-
bolize achievement, success, or wealth (O’Cass and McEwen, 2004).
Amaldoss and Jain (2005) also argued that consumers purchase
conspicuous products to satisfy not only their physical but also
their social needs. Social needs such as prestige are more impor-
tant than material needs in the consumption of luxury products
(Lee and Shrum, 2012).
With China’s massive industrialization development in recent
years, the consumer market in China has witnessed a significant
surge in the consumption of luxury goods (Podoshen et al., 2011).
The emerging Chinese economy and its large population are allur-
ing traits that suggest the potential of luxury markets. According
to Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH) and the Boston Consul-
ting Group, the role of emerging markets such as China and India
has grown dramatically in luxury consumption since 2001 (LVMH,
2004). China has been identified as the first major luxury market
with many foreign brands starting to establish a presence (Lowther,
2005). Yang and Mattila (2013, 2014) studied luxury hospitality
consumption and called for research on Eastern luxury consumers.
Considering the positive business effects of conspicuous consump-
tion, a large number of international and domestic luxury hotel
brands communicate their products in a conspicuous market-
ing mix, such as exclusivity of production, highly conspicuous
 Y. Li et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 51 (2015) 19–29
decoration, and luxurious packaging (Walley and Li, 2014). Most
luxury hotel managers believe that the conspicuous consumption
of a product is conducive to gaining face and establishing feelings
of a high social status for customers (Chan et al., 2007). Yang et al.
(2015) explored the effectiveness of price promotions in luxury
hotels under the moderation of consumers’ need for status and
revealed that the consumers’ need for status is an essential factor
that determines their reactions to luxury hotel price promotions.
Chinese culture is deeply rooted in Confucianism (Wong and
Ahuvia, 1998), which advocates desirable human traits and char-
acters like humility and thrift (Kieschnick, 2003). The concept of
“face” (known as mian-zi in Chinese), which is usually represented
by symbols of prestige or reputation gained through the expecta-
tions of and impressions on others, is of paramount importance
to Chinese people (Chan et al., 2007; Wang and Walker, 2011;
Wan and Poon, 2014). In this regard, the Chinese view of the
self is configured as “interdependent” or at the “center of rela-
tionships,” in which one’s identity is defined in terms of family
and social relationships (Markus and Kitayama, 1991, p.227). As
such, the majority of Chinese consumers tend to be high in need
of status according to the self-construal theory. Kastanakis and
Balabanis (2012) examined the relationship between self-construal
and consumers’ need for status and revealed a positive relation-
ship between interdependent self-construal and need for status.
Han et al. (2010) further indicated that consumers who are high
in need of status tend to favor showy displays and conspicuous
signals such as prominent brand logos and labels. Chen and Peng
(2014) examined Chinese consumers’ luxury hotel staying behav-
ior and revealed that conspicuousness constructs an important
value dimension that influences consumer attitudes and behav-
iors. Notably, except for some recent studies like Chen and Peng
(2014), most of the conspicuousness studies were conducted upon
Western consumers; due to the distinct Western–Eastern cultural
differences, whether or to what extent these findings can be appli-
cable to the Chinese context remains unclear. Nevertheless, based
on these relevant studies, and considering the long-lasting cultural
influence of “face” on Chinese consumers, we argue that Chinese
consumers tend to exhibit stronger purchase intention toward con-
spicuously decorated hotels due to interdependent self-construal.
It is a good strategy for luxury products companies to promote their
conspicuousness brand image to the public to satisfy the needs for
status, enhancing self-image, and face enhancement in China.
However, the relationship between conspicuousness levels and
purchase intention in the Chinese context may be more com-
plicated. While Chinese consumers may seek a certain level of
conspicuousness in consumption to meet the need of status
enhancement, an extremely high level of conspicuousness may
be associated with the sense of extravagance and self-indulgence,
which is contradictory to the traditional Chinese values of modera-
tion, frugality and humility. Therefore, conspicuous image may be
a double-edged sword to a luxury hotel. While a low level of con-
spicuousness may function well to meet Chinese consumers’ status
needs derived from interpersonal self-construal (Han et al., 2010;
Markus and Kitayama, 1991), a high level of conspicuousness may
be less desirable to the mass consumers in China.
In addition to the aforementioned cultural reasons in postu-
lating the relationship between conspicuousness and purchase
intention, it is worth mentioning that the current political envi-
ronment in China may work as a confounding factor reinforcing
the influence of those Chinese values of moderation, frugality and
humility on contemporary Chinese consumers’ behaviors toward
conspicuous consumption. Currently, an anti-corruption move-
ment is dominating the political environment in China. In the end of
2012, the central government of China issued an eight-point reg-
ulation in the hope of creating a clean government. After that, a
national anti-corruption campaign spread over the country. This
21
regulation made explicit requirements on how officials should
improve their work style in eight aspects, aiming to reduce extrav-
agance and curtail unnecessary official visits, meetings and empty
talks. The regulation requires that government officials and offi-
cers from state-own companies should remain thrifty. Under this
regulation, government officials and state-owned company man-
agers need to avoid conspicuous and extravagant consumption1 .
