Consumer attitude toward virtual stores and its correlates
Pengarang :
B.C.Y.
Lee
Diterbitkan di : sciencedirect.com
Abstract
Supported by the growth of information technology, the virtual stores
have increased their importance in the modern marketing environment.
The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationships between
consumer attitude toward virtual stores and its correlates. A
conceptual model with four postulated hypotheses is proposed and
verified by empirical data. Our study results show that consumer risk
averseness is negatively related to consumer attitude, whereas consumer
convenience orientation and the impulse tendency are both positively
related with consumer attitude toward virtual stores. Implications for
practitioners and suggestions for further research are also provided.
1. Introduction
The rapid growth of information technology has enhanced the
importance of virtual stores as a marketing channel (
Burke,
2002;
Chen
and Tan, 2004;
Jarvenpaa
and Todd, 1997;
Korgaonkar,
1984;
Vrechopoulos
et al., 2004). The “virtual store” represents a private retailer,
without a fixed showroom and face-to-face contact, utilizing information
techniques and the media to communicate with consumers and pursue
marketing goals. Virtual stores include catalog shopping, TV shopping
channels, Internet stores, etc. Of these, the Internet is perhaps the
most visible innovation, attracting considerable media and commercial
attention (
Burke,
2002;
Chen
and Tan, 2004). In the USA, 50% of households have one or more
computers, and 42% include a family member who uses the Internet at home
(
Burke,
2002). About 42% of the major suppliers in a variety of industries
have begun to sell directly to consumers over the Internet (
Burke,
2002). In addition to the Internet, TV shopping and catalog mailing
have also grown. Each year, over 12 billion direct mail catalogs are
mailed in the United States alone; and TV shopping channels have
improved their product categories and sales revenue (
Basu
et al., 1995).
Without a physical and fixed outlet to show and promote their
products, many virtual stores employ direct marketing skills to attract
and communicate with potential consumers (
Mehta
and Sivadas, 1995). Direct marketing is an interactive system of
marketing that uses one or more advertising media to affect a measurable
response and/or transaction at any location, with this activity stored
on a database (
Stone,
1997). Direct marketing is growing at twice the rate of traditional
retailing methods (
May,
1989). In fact, more money is spent on direct marketing programs
and solicitations than on magazine or television advertising (
Akaah
et al., 1995). Sometimes direct marketing has only been used to
provide information and to support sales in traditional channels (
Chiang
et al., 2003).
Since the virtual stores have many advantages, including lower
operational costs, 24-h service all year round, greater product
diversity, and the ability to reach distant customers (
Tapp,
2001;
Tiwana,
1998), they have changed the ways of marketing communication,
promotion, and exchange. From the consumer’s perspective, he/she must
face a new way of selecting and purchasing products. According to the
theory of reasoned action (
Ajzen
and Fishbein, 1980), consumer attitude affects consumer behavioral
intention, thus influencing consumer purchasing behavior. To maximize
the utility of virtual stores, marketers need to understand consumer
attitude toward virtual stores and its correlates. Although issues
related to virtual stores have been examined in the literature (
Akaah
et al., 1995;
Burke,
2002;
Chen
and Tan, 2004;
Dirk
and Leunis, 1999;
Liang
and Huang, 1998;
Vrechopoulos
et al., 2004), consumer attitude toward virtual stores and its
antecedents have received little attention.
The purpose of this research is to investigate consumer attitude
toward virtual stores and its correlates. Focus group discussion is used
to explore the potential antecedents of consumer attitude toward
virtual stores. A conceptual model with four hypotheses is proposed and
empirically examined by field data. Structural equation modeling with
the LISREL program is used to estimate the structural coefficients and
test the hypotheses. Implications for managers of virtual stores and
suggestions for further research are also provided.
The purpose of this research is to investigate consumer attitude toward
virtual stores and its correlates. Focus group discussion is used to
explore the potential antecedents of consumer attitude toward virtual
stores. A conceptual model with four hypotheses is proposed and
empirically examined by field data. Structural equation modeling with
the LISREL program is used to estimate the structural coefficients and
test the hypotheses. Implications for managers of virtual stores and
suggestions for further research are also provided.
2. Hypotheses and proposed model
Since new information technology is changing the types and business
models of virtual stores, this article focuses on consumer attitude
toward virtual stores in general, rather than any specific store or
specific product category. This work is thus consistent with that on the
construction of measures that evaluate general consumer attitudes or
tendencies, such as attitude toward advertising in general rather than
toward a particular advertisement.
2.1. Consumer attitude toward virtual store and its
antecedents
“Attitude” denotes a learned predisposition to respond to an object
in a consistently favorable or unfavorable way. The fact that attitudes
are learned means that they will be affected by information and
experiences (
Wilkie,
1994). Since attitudes cannot be observed directly, they are mental
positions that marketers must try to infer through research measures.
The fact that attitudes are predispositions to respond indicates their
relationship with actual consumer behavior.
To explore the possible antecedents of consumer attitude toward
virtual stores, a focus group discussion (FGD) technique was conducted.
Ten undergraduate students in business school were invited to
participate in the discussion. Various factors that relate to virtual
stores were raised and discussed, including risk, efficiency,
impulsiveness, product type etc. From the consumer point of view, lack
of personal contact implies that they must carry a higher purchasing
risk, but they can save travel time and shopping effort. In addition,
the influence of the consumer’s level of impulsiveness has been
mentioned frequently. As a result, risk averseness, convenience
orientation, and impulse tendency were selected as possible antecedents
of consumer attitude toward virtual stores. We discuss these factors and
their possible influence on consumer attitude in turn.
2.1.1. Risk averseness
“Risk” in relation to choosing brands is the probability of
occurrence of a problem with a particular product of a certain brand
multiplied by the negative consequences of that problem (
Peter
and Ryan, 1976). Risk can be conceptualized as an objective
characteristic of a given situation, but the assessment of risk involves
an individual bringing his or her own characteristics to the situation
and also the accurate appraisal of risk (
Conchar
et al., 2004). Following from subjective expected utility theory,
risk is modeled by reflecting the decision-maker’s response to uncertain
outcomes defined in terms of specific probabilities of risk (
Mitchell,
1999). When a consumer makes a purchase decision, “risk” implies
“greater consequences of making a mistake” and “degree of inconvenience
of making a mistake” (
Batra
and Sinha, 2000).
Havlena
and DeSarbo (1991) described the multidimensional nature of
perceived consumer risk, involving performance, financial, safety,
social, psychological, and time/opportunity dimensions. The perceived
risk can powerfully influence consumer behavior.
Mitchell
(1992) argued that perceived risk influences the five stages of the
consumer decision process, which are problem recognition, pre-purchase
information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and
post-purchase behavior.
Consumers’ perceived risk in virtual stores has received considerable
attention in recent years (
Bhatnagar
and Ghose, 2004;
Chen
and He, 2003;
Forsythe
and Shi, 2003;
Gupta
et al., 2004;
Lim,
2003;
Milne
and Culnan, 2004;
Miyazaki
and Fernandez, 2001;
Pavlou,
2003).
Pavlou
(2003) stated that the e-commerce environment creates both economic
and privacy risks for consumers, and their perceived risk was strongly
related to their intention to transact in an e-commerce environment.
Through focus group discussions,
Lim
(2003) found that Internet consumers perceive three sources of risk
in B2C e-commerce: technology, vendor, and product.
Milne
and Culnan (2004) suggested that privacy notices are an important
means of reducing the risk of the second exchange by providing consumers
with information concerning the organization’s information practices.
In addition to Internet shopping, studies have consistently shown that
consumers perceive higher risks in non-store shopping formats, such as
telephone shopping, mail order, catalog, direct sales, and catalog
showroom (
Bhatnagar
and Ghose, 2004;
Peterson
et al., 1989).
Risk aversion is defined as “the extent to which people feel
threatened by ambiguous situations, and have created beliefs and
institutions that try to avoid these” (
Hofstede
and Bond, 1984). People with higher risk aversion are inclined to
feel threatened by risky and ambiguous situations (
Hofstede,
1991). In addition, after making purchases through one channel,
either electronic or traditional, risk-averse consumers tend to be more
loyal customers than risk-neutral consumers (
Gupta
et al., 2004).
Consumers will face various risks when purchasing in virtual stores.
First, without direct investigation on a product before making a
purchase decision, consumers must carry a higher product performance
risk. Secondly, the new exchange process in the virtual stores will
increase consumers’ financial risk (i.e., payment before delivery or
payment by credit card). Finally, when lacking the personal explanation
of product knowledge, consumers increase their probability of
inappropriate product use, which heightens the safety risks. Given the
potential risks in virtual stores, consumers’ risk averseness should
negatively affect their attitudes toward virtual stores.
2.1.2. Convenience orientation
Convenience is considered to encompass various utilities, including
the time, place, acquisition and use of a product or service. The
construct of convenience has two main dimensions: time and energy (
McEnally
and Brown, 1998). The time dimension usually refers to lack of time
or to time pressure, either of which leads to convenience-oriented
behavior; while the energy is subdivided into mental energy, usually in
the form of the effort involved in planning ahead, and physical energy,
which involves doing something to obtain a desired product or service (
Marquis,
2005). To a degree, convenience-oriented consumption represents a
point of convergence between the coincidentally increasing affluence and
time-consciousness of the contemporary consumer. Convenience-oriented
consumption is distinguished by the fact that it is prompted by the dual
motives of (1) satisfying some immediate want or need, and (2)
releasing time and/or energy for alternative uses (
Anderson,
1972).
Convenience-oriented consumers do differ from cost-oriented consumers
in terms of demographic, lifestyle, and product value. There is growing
recognition that consumers are constrained by two budgets: a “money”
budget and a “time” budget (
Engel
and Blackwell, 1982). Those consumers that are the most
time-constrained are likely to value products that offer convenience
features, whereas money-constrained consumers are more likely to place
emphasis on product costs. The convenience-oriented consumer is defined
as one who seeks to “accomplish a task in the shortest time with the
least expenditure of human energy”. The cost-oriented consumer is
defined as one who “bases selection on maximizing the use of money”. It
has been demonstrated that the demographics, lifestyle, and consumer
values of convenience-oriented consumers are significantly different
from those of cost-oriented consumers (
Morganosky,
1986).
The increase in productive capacity through technological innovation
has resulted in a shift of consumer attitudes from valuing products and
services to valuing time (
Anderson,
1971). Compared with physical stores, virtual stores have an
advantage in term of the ease with which goods can be obtained.
Korgaonkar
(1984) found that the non-store retailing methods will mainly
appeal to convenience and price oriented consumers rather than brand
oriented consumers. Especially in recent years, the time needed to
obtain an item of merchandise is increasingly a factor in the consumer’s
judgment (
Korgaonkar,
1984). Convenience has been reported as the primary reason for
shoppers to shop on the Internet (
Forsythe
and Shi, 2003). In addition, information technology and logistic
systems have much improved the efficiency of product searching, order
taking, and merchandise delivery. Thus, consumers who care more about
convenience should have a more positive attitude toward virtual stores.
2.1.3. Impulse tendency
The general trait of impulsiveness has been extensively studied by
clinical and developmental psychologists, education researchers, and
criminologists (
Kacen
and Lee, 2002;
Rook
and Fisher, 1995). Impulsiveness is characterized by unreflective
actions (
Eysenck
et al., 1985), and is significantly correlated with thrill-seeking (
Weun
et al., 1998), as well as the psychological need to maintain a
relatively high level of stimulation (
Gerbing
et al., 1987;
Kacen
and Lee, 2002).
Puri
(1996) proposed that the accessibility of the costs versus the
benefits of impulsiveness influences whether consumers behave in an
impulsive or a controlled manner. Whether or not an individual focuses
on the costs or the benefits of impulsiveness may also depend on an
individual’s basic values (
Puri,
1996).
Buying impulsiveness is a consumer’s tendency to buy spontaneously,
unreflectively, and immediately. Highly impulsive buyers are more likely
to experience spontaneous buying stimuli; their shopping lists are more
“open” and receptive to sudden, unexpected buying ideas. Furthermore,
their thinking is likely to be relatively unreflective, prompted by the
physical proximity to a desired product, dominated by an emotional
attraction to it, and absorbed by the promise of immediate gratification
(
Rook
and Fisher, 1995). Technologies such as television shopping
channels and the Internet expand consumers’ impulse purchasing
opportunities, increasing both the accessibility to products and
services and the ease with which impulse purchases can be made. Impulse
buying generates over $4 billion in annual sales volume in the United
States (
Kacen
and Lee, 2002). The impulse buying tendency is defined as the
“degree to which an individual is likely to make unintended, immediate,
and unreflective purchases (i.e., impulse purchases)” (
Weun
et al., 1997). Theoretically, the purchasing process includes five
stages, said need recognition, information search, alternative
evaluation, purchase decision and post-purchase behavior (
Kotler
and Armstrong, 1997). Thus, impulsive consumers tend to go through
these purchasing stages more quickly. Purchasing environments that help
consumers go through purchasing stages quickly will be more attractive
to impulsive consumers.
Some characteristics in virtual stores enable consumers to go through
the five purchasing stages very quickly. For instance, most virtual
stores provide 24-h service all year round, consumers can search for
information and purchase products at any time. The virtual stores are
reachable for distant customers who can “visit” virtual stores at home
and save on transportation time. In addition, virtual stores provide a
sufficient purchasing process that combines with direct marketing
schemes to attract consumers’ immediate responses. Thus, impulsive
consumers may show a more positive attitude toward virtual stores than
rational consumers.
H3. Consumer impulse tendency positively affects
consumer attitude toward virtual stores.
2.2. The relationship between consumer attitude and behavior
According to Fishbein’s extended model, known as the theory of
reasoned action, behavior is determined by intentions, which are in turn
determined by attitudes and subjective norms (
Ajzen
and Fishbein, 1980). The model represents an attempt to combine
both individual level and interpersonal/group factors within a single
paradigm. However, purchasing goods in virtual stores seems to be mostly
determined by individual level factors, as claimed by
Netemeyer
(1992): “getting a good deal on a product would be viewed as a
valued personal consequence.” Many study results suggest that the effect
of attitude is stronger than subjective norms (
Burnkrant
and Page, 1982;
Miniard
and Cohen, 1979;
Trafimow
and Fishbein, 1994;
Warshaw,
1980). The relationship between attitude and behavioral intentions
has been widely examined and supported. Meta-analysis, combining samples
of over 10,000 participants, supports the strong
attitude–intention–behavior linkage (
Kim
and Hunter, 1993). Most behavioral models trace causal links from
attitude, through intention, to actual behavior, implying that
behavioral intentions must be understood to predict behavior from
attitudes (
Kim
and Hunter, 1993). In addition,
Armstrong
et al. (2000) stated that purchase intentions could provide better
forecasts than a simple extrapolation from past sales trends.
Berger
et al. (1994) recommended that managers’ efforts should be focused
on altering consumer attitudes prior to guiding their behavioral
decisions.
