The relationship between price and objective apparel quality: a comparison between the United States market and Korean market

Based upon literature of economic market conditions, it has been essentially an empirical question whether higher priced products have better quality than lower priced products. Although the strength of the price-quality relationships tends to vary between product categories, few studies have investigated the relationship related to apparel products. The purposes of this study were to examine the relationship between price and objective apparel quality in the United States market and the Korean market, and to determine the effect of specific apparel items and gender types in the relationship.

According to related literature, tests of price-objective quality relationships basically have relied on product tests published by nonprofit organizations. Data sources in this study consisted of three different consumer magazines: Consumer Reports (U.S.A), Consumer Times (Korea), and Product Information (Korea). These consumer magazines provide objective quality ratings for specific product categories including actual market price and brand name. Samples selected in this study were obtained from issues of the three consumer magazines published between 1991 to 1996 which contain quality tests for apparel products.

Results indicated that the correlations between price and objective apparel quality were weak positive in the two international market places. No significant difference was found in the price-quality relationship between the United States market and the Korean market. Also, the relationships between price and quality differed widely among different apparel items within each country. Finally, gender types had a strong effect on the relationship between price and quality for specific apparel items.