The political movement required many stated-owned enterprises
and joint venture companies stop the consumption in luxury hotels
in China. As a consequence, the hotel and restaurant sectors suf-
fered a heavy loss. In 2013, whilst China’s Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) increased by 7.7%, the five-star hotel sector experienced a
14% decrease in total revenue (Meadin, 2013). Due to the gloomy
industry operation climate, 56 upscale hotels in China applied for
downgrading their star levels, intending to divest the luxurious
and conspicuous image from their products. Therefore, from the
industry perspective, changing the luxury image in conspicuous
decoration may be a practical concern for luxury hotels in the cur-
rent political environment in China.
Considering the current political environment in China, it is
meaningful and interesting to examine whether upscale hotels in
China should adopt conspicuous marketing strategies like conspic-
uous decoration. On the one hand, the nature of conspicuousness
in consumption is undergoing a change from status-enhancing to
status-hurting (Chaudhuri et al., 2011), especially in a culture with
high level of face consciousness, such as China (Wan and Poon,
2014). In China, society is usually dominated by the mainstream
political discourses. Government regulation is the bellwether of the
market trend. People tend to follow the government regulation and
change the behavior in the business. Therefore, the negative effect
of conspicuous image derived from the anti-corruption movement
may outweigh the positive effect from exclusivity and need for sta-
tus in a consumer’s mind. On the basis of the above discussions, we
propose the following hypothesis:
H1. The conspicuousness of a hotel’s decoration style has a sig-
nificant effect on Chinese consumer’s purchase intention. A low
conspicuous style will result in greater purchase intention toward
the hotel than will a high conspicuous style.
2.3. CSR practices in hotel industry
CSR has become one of the heated topics in both academic
research and managerial practices in recent years (Brown and
Dacin, 1997; Sen and Bhattacharya, 2001; Servaes and Tamayo,
2013; Boulouta and Pitelis, 2014; Cheng et al., 2014; Liu et al.,
2014). According to the World Business Council for Sustainable
Development (WBCSD), CSR refers to the continuing commitment
by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic devel-
opment while improving the quality of life of the workforce and
their families as well as the local community and society at large
(WBCSD, 1999). It is commonly believed that CSR can bring ben-
efits to a firm, such as improving consumer evaluations of the
corporation’s image and abilities (Scherer and Palazzo, 2011),
strengthening brand recognition and the brand’s impact (Luo and
Bhattacharya, 2006; Julian and Ofori-dankwa, 2013), reducing
advertising expenditures and operating costs, and attracting talent
and investors (Maignan and Ferrell, 2004; Fu et al., 2014a,b).
CSR is very important in the hospitality industry due to its con-
nection with the environment and the local community. For exam-
ple, the hotel industry has a strong impact on the natural and social
environment and on local communities, through air pollution, noise
pollution, waste generation, and consumption of space (Chung and
1
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-08/13/c 125163637.htm.
22 Y. Li et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 51 (2015) 19–29
Parker, 2010). Nowadays, an increasing number of hotel firms are
introducing CSR-related activities and communicating these efforts
to the public and their customers (de Grosbois, 2012). Based on
the view of organizational legitimacy (Carroll and Hannan, 1989),
CSR practices such as philanthropy, poverty alleviation, and disas-
ter relief can improve consumers’ positive emotions and reduce
consumers’ negative evaluations of the firm through increasing
the organization’s legitimacy (Servaes and Tamayo, 2013). Kapferer
(2010) argued that the issues of organizational legitimacy and
good corporate citizenship are very important to luxury compa-
nies. In China, due to the inequality of income distribution and
class antagonism, the public often exhibits a deep distrust toward
luxury companies and can even regard their earnings as illegiti-
mate. Thus, the luxury industries usually have the lowest level of
public acceptance and face criticism from the public (Palazzo and
Richter, 2005). CSR is considered to be one of the best practices
to gain legitimacy and avoid a negative image. CSR activities aim-
ing to legitimize the corporation and increase corporate acceptance
could reverse the negative consumer perceptions toward luxury
companies due to their luxurious image. Furthermore, according
to research on self-brand relation, consumers tend to construct or
communicate themselves to others by identifying themselves with
favorable brand image (Rindfleisch et al., 2009). It is more likely
to create a strong and meaningful connection between consumers’
image and the corporate brand image when the brand satisfies an
identified psychological need to be a responsible and lovely citi-
zen. Therefore, consumers will have a stronger evaluation of the
firm if it initiates CSR practices creating the positive image of being
socially responsible (Cheng et al., 2014). On the basis of the above
discussions, we propose the following hypothesis:
H2. CSR practices moderate the relationship between decoration
style and consumers’ purchase intention. On the condition of high
conspicuous style, the hotel with CSR practices will inspire bet-
ter evaluations of purchase intention than one without any CSR
practices.