In current marketing environment, consumers can easily receive lot of
information. Retailer managers generally use many schemes to attract
and communicate with target consumers to increase sales. If consumers
have positive attitudes toward virtual stores, they are more likely to
be attracted by the marketing scheme of virtual stores, hence visit the
virtual stores and make purchasing decisions. In other words, consumer
attitude toward virtual stores is expected to be positively related to
consumer purchase intention in virtual stores. Herein, we extend the
application of reasoned action theory to virtual stores, and empirically
investigate the relationship between consumer attitude and purchase
intention toward virtual stores.
H4. Consumer attitude and purchase intention toward
virtual stores are positively related.
2.2.1. Conceptual model
In addition to previous factors, consumer’s past behavior is an
important antecedent of consumer attitude, as well as future purchase
intention. For consumers who have experience of purchasing goods in
virtual stores, they should have more positive attitude toward virtual
stores than the others. Their likelihood to purchase goods in virtual
stores in the near future should be higher than the others. Therefore,
consumer’s previous purchase is included in our conceptual model as a
control variable.
Fig.
1 shows the conceptual model and the hypotheses.
Fig. 1. Conceptual Model
Figure
options
3. Methodology
A closed-end questionnaire was designed to collect field data. Four
parts were included in the questionnaire. First, to assure that all
respondents had a common understanding of virtual stores, the following
explanation of virtual stores was provided: “A virtual store denotes a
private retailer, without a fixed showroom and face-to-face contact,
using information techniques and media to communicate with consumers and
pursue marketing goals, such as catalog shopping, TV shopping channel
and the Internet store”. After reading this definition of virtual
stores, respondents were asked to give their likelihood of purchasing
goods in virtual stores. The second part of the questionnaire contained
statements intended to measure consumer attitude toward virtual stores,
and the third part contained statements to measure risk averseness,
convenience orientation, and impulse tendency. These latent constructs
were measured by multi-item scales. Respondents were asked to check
their degree of agreement with each statement, ranging from strongly
agree (7 points) to strongly disagree (1 point). Finally, the
respondents were asked for demographic data, and whether they had ever
bought goods in virtual stores. Respondents who had previously bought
goods in a virtual store were further asked about their satisfaction
level with virtual stores, from very satisfied (5 points) to very
unsatisfied (1 point).
3.1. The measurement scales
Numerous measurement scales have been drawn and modified in the
literature. The risk averseness measures used here were taken and
modified from
Burton
et al. (1998); the convenience orientation measures from
Korgaonkar
(1984); and the impulse tendency from
Weun
et al. (1997). The measures of consumer attitude toward virtual
stores were taken from
Lee
(2005), which was established by a procedure proposed by
Churchill
(1979). After creating an initial item pool, coefficient alpha,
item-to-total correlation, and confirmatory factor analysis are used to
screen and purify the scales of consumer attitude toward virtual stores (
Fornell
and Larcker, 1981;
Gerbing
and Anderson, 1988;
Tian
et al., 2001). Consumer purchasing intention in a virtual store was
measured by asking respondent’s likelihood to purchase in a virtual
store, from very likely (7 point) to very unlikely (1 point), which was a
single-item scale. All of the above scales were measured by 7-point
Likert-type scale. Previous purchase is measured by a dummy variable,
“1” represents that consumer has experience of purchasing goods in
virtual stores, whereas “0” represents he/she has no experience.
Appendix
A lists all of the measurement statements of latent constructs.
3.2. The sample
Convenience sampling, instead of random sampling, is applied to
collect field data. Theoretically, random selection offers the best
chance of minimizing selection effects because each individual in the
population has an equal chance of being sampled. In practice, a sample
drawn at random is not necessarily representative of the population
because not all persons who are approached will agree to participate and
refusal rates may vary across different types of individuals. Besides,
not all persons who volunteer will complete their participation in the
study, and the distribution of those who drop out or fail to complete
some measures is also not likely to be random. These problems indicate
that even samples drawn at random from a population may be biased in
various ways (
Hultsch
et al., 2002). In addition, the potential consumers of virtual
stores include a wide distribution of population, which increases the
difficulty of applying random sampling. The purpose of our study is to
investigate the relationship between constructs in consumer’s mind, not
to estimate the characteristics of the population. A previous study
shows that the pattern of relationships is markedly similar across
random and convenience samples (
Hultsch
et al., 2002). As a result, we decide to use convenience sampling
which is by far the most common sampling strategy in psychological
research (
Hultsch
et al., 2002). A convenient sample containing 400 working adults in
northern Taiwan was invited to participate in the main study. After
introducing the purpose of the research face to face, each subject was
given a questionnaire and was asked to fill it in. As a result, 377
questionnaires were completely finished and returned, with a 94.3%
return rate. The profile of these 377 subjects is listed in
Table
1. Among the respondents, 54.1% are female, average age is 32.6
years old, average monthly income is NTD 40,365 (about USD 1280), and
74% of the respondents have purchasing experience in virtual stores.
Table 1. Profile of the sample
Demographic factor
|
Valid no.
|
Percentage (%)
|
| Gender |
Male: 173 |
45.9 |
|
Female: 204 |
54.1 |
| Education |
Senior high school and below: 54 |
14.4 |
|
College: 281 |
74.5 |
|
Masters: 42 |
11.1 |
| Have experience of purchasing in virtual stores or not? |
Yes: 278 |
73.7 |
| No: 99 |
26.3 |
| Satisfaction with virtual storea |
1. (Very unsatisfied): 4 |
1.4 |
|
2. (Unsatisfied): 26 |
9.4 |
|
3. (Fair): 97 |
34.9 |
|
4. (Satisfied): 132 |
47.5 |
|
5. (Very satisfied): 19 |
6.8 |
| Age |
Mean=32.6 |
|
|
Std. Deviation=9.72 |
|
| Income (NTD/month) |
Mean=40,365 |
|
|
Std. Deviation=40,896 |
|
Remark: Total sample size
N=377.
a
Number of respondents who are experienced in virtual stores: 278.
Table
options
4. Result
4.1. Reliability and validity
Table
2 lists the coefficient
α, reliability and average
variance extracted (AVE) of each factor included in the conceptual model
(
Fornell
and Larcker, 1981). Purchase intention factor is not listed because
it is single-item measure. The coefficient
α shows good
internal consistency of measures, ranging from 0.75 to 0.90 (
Nunnally
and Bernstein, 1994). The reliability is acceptable across all of
the components, ranging from 0.75 to 0.91 (
Fornell
and Larcker, 1981).
Table 2. Reliability and AVE of latent factors
Factor
|
Item no.
|
Coefficient α
|
|
Average variance extracted (AVE)a
|
| Consumer attitude toward virtual stores |
7 |
0.90 |
0.91 |
0.59 |
| Risk averseness |
3 |
0.76 |
0.80 |
0.58 |
| Convenience orientation |
3 |
0.75 |
0.75 |
0.50 |
| Impulse tendency |
3 |
0.77 |
0.78 |
0.54 |
a
Fornell
and Larcker (1981).
4.2. Hypotheses test
To test the postulated hypotheses in
Fig.
1, structural equation modeling (SEM) with the LISREL VIII program
was applied to estimate the structural coefficients and model fitness.
Table
4 shows the results of estimation. The indexes of model fitness
reveal that the collected data fits the conceptual model very well
(GFI=0.93, AGFI=0.90). Consumer risk averseness is negatively related to
consumer attitude toward virtual stores, significant at the
α=0.1
level (
t=−1.81), so H1 is supported. Consumer convenience
orientation is positively related to consumer attitude toward virtual
stores, significant at the
α=0.05 level (
t=6.94), so
H2 is also supported. Consumer impulse tendency is positively related to
consumer attitude toward virtual stores, significant at the
α=0.05
level (
t=3.36), supporting H3. Consumer attitude toward
virtual stores is strongly positively related to consumer’s purchase
intention (
t=11.54), which supports H4. Finally, consumer’s
previous purchase has positive effect on consumer attitude (
t=4.85)
and purchase intention (
t=2.14), which are significant at
α=0.05
level. The result reveals that for consumers who have experience of
purchasing goods in virtual stores, they have more positive attitude
toward virtual stores than the others, and they are more likely to
purchase goods in virtual stores again. One may wonder if there is a
direct connection between consumer impulse tendency and purchase
intention. A competitive model in which the impulse tendency has a
direct link to purchase intention is formed to investigate this
question. Study result shows that the direct link between impulse
tendency and purchase intention is not significant (
γ=0.03;
t=0.69),
supporting the fact that the indirect effect of impulse tendency on
purchase intention, through consumer attitude, is more appropriate.
5. Managerial implications
The findings of this study provide valuable insights for managers of
virtual stores. First, consumer risk averseness negatively affected
consumer attitude toward virtual stores. When purchasing in a virtual
store, consumers must carry higher risks of performance, finance, and
safety; and these consumer perceived risks may become a barrier for
market extension of a virtual store. Various risk relievers such as a
money-back guarantee, well-known brand, and reduced price have been
proposed and tested (
Dirk
and Leunis, 1999), each policy differs in term of cost and
efficiency. Managers of virtual stores must seriously evaluate each
policy and design their marketing programs to reduce consumers’
perceived risk.
Secondly, consumer convenience orientation positively affects
consumer attitude toward virtual stores. In this busy and speedy
economy, time saving and convenience have become important advantages of
virtual stores. Information technology helps consumers search for
products more efficiently, popular home-delivery systems reduce the
waiting time and shipping cost, and credit cards make payment more
flexible. These factors improve the level of consumer convenience, and
hence support the growth of virtual stores. Managers of virtual stores
should utilize these factors to improve operational processes and
enhance consumer attitude toward virtual stores.
Thirdly, the consumer impulse tendency is positively related with
consumer attitude toward virtual stores. New technology provides
managers with multiple tools to contact and attract consumers’
attention. At the same time, each consumer receives and deals with lot
of information every day, so they are not sufficiently patient to read
poorly presented information. As a result, being innovative to attract
consumer attention and elicit a consumer response has become an
important challenge for managers, which is an extremely important
influence on the success of virtual stores.
Finally, consumer attitude toward virtual stores is strongly
positively related with purchase intention, which supports the important
role of attitude and complies with the theory of reasoned action. The
attitude measure used in this study is a valid and efficient scale.
Managers of virtual stores could combine with other cross-section market
surveys to search for potential customers (consumers who have a more
positive attitude toward virtual stores than others). In addition,
managers of virtual stores could use this attitude measure to evaluate
specific market segmentation and adjust their marketing strategy.
6. Conclusion
Virtual stores have been increasing their importance in marketing
channels, but solid knowledge about consumer attitude toward virtual
stores remains scarce. Based on reasoned action theory, this article
takes the consumer’s point of view to explore the antecedents of
consumer attitude by focus group discussion and propose a conceptual
model to investigate consumer attitude toward virtual stores and
empirically tests the proposed model and hypotheses. The proposed
conceptual model is just a beginning, which could be used as a basic
model and extended in further research. By improving our understanding
of consumer attitude, academics and practitioners can enhance their
knowledge and skill for managing various types of virtual stores.
However, together with the fast growth of information technology, new
types of virtual stores with new business models are continuously being
developed and introduced by practitioners; but precisely how consumers
react to these changes is still unknown.
Effects of campus foodservice attributes on perceived value,
satisfaction, and consumer attitude: A gender-difference approach
Pengarang :
David
Joon-Wuk Kwun
Abstract
This study explores a conceptual framework incorporating
interrelationships among campus foodservice attributes, perceived value,
satisfaction, and effects of these on consumer attitude. Mediating
roles of perceived value and satisfaction as well as gender differences
in attitude formation process also are investigated within the
conceptual framework. Results confirm that enhanced performance in
service and product quality, menu, and facility have favorable effects
on perceived value, satisfaction and, ultimately, on consumer attitude.
However, the attitude-formation process and mediating roles of perceived
value and satisfaction differ notably between male and female
consumers.
Research highlights
▶ This study explores a conceptual framework incorporating
interrelationships among campus foodservice attributes, perceived value,
satisfaction, and effects of these on consumer attitude. ▶ Mediating
roles of perceived value and satisfaction, and gender differences in
attitude formation process also are investigated within the conceptual
framework. ▶ Results confirm that enhanced performance in service and
product quality, menu, and facility have favorable effects on perceived
value, satisfaction and, ultimately, on consumer attitude. ▶ However,
the attitude-formation process and mediating roles of perceived value
and satisfaction differ notably between male and female consumers.
1. Introduction
As student enrollment increases continuously with diverse cultural
and social individualities, more colleges and universities pay increased
attention to the importance of their campus foodservices. Overall,
college enrollment increased from 14.3 million to 17.5 million between
1995 and 2005 from both under age 25 (33%) and 25 and over (18%) age
categories (
National
Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2008). In addition to this
increase, some 434,000 students attended non-degree-granting
postsecondary institutions in fall 2005. From 2005 to 2016, NCES
projects a rise of 15% in under-25 enrollments and of 21% in enrollments
of 25s and older (
NCES,
2008). Within this same period, a significant increase of the
female proportion was noticeable, which led an interest to understand
the gender differences in academic achievement and quality of campus
life. Gender difference, in general, has been identified as one of the
important personal characteristics in understanding consumer behavior
(e.g.,
[Liberman
et al., 2001],
[Meyers-Levy
and Maheswaran, 1991] and
[McCleary
et al., 1994]), including gender similarities and differences in
foodservice management and food-choice related studies (e.g.,
[Blanck
et al., 2008],
[Driskell
et al., 2006] and
[Han
and Ryu, 2006]).
Additional factors are that college students eat more meals away from
home than at home and have various dining experiences from a range of
restaurant segments, which raised their expectations of campus
foodservices. Food is a critical contributor of physical well-being and a
major source of pleasure, worry and stress (
Rozin
et al., 1999).
Gramling
et al. (2005) insist that food imposes unique cultural and social
functions and relates to general patterns of a specific cultural group,
especially in the college-student cohort. Growth in student enrollments
and their diverse personal characteristics imposes on colleges and
universities the necessity to transform, reposition, and/or introduce
new products and services to meet this consumer base’s needs; thus
campus foodservice has become a strategic part of this major trend.
Campus foodservices are expected to be more responsive to their
consumers’ higher expectations and have pushed many institutions to
overhaul their campus foodservice operations. More than ever, in the
higher education milieu, foodservice became an essential component
affecting the quality of campus life and providing strategic and
competitive advantages (
[Gramling et al., 2005],
[Horwitz,
2005] and
[June,
2006]). Consequently, once discreetly considered as an
institution’s supporting product – commonly referred to as a meal plan –
many colleges and universities try to revamp their campus foodservices
to meet diverse and refined consumer needs, by providing greater variety
and healthier menus, better service, and socially- and
culturally-conscious options.