In this study, we focused on the three main practices of CSR,
corporate philanthropy, environmental protection, and employee
treatment, since these practices prevail in hotels’ CSR activities both
in the global market and in China (de Grosbois, 2012). Following
Dowling and Pfeffer (1975), Neiheisel (1994) found that organiza-
tions could initiate CSR practices such as corporate philanthropy
to gain and hold legitimacy. Sánchez (2000) proved that firms can
maximize their benefits by engaging in corporate philanthropy, but
not in the form of an economic return. If the firm devotes resources
to the improvement of social welfare, consumers will consider that
the firm should be rewarded with a high level of legitimacy for the
CSR practices in which it is involved (Scherer and Palazzo, 2011).
Thus, we propose the following specific hypothesis about corporate
philanthropy:
H2a. Corporate philanthropy practice moderates the relationship
between decoration style and consumers’ purchase intention. On
the condition of high conspicuous style, the hotel with corporate
philanthropy practice will inspire better evaluations of purchase
intention than one without any corporate philanthropy practice.
As another popular CSR practice, environmental protection and
preservation has received due attention as well and its impact on
consumers’ purchase intention has been investigated. Berezan et al.
(2013) argued that green initiatives lead to greater consumer sat-
isfaction and return intentions. Griskevicius et al. (2010) explained
why people purchase pro-environmental green product. Drawing
on the costly signaling theory (Miller, 2000) and from the competi-
tive altruism perspective (Van Lange et al., 2007), Griskevicius et al.
(2010) argued that environmental protection practice can demon-
strate to the public that the firm and its customers are voluntarily
willing and able to bear the cost of a product that benefits the envi-
ronment (and society) but may not favor itself. These practices help
the firm to build the conspicuous displays of altruism and maintain
costly prosocial reputations. The self-sacrifice practice on environ-
mental protection can increase corporate legitimacy and reduce
the negative impact of its conspicuous decoration. Gao and Mattila
(2014) confirmed the positive impact of environmental protection
practice in the hotel context. Their empirical outcome showed that
the hotels with environmental protection practice yielded a sig-
nificantly higher consumer satisfaction than the non-green hotels.
Thus, we propose the following hypothesis about environmental
protection practice:
H2b. Environmental protection practice moderates the relation-
ship between decoration style and consumers’ purchase intention.
On the condition of high conspicuous style, the hotel with envi-
ronmental protection practice will inspire better evaluations of
purchase intention than one without any environmental protection
practice.
Although employee treatment or employment quality is another
focus of CSR practice and has been reported in the CSR literature
frequently, it attracts less attention from CSR researchers than cor-
porate philanthropy and environmental protection. de Grosbois
(2012) executed a content analysis of the CSR practices of top 150
hotel companies in the world using the hotels’ websites and CSR
reports published online. He found that employee treatment and
corporate philanthropy (society/community well-being) were the
most frequently practiced CSR measures, mentioned in 72 state-
ments each out of the 150 hotels; while environmental protection
was mentioned in 61 statements and also found to be a popular
CRS practice. Actually, the role and right of employees has been
one of the enduring core CSR topics (Matten and Moon, 2008). Fair
wages, working time and conditions, health-care, redundancy, pro-
tection against unfair dismissal, have been key issues to which CSR
policies have been addressed. Sen et al. (2006) examined the rela-
tionship between employee treatment (employment quality) and
stakeholders’ reactions. As one of the company’s stakeholders, con-
sumers reacted more positively to the focal company with high
level employee treatment practice. Thus, we propose the following
hypothesis pertaining to employee treatment practice:
H2c. Employee treatment practice moderates the relationship
between decoration style and consumers’ purchase intention. On
the condition of high conspicuous style, the hotel with employee
treatment practice will inspire better evaluations of purchase
intention than one without any employee treatment practice.
2.4. Mediating role of image perception
According to the cognitive dissonance theory, individuals will
strive for internal consistency to avoid dissonance. When inconsis-
tency is experienced, individuals tend to become psychologically
uncomfortable and are motivated to reduce this dissonance, and
avoid situations and information that are likely to increase it
(Festinger, 2013). In other words, an individual’s behavior mostly
depends on his or her attitude toward the world (Ho and Bodoff,
2014). When making a buying decision, a consumer’s perception
of the firm’s image will be affected by the firm’s appearance and
lead to buying behavior through the attitude-behavior consistency
process (Winterich and Barone, 2011). Wang et al. (2012) exam-
ined the mediating effect of a consumer’s image perception on the
relationship between cognitive country image and the consumer’s
purchase intention. They found that a consumer’s perception of the
brand’s image mediated the influence of the organizational factors
on purchase intention. The mediating role of consumer image per-
ception has also been verified in the hospitality context. Hwang
 Y. Li et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 51 (2015) 19–29
CSR Pracces
Conspicuousness of
Decoraon Style Image Percepon Purchase Intenon
Fig. 1. Proposed research framework
et al. (2011) testified that a restaurant’s marketing practice affected
consumers’ purchase intention mediated by consumers’ image per-
ception. Because a consumer’s image perception is a direct reaction
to certain hotel atmospheric effects (Lunardo and Mbengue, 2013),
we propose that image perception is a crucial psychological mech-
anism that influences customers’ purchase intention toward the
hotel and serves to mediate the effect of decoration conspicuous-
ness on purchase intention. Thus, hypothesis 3 (H3) is proposed as
follows:
H3. The effect of decoration conspicuousness on consumers’ pur-
chase intention is mediated by consumers’ perception of the hotel’s
image.
As shown in Fig. 1, the logic for the hypotheses is as follows.
H1 is developed to test the main effect of the conspicuousness of
decoration style on consumers’ purchase intention. H2 is devel-
oped to examine the moderating role of CSR on the relationship
between the conspicuousness of decoration style and consumers’
purchase intention. H3 is developed to investigate the mediation
effect of consumers’ image perception on the relationship between
the conspicuousness of decoration style and consumers’ purchase
intention.
3. Study 1: Main effect of conspicuousness of decoration
style
3.1. Design, procedure, and variables
An experimental design was applied to examine the effects of
the conspicuousness of decoration style on consumers’ purchase
intention (hypothesis 1 (H1)). Study 1 comprised a two-factor (dec-
oration style: high conspicuous style vs. low conspicuousness style)
between-subjects designs. We screened the participants by asking
whether they had stayed in a luxury hotel in China during the year
preceding the survey. After the screening process, the participants
were asked to read the instructions about the study. They were
promised that the survey was anonymous and that all information
they gave would be used for academic research purpose. After read-
ing the instructions, the participants were randomly assigned into
two groups, one with the high conspicuous decoration stimuli and
the other with the low conspicuous decoration stimuli. Participants
assigned into the high conspicuous style group read a scenario
about a high conspicuous decoration style of a luxury hotel. The sce-
nario emphasized that the hotel adopted an extremely conspicuous
decoration style that allowed people to experience exclusivity and
the feeling of an upper social status. In the low conspicuous style
group, the participants read a scenario about a luxury hotel that
adopted a low conspicuous decoration style in which customers did
not feel a sense of exclusivity or prestigious social status. To ensure
that there were no perceived differences in other factors, the same
prices and locations were set. The participants were requested to
complete a questionnaire after reading the scenario. We adopted
the measure of purchase intention by Sen and Bhattacharya (2001)
through a single item: “Will you choose Hotel X to stay based on
the background information?”
23
3.2. Results
3.2.1. Pretest
In order to develop an appropriate manipulation on decora-
tion style, we conducted a pretest before the formal experiment.
We picked some typical material about real luxury hotels with
high conspicuous decoration and low conspicuous decoration. Two
types of stimuli, one for high conspicuous decoration and the other
for low conspicuous decoration were created with text descriptions
and lobby pictures showing different levels of decoration design.
Four consumer behavior research experts were invited to evaluate
the validity of the manipulation about the two levels (high vs. low)
conspicuousness of decoration style. Expert feedback showed that
the pictures may confuse participants as much information in the
pictures reflects the artistic and architectural styles of the deco-
ration and thus may be distractive for respondents to make valid
judgement on the level of conspicuousness of the decoration style.
The experts suggested that pictures be removed from the stimuli
sets. Accordingly, we modified the manipulation setting by remov-
ing the pictures and recruited 25 participants to conduct a pretest
for the experiment. In the pretest, all the participants perceived the
‘high conspicuous’ decoration text scenario with a higher level of
conspicuousness than the “low conspicuous” decoration text sce-
nario. The final experimental design scenarios were shown in the
appendix.
3.2.2. Manipulation check
To identify whether the manipulation is effective, 82 partici-
pants were involved in a pretest manipulation check. We measured
participants’ evaluation of the conspicuous level of the exposed
hotel decoration scenarios (high vs low) through a single seven
point Likert scale: “I perceive the hotel decoration to be high con-
spicuous/low conspicuous”. Analysis of variance on the decoration
style revealed a significant difference (Mhigh conspicuous group = 5.45
vs. Mlow conspicuous group = 4.58; F (1, 80) = 4.51, p < 0.05) between the
high conspicuous and the low conspicuous groups. The results
showed that the manipulation was successful.
3.2.3. Sample characteristics
Sixty-seven respondents completed the formal questionnaire:
56% of them were male; 48% were less than 30 years of age and 39%
were aged between 31 and 50; 64% had a college education level or
above; 61% were managers; and 16% were civil servants.