Nevertheless, perceptions of campus foodservices tend to be
unfavorable among this cohort due to various situational, contextual,
and environmental constraints. These constraints, such as captive
environment, repetitive consumption of limited and monotonous menu
items, mediocre execution of food and service, and facility in general (
[Gramling et al., 2005] and
[Klassen
et al., 2005]), distinguish campus foodservice from other
commercial restaurants. Although several researchers have investigated
this growing foodservice segment (e.g.,
[Andaleeb
and Caskey, 2007],
[Kim
et al., 2004] and
[Kim
et al., 2009]), their approaches generally have focused on the
relationships between a set of campus foodservice attributes and
satisfaction or behavioral intentions, providing limited understanding
of consumers’ emotional evaluations of campus foodservice. Prior studies
suggest that consumer attitude is a strong criterion construct in
understanding consumers’ summative evaluations of a product or brand and
of their behavioral intentions. This stream of research has
conceptualized consumer attitude as a relatively permanent and stable
evaluative summary of a product or brand captured in such positive or
negative dimensions as attractive–unattractive, likable–dislikable,
pleasant–unpleasant (
[Ajzen, 2001],
[Bolton
and Drew, 1991],
[Ekinci
et al., 2008],
[Kraus,
1995],
[Gresham
et al., 1984] and
[Suh
and Yi, 2006]). The central role of consumer attitude in prior
research has an important ramification in campus foodservice management.
Given the varied consumer base, unique constraints, and increased
competition from off-campus food providers, understanding consumers’
emotional affects toward a campus foodservice may provide additional
insights.
Therefore, building on previous research, this study incorporates
consumer-attitude theory to comprehend consumers’ emotive evaluations
(i.e., emotional affects) toward a campus foodservice experience. In
addition, while the importance of quality, perceived value, and
satisfaction is widely recognized in previous studies, further
examination of relative importance is needed by investigating these
constructs concurrently in an integrated model. Hence, the purpose of
this study is to explore a gender difference in attitude-formation
process by incorporating the interrelationships among foodservice
attributes, perceived value, and satisfaction, and investigates their
effects on consumers’ attitudes toward campus foodservice. Within the
conceptual framework, perceived value and satisfaction are modeled to
mediate the effects of campus foodservice attributes on consumer
attitudes. In addition, gender differences in attitude formation process
are examined by analyzing male and female consumers separately.
2. Conceptual background
The research framework guiding this study is presented in
Fig.
1. The research framework is extended from prior studies on
perceived value and satisfaction and their relationships with quality
attributes. In addition, the framework expands the scope of previous
research on campus foodservice by incorporating the theories pertinent
to consumer attitudes and gender differences. This study focuses on
major attributes of campus foodservice and their effects on perceived
value and satisfaction and, consecutively, on consumer attitude. As
shown in
Fig.
1, mediating roles of perceived value and satisfaction between
campus foodservice attributes and consumer attitude, as well as gender
differences in attitude formation process are proposed within the same
framework. In summary, this study proposes that consumer-attitude
formation processes towards campus foodservice may vary between genders
and is a function of campus foodservice attributes (i.e., service
quality, food quality, menu, and facility), perceived value, and
satisfaction.
2.1. Campus foodservice attributes
2.1.1. Food quality and service quality
Perceived quality is a consumer’s perception, relative to
alternatives, of the overall quality or superiority of a product or
service with respect to its intended purpose (
Zeithaml,
1988). Consumers do not necessarily evaluate quality objectively;
instead, evaluation is based on individual perception about what is
important to each consumer. In view of that, perceived quality is
defined as the consumer’s judgment about an entity’s overall excellence
or superiority (
Zeithaml,
1988). As a core product of a foodservice operation, food quality
has received the most consideration and has been investigated in various
aspects, such as flavor, aroma, texture and temperature (e.g.,
[Andaleeb
and Caskey, 2007],
[Kim
et al., 2009],
[Kwun
and Oh, 2006] and
[Namkung
and Jang, 2007]). Increasing interest in and attention to
service-quality literature also brought considerable attention to
foodservice research and has identified service quality as another core
element in dining experience (e.g.,
[Andaleeb
and Conway, 2006] and
[Brady
et al., 2001]). Both of these tangible and intangible aspects of
foodservice operation have been identified as essential attributes in
understanding perceived value, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions
of consumers (
[Kivela et al., 1999],
[Kwun
and Oh, 2006],
[Namkung
and Jang, 2007] and
[Pettjohn
et al., 1997]), as well as in campus foodservices (
[Andaleeb and Caskey, 2007],
[Kim
et al., 2004] and
[Kim
et al., 2009]). Thus, the first four research hypotheses are
proposed:
H1. Service quality has a positive effect on
perceived value.
H2. Food quality has a positive effect on perceived
value.
H3. Service quality has a positive effect on
satisfaction.
H4. Food quality has a positive effect on
satisfaction.
2.1.2. Menu
This study detaches menu effects from food quality for more in-depth
investigations. Whereas, food quality is commonly measured via technical
qualities of food, a separate evaluation of menu may reveal additional
aspects of campus foodservice. That is, food-quality evaluation most
likely is constrained to food which the consumer ordered from available
menus. On the other hand, evaluating menu inclines to understanding of
consumers’ wants and choices that may or may not be available in a
specific restaurant and that expose general trends in foodservice
environments. For example, major full service- and fast food-restaurants
are changing their menus and providing wider variety, so they can stay
abreast of general industry trends and consumer needs (e.g., obesity,
health consciousness, lifestyle, demographic changes, etc.) to gain
competitive advantage against major competitors (e.g.,
[Glanz
et al., 2007] and
[Gregory
et al., 2006]). Most noticeable menu trends in campus foodservice
include healthy menus, international- and ethnic-flavors, specialty
coffees and other beverages, plus promotional- and convenient menus like
grab-and-go items (e.g.,
[Duecy,
2005],
[Horwitz,
2005] and
[June,
2006]).
Kim
et al. (2004) and
Klassen
et al. (2005) confirmed that menus have significant effects on
enhancing satisfaction among campus foodservice clientele. Thus, as part
of a core element in foodservice management, positive perception on
menu (e.g., variety, healthy menu, convenient menu, ethnic menu, and
promotional menu) could enhance consumer’s perceived value and
satisfaction. This leads to the following hypotheses:
H5. Menu has a positive effect on perceived value.
H6. Menu has a positive effect on satisfaction.
2.1.3. Facility
Facility has been identified as an additional factor affecting
customers’ perceptions of a restaurant and campus foodservice (e.g.,
[Andaleeb
and Caskey, 2007],
[Auty,
1992],
[Kim
et al., 2009] and
[Kwun
and Oh, 2006]). Facility, in this study, refers to the atmosphere
and operational characteristics of the sample campus foodservice.
Consumers’ expectations of food and dining experience tend to differ,
depending on where they consume. Campus foodservices have operational
characteristics and atmosphere dissimilar from and more constrained than
commercial restaurants.
Cardello
et al. (1996) asked respondents to rate their expected liking of
foods in different locations and found home- and traditional full
service restaurants ranked higher than institutional foodservice. While
airline- and hospital-food service ranked lower than school foodservice,
the latter ranked even below fast food restaurants. When
Meiselman
et al. (2000) served identical meals in different locations within a
university campus, the cafeteria scored lowest compared to the food
science laboratory and the dining hall in a training restaurant.
Previous studies show several key attributes of facility in campus
foodservice had significant effects on satisfactions and revisit
intentions, such as cleanliness, dining-room environment, comfort level,
operating hours and days, atmosphere, and capacity (
[Andaleeb and Caskey, 2007],
[Kim
et al., 2004],
[Kim
et al., 2009] and
[Klassen
et al., 2005]). Based on related studies and similar reasoning for
preceding campus foodservice attributes, favorable evaluation on campus
foodservice facility is expected to have positive effect on perceived
value and satisfaction. Hence,
H7. Facility has a positive effect on perceived
value.
H8. Facility has a positive effect on satisfaction.
2.1.4. Perceived value and satisfaction
Perceived value and satisfaction have received much attention in
service- and marketing-literature and extensively have been recognized
as one of the salient constructs in understanding consumer behavior. The
significant roles of these constructs in consumer research have
provided much theoretical debate and empirical data, but still signify
further need to investigate their interrelationships collectively.
Several seminal studies (e.g.,
[Cronin
et al., 2000] and
[Oh,
1999]) provided foundation for this stream of holistic approach
that integrates quality, perceived value, and satisfaction within a same
research framework. Based on the means-end approach proposed by
Zeithaml
(1988), previous studies associated consumers’ perceptions on
product and/or service quality attributes to perceived value and
satisfaction, and emphasized the conceptual interrelationships and their
significant effects on loyalty and behavioral intentions (e.g.,
[Brady
et al., 2001],
[Cronin
et al., 2000],
[Gallarza
and Saura, 2006],
[Hutchinson
et al., 2009] and
[Oh,
1999]). Extended from previous literature, this study integrates
foodservice attributes, perceived value, and investigates their effects
on consumer attitude toward campus foodservice.
Following
Zeithaml’s
(1988) widely accepted conceptualization, perceived value is
defined as the customer’s overall assessment of the utility of a product
based on perceptions of what is received and what is given. This study
views satisfaction as a transaction- and performance-based evaluation
process resulting from discrepancies between prior expectation and
perceived performance (e.g.,
[Dubé
and Morgan, 1998] and
[Westbrook
and Oliver, 1981]). Previous studies hold that improvement in
quality, value and satisfaction in a service encounter enhances
favorable outcomes. In general, those studies provided common consensus
of contributory sequence from quality, value and then satisfaction,
which subsequently affects consumers’ behavioral intentions (e.g.,
[Brady
et al., 2001],
[Cronin
et al., 2000],
[Gallarza
and Saura, 2006],
[Hutchinson
et al., 2009] and
[Oh,
1999]). In this study context, consumers’ subjective and relative
evaluations on campus foodservice attributes provide the basis for the
give-and-take components of perceived value. This implies that perceived
value is a trade-off received from all relevant benefits from campus
foodservice attributes and it sequentially precedes satisfaction. Based
on the above argument and findings, this study proposes the following
hypothesis:
H9. Perceived value has a positive effect on
satisfaction.
2.2. Consumer attitude
Attitude, generally defined as summative evaluations of a product or
brand, has provided a wealth of cumulative contributions in marketing
and consumer research.
Fishbein
and Ajzen (1975) posit that individuals respond to an object (or an
idea) or a number of things (or opinions) and explore the construct of
attitude as a learned predisposition of humans. General agreement exists
that attitude is an evaluative judgment about objects, which represents
a person’s enduring favorable or unfavorable evaluations and emotional
feelings guiding action tendencies toward those objects. Considerable
research suggests that consumer attitude is a strong criterion construct
in understanding consumers’ summative evaluations of a product or brand
and of their behavioral intentions (e.g.,
[Ajzen,
2001],
[Bolton
and Drew, 1991],
[Kraus,
1995],
[Gresham
et al., 1984] and
[Fishbein
and Ajzen, 1975]). As mentioned earlier, campus foodservice
generally has a mixture of situational, contextual, and environmental
constraints (e.g., captive environment, limited and repetitive menu, and
dining time limitation). In addition, college students have demanding
lifestyles (e.g., work, study, and family) and are
socially-sophisticated as well as culturally-diverse consumers (e.g.,
ethnic background, nationality, and age category). In view of that,
campus foodservice has become, to a greater extent, a place not only to
eat, rest, and study, but also to enhance the sense of community and
quality of campus life. Hence, understanding consumer’s emotional affect
with continuous attitude may provide additional insights toward campus
foodservice experiences.
Oliver
(1980) distinguishes between antecedent attitude and continuous
attitude based on the prepurchase and postpurchase service evaluations,
and posits that satisfaction influences future behavioral intention as
well as postpurchase attitude. Based on this conceptualization, this
study incorporates the continuous attitude and views it as a summative
and emotive evaluation toward campus foodservice experiences at the
post-consumption stage. In line with
Oliver’s
(1980) study,
Ekinci
et al. (2008) focus on the continuous attitude and insist that
satisfaction is a better indicator of the consumers’ overall attitude
than service quality to hospitality firms. Accordingly, satisfaction is
different from consumer attitude, which mediates the relationship
between antecedents (i.e., actual and ideal self-congruence, desire
congruence, and service quality) and intention to return and consumer’s
continuous attitude. Previous studies differentiate satisfaction from
consumer attitude, and recognize satisfaction as an essential antecedent
of overall attitude to a product or brand at the post-purchasing point
(e.g.,
[Bolton
and Drew, 1991],
[Ekinci
et al., 2008],
[Oliver,
1980] and
[Suh
and Yi, 2006]). Based on these theoretical foundations and
empirical studies, this study proposes the following hypotheses:
H10. Perceived value has a positive effect on
consumer attitude.
H11. Satisfaction has a positive effect on consumer
attitude.
2.3. Gender differences
The significant role of females in our society corresponds to their
large purchasing power and increase in female business-travelers for the
past several decades. In addition, a noticeable trend in college
enrollment is that the gender gap in college participation has reversed
from 2003; much of the student-enrollment growth between 1995 and 2005
mentioned earlier is female. Accordingly, the number of females enrolled
rose 27%, the number of males only 18%. In addition, 51% of women had
entered and/or completed college compared to 41% of men (
NCES,
2005). Considering this disproportion, the importance of food in
general and its consumption trends, gender differences may play an
essential role in campus foodservice management perceptions and effects.
This trend led a growing interest among hospitality and tourism
researchers to delineate gender similarities and differences in
consumption behaviors.
McCleary
et al. (1994) studied the differences between male and female
business travelers in hotel selection and found that security, personal
services, and low price were more important to female- than to
male-travelers.
Mattila
(2000) investigated gender differences and consumer evaluations of
service encounters but found no significant differences between genders.
According to
Oh
et al. (2002), male and female travelers differed significantly on
expectations and perceptions of lodging services, while there were no
notable differences on satisfaction and behavioral intentions. In
Han
and Ryu’s (2006) study, gender differences showed a significant
moderating role in the relationship between customer satisfaction and
revisit intention in an upscale restaurant; female customers showed a
stronger intention to revisit the restaurant when satisfied than did
male customers.
According to selectivity theory, males often do not engage in
comprehensive processing of all available information as a basis for
judgment but, instead, use selective cues which are highly available and
salient in the focal context. On the other hand, females attempt to
engage in effortful, comprehensive and itemized analysis of all
available and accessible cues (
[Meyers-Levy, 1989] and
[Meyers-Levy
and Maheswaran, 1991]). In addition, females often are more attuned
to their emotional states and assign more value to such feelings to
arrive at buying decisions than do males (e.g.,
[Dubé
and Morgan, 1998] and
[Wood,
1989]). Correspondingly, personal interaction processes with
service providers strongly influence female purchasing behaviors (
[Homburg and Giering, 2001] and
[Gilber
and Warren, 1995]). Parallel to these views on gender differences,
Holbrook
(1986) insists that females show more tendencies to be visually
oriented, intrinsically motivated, and romantic than do males, and
suggests that gender differences may be a key variable in moderating
consumers’ evaluative judgments.Gender differences have been
investigated widely in food-choice related studies. In general, studies
have shown that females pay more attention to, and have more concern
about, food choice than do their male counterparts (e.g.,
[Blanck
et al., 2008],
[Liberman
et al., 2001] and
[Unklesbay
et al., 1998]).
Rozin
et al. (1999) found a noticeable difference between genders in
attitude to food and to the role of food in life. Accordingly, females
tend to worry about food and are health oriented, compared to males who
value pleasure and have culinary-oriented attitude toward foods.