3.2.4. The main effect of decoration style
In study 1, 34 participants (51%) were randomly assigned to
the high conspicuous style scenario and 33 (49%) were assigned
to the low conspicuous style scenario. An analysis of variance on
the purchase intention toward the luxury hotel yielded a signif-
icant main effect of decoration style (Mhigh = 3.71 vs. Mlow = 4.67;
F (1, 65) = 6.97; p < 0.05). Consistent with H1, the participants’ pur-
chase intention toward the hotel in the low conspicuous decoration
style was significantly higher than that toward the hotel in the high
conspicuous condition. That is to say, a hotel’s decoration style
had a significant effect on consumers’ purchase intention. Con-
sumers evaluated their purchase intention toward a hotel in the
low conspicuous style condition more positively than that in the
high conspicuous style (see Fig. 2). Thus, H1 was supported.
4. Study 2: The moderating effect of CSR practice and
mediating effect of image perception
Study 2 was designed to test the moderating role of CSR practices
on the relationship between the hotels’ decoration style and con-
sumers’ purchase intention (hypothesis 2 (H2)), and the mediating
role of consumers’ image perception between hotels’ decoration
24 Y. Li et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 51 (2015) 19–29
Fig. 2. Main effect of decoration style.
styles and consumers’ purchase intention (hypothesis 3 (H3)). We
examined this hypothesis by comparing the participants’ purchase
intention after reading information regarding the hotel’s decora-
tion style and CSR practices. We expected that CSR practices would
result in a better evaluation of purchase intention than the control
group. Our study adopted a 2 (decoration style: high conspicuous
style vs. low conspicuous style) × 4 (CSR practice: employee treat-
ment vs. environmental protection vs. corporate philanthropy vs.
control group) between-subjects design.
4.1. Design, procedure, and variables
After screening, only the participants who had experience stay-
ing in luxury hotels during the previous year were asked to
participate in the survey. List-wise deletion of cases with missing
values further reduced the sample size to 211. Before the exper-
iment, the participants were assured that their identities would
remain anonymous and that their data would be used for academic
research only. The scenarios in study 1 were used for hotel decora-
tion styles. The hotel’s CSR practices were then described to the
participants. All of the information used in the experiment was
taken from real hotels’ CSR reports. Three prevailing CSR practices
were selected: employee treatment, environmental protection, and
corporate philanthropy (de Grosbois, 2012). A control group with-
out any CSR practices was used to compare and check the effects of
the CSR practices. Following the general instructions and informa-
tion about the experiment, the participants were asked to rate their
purchase intention and then their image perception of the hotel.
We adopted the measure of image perception by Wagner et al.
(2009). The concept explains a hotel’s image on the basis of an indi-
vidual’s perception. The measure includes three items to measure
the hotel’s image: “My perceptions toward the hotel’s image are
bad/good,” “My perceptions toward the hotel’s image are unfavor-
able/favorable,” and “My perceptions toward the hotel’s image are
negative/positive.”
4.2. Results
4.2.1. Sample characteristics
In study 2, 211 respondents completed the formal question-
naire: 67% were male and 73% were aged between 31 and 50; 68%
Table 1
Analysis of variance of purchase intention.
F-value p-Value
Dependent variable
Purchase intention
Model 2514.75 0.00
Independent variables
Decoration style 123.20 0.00
CSR practice 8.15 0.00
Decoration style × CSR practice 3.18 0.03
had a college education level or above; and 49% were managers and
21% were civil servants.
4.2.2. Manipulation check
Before the hypothesis test, we conducted a manipulation
check for CSR practices. The results revealed significant differ-
ences among the different CSR practice groups. In the employee
treatment practice group, the scores for employee treatment
were higher than those of the other two types of responsibil-
ity (Mtreatment = 4.67, Mphilanthropy = 2.58, Menvironment = 2.67; F (3,
177) = 8.34; p < 0.01); the same differences were found in the cor-
porate philanthropy group (Mphilanthropy = 4.55, Mtreatment = 3.48,
Menvironment = 3.74; F (3, 178) = 8.60; p < 0.01) and the environ-
mental protection group (Menvironment = 4.60, Mphilanthropy = 3.31,
Mtreatment = 3.63; F (3, 178) = 9.42; p < 0.01). The results indicate that
the manipulation was successful.
4.2.3. Moderation analysis of CSR practices
H2 proposes that CSR practices moderate the effects of deco-
ration style on consumers’ purchase intention. We conducted a 2
(decoration style: high conspicuous vs. low conspicuous) × 4 (CSR
practice: philanthropy vs. environment protection vs. employee
treatment vs. control group) analysis of variance. The dependent
variable was consumers’ purchase intention. The results are shown
in Table 1. The results confirmed the main effect of the decoration
style (F (1, 209) = 123.20, p < 0.01), and CSR practices significantly
affected purchase intention (F (3, 207) = 8.15, p < 0.01). More impor-
tantly, as theorized there was a significant interaction between CSR
practices and decoration style (F (1, 210) = 3.18, p < 0.05), as shown
in Fig. 3.
Table 2 shows the differences among the three CSR practices
with high conspicuous and low conspicuous decoration styles. As
predicted by H2, under the high conspicuous decoration condition
(see Fig. 4), participants evaluated their purchase intention more
strongly in both the environmental protection (Menvironment = 4.04
vs. Mcontrol = 2.44; Difference = 1.59, F(1, 104) = 11.37; p < 0.01)
and corporate philanthropy (Mphilanthropy = 4.03 vs. Mcontrol = 2.44;
Fig. 3. Moderating effect of CSR practice.
 Y. Li et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 51 (2015) 19–29 25

Table 2
Mean difference of purchase intention.

High conspicuous Low conspicuous

CSR practice Mean Difference p-Value Mean Difference p-Value

Philanthropy 4.03 1.59 0.00 5.53 0.49 0.18

Employee treatment 2.96 0.52 0.11 5.23 0.19 0.44
Environment protection 4.04 1.6 0.00 5.25 0.21 0.40
Control group 2.44 – – 5.04 – –

practice (control group), whereas employee treatment showed no

significant difference from the control group. Therefore, H2a and
H2b were supported while H2c was not supported.

4.2.4. Mediation analysis of image perception

Fig. 4. Mean differences in highly conspicuous decoration style.
Difference = 1.60, F(1, 104) = 24.17; p < 0.01) CSR practice groups
than in the employee treatment practice group (Mtreatment = 2.96
vs. Mcontrol = 2.44; Difference = 0.52, F(1, 99) = 2.76; p > 0.1). How-
ever, no significant moderating effect of CSR practice was found
with the low conspicuous decoration condition (see Table 2 and
Fig. 5).
Therefore, H2 was partially supported. Under the highly con-
spicuous decoration condition, CSR practices moderated the effect
of decoration style on consumers’ purchase intention toward the
luxury hotel. Two types of CSR practice, environmental protec-
tion and corporate philanthropy, resulted in a higher evaluation of
purchase intention among respondents than that without any CSR
Before the hypotheses testing, we evaluated the reliability of
the image perception measurement using Cronbach’s alpha coeffi-
cient. The Cronbach’s alpha for corporate image perception was
0.955, and the composite reliability was 0.894; both are higher
than the acceptable value of 0.7, indicating high reliability of our
measurement scale (Nunnally, 1978).
Following the advice of Torelli et al. (2012), we used Preacher
and Hayes’s (2008) bootstrapping method to calculate standard
errors and 95% confidence intervals of the effects of decoration
on purchase intention in testing the mediation effect. Nevitt and
Hancock (2001) described the bootstrapping method as “establish-
ing an empirical sampling distribution associated with a statistic
of interest by repeatedly sampling from the original ‘parent’ sam-
ple data” (p. 355). We generated 1000 bootstraps based on the 194
observations with a 95% bias-corrected (BC) bootstrap confidence
interval (CI). The bootstrapping results indicated that the path coef-
ficient from decoration style to image perception (ˇ = 0.57, with a
95% BC bootstrap CI of 0.206 to 0.928, SE = 0.183; p < 0.01), that from
image perception to purchase intention (ˇ = 0.83, with a 95% BC
bootstrap CI of 0.666 to 0.989, SE = 0.818; p < 0.01), and that from
decoration style to purchase intention (ˇ = 0.50, with a 95% BC boot-
strap CI of 0.753 to 0.915, SE = 0.213; p < 0.05), were all statistically
significant. The results show that image perception mediates the
effect from decoration style to purchase intention. We also report
the traditional mediation analysis using a three-step regression
approach (Baron and Kenny, 1986). Following Baron and Kenny’s
guideline for mediation analysis, we first tested the main effect
of decoration style on purchase intention, which was significant
(ˇ = 0.262; t = 3.756; p < 0.01). In step 2, the effect of decoration style
on image perception and the effect of image perception on purchase
intention were both significant (decoration style → image per-
ception: ˇ = 0.306; t = 4.46; p < 0.01; image perception → purchase
intention: ˇ = 0.667; t = 12.401; p < 0.01). In step 3, the effects of
both decoration style and image perception on purchase intention
were checked simultaneously. Image perception still had a signif-
icant effect on purchase intention (ˇ = 0.648; t = 11.469; p < 0.01),
whereas the effect of decoration style on purchase intention was
no longer significant (ˇ = 0.063; t = 1.121; p > 0.1). The results sup-
ports significant full mediation indicating that a hotel’s decoration
style only has an indirect effect on purchase intention through
image perception. Both the bootstrapping and three-step regres-
sion methods confirmed the mediating role of image perception
between decoration style and purchase intention, thus supporting
H3.

5. Discussion and implications

5.1. General discussion

Our study of consumers’ responses to conspicuous decoration

Fig. 5. Mean differences in less-conspicuous decoration style. styles in luxury hotels in China produced some interesting and
26 Y. Li et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 51 (2015) 19–29
original results. First, consistent with our expectation, decoration
style had a significant effect on consumers’ purchase intention.