Driskell
et al. (2006) studied the eating habits of university men and women
at fast-food restaurants. They found that a higher percentage of men
eat fast foods more often and ordered larger portion sizes with
carbonated beverages than did women. Nevertheless, most
gender-difference studies in food choice research were mainly
descriptive, providing limited understanding of its compelling effects
on consumption behavior. Previous studies insist that consumers provide
summary judgments of their dining experiences by relying on a set of
selected attributes and ascribing different levels of importance to each
attribute (e.g.,
[Auty,
1992],
[Kim
et al., 2009],
[Kivela
et al., 1999] and
[Namkung
and Jang, 2007]). These discussions suggest that males and females
may evaluate campus foodservice attributes in differing ways and,
therefore, may show different results on perceived value, satisfaction
and, eventually, on consumer attitude. Selectivity theory and results
from previous studies on gender difference imply that female consumers
may consider a much broad range of campus foodservice attributes in
attitude formation process than male counterparts. This reasoning leads
to the following hypothesis:
H12. Consumer’s attitude formation process is
different between genders.
3. The study
3.1. Questionnaire development
A self-administered questionnaire comprising three major parts was
composed with measurement items that were used in the literature or
slightly modified for the purpose of this study (see
Table
2). Part One was designed to understand consumers’ evaluations on
service quality (6 items), food quality (6 items), menu (5 items), and
facility (7 items) aspects of the campus foodservice attributes. Reviews
of related studies (e.g.,
[Andaleeb
and Conway, 2006],
[Kim
et al., 2004],
[Kim
et al., 2009],
[Kivela
et al., 1999],
[Klassen
et al., 2005] and
[Namkung
and Jang, 2007]) provided measurement items for this part.
Respondents were asked to evaluate on five-point scales ranging from
poor (1) to excellent (5). Part Two was aimed at identifying consumers’
evaluations on perceived value, satisfaction, and consumer attitudes
toward the campus foodservice (e.g.,
[Andaleeb
and Conway, 2006],
[Gallarza
and Saura, 2006],
[Kim
et al., 2009],
[Klassen
et al., 2005],
[Oh,
1999] and
[Westbrook
and Oliver, 1981]). Perceived value was measured with four items
and satisfaction was measured with a single item with five-point scales
ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Consumer
attitude was measured using four 5-point semantic scales anchored by
displeasing/pleasing, not likeable/likeable, not enjoyable/enjoyable,
unattractive/attractive. Part Three was designed to measure demographic
and other information. Before the questionnaire was finalized, minor
revision on measurement items and wordings were made based on reviews
from convenience sample of six professors and graduate students who were
familiar with the scope of this study.
3.2. Data collection
This study used a web-based survey to collect data. Target sample for
this study was approximately 2500 undergraduate and graduate students,
faculty, and professional staff employed at one of the largest
hospitality colleges. The college is located in a satellite distant from
its main campus and has a campus foodservice venue with 150 seats and
coffee shop, several grab-and-go sections, and five food-court
restaurants. Formerly contract-managed by a third party
college-foodservice operator, the college assumed its responsibility and
has been providing meal accommodations. Data was collected several
weeks before final exams (i.e., from mid March to mid April). First, a
brief ‘prenotice email’ and purpose of the study was sent a few days
prior to the delivery of the online survey. Second, the questionnaire
was distributed with the objectives of the study and confidentiality of
the participant’s response. Third, two e-reminders were sent within the
data-collection period.
3.3. Data analysis methods
Data analysis for this study was based on three major processes.
First, exploratory factor analysis was utilized to reduce the 32
measurement items into a parsimonious data structure. Second, an
independent sample
t-test was conducted to initially evaluate
the mean differences of those factors and other outcome variables
between genders. Third, a series of multiple regression models were used
to test proposed conceptual relationships. To examine the gender
difference in attitude formation process, the respondents were divided
into groups of male and female and were analyzed separately. Further
consideration was given to mediating effects of perceived value and
satisfaction between dimensional perceptions of campus foodservice
attributes and consumers’ attitudes toward a campus foodservice. These
sequential regression models were based on the conceptual procedure
proposed by
Baron
and Kenny (1986). The sequence used was: (1) regress the mediators
on the independent variables, (2) regress the dependent variables on the
independent variables, and (3) regress the dependent variables on both
the independent variables and mediators.
4. Results
4.1. Sample profile
Within the data collection period, 440 usable responses were gathered
from the approximately 2500, yielding an 18% response rate. Overall,
demographic information of the respondents closely represented the study
population in terms of age category, status, gender and ethnic
background. As indicated in
Table
1, the sample comprised 107 male respondents (24.3%) and 333 female
(75.7%). Among these 440 respondents, 322 (73.2%) were categorized as
White/Caucasian, 47 (10.7%) as Hispanic/Latino, 29 (6.6%) as Asian, 19
(4.3%) as African American, 19 (4.3%) as Native American, and 4 (0.9%)
as Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. As expected in a typical metropolitan
university, a majority of respondents (81.9%) lived off-campus.
Approximately 76% of respondents were younger than 25 years old, mostly
academic seniors (34.2%) and juniors (34.6%).
Table 1. Demographic information.
Demographics
|
Age (mean = 23.22)
|
Ethnicity
|
Status
|
| Gender |
<20 td="">
| 40 (8.5%) |
White/Caucasian |
322 (73.2%) |
Freshman |
15 (3.4%) |
| Male |
107 (24.3%) |
20–24 |
321 (67.7%) |
African American |
19 (4.3%) |
Sophomore |
52 (11.7%) |
| Female |
333 (75.7%) |
25–29 |
42 (8.9%) |
Asian |
29 (6.6%) |
Junior |
154 (34.6%) |
| Residence |
30–34 |
13 (2.6%) |
Hispanic/Latino |
47 (10.7%) |
Senior |
152 (34.2%) |
| On campus |
80 (18.1%) |
35–40 |
10 (2.0%) |
Hawaiian/Pacific Islander |
4 (0.9%) |
Graduate student |
52 (11.7%) |
| Off campus |
363 (81.9%) |
>40 |
16 (3.3%) |
Others |
19 (4.3%) |
Faculty/staff |
20 (4.5%) |
Note: Percentage in parentheses.
4.2. Factor analysis
Exploratory factor analysis with a varimax rotation was utilized to
reduce measurement items into a more communicable construct (see
Table
2). Portion size was co-loaded in another factor with relatively
low factor loading in the first analysis, therefore was deleted for a
better factor structure. As a result, the 32 attributes were summarized
into six main factors, which captured 77.73% of total variance. This
result was consistent with expectation, based on the nature of the
measurement items, except for the facility factors. Unlike previous
studies (
[Kim et al., 2004],
[Kim
et al., 2009] and
[Kwun
and Oh, 2006]) where atmosphere and operation/convenience related
measurements were grouped in separate factors, results of the factor
analysis in this study combined those into one factor. This result can
be appropriate for this study because it is based on a campus
foodservice at a hospitality college separately located from its main
campus. For that reason, the measurement items were consisted of several
operation- and facility-related items rather than with convenient
location among multiple campus foodservices within a same campus. While
the first factor, service quality, consisted of 6
service-quality-related items with an eigenvalue of 5.38, other factors
were the facility (eigenvalue = 4.52), menu (eigenvalue = 3.88), food
quality (eigenvalue = 3.79), perceived value (eigenvalue = 3.27), and
consumer attitude (eigenvalue = 3.26), respectively. The within-factor
Cronbach’s alpha of reliability ranged from .90 to .96, indicating that
the derived within-factor measurement items of each constructs were
internally consistent. Based on these results, the within-construct
items were averaged for use in subsequent analyses to simplify the
analyses and interpretation.
4.3. Preliminary data analysis
First, preliminary analysis was performed to understand correlations
among all measures and their mean scores and standard deviations. As
indicated in
Table
3, all constructs were intercorrelated with each other and showed
relatively strong correlations with perceived value, satisfaction, and
consumer attitude. The factors’ raw mean scores of consumer attitude
(mean = 4.37, SD = 1.54), facility (mean = 3.51, SD = 0.84), and service
quality (mean = 3.41, SD = 1.02) were relatively higher than those of
the food quality (mean = 2.90, SD = 0.96), menu (mean = 2.70,
SD = 0.92), perceived value (mean = 2.56, SD = 1.00), and satisfaction
(mean = 2.43, SD = 1.09). Although the mean scores of consumer attitude
and service quality factors were relatively higher than those of other
factors, they also had high standard deviations which indicate that
perceptions vary among participants. Both low mean and standard
deviation scores of food quality, menu, and perceived value factors were
noticeable, signifying some problematic issues of campus dining.
Facility was the only factor with relatively high mean score and low
standard deviation compared to other factors, while satisfaction showed
low mean score with high standard deviation.
4. Discussions
Results of this study provided an additional step toward an
integrated research framework of campus foodservice attributes,
perceived value, and satisfaction. Specifically, this study investigated
the mediating roles of perceived value and satisfaction between
foodservice attributes and consumer attitudes toward a campus
foodservice. In addition, gender differences were evaluated by analyzing
the research framework separately between male and female respondents
on a series of sequential regression analyses. Different from previous
campus foodservice research that focused on consumer satisfaction, this
study proposes several precursors affecting consumer attitudes toward a
campus foodservice. In summary, this study’s results provide additional
insights to what previous studies have reported, namely that: (1)
performance in service and product quality, menu, and facility had
different effects on perceived value, satisfaction, and consumer
attitude toward campus foodservice; (2) perceived value and satisfaction
had different mediating roles between a range of campus foodservice
attributes and consumer attitudes; and (3) consumer
attitude-formation-process in general was dissimilar between male and
female consumers.
First, campus foodservice could be evaluated effectively in four
major dimensions which show significant explanatory powers on perceived
value and satisfaction, consequently on consumer attitudes. Campus
foodservice operations need to appease students, faculty and staff, and
the college also must sustain financial stability. Administration and
foodservice mangers’ abilities to allocate resources properly based on
campus foodservice attributes, perceived value, and satisfaction may
enhance overall consumer attitudes toward campus foodservice experience.
Administration and foodservice operators need to pay closer attention
to enhancing service and product quality, menu, and facility of the
campus foodservice to provide a favorable dining experience to
socially-sophisticated and culturally-diverse consumers.
Explicit considerations on gender differences are required, as
findings suggest that female consumers evaluated their campus
foodservice experience differently from how their male counterparts did.
Female consumers, in general, evaluated campus foodservice based on
variety of attributes, while male satisfaction on campus foodservice
derived predominantly from food quality and perceived value. In
particular, service quality and menu were also important for female
consumers in addition to food quality and perceived value attributes.
Correspondingly, food quality and perceived value were most important in
the male consumer attitude-formation process; all variables were
significant on consumer attitude in the female group, indicating a
comprehensive attitude-formation process among female consumers.
Results also showed interesting mediating roles of perceived value
and satisfaction between campus foodservice attributes and consumer
attitude. Despite the fact that complete mediation effects of perceived
value and satisfaction occurred only in some measures, noticeable
difference between males and females could be identified. Whereas
perceived value completely mediated the effects of service quality on
consumer attitude in the female group (Model 5-1), the effects of
facility on consumer attitude in the male group were completely mediate
by perceived value (Model 5-2). While perceived value was completely
mediated by satisfaction in both genders, perceived value and
satisfaction had partial mediation effects on other significant
foodservice attributes on consumer attitude, respectively. Different
roles of service quality and food quality were noticeable also. The
effects of food quality need to be emphasized since it had both direct
and indirect effects on perceived value, satisfaction, and consumer
attitude. On the other hand, service quality was not significant in any
regression models among male consumers, while it was one of the most
significant attributes in the female group.
Results of gender differences in attitude formation process aligned
with the selectivity theory and the importance of emotions and services
among female consumers. Accordingly, males tend to focus on few
selective cues which are highly available and salient, while food
quality and perceived value turned out to be the most important
attributes in this study context. On the other hand, attitude formation
among females was based on comprehensive processing of all available
information in campus foodservice. Noticeably, the facility factor had
no effect on perceived value and satisfaction but was exceedingly
significant on consumer attitude in both genders in different ways. In
particular, male consumers considered facility as one of the trade-off
components of perceived value. That is, the effect of facility on
consumer attitude was mediated completely by perceived value among male
respondents. On the other hand, the facility attribute not only had
direct effects on consumer attitude in the female group, but also was
the most prominent variable with the strongest standardized regression
coefficient on consumer attitude (Model 6-1). Furthermore, the
significant effects of service quality on attitude formation process
were present only in the female group, corroborating the importance of
personal interaction in female consumption processes.
5. Limitations and suggestions for future research
Results of this study provide a foundation for several directions in
future research. First, the role of consumer attitude needs further
exploration, especially regarding the effect on campus foodservice and
other considered strategies in higher education. Although consumer
attitude is recognized as one of the influential antecedents of future
behavior, several studies signify that additional explanations (e.g.,
price, quality, convenience, and brand familiarity) need to be included
to be a powerful predictor of behavioral intention or marketplace
behavior (
[Ajzen, 2001] and
[Kraus,
1995]). Especially for college students, campus foodservice is not
merely where to consume meals, but has become an essential component of
their quality of life on campus. Thus, the importance of food
consumption and consumer attitude toward the foodservice facility in
general, need to be further realized in understanding their impact on
behavioral intentions, overall college experience, and other competitive
advantages (e.g., student recruitment and enrollment, institutional
reputation, and sense of belonging).
Second, more elaborative understanding of campus foodservice
attributes is needed. The major attribute categories of service quality,
product quality, menu, and facility showed different effects on
perceived value, satisfaction, and eventually on consumer attitude
toward campus foodservice. In addition, perceived value and satisfaction
showed different mediating effects between foodservice attributes and
consumer attitude. These results imply that male and female consumers’
evaluations on campus foodservice attributes provide mixed trade-off
benefits on perceived value and different effects on satisfaction and
consumer attitude. In particular, different roles of food quality and
service quality in general, as well as noteworthy effects of facility on
consumer attitude entail further research. In addition, socio-cultural
changes and consumers’ refined lifestyles demand more studies in and of
menu trends and menu varieties, in addition to operational-related
aspects of campus foodservice.
Third, inclusions of additional variables as well as replications of
other types of institution and hospitality and tourism sectors are
needed. Although the sample product is consist of variety of food
choices (e.g., coffee shop, grab-and-go sections, and five food-court
restaurants) with 150 seats, this study was based on a campus
foodservice in a hospitality-specific college located apart from its
main campus. In addition, contrary to general trends in campus
foodservice operations, the sample product does not have any branded- or
multi-unit foodservice chains in campus foodservice. Results may differ
in other types of campus foodservice where a range of specialty coffee
chains, fast food restaurants and upscale foodservices provide food and
beverage to their campus consumers. In addition, better
conceptualization of major constructs integrated in this study also is
needed. Those conceptually abstracted variables integrated in this study
(i.e., foodservice attributes, perceived value, satisfaction and
consumer attitude) are correlated highly and need to be further
differentiated from each other with clear conceptual definitions and
measurements; this is an ongoing discussion among marketing- and
consumer researchers.