Specifically, a hotel’s high conspicuous decoration style would
cause reduced consumer purchase intention (Study 1). Customers
tended to induce stronger patronage intention toward the hotel
with a low conspicuous decoration style. Following the findings
of Study 1, we examined whether hotel CSR practices function
as a moderator between decoration style and purchase intention
(Study 2). The relationship between decoration style and cus-
tomers’ patronage intention were associated with CSR practices.
Nevertheless, hotels with different levels of conspicuousness do
not seem to benefit equally from participation in CSR activities. The
findings emphasize the significance of CSR practices in improving
customers’ purchase intention to hotels with a high conspicuous
decoration style. By contrast, the CSR practices are not that help-
ful under low conspicuous decoration style condition in terms of
their moderation role between conspicuous decoration and cus-
tomer purchase intention. Based on these findings, we argue that
hotels with a high conspicuous decoration style benefit more from
CSR practices because gaining social legitimacy is much critical
for such hotels than the low conspicuous decoration hotels. Fur-
thermore, empirical results indicate that environmental protection
and philanthropic activities functioned better than employee treat-
ment as CSR practice in moderating the effect of decoration style on
customers’ purchase intention. In the Chinese cultural context, an
internally oriented CSR practice such as employee treatment may
not be highly valued by consumers as the benefits of such practice
remain in the firm itself; on the contrary, externally oriented CSR
practices such as a company’s efforts and activities in environmen-
tal protection and philanthropy may be perceived more in line with
the social well-being and the wellness of the society, thus reflecting
better on the essence of CSR. Employee treatment could be inter-
preted as an internal marketing effort that is intended to increase
the firm’s own profits.
In Study 2, we also introduced image perception as a medi-
ating variable between decoration style and customers’ purchase
intention. Results revealed that image perception fully mediated
the effect of decoration style on purchase intention. The literature
highlights the role of decoration style in the formation of image
perception and customers’ purchase intention. However, the lack
of empirical research in the field of hotel industry makes it diffi-
cult to identify the effect of decoration style on customer reactions
in this industry, hindering the theoretical developments associated
with this construct. Consumption conspicuousness in a luxury hotel
can be better understood by considering the relationship between
the hotel’s public image and customer self-image (Sirgy and Su,
2000; Back, 2005; Han and Back, 2008). A hotel’s image is one of the
most influential factors in attracting customers’ purchase intention
(Flavian et al., 2005).
5.2. Theoretical implications
The theoretical contribution of this research can be summarized
in three aspects. To date, no empirical research has examined the
atmospheric effect of a hotel’s decoration style on purchase inten-
tion. This study advances this strand of research by examining the
effects in an integrated framework. Exploration of the relationships
among decoration style, image perception, and customer behav-
ior is particularly important in the luxury hotel industry and can
contribute to a better understanding of customers’ decisions.
Second, this study provides insight into the relationship
between decoration style and purchase intention by examining the
moderating effects of different CSR practices. The empirical results
imply that CSR is not simply a “good” thing to do but also is an
important factor enhancing customers’ purchase intention. There
has been a debate regarding whether hotels should engage in CSR
activities (Saiia et al., 2003). We argue that externally oriented CSR
practices, may not only elicit positive customer responses, but also
help hotels with conspicuous decorations gain social legitimacy.
Our study represents a worthwhile attempt to fill this knowledge
gap.
Third, due to the importance of image perception in cus-
tomer purchase decision-making, a growing body of research has
explored their relationship. However, scant attention has been
paid to the mediating role of image perception in the relation-
ship between decoration style and purchase intention (Han and
Back, 2008; Back and Lee, 2009). The empirical findings suggest
that image perception mediates the link between decoration style
and purchase intention. This study claims an important addition
to the current literature by introducing image perception into the
relationship of decoration style and purchase intention.
5.3. Managerial implications
Luxury hotels in China are facing increasing challenges due to
the current global expansion of luxury brands in China (Huang and
Cai, 2015). The findings of this study elicit a number of recom-
mendations to luxury hotel managers. First, consumer behavior is
usually affected by a hotel’s environmental cues. According to the
atmospheric effect literature, decoration style could be an impor-
tant component of a hotel’s brand image. A particular brand is
often used as a signal to enhance self-image through the transfer of
socially attributed meaning to the brand. Customers tend to con-
sume products that they perceive as being congruent with their
own image (Graeff, 1996). Our findings indicate that decoration
style has a significant effect on a customer’s purchase intention.
For a hotel with high conspicuous decoration style, the customer’s
purchase intention is relatively lower than that for a hotel with low
conspicuous decoration. Managers should be reminded that cau-
tion needs to be applied when executing over-luxurious decoration
styles in their hotel.