Finally, gender difference results, in particular, communicate a need
for further investigation. The entire consumer attitude-formation
process in this study showed interesting dissimilar results between male
and female consumers. Gender differences and other personal
characteristics need further exploration not only in the campus
foodservice setting, but also in various hospitality and tourism
sectors. Against a relative deficiency in previous research, this study
provided systematic differences on attitude-formation processes of both
genders, measured with a biologically-dichotomous categorization.
Although this biological gender categorization provides clear
distinction on both genders’ consumption behaviors, other approaches
also can be applied in future research. In line with current
socio-cultural trends, consumers’ perceptions of gender roles and
masculine and feminine personalities also may provide additional
insights into the degree of cognitive, affective, and behavioral
differences in product and brand evaluations.
Consumerattitude and purchase intention toward green energy
brands: The roles of psychological benefits and environmental concern ☆
Pengarang :
Patrick
Hartmann &
Vanessa
Apaolaza-Ibáñez
Abstract
This paper suggests that advertising campaigns directed at increasing
consumer demand for green energy should emphasize not only
environmental concern and utilitarian benefits, but also psychological
brand benefits. The theoretical framework proposes three distinct
psychological benefit categories potentially enhancing consumerattitudes
toward green energy brands and increasing purchase intentions: warm
glow, self-expressive benefits, and nature experiences. A sample of 726
consumers was exposed to experimental advertisements for a fictitious
green energy brand. Findings confirm most predicted effects and
underline the overall significance of psychological brand benefits. Only
self-expressive benefits do neither affect participants’ attitudes
toward the experimental brand nor their purchase intentions. Nature
experience has the strongest influence on brand attitude. Multi-group
structural analysis shows that the nature experiences level evoked by
the advertisements moderates the effects of the behavioral antecedents
studied on brand attitude and purchase intention. The findings provide
keys to improving green energy branding and advertising strategy.
1. Introduction
After the 1970s oil crisis, public awareness of energy related issues
has attracted the attention of consumer researchers (e.g.,
McDougall,
Claxton, & Ritchie, 1981). Early findings suggest that
environmental awareness encourages consumers to decrease their energy
consumption (
Kasulis,
Huettner, & Dikeman, 1981) and to adopt solar energy (
Labay
& Kinnear, 1981). “Green energy” or “green power” is derived
from renewable energy resources, including photovoltaic and
thermoelectric solar energy, biomass, geothermal and wind energy.
Currently, some consumers pay a premium price for branded green
electricity provided by, for example, Green Mountain Energy (U.S.),
Ecotricity (U.K.), Lichtblick (Germany), NaturEnergie (Austria), or
Iberdrola Energía Verde (Spain).
Higher generation costs and the consequently higher market prices
constitute the principal barrier to consumers’ adoption of green energy (
Salmela
& Varho, 2006). Public opinion surveys find that up to 30% of
consumers are willing to pay a price premium for green energy (
[Eurobarometer, 2003],
[Eurobarometer,
2005] and
[Zarnikau,
2003]). However, to date, green energy brands’ market share remains
low (
Gan,
Eskeland, & Kolshus, 2007) and costs 20% more than regular
electricity charges discourage most potential consumers (
Salmela
& Varho, 2006). Green energy’s future success depends on
effective branding and marketing communications strategies designed to
enhance consumers’ benefit perception (
[Roe et al., 2001] and
[Truffer
et al., 2001]). While technical characteristics and green
electricity labeling deliver utilitarian benefits to consumers,
purchasing green energy potentially derives psychological benefits too.
This paper analyzes influences of consumers’ environmental concern and
perception of green energy brands’ benefits on attitude toward the brand
and purchase intention. The literature review identifies three distinct
psychological benefits potentially affecting behavioral intentions:
warm
glow feelings derived from the moral satisfaction of contributing
to the common good environment;
self-expressive benefits from
conspicuous environmentally sound consumption; and
nature
experiences evoked by natural brand imagery. The empirical study
exposes consumers to experimental advertisements for a fictitious green
energy brand measuring utilitarian and psychological benefit
perceptions, attitudes toward the brand, and intention to purchase.
Structural equation analysis examines the relationships proposed in the
theoretical framework.
2. Attitudes toward green energy and the environment
An increasing volume of research addresses cultural, social, and
psychological factors in consumers’ demand for green electricity (
[Clark et al., 2003] and
[Vringer
et al., 2007]). Despite visual impacts of wind turbines (
Groothuis,
Groothuis, & Whitehead, 2008), attitudes toward green energy
are overall favorable globally, contributing to a growth in consumers
purchasing premium-priced green electricity (
[Ek, 2005],
[Hansla
et al., 2008] and
[Salmela
and Varho, 2006]).
Behavioral effects of a consumer’s personality traits and general
environmental attitudes suggest that values and environmental concern
are principal determinants of environmentally sound consumption (
[Balderjahn, 1988] and
[Diamantopoulos
et al., 2003]). Consumers engage in conservation behavior because
they are intrinsically concerned about the environment and society (
[Bamberg, 2003] and
[Fransson
and Gärling, 1999]). Researchers use a variety of alternative and
complementary measurement scales to assess consumers’ concern with
environmental issues (e.g.,
[Kinnear
et al., 1974] and
[Synodinos,
1990]), including the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) scale (
[Dunlap and Van Liere, 1978] and
[Van
Liere and Dunlap, 1981]). Several studies confirm that consumer’s
environmental concern influences purchase behavior of environmentally
sound products (
[Balderjahn, 1988] and
[Roberts
and Bacon, 1997]). Sensitivity to climate-change issues, awareness
of clean energy and alternative energy sources, as well as energy
conservation constitute explicit dimensions of environmental concern (
Zimmer,
Stafford, & Stafford, 1994). Research also shows that green
energy consumers are more environmentally concerned than the general
population (
[Clark et al., 2003],
[Ek,
2005] and
[Hansla
et al., 2008]). Overall, concern for the natural environment plays a
significant role in green energy purchase decisions. Applying the
theory of reasoned action (
Fishbein
& Ajzen, 1975) to the case of green energy, attitudes toward
renewable energy mediate the effect of environmental concern on purchase
intention (
Bang,
Ellinger, Hadjimarcou, & Traichal, 2000).
Hansla
et al. (2008) provide evidence of environmental concern’s direct
and indirect effects on consumers’ willingness to purchase green
electricity at a premium price.
H1a. Environmental concern influences the intention
to purchase green-branded energy positively.
H1b. Attitude toward the brand partially mediates
the effect of environmental concern on purchase intention.
Actual energy consumption patterns often diverge from stated concerns
about the environment (
Vringer
et al., 2007). Consumers purchase premium priced green energy only
if they perceive sufficient additional benefits (
Roe
et al., 2001). The following sections discuss how consumers’
perceptions about benefits of green-branded energy may affect brand
attitude and behavioral intentions. Both utilitarian and psychological
benefits seem to impact purchase decisions.
3. Utilitarian benefits of green energy
Consumers perceive that the consumption of products with
environmentally sound attributes (e.g., greener production) delivers
additional benefits compared to conventional alternatives (
[Bech-Larsen, 1996] and
[Sriram
and Forman, 1993]). Many consumers believe that green energy
prevents or decelerates climate change and global warming, increases air
quality, and decreases energy dependency (
Roe
et al., 2001).
Clark
et al. (2003) find that green energy brand adopters perceive green
electricity to be more environmentally friendly, lowering future solar
energy costs, and reducing reliance on imported oil. Study participants
also believe that reducing air pollution from electricity production
would improve the health of natural ecosystems and individuals, and that
decreasing carbon dioxide emissions would slow global warming.
Wüstenhagen
and Bilharz (2006) suggest that green power customers intend to
contribute to climate protection and renewable energy growth and to
ensure that their purchasing decision does not support unsustainable
energy sources.
Roe
et al. (2001) show that consumers who actually paid a price premium
for green energy did so particularly with the intention to support the
installation of new renewable generation capacity. To enhance perception
of utilitarian benefits of green electricity,
Salmela
and Varho (2006) argue that consumers need a certain amount of
information about the environmental impact of different electricity
products. Studies confirm that information about environmentally
relevant utilitarian product attributes affects purchase intentions (
[Roberts, 1996] and
[Scholder-Ellen,
1994]). Exposure to information about energy resource issues
increases intention to pay a price premium for renewable energy (
Zarnikau,
2003). Green energy labeling helps consumers to identify
electricity products with genuine environmental benefits (
Truffer
et al., 2001); but the current information may be insufficient to
inform consumer choice adequately. For example, purchasing decisions
depend on whether the potential customer receives information about
energy sources only, or also about emission levels (
Johnson
& Frank, 2006). More accurate and detailed labeling information
than typically provided may be necessary to guide consumers’ decision
making toward green energy.
The theory of reasoned action (
Fishbein
& Ajzen, 1975) provides a framework to analyze how perceptions
of utilitarian environmental benefits affect green energy purchase
intentions.
Bang
et al. (2000) support the proposition that beliefs about renewable
energy relate positively to the intention to pay a price premium for
green energy products.
H2a. Perceptions about green energy brand’s
utilitarian environmental benefits positively influence purchase
intention.
H2b. Attitude toward the brand partially mediates
the effect of green energy brand’s utilitarian environmental benefits on
purchase intention.
Purchasing green electricity delivers rather limited utilitarian
benefits at the individual level. Reducing global warming or energy
dependency only becomes a collective benefit when widespread renewable
energy adoption occurs. However, green energy brands also offer
psychological benefits to consumers.
4. Psychological benefits of green energy brands
4.1. Warm glow
Classical pro-social behavior theory posits that pure altruism
motivates individuals to contribute to the common good (e.g.,
Bergstrom,
Blume, & Varian, 1986). The literature conceptualizes altruism
as a personal value structure with significant influences on behavior (
[Schwartz and Bilsky, 1987] and
[Stern
et al., 1995]). However, studies on contingent valuation analysis
of the utility of contributing to public goods show that pure altruism
does not entirely explain pro-social behavior (
[Andreoni, 1989] and
[Andreoni,
1990]). Consumers experience a direct, personal benefit arising
from the contribution and independent of any increase in the common
good, which Andreoni calls the “warm glow of giving”. With regard to
environmentally responsible behavior choices, consumers experience the
intrinsic
warm glow feeling of well being as a consequence of
the moral satisfaction engendered by contributing to the environmental
common good (
[Kahneman
and Knetsch, 1992],
[Nunes
and Schokkaert, 2003] and
[Ritov
and Kahneman, 1997]). This conceptualization is consistent with
empirical findings suggesting that some consumers purchase green energy
at a premium price in order to feel better with themselves rather than
the decision’s environmental impact (
Wüstenhagen
& Bilharz, 2006). While society as a whole receives benefits
from green energy, users experience additional personal warm glow
benefits contributing to climate protection and energy independence (
Menges,
Schroeder, & Traub, 2005). The expectation of warm glow
potentially motivates purchase intention either directly or mediated by
attitude formation toward the brand.
H3a. Warm glow derived from contributing to the
environmental common good positively influences the intention to
purchase green-branded energy.
H3b. Attitude toward the brand partially mediates
warm glow’s effect on purchase intention.
4.2. Self-expressive benefits
Signaling theory and the literature on symbolic and conspicuous
consumption provide a conceptual framework to understand the
psychological benefits derived from
self-expressive (
[Aaker,
1999] and
[Aaker,
2002]), socially visible consumption of environmentally friendly
products. Signaling is the process of conveying information about
oneself implicitly, by engaging in behaviors that reveal personal traits
and preferences to observers. Individuals are more willing to consume
in a way that benefits society when signaling is likely (
Glazer
& Konrad, 1996). Products with a higher signaling potential
deliver greater benefits from association with pro-social behaviors (
Bennett
& Chakravarti, 2009). Product symbolism and symbolic
consumption research support this conceptualization (
[Belk
et al., 1982] and
[Hirschman,
1981]). Most consumer products carry a symbolic meaning often
affecting purchase and use (
[Holbrook
and Hirschman, 1982] and
[Sirgy,
1985]).
Solomon
(1983) argues that products are relevant for “setting the stage”
for consumer’s social roles. Individuals evaluate and place others in a
social context to a significant degree by the products they consume.
Consumers may conspicuously consume environmentally friendly products in
order to display pro-environmental attitudes. However, individuals may
also engage in conspicuous environmentally sound behavior to signal
their altruism. Conspicuous altruism enhances status and reputation by
showing an individual’s capacity and willingness to contribute to the
common good (
[Van
Vugt et al., 2007] and
[Roberts,
1998]).
Griskevicius,
Tybur, and Van den Bergh (2010) demonstrate that status motives
lead consumers to choose green products over non-green alternatives.
Green energy customers should experience psychological benefits from
signaling their pro-social and pro-environmental orientation, as well as
their capacity to incur extra costs for the sake of the environment and
society. Self-expression, as a psychological motive, may induce
consumers to purchase green-branded electricity. Brand attitude
potentially mediates this effect. Psychological reward expectations from
purchasing a green energy brand should enhance consumer’s attitude
toward this brand.
H4a. The expectation of self-expressive benefits
derived from conspicuous consumption of green-branded energy positively
influences purchase intention.
H4b. Attitude toward the brand partially mediates
the effect of self-expressive benefits on purchase intention.
4.3. Nature experiences
Most print advertisements and television commercials for green energy
brands display visual images of pristine natural scenery. Pictures
influence formation of brand beliefs and affective responses to
advertisements (e.g.,
[Mitchell
and Olson, 1981] and
[Rossiter
and Percy, 1980]). Images of natural environments may help
construct positive product attribute beliefs, increasing the salience of
environmentally sound product features. On the other hand, positive
emotional responses evoked by advertising enhance brand affect (
[Burke and Edell, 1989] and
[Edell
and Burke, 1987]). Natural advertising imagery may exert affective
influences as well. Environmental psychology demonstrates that
experiencing nature engenders positive emotional responses (
[Hartig et al., 1991],
[Kaplan,
1995] and
[Ulrich,
1981]). Photographs or video recordings elicit similar affective
responses to “genuine” nature experiences (
[Hull and Stewart, 1992],
[Kaplan
and Kaplan, 1989] and
[Nassauer,
1982]). Natural imagery embedded in advertising potentially
emulates the effects of nature. Positive emotional responses to
advertising result in a more positive brand attitude affecting intention
to purchase (
[Batra and Ray, 1986] and
[Edell
and Burke, 1987]). Positive affect evoked by advertising-induced
nature experiences leads to brand attitude improvement (
Hartmann
& Apaolaza-Ibáñez, 2009) and, indirectly, increases purchase
intention. However, influences of affective responses to advertising on
intention to purchase the brand may be direct (e.g.,
[Allen
et al., 1992] and
[Mitchell
and Olson, 1981]), suggesting that hypothesized effects are both
direct and mediated by brand attitude.
H5a. The association of nature experiences with a
green energy brand positively influences purchase intention.
H5b. Attitude toward the brand partially mediates
the effect of nature experiences on purchase intention.
Fig. 1
presents the proposed theoretical framework of constructs and paths of
influence. The empirical study examines the relative strength and
significance of the hypothesized effects.
Fig. 1. Influences of perceived benefits and environmental concern on
attitude toward green energy brands and purchase intention: theoretical
model and structural equation analysis (standardized regression
coefficients; NS: non-significant).
Figure
options
5. Method and results
5.1. Sample and procedure
For the experimental field study, twelve previously trained
interviewers recruited from a final-year undergraduate marketing
research course conducted a total of 726 street interviews in six towns
and villages in northern Spain. Spanish consumers rate average or
somewhat above the European average on many indicators of environmental
attitudes, and they are accustomed to the sight of wind turbines and
solar power plants (
Eurobarometer,
2007). The selection of participants by random street intercept
followed quota controls designed to guarantee gender parity and an
appropriate age profile for a sample representing potential customers of
green energy: female (50%), male (50%); 20–25 years old (20%),
26–35 years old (25%), 36–50 years old (30%), 51–65 years old (20%), and
over 65 years old (5%). Gender and age distributions of the sample are
acceptably close to the quota. Interviewers showed each participant one
of 13 versions of an experimental print advertisement for a fictitious
green energy brand, containing one photographic image occupying the
majority of the space and several lines of copy (
Appendix
A). The text is identical in every case, presenting the same
information about the brand’s environmental credentials:
“
eNovis energy offers you clean energy from 100% renewable
resources. eNovis energy is generated entirely from sun, wind, water and
biofuels. By purchasing the eNovis energy product for a year, a typical
household with aver age monthly usage of 1000 kWh per month, could
avoid contributing over 17,000 lbs of CO2 into our air — as much as your
car makes in almost 20,000 miles of driving.”
Only the advertisements’ visual images varied. Participants were
exposed to 12 different natural landscapes ranging from lush green
forest to rocky desert, and one cityscape. To avoid interviewer bias and
non-random distribution of the experimental advertisements among
participants, interviewers selected the advertisement for each interview
following a pre-established sequential order. The exposure to different
scenery associates the brand with a varying degree of nature
experiences, ranging from strongly evoked to none at all in the case of
the cityscape, across the sample. After seeing one advertisement, each
participant answered a questionnaire assessing attitude toward the brand
and its perceived benefits, as well as purchase intention and
environmental concern.
5.2. Measurement
The scale for the brand attitude construct consists of one item
assessing
overall brand evaluation on a ten-point scale
anchored by “I like the brand very much” and “I dislike the brand very
much” (
[Bergkvist
and Rossiter, 2007],
[Gresham
et al., 1984] and
[Yoo
and MacInnis, 2005]). Participants rated purchase intention on a
traditional 5-point scale measuring the likelihood that they would
consider purchasing the brand: “definitely will not buy–probably will
not buy–might/might not buy–probably will buy–definitely will buy” (
[Jamieson
and Bass, 1989] and
[Kalwani
and Silk, 1982]). The measurement scales for perceived brand
benefits and environmental concern consist of a set of multi-item
five-point Likert-scales anchored by “strongly agree” and “strongly
disagree”, relating to the statements shown in
Table 1,
previously tested in several focus group and in-depth interviews with
student subjects. Three items measure utilitarian environmental benefits
of green energy (
[Johnson
and Frank, 2006],
[Salmela
and Varho, 2006] and
[Truffer
et al., 2001]). Three items adapted from
Nunes
and Schokkaert (2003) measure the warm glow construct. The three
statements measuring self-expressive benefits draw on research into
symbolic consumption (
Solomon;
1983) and conspicuous consumption of green products (
Griskevicius
et al., 2010). With regard to the
nature experiences
construct, a three-item scale adapted from previous research on human
affinity toward and experience of nature (
[Kals
et al., 1999] and
[Kaplan
and Kaplan, 1989]) measures the extent to which a brand evokes
feelings similar to those experienced in interaction with actual nature.
Finally, three items derived from the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP)
scale and several closely related measures assess the environmental
concern construct (
[Dunlap
and Van Liere, 1978] and
[Zimmer
et al., 1994]).
5.3. Results
Following validation of the measurement model, structural equation
analysis assesses the relationships among latent variables, using AMOS 6
(
Fig. 1
and
Table 3).
The outcomes of this process also confirm an appropriate representation
of the underlying data by the proposed factor structure. The analysis
reveals a significant positive influence of attitude toward the
experimental green energy brand on participants’ intention to purchase
(standardized regression coefficient = .36; p < .001). Utilitarian
environmental benefits (.16; p = .003), nature experiences (.59;
p < .001) and environmental concern (.14; p < .001) significantly
affect brand attitude. The perception of utilitarian benefits has a
direct influence on purchase intention (.12; p = .001), as well as an
indirect effect mediated by brand attitude. The pattern of influences on
purchase intention is very similar for environmental concern: a direct
effect (.08, p = .036) and an indirect one via its influence on brand
attitude. The warm glow construct affects purchase intention only
directly (.27; p < .001), and has no significant effect on brand
attitude. For the nature experiences dimension, the pattern is reversed:
the influence on purchase intention is only indirect, mediated by brand
attitude. This construct exerts the strongest of all influences
observed in the model, due to its very significant effect on attitude
toward the brand (standardized regression coefficient = .59;
p < .001). Lastly, the self-expressive benefit construct shows no
significant relationship with any of the observed variables.
Table 3. Structural equation analysis: regression coefficients
(standardized, unstandardized, p), multiple regression coefficients,
model fit.
Addressing the salient influence of the
nature experiences
construct on brand attitude, the next phase of the analysis assesses the
manipulation of the former variable by the variation of the 13 visual
images in the experimental advertisements (
Table 4).
Principal component factor analysis of this construct’s three
indicators (Alpha-Cronbach = .82) leads to the extraction of one single
factor with eigenvalue > 1.00 that explains 74.4% of the variance and
loads on all indicators (factor loadings .82 to .91). ANOVA analysis
confirms that mean differences in the ratings of the nature experiences
factor (mean = .00; standard deviation = 1.00) between groups of
participants exposed to different experimental advertisements are
significant (F = 26.01; p < .001). Participants exposed to the image
of the mountain creek scenery score highest on the nature experiences
dimension (factor score = .37) whereas the urban cityscape and desert
landscape rate lowest (factor scores = −.47 and −.69).
The differences in nature experiences across the sample also may
affect the pattern of influences of other variables in the proposed
model. To establish possible moderating effects of variations in the
nature experiences construct, the subsequent analysis, following
Baron
and Kenny (1986), treats the levels of the moderator as different
groups within a multi-group structural equation model (
Jöreskog
and Sörbom, 1984). For this purpose, the sample is split into three
groups with high, medium, and low nature experiences respectively,
according to the nature experiences factor ratings within groups exposed
to different experimental advertisements, labeled LNE, MNE, and HNE.
Table 4
shows that the LNE group, exposed to the desert and city images, scores
significantly below mean values (nature experiences factor
score = −.58). The MNE group, comprising participants exposed to six
different advertisements rating average in terms of nature experiences,
has a group mean approximating the mean rating of all advertisements
(factor score = .01). The corresponding figures for the HNE group are
five advertisements and a factor score of .21. Mean value differences
within groups are not significant, but between-group variation is
(p < .001).
In the modified model the nature experiences construct constitutes
the moderating variable for the multi-group structural equation analysis
of the LNE, MNE and HNE sub-samples. Furthermore, lacking significant
effects, the self-expressive variable is removed from the model. Fit
measures for the multi-group model confirm an appropriate representation
of the underlying data by the proposed common factor structure across
the three analyzed sub-segments (
Table 5).
Moreover, the analysis reveals a complex pattern of influences
resulting from participants’ varying level of nature experiences. Across
all three groups, brand attitude significantly influences purchase
intention. In the LNE group, only warm glow affects purchase intention:
both directly (standardized regression coefficient = .35) and
indirectly, mediated by its influence on brand attitude (.53). The
effect of utilitarian benefits on purchase intention in the MNE group is
only indirect via its significant relationship with brand attitude
(.23), whereas warm glow affects both brand attitude (.32) and purchase
intention (.28). In the HNE group, utilitarian benefits and
environmental concern significantly influence brand attitude (.26; .21)
and purchase intention, both directly (.21; .16) and indirectly, while
warm glow exerts direct effects only on brand attitude (.25) at
p = .012. Summarizing the results of the multi-group analysis, warm glow
has the most significant influence on brand attitude and purchase
intention in the LNE condition. Conversely, utilitarian benefits have
the strongest effect in the HNE group. Environmental concern affects
only HNE participants’ brand attitude and purchase intention.
6. Discussion and implications
6.1. Findings and theoretical implications
Most previous research concerning environmentally friendly
consumption behavior focuses on personal factors and personality traits,
such as values related to environmental conservation and general
concern for the environment. Several studies also address the effect of
environmentally sound product attributes delivering utilitarian
benefits. Empirical results of this study confirm the influence of
consumer’s environmental concern on purchase intention and a partial
mediation of this effect by brand attitude (
H1a
and
H1b),
consistent with previous research (e.g.,
[Bang
et al., 2000],
[Clark
et al., 2003] and
[Ek,
2005]). Also the perception of environmental utilitarian benefits,
such as reduced emissions through the use of renewable energy resources,
exerts a significant influence on participants’ purchase intention,
partially mediated by attitude (
H2a
and
H2b),
confirming assertions in the literature (e.g.,
[Roe
et al., 2001] and
[Wüstenhagen
and Bilharz, 2006]). With respect to the behavioral effects of
psychological benefits related to adoption of green energy, the study
confirms the influences of two of the three proposed variables. As
hypothesized in the literature (e.g.,
[Wiser,
1998] and
[Wüstenhagen
and Bilharz, 2006]), the psychological benefit warm glow arising
from contribution to the improvement of the environmental common good
increases intention to purchase the experimental green energy brand
(H3a).
This effect is direct, however, disconfirming partial mediation by
brand attitude
(H3b)
exists. The behavioral effect of warm glow is apparently independent of
attitude formation toward a specific brand.
Findings do not support the hypothesized positive influence of
self-expressive
benefits on brand attitude and purchase intention (
H4a
and
H4b).
The mainly private nature of energy use may hinder the perception of
such benefits, which presuppose social visibility of consumption
behavior. These findings are consistent with
Griskevicius
et al. (2010), who show that status motives increase desire for
green products only when consumed in public, but not in private.
Besides, signaling theory posits that the drive for status especially
increases the appeal of green products if they are relatively expensive.
Electricity, however, is a basic non-expensive commodity, even at a
significant price premium for green energy.
A further contribution of this study lies in analyzing the
association of green energy brands with natural imagery. Exposed to
advertisements showing pleasant natural landscapes, participants report
subsequently that the brand evoked feelings similar to those experienced
in contact with actual nature. The level of nature experiences varies
across the advertisements depicting different landscapes and the one
showing a cityscape. Whereas subjects exposed to some of the natural
scenes score high on the nature experiences dimension, those exposed to
the urban and desert images score significantly lower. The degree of
nature experiences evoked positively affects intention to purchase
green-branded energy, mediated by its pronounced influence on brand
attitude (
H5a
and
H5b).
Exploratory findings suggest that manipulation of the level of nature
experiences moderates other variables’ relationships. In particular,
exposure to natural imagery enhances the influence of environmental
concern on purchase intention, possibly by increasing the perceived
salience of environmental issues. Environmental utilitarian benefit’s
effect also is stronger when participants score high on nature
experiences. By contrast, warm glow’s highest overall influence occurs
when nature experiences’ level is lowest: that is, following exposure to
advertisements in which the visual element is other than pleasant
natural landscape.
6.2. Managerial implications
This study’s findings have significant implications for marketers of
green energy. Psychological benefits in addition to utilitarian
environmental benefits potentially enhance attitude toward green energy
brands and increase purchase intention, contributing to renewable energy
adoption. For consumers to perceive a significant level of utilitarian
benefits, brand communications should supply relevant and sufficiently
detailed information. Current energy-labeling schemes are too limited
for this purpose. Information supplied should include atmospheric
emissions, energy mixes and details of new renewable capacity installed (
[Johnson and Frank, 2006],
[Salmela
and Varho, 2006] and
[Truffer
et al., 2001]). To foster the association of warm glow
psychological benefits with the brand through appropriate advertising,
messages should appeal to the audience’s sense of community, stressing
that, when purchasing green-branded energy, they can “feel good while
doing good” socially and environmentally (
Wiser,
1998). Lastly, the study demonstrates the clear potential of green
energy advertisements displaying lush green vegetation and clear water
to evoke pronounced psychological brand benefits. Exploratory empirical
results on the moderating effects of such advertising induced nature
experiences indicate that, at high levels, they could override the warm
glow effect, lowering its influence on purchase intention.
6.3. Limitations and future research
The empirical study is primarily of an exploratory nature, focusing
on a single green energy brand in an experimental survey and does not
measure actual purchasing behavior. However, the questionnaire assesses
behavioral intentions which have a stronger relationship with behavior
than do attitudes (
Fishbein
& Ajzen, 1975). Future research should further develop the
proposed psychological benefit constructs and confirm findings in a
broader setting. Subsequent studies should address on a theoretical
level the moderating influences of the nature experiences manipulation.
Research on consumers’ mindsets (
Kim
& Meyers-Levy, 2008) could provide alternative explanations for
some of the observed effects.
Consumer attitude toward brand extensions: an integrative
model and research propositions
Pengarang :
Sandor
Czellar
Abstract
The paper proposes an integrative model of the antecedents and
consequences of brand extension attitude based on the dominant cognitive
paradigm. The four key processes of the model are (1) the perception of
fit, (2) the formation of primary attitudes toward the extension, (3)
the link between extension attitude and marketplace behaviour and (4)
the reciprocal effect of brand extension attitude on parent
brand/extension category attitude. Moderator and control variables of
these processes are identified and classified into three groups: (1)
consumer characteristics, (2) marketer-controlled factors and (3)
external factors. This integrative model leads to the identification of
missing links and variables in past research, resulting in a
propositional inventory for future studies. The paper ends with a
reflection on the long-term perspectives of scientific inquiry on brand
extensions.
1. Introduction
Brand extension is the “use of established brand names to enter new
product categories or classes”
(Keller
& Aaker, 1992, p. 35). The past 15 years have witnessed the
development of an important body of empirical evidence on consumer
attitude vis-à-vis brand extensions. Systematic research on consumer
behaviour toward brand extension was initiated by two seminal North
American studies
[Aaker
& Keller, 1990] and
[Boush
et al., 1987]. Since, research on the matter has been conducted not
only in the United States but also around the world, including
countries such as the United Kingdom, France, New Zealand and Taiwan
(see
[Chen
& Chen, 2000],
[Holden
& Barwise, 1995] and
[Sunde
& Brodie, 1993]). Many of the effects identified in original
studies were later re-investigated by replication studies (see
[Glynn
& Brodie, 1998] and
[Pryor
& Brodie, 1998]). The important evolution of the field is
reflected by the appearance of the first empirical generalisation based
on secondary analysis
(Bottomley
& Holden, 2001). Brand extension research findings have also
been extensively treated from an applied managerial perspective
[Kapferer,
1997] and
[Keller,
1998].