Second, consumers’ purchase intention regarding a conspicu-
ous hotel can be better predicted in consideration of the role of
CSR practices (Hyun, 2010; Han and Hyun, 2013). Today, “fog and
haze” and “PM2.5” are the hottest topics discussed among the gen-
eral public in China. Consumers are increasing their sensitivity
toward CSR practices carried out by firms. Particularly, to hotels
with a conspicuous decoration style, CSR practices may serve as a
means of improving their image and increasing their “moral cap-
ital” (Saiia et al., 2003; Godfrey, 2005). CSR practices, especially
those related to philanthropy and environmental protection, can
mitigate the risks of a loss of organizational legitimacy and polit-
ical risks resulted from conspicuous decoration, and thus provide
insurance-like protection (Fu et al., 2014a,b).
Another practical implication of the present study is that CSR
provides additional benefits beyond doing good; it can also increase
customers’ patronage intention, especially for hotels with high con-
spicuous decoration. Philanthropy and environmental protection
can be treated as the most important components of CSR practices.
Contributions to social activities send positive signals to customers
showing that the hotel is sincere in treating their stakeholders and
their communities. According to Meadin (2013), while the num-
ber of luxury hotels in China increased continuously from 2007 to
2012, with the implementation of “eight regulations” as the gov-
ernment policy to curb luxury consumption of the public sector,
the consumption of luxury hotels is decreasing. An important jus-
tification for luxury hotels to engage in environmental protection
CSR practice could be found in the fundamental ideology around
which the “green hotel” concept has been developed. A hotel that is
committed to environmental protection and sustainability will gain
positive perceptions from both the general public and potential
customers.
 Y. Li et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 51 (2015) 19–29
5.4. Limitations and future research
Despite the theoretical contributions and practical implications,
this study has some limitations that indicate directions for future
research. First, the experimental nature of this research limits its
generalizability. Future research could make use of a longitudinal
field study method to examine the relationship between decora-
tion style and consumer behavior. Second, the results are limited
to luxury hotels in China. Data from the context of a transitional
economy such as that of China may raise validity concerns in
general. Future research could be extended to a wider range of
geographical settings to explore the differences between various
cultures and economic contexts. Third, the current political envi-
ronment may serve a significant confounding factor deterring the
relationship between decoration styles and purchase intention of
hotel consumers in China. The findings of this study may be much
Treatment
Hotel decoration High conspicuous decoration style
Low conspicuous decoration style
Corporate social Employee treatment
responsibility (CSR)
practices
Environmental protection
Corporate philanthropy
Control group
27
contextualized toward China as a different political and cultural
entity. Future research could verify our findings in a different polit-
ical/cultural context. Fourth, we only included CSR as a moderator.
Future research could take other organizational behavior variables
into consideration, such as service climate/culture.
Acknowledgements
The first author is grateful for the financial support of the Fun-
damental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant no.:
15JNQM025) and the Jinan University Management School Fund-
ing Program (Grant No: GY14015). The second author would like to
acknowledge the financial support of the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant no.: 71402195) and the Fundamental
Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant no.: 13wkpy55).
Appendix A. Experimental design scenarios
Scenario
Hotel X is a luxuriously decorated five-star hotel,
outfitted by professional designers. The lobby is
decorated with furniture embellished with precious
stones and pearls; even the public toilets are decorated
with golden items. The decoration represents an
extremely luxury setting that seems highly
conspicuous. The price of a standard room in this hotel
is $200
Hotel X is a luxuriously decorated five-star hotel,
outfitted by professional designers. It is filled with
humanistic touches, including cultural elements,
artwork, and a literary atmosphere. Although the
hotel’s decoration is a visual and spiritual feast, it does
not seem highly conspicuous. The price of a standard
room in this hotel is $200
Hotel X advocates the idea of “returning profits to
society.” It commits itself to corporate social
responsibility practices, considering employee
treatment to be the most important in such practice.
The hotel pays competitive salaries and provides other
benefits to its employees, who have many
opportunities to attend training programs hosted by
the hotel in which they can acquire cutting-edge hotel
knowledge and skills. Many promotion opportunities
are also available to employees
Hotel X advocates the idea of “returning profits to
society.” It commits itself to corporate social
responsibility practices, considering environmental
protection to be the most important in such practice.
The hotel has a vested interest in operating efficiently
to save water, energy, food, commodities, and so on.
Sustainable living is a business imperative and a
cornerstone of the hotel’s commitment. The hotel has
developed sustainability goals to reduce energy
consumption and carbon and waste output by 20%, and
water use by 10% every five years. In fact, it has already
achieved its waste and water reduction goals ahead of
schedule
Hotel X advocates the idea of “returning profits to
society.” It commits itself to corporate social
responsibility practices, considering corporate
philanthropy to be the most important in such
practice. The hotel is committed to many philanthropic
and charitable practices such as poverty alleviation,
educational support for poverty-stricken areas, the
reconstruction of disaster areas, and corporate
donations. It has gained a positive reputation for its
corporate philanthropy.
No CSR information on Hotel X is available
28 Y. Li et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 51 (2015) 19–29
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