Recently,
Klink
and Smith (2001) have warned about a limitation in current research
on consumer attitudes toward brand extensions, stating that “in this
area, as is often the case during the initial stages of knowledge
development, concerns about external validity have taken a back seat to
those about internal validity”
(Klink
& Smith, 2001, p. 326). Indeed, the bulk of research
investigates, essentially through experimental designs, the main and
interaction effects between a handful of cognitive and affective
attitude constructs. Although the studies’ internal validity seems high,
their generalisation to real-life decisions and consumption contexts is
debatable. Most of them fail to take into account background factors
such as individual consumer heterogeneity, marketer-controlled factors
and competitive activity, which might exert a significant impact on
their generalisation. This article responds to Klink and Smith’s call by
offering a guideline for future inquiry on consumer attitudes toward
brand extensions in the form of an integrative model and research
propositions.
The paper is organised according to a three-step logic, following the
structure of previous review studies on other marketing topics (see
[Alpert
& Kamins, 1994],
[Bettman
et al., 1998] and
[Gatignon
& Robertson, 1985]). First, a conceptual model of consumer
attitude toward brand extensions is proposed based on the theoretical
and empirical developments in the area. Second, the model serves as a
guideline for the identification of gaps and underdeveloped areas in
past research. Third, research propositions are advanced aiming for the
encouragement of empirical inquiry on these underdeveloped areas. The
article ends by calling on researchers to adopt alternative conceptual
and research paradigms to deepen our understanding of consumer attitude
vis-à-vis brand extensions.
2. An integrative model of consumer attitude toward brand
extensions
The epistemological stance of research on brand extensions follows
the neo-positivist, hypothetical-deductive paradigm of mainstream
consumer research
[Jacoby
et al., 1998] and
[Lehmann,
1999]. With notable exceptions, the empirical methods used rely on
experimental approaches to identify the main effects, moderators,
mediators and control variables in the process of brand extension
evaluation. Thus, the bulk of research strives for the development,
extension and validation of a general process-based model of the
antecedents and consequences of brand extension evaluation.
The following lines offer a description of the evolution of
scientific inquiry on consumer attitude toward brand extensions from the
point of view of two attitude paradigms: information processing and
affect transfer. Two seminal articles laid the ground and, to a large
extent, shaped the theoretical basis for empirical research:
Aaker
and Keller (1990) and
Boush
et al. (1987). Boush et al. investigated the process of affect
transfer from parent brand to the extension
[Cohen,
1982] and
[Fiske,
1982]. On the other hand, Aaker and Keller focussed on the
cognitive process of brand extension evaluation
[Fishbein
& Ajzen, 1975] and
[Fishbein
& Middlestadt, 1995]. Loyal to these origins, researchers after
1990 have studied either the information processing side or the
affective side of extension evaluation or, more recently, both
1(Fig.
1).
Fig.
1 depicts an integrative model of consumer behaviour toward brand
extensions based on a review of published literature between 1987 and
2001, which is summarised in
Table
1. The elements and processes involved in the model are described
below.
2.1. Basic process
As for the majority of models of consumer decision-making (see
Jacoby,
2002 for a review), the integrative model proposed here is
process-based. It is dominated by knowledge and affect transfer
processes in the following sequence. Before the appearance of the brand
extension in a given product category, consumers already possessed
established attitudes both toward the parent brand and the target
extension product category. These attitudes are composed of cognitive
and affective dimensions
[Eagly,
1992],
[Fishbein
& Ajzen, 1975] and
[Fishbein
& Middlestadt, 1995]. On the one hand, the cognitive component
is brand/category knowledge, defined in terms of the product-related and
non-product-related associations linked to a brand/category in
long-term consumer memory
[Keller,
1993] and
[Keller,
1998]. The product-related associations refer to the functional and
experiential attributes of the existing products of the brand/category.
The non-product-related associations comprise the symbolic benefits
stemming from the brand name (such as human personality dimensions,
prestige, etc.). On the other hand, the affective component refers to
the feelings associated with a brand name or a product category
[Boush
& Loken, 1991] and
[Loken
& John, 1993].
When the new extension is launched, consumers evaluate it on the
basis of their attitude toward the parent brand and the extension
category. If a consumer does not know the parent brand and its products
at all, she will evaluate the new extension solely on the basis of her
experience with the extension category
(Sheinin,
1998). Conversely, if the extension product category is new to her,
an attitude toward the extension will be formed only on the basis of
her attitude toward the parent brand. If the consumer knows both the
parent brand and the extension category, a third effect arises: the
perception of fit between the parent brand and the extension category
(the components of fit are discussed later in the article). Research has
shown that the perception of fit influences extension attitude in two
ways. First, it can
mediate the transfer of attitude components
from the parent brand and extension category to the new extension.
Second, fit can
moderate the relative influence of brand and
category attitude on extension attitude.
Brand extension attitude formation leads to concrete consumer
behaviour in the marketplace in terms of intentions, choice and repeat
purchase. These experientially based changes in extension attitude give
rise to reciprocal effects at different levels. Attitude toward the new
extension may affect parent brand attitude in terms of knowledge
structure and affect. In a similar vein, attitude to the new extension
may influence extension category attitude in terms of knowledge and
affect. Both of these reciprocal effects may be moderated by perceived
fit.
2.2. Background effects
The basic model depicted in
Fig.
1 focalises on the process of extension attitude formation and its
effects from the perspective of an individual consumer in isolation.
Indeed, past research has essentially investigated consumers’ attitude
toward extensions in controlled conditions in a marketplace vacuum.
However, in real marketplace conditions, consumers are exposed to a host
of information about the extension through different media. Their
attitudes toward the extension are sensitive to competitor activity,
retailer-level decisions as well as other information sources like
press, consumer reports and word-of-mouth. Moreover, the basic model
does not account for any heterogeneity in terms of consumer tastes,
preferences or consumption situations. In agreement with
Klink
and Smith (2001), it is argued that the basic model may strongly
depend on a series of background factors whose effect should be
isolated, investigated and put into perspective with the basic effects
of the model. We suggest that these effects be classified into three
broad categories: consumer characteristics, marketer-controlled factors
as well as external factors. This article investigates a series of
variables belonging to these three categories.
Our critical review of research is organised around four themes,
which correspond to the major stages of the extension evaluation
process. Thus, the article examines successively the processes of:
(1)fit perception,
(2)formation of primary attitudes toward the extension,
(3)link between brand extension attitude and behaviour, and
(4)reciprocal effects of brand extension attitude on parent
brand/extension category attitude.
In each of these themes, the state of the art of past theoretical and
empirical research is reviewed, leading to the identification of
missing links and research gaps. Then, research propositions are
formulated that take into account the effect of tentative background
factors. The propositions vary in their level of detail depending on the
extent of theoretical and empirical evidence on the subject. Thus, some
propositions constitute testable hypotheses while others only identify a
tentative association between two or more variables. The paper ends
with a methodological reflection on the future of brand extension
research.
3. Process of fit perception
3.1. Past research
Fig.
2 summarises the current state of research on the process of fit
perception. The bold characters and lines in this figure—just as in the
subsequent
Fig.
3,
Fig.
4 and
Fig.
5—indicate the topics that have already been subject to scientific
inquiry. However, as the reader will see in the following paragraphs,
the depth of inquiry on the research topics has been variable. Some
relationships are backed with strong empirical evidence while others
have only recently been tackled by pioneering work and deserve further
replication.
3.1.1. Basic model
Research in this area is based on the categorisation theory of
cognitive psychology
(Barsalou,
1985). Brands and product categories are conceptualised as
cognitive categories in consumer memory
[Boush
& Loken, 1991] and
[Broniarczyk
& Alba, 1994]. A brand extension in a new product category is
viewed as a new instance that can be more or less similar to the brand
and its existing products. Perceived similarity, also called
perceived
fit, is characterised by the number of shared associations between
the extension product category and the brand. Researchers have
identified two dimensions of the fit construct
[Bhat
& Reddy, 2001] and
[Park
et al., 1991]. The first is
product category fit, which
refers to the perceived similarity between the extension category and
the existing product categories of the parent brand. The second is
brand-level
fit, referring to the match between the specific image of the
brand and the extension product category. To illustrate these two
aspects of fit, consider Marlboro launching a ball-pen. The perceived
fit between Marlboro and the ball-pen category will be composed of a
category-level fit (the shared product attributes between cigarettes and
ball-pens) and a brand-level fit (e.g. the match between Marlboro’s
rough, Western brand image and the image the consumer holds about the
ball-pen category).
3.1.2. Background factors
Research on the background factors of this basic fit perception
process is relatively scarce. It deals mainly with the effect of
consumer mood and advertising on fit perceptions. Thus, recent research
shows that positive consumer mood improves fit perceptions for
moderately far extensions
(Barone
et al., 2000). To our knowledge, however, research on other
consumer-level factors has not yet been undertaken. Advertising can be
used in several ways to directly improve consumers’ fit perceptions.
Through increased exposure, it can facilitate information retrieval
processes and thus improve fit perceptions
[Klink
& Smith, 2001] and
[Lane,
2000]. By manipulating the informative content of ads through
priming and distancing techniques, marketers can also enhance fit
perceptions
[Boush,
1993],
[Kim
et al., 2001] and
[Pryor
& Brodie, 1998]. However, marketers can also use marketing-mix
variables other than advertising to improve fit perceptions. These, as
well as other possible background factors such as competitor and
distributor activity, have not yet been studied. The following lines
indicate several paths for future research in these underdeveloped
areas.
3.2. Research propositions
This section investigates the effect of a series of consumer,
marketer-controlled and external factors that can influence the role of
parent brand and category knowledge on fit perception (see the plain
characters and lines
3.2.1. Consumer characteristics
Research on consumer memory shows that expertise with a specific
product category leads to more and more elaborate and complex knowledge
structures
(Alba
& Hutchinson, 1987). It also appears that brand ratings by
expert consumers are based on concrete product attributes, whereas the
brand ratings of novices stem from more general impressions about the
brand
(Dillon,
Madden, Kirmani, & Mukherjee, 2001). On the other hand, less
experience leads to less concrete category and product knowledge and
more reliance on symbolic associations and general impressions about the
brand
[Braun
& Wicklund, 1989] and
[Dillon
et al., 2001]. Therefore, the following statement is advanced:
P 1. Higher consumer expertise leads to the
greater relative role of product-related brand associations vs.
non-product-related brand associations in fit perception.
According to self-monitoring theory, people differ substantially in
the way they regulate their self in public situations
[Gangestad
& Snyder, 2000] and
[Snyder,
1974]. Low self-monitors tend to project a stable self in diverse
settings of social interaction. Their behaviour is guided more by inner
psychological factors than social influences. High self-monitors, on the
other hand, exert more expressive control over their social behaviour
and tend to adapt their appearance and acts to specific situations.
Empirical research has shown that high self-monitors respond more
favourably to status-oriented advertising claims
[DeBono,
1987] and
[DeBono
& Harnish, 1988] and prefer brands in congruence with social
situations
[Aaker,
1999] and
[Hogg
et al., 2000]. Note that the role of non-product-related brand
associations is primarily symbolic and self-expressive
[Keller,
1993] and
[Solomon,
1983]. Therefore, during the entire process of brand extension
evaluation, high self-monitors can be expected to confer more importance
to these associations than their low self-monitor counterparts. In this
section, it is argued specifically that high self-monitors perceive fit
more on the basis of non-product-related associations than low
self-monitors. In formal terms:
P 2. Non-product-related associations have a
greater effect on fit perceptions for high self-monitors than for low
self-monitors.
3.2.2. Marketing strategy
Independently of the product category,
Park,
Jaworski, and McInnis (1986) defined three broad types of brand
positioning derived from basic consumer needs. Functional needs stem
from motivations to solve externally generated concrete problems and
triggers a search for products that provide solutions to these problems.
Brands with a functional positioning offer these solutions; their value
is dependent on satisfaction after use. Experiential (also called
hedonic) needs correspond to a desire for sensory pleasure and
stimulation. Therefore, brands with an experiential positioning
emphasise satisfaction-in-use. A third category of needs, that of
symbolic needs, concerns the individual’s desire for self-identity
creation, maintenance and enhancement. Thus, brands with a symbolic
positioning enable their consumers to be associated with a desired
group, role or self-concept.
Park
et al. (1991) showed empirically that symbolic brands,
characterised by the dominance of non-product-related associations, are
easier to stretch to more dissimilar product categories than functional
brands. In the same spirit, we argue here that fit perceptions of
symbolic brands are influenced mainly by non-product-related
associations; the fit of a functional or experiential brand with the
extension category, on the other hand, will be determined basically by
product-related associations.
Furthermore, the consumer’s personal characteristics may interact
with the effect of brand positioning. It is argued that the
effectiveness of the brand’s positioning strategy depends on the
targeted consumers’ characteristics in terms of expertise, cognitive
capacity and self-monitoring. Expert consumers possess elaborate and
complex knowledge structures about a given product category
(Alba
& Hutchinson, 1987). It is therefore relatively more difficult
to alter these structures by new pieces of information than the less
elaborate knowledge structures of novices. Human cognitive capacity is
strongly linked to age. Research shows that the cognitive capacity of
the elderly, especially over 65, declines progressively
[Chasseigne
et al., 1997] and
[Lambert-Pandraud
& Laurent, 2002]. For these people, the learning of new
information becomes difficult and they tend to rely on existing
information in long-term memory rather than on active short-term memory
to make judgements and decisions
(Salthouse,
1991). We therefore expect elderly people to be less sensitive to
new information on the product’s positioning than younger people. In
addition, it is argued that the self-monitoring level of the consumer
may also impact on her/his sensitivity to external information because
high self-monitors are more influenced by external contexts than low
self-monitors. Hence,
P 3. For brands with a functional or
experiential positioning, providing product-related information
influences fit perceptions more than providing non-product-related
information. Expert consumers, low self-monitors and elderly people are
less sensitive to these actions than novice consumers, high
self-monitors and younger people.
P 4. For brands with a symbolic brand
positioning, providing non-product-related information influences fit
perceptions more than providing product-related information. Novice
consumers, high self-monitors and younger people are more sensitive to
these actions than expert consumers, low self-monitors and elderly
people.
3.2.3. External information
Competitor activity refers to all the marketing actions that
competing brands—already present in the extension product category or
newly entering it—might undertake. It is reasonable to assume that the
only effect that might jeopardise the new extension is the one emanating
from competitors offering a similar positioning. Thus, if Marlboro
decided to launch a low-end, mass-market deodorant, consumer attitudes
toward this extension would not be influenced by the marketing activity
of luxury brands like Chanel or Dior but rather by cheaper brands like
Denim or Nivea. It is thus assumed that direct competitors provide the
consumer with rather similar product-related or non-product-related
messages, similar to those of the company’s new extension. By processing
this external information, consumer fit perceptions may be altered. For
the same reasons as in the case of marketer-controlled factors, the
effectiveness of competitive activity depends on the targeted consumers’
characteristics in terms of expertise, self-monitoring and age. Another
source of information for consumers is the point-of-purchase, which is
controlled by the brand’s current distributors. The distributors’
marketing activities may also provide potential consumers with
information that is relevant for their judgements about the fit between
the brand and the extension category. Other external information such as
word-of-mouth may also have an impact on fit perceptions. It is
therefore advanced that:
P 5. Competitor marketplace activity,
distributor activity and other external information directly affect the
perceived fit between the brand and the extension. Novice consumers,
high self-monitors and younger people are more sensitive to these
actions than expert consumers, low self-monitors and elderly people.
Preliminary empirical evidence suggests that product categorisation
processes are context dependent
(Wanke,
1999). That is, depending on the context, the same objects can be
categorised in different sets by the same consumer. The importance of
this phenomenon for brand extensions may depend on the self-monitoring
style of the consumer. A basic tenet of self-monitoring theory is that
low self-monitors show a more stable behaviour across contexts than do
high self-monitors
(Snyder,
1974). It is argued that low self-monitors, whose social behaviour
is relatively invariant, will tend to keep the same categorisation sets
across consumption situations. High self-monitors, on the other hand,
will adapt their categorisation schemas to the social context. For
example, they may perceive a new Marlboro deodorant as having a higher
fit in private consumption situations than in public ones. By
opposition, the fit perceptions of low self-monitors are expected to be
more invariant across consumption situations. We can therefore expect
that:
P 6. Fit perceptions vary more across situations
for high self-monitors than for low self-monitors.
4. Extension evaluation process
4.1. Past research
4.1.1. Basic model
Bold lines and characters in
Fig.
3 depict the concepts and relations referring to the formation of
brand extension attitude that have already been investigated to some
extent in past research. As mentioned in
Introduction,
cognitive processing and affect transfer theories dominate current
research on brand extension attitudes. Research shows that, all else
being equal, there is a direct knowledge/affect transfer from the parent
brand to the extension (see the references in
Table
1). For example, the perceived high quality of the parent brand
results in positive extension evaluations
(Aaker
& Keller, 1990). Similarly, positive feelings are directly
transferred from the parent brand to the extension
(Bhat
& Reddy, 2001).
The concept of fit is central in past research on brand extension
attitudes. One of the most frequently studied topics is the direct
effect of fit on brand extension attitude (see the references in
Table
1). The general conclusion from these studies is that the higher
the perceived fit, the more positive the consumer’s attitude toward the
extension. The vast majority of studies have examined the direct effect
of category-level fit; only few studies are devoted to the effect of
brand fit (e.g.
[Bhat
& Reddy, 1997],
[Bhat
& Reddy, 2001] and
[Park
et al., 1991]).
Apart from being modelled as a direct effect, researchers have also
considered the moderating role of fit on brand knowledge and affect
transfer. The level of fit determines the ease of transfer of positive
knowledge and affect from the parent brand to the extension. Researchers
have extensively studied the moderating role of fit on several aspects
of knowledge transfer: general quality, technological level, specific
product attributes (see references in
Table
1). Also, the higher the perceived fit, the higher the affect
transfer from the parent brand to the extension (e.g.
[Broniarczyk
& Alba, 1994] and
[Gürhan-Canli
& Maheswaran, 1998]).
4.1.2. Background factors
Past research has included a series of consumer-specific moderators
in the basic effects model, namely motivation, expertise, implicit
personality theory, innovativeness and mood (see
Table
1). Strong empirical evidence supports the moderating effect of
motivation
[Gürhan-Canli
& Maheswaran, 1998] and
[Nijssen
et al., 1995]. Specifically,
Gürhan-Canli
and Maheswaran (1998) show that under high-motivation conditions,
elaborate cognitive processing is expected: consumers consider every
piece of information about the extension piecemeal. Conversely, under
low-motivation conditions, cognitive processing is less elaborate and
more categorical; in this case, more affect transfer is expected from
the parent brand to the extension. Also, in high-motivation conditions,
perceived fit has less impact than in low-motivation conditions.
Consumer expertise is also shown to moderate the effect of
product-related brand associations, brand affect and fit on brand
extension attitude
(Broniarczyk
& Alba, 1994). According to the findings, expert evaluations
are based on the processing of product-related associations, whereas
novices tend to evaluate the extension more on the basis of brand affect
and fit. Consumer innovativeness is another factor that influences the
basic effects of the extension evaluation model
(Klink
& Smith, 2001). Highly innovative early adopters are less
sensitive to risk; fit therefore plays a lesser role in their extension
evaluations than in those of late adopters.
Flaherty
and Pappas (2000) show the effect of a psychological evaluation
process (implicit personality theory) on affect transfer. Research in
personality psychology shows that entity theorists easily form global
judgements based on prior trait information, whereas incremental
theorists tend to make more conditional judgements upon situational cues
(Hong,
Chiu, Dweck, & Sacks, 1997). Flaherty and Pappas show that
affect transfer from brand to extension occurs more easily for entity
theorists, who are more sensitive to existing parent brand beliefs than
for incremental theorists, whose information processing is more
elaborate.
Still on the consumer-specific side, recent research suggests that
positive consumer mood enhances attitude transfer from brand to
extension
(Barone
et al., 2000). The effect of mood is strongest in moderately far
(vs. near or far) extensions in terms of fit.
Ample empirical evidence shows that elements of advertising strategy
such as information type, information amount, exposure, as well as
techniques such as priming and distancing, can affect consumer attitude
toward extensions (see references in
Table
1). That is, by providing and manipulating the information about
the new extension, marketers can directly improve consumer attitude,
thereby reducing the importance of cognitive processing, affect transfer
and fit in consumer evaluations. This issue is particularly relevant in
situations where the proposed extension is highly incongruent with the
existing products of the brand or when consumer attitude toward the
parent brand is rather negative.
In sum, research has mainly investigated the cognitive and affective
processes of attitude formation toward extensions at an individual
level. To our knowledge, only
Sheinin
(1998) has investigated the effect of knowledge transfer from the
extension product category to the new brand extension. Another topic
scarcely investigated in the basic model is the role of
non-product-related associations in attitude formation. Moreover, future
research should broaden the scope of the model by an in-depth
examination of its sensitivity to further consumer-level,
marketer-controlled and external factors. The research propositions
advanced below serve to foster such research efforts.
4.2. Research propositions
The research propositions investigated below refer to the concepts
and relations in plain characters and lines
4.2.1. Consumer characteristics
Previous research has established the role of consumer expertise in
the processing of the product-related associations of the parent brand
(Broniarczyk
& Alba, 1994). However, more and more brands are positioned on
axes like personality traits and user imagery, which are relatively
independent of the product features. These non-product-related
associations are typically less experience-based than the concrete,
product-related features of the brand. Novice consumers are therefore
expected more to rely on non-product-related associations in extension
evaluation than their experimented counterparts. Furthermore, this
effect can be generalised to category-related associations, by assuming
that these associations follow the same pattern of processing as that of
brand-related associations.
P 7. Higher consumer expertise with the parent
brand/extension category leads to a greater transfer of product-related
associations vs. non-product-related associations from parent
brand/extension category to the brand extension.
Broniarczyk
and Alba (1994) have also shown that experience with the parent
brand leads to a lesser reliance on fit in brand extension attitude
formation. At the same time, affect transfer declines with consumer
experience to the benefit of cognitive effects. The next two
propositions generalise these conclusions to the experience with the
extension product category, too.
P 8. The higher the consumer’s expertise with
the parent brand/extension category, the lesser the impact of perceived
fit on extension attitude.
P 9. Knowledge transfer increases with consumer
expertise with the parent brand/extension category, whereas affect
transfer decreases with consumer expertise.
As explained previously, research in social psychology shows that
high self-monitors attach more importance to the self-expressive and
social meaning of products than low self-monitors
[Aaker,
1999],
[DeBono,
1987] and
[DeBono
& Harnish, 1988]. In this respect, non-product-related
associations, which are related to the self- and value-expressive
benefits of the brand, are expected to play a greater role in brand
extension knowledge for high self-monitors than for low self-monitors.
Hence,
P 10. Non-product-related associations of the
parent brand/extension category are transferred more easily to the
extension for high self-monitors than for low self-monitors.
4.2.2. Marketing strategy
Previous research has mainly examined the effect of advertising
content, amount and frequency on brand extension evaluations. The
long-term positioning of the brand, supported by all the elements of the
marketing-mix, is likely to play an important role in brand extension
evaluation. Consumers tend to have more product-based expectations about
brands with functional or experiential positioning. Symbolic brands, on
the other hand, are expected to convey more non-product-related
associations. It is also proposed that consumer sensitivity to these
marketing actions is dependent upon expertise, self-monitoring and age.
P 11. For brands with a functional or
experiential positioning, product-related information is processed more
than non-product-related information in brand extension evaluation.
Novice consumers, high self-monitors and younger people are less
sensitive to these actions than expert consumers, low self-monitors and
elderly people.
P 12. For brands with a symbolic positioning,
non-product-related information is processed more than product-related
information in brand extension evaluation. Novice consumers, high
self-monitors and younger people are less sensitive to these actions
than expert consumers, low self-monitors and elderly people.
4.2.3. External information
As mentioned in the previous section, competitor activity refers to
all the marketing actions that competing brands may envisage in the
extension category. It was assumed that only competitors offering a
similar positioning might endanger the new extension. Consumers process
the information communicated by competitors, which leads to changes in
their knowledge structures vis-à-vis the extension. By the same logic,
point-of-purchase distribution decisions may also provide consumers with
further information about the extension and its competitors. The
effectiveness of competitive and distributor activity as well as any
other external information related to the extension may depend on the
targeted consumers’ characteristics in terms of expertise,
self-monitoring and age.
P 13. Competitor marketplace activity,
distributor activity and other external information directly affect
brand extension knowledge. However, novice consumers, high self-monitors
and younger people are more sensitive to these actions than expert
consumers, low self-monitors and elderly people.
5. Link between extension attitude and marketplace behaviour
5.1. Past research
Past research has devoted relatively little attention to the study of
the direct link between brand extension attitude and marketplace
behaviour (see
Table
1 and the bold lines and characters.
Experimental studies show that positive affect leads to higher
purchase intentions for the extension
[Bhat
& Reddy, 2001] and
[Lane,
2000]. Empirical evidence on the role of extension knowledge
structures in the extension attitude–behaviour relationship is scarce
and rather indirect.
Sullivan
(1992), based on secondary sources, used aggregate brand-level data
to show that brand extensions introduced early in the life cycle of a
product category did not perform as well as extensions introduced at
later stages.
Reddy
et al. (1994) used aggregate secondary data and expert judgment to
demonstrate that the brand’s symbolic associations have a positive
impact on the extension’s market share.
Swaminathan
et al. (2001) illustrated with panel data that prior experience
with the parent brand leads to a higher probability of extension trial.
The results of these three studies seem to suggest that the more
elaborate the consumer’s brand extension knowledge, the more likely she
is to purchase the extension.
However, to our knowledge, no academic studies have systematically
investigated the link between extension attitude and the marketplace
behaviour of the individual consumer. Consider the following intriguing
questions: What is the relative role of extension knowledge and
extension affect on intentions, choices and repeat purchase? Which part
of brand knowledge (product-related or non-product-related associations)
is more important in consumer decision-making? How does concrete
experience with the extension product impact extension attitude? What
are the consumer characteristics that shape these effects? The following
lines offer a series of propositions to guide future research on these
topics.
5.2. Research propositions
In the present context, this section focalises only on the link
between extension attitude and behaviour; other internal and external
factors directly affecting consumer market behaviour vis-à-vis the
extension are beyond the scope of this article (e.g. socio-economic
status, deal proneness, competitive activity, fashion trends, etc.). The
research propositions investigated below refer to the concepts and
relations in plain characters and lines in
Fig.
4. The framework is based on the assumption that, depending on the
consumer’s characteristics, specific attitude components will guide the
relationship between extension attitude and marketplace behaviour. That
is, specific extension attitude components (shaped by parent brand and
category knowledge, brand marketing activity and other information
sources) exert an impact on consumer marketplace behaviour. Later,
positive and negative experiences with the extension will impact on
specific extension attitude components, depending on personal
characteristics.
The research propositions concerning the role of consumer
characteristics are formulated in the spirit of our arguments in the
previous sections. Just as consumer characteristics can moderate the
basic effects of fit perception and extension attitude, it is proposed
here that they can also moderate the link between extension attitude and
behaviour. Specifically, it is argued that consumer expertise leads to
the dominance of the concrete product knowledge about the parent brand
and the extension. For experts, purchase intentions and choice, as well
as repeat purchase, will be guided by detailed product-related knowledge
about the brand. Their experiences with the extension will also
focalise on product-related aspects, which will further contribute to
their extensive knowledge about the product. Novices, on the other hand,
know relatively little about the concrete product characteristics of
the parent brand and its proposed extension. Their purchase intentions,
choice and repeat purchase will be based more on non-product-related
associations and affect. Through experience, they can progressively
acquire more knowledge about the product-related aspects of the brand
extension. It is therefore proposed that:
P 14. Consumer expertise moderates the
relationship between extension attitude and marketplace behaviour.
Specifically, non-product-related associations and affect play a greater
role on this relationship for novices than for experts.
The previous sections dealt with the moderating role of
self-monitoring on fit perceptions and extension attitude. It can be
argued that self-monitoring can affect the link between extension
attitude and behaviour, too. High self-monitors are more sensitive to
the social symbolic meaning of brands (prestige, status, personality)
than low self-monitors
[DeBono,
1987] and
[Hogg
et al., 2000]. It is likely that for high self-monitors,
considerations about the non-product-related associations will play a
greater role in purchase decisions than product-related associations.
Also, the performance of the brand will be judged more on the basis of
its symbolic value than on its experiential or functional value,
contributing mainly to the non-product-related knowledge about the
brand. The following proposition is therefore advanced:
P 15. Consumer self-monitoring moderates the
relationship between extension attitude and marketplace behaviour.
Specifically, non-product-related associations play a greater role on
this relationship for high self-monitors than for low self-monitors.
The third consumer-specific variable examined here is age. As
mentioned before, the progressive decline of the cognitive abilities of
elderly people has been documented in psychology
(Chasseigne
et al., 1997). Elderly people tend to extensively rely on their
long-term memory, whereas fluid, working memory is more limited in its
accessibility and acceptation of new information. It is argued that,
with the increase of age, knowledge will play a lesser role, whereas
affect will play a greater role in consumer decision-making. That is,
older people will judge products more on affective bases than on
cognitive bases.
P 16. Consumer age moderates the relationship
between extension attitude and behaviour. Specifically, affect plays a
greater role in this relationship for elderly people than for younger
people.
6. Reciprocal effects of brand extension attitude on parent
brand and extension category attitude
As discussed in the previous sections, through diverse information
sources (marketing actions, competitor information, distributor
activity, etc.) and/or direct experience, consumers form either a
positive or a negative attitude toward the extension. Attitude valence
may take a cognitive form in terms of favourable/unfavourable
associations or an affective form of liking/disliking the extension.
Attitude toward the extension may alter the consumer’s original attitude
toward the parent brand or the extension category. This phenomenon is
known in the literature under the term “reciprocal effect” of brand
extension, which may lead to dilution/enhancement of the original
brand/category attitude
[John
et al., 1998],
[Loken
& John, 1993] and
[Romeo,
1991].
6.1. Basic model
The direct effects of reciprocal knowledge transfer (e.g.
[John
et al., 1998],
[Loken
& John, 1993] and
[Milberg
et al., 1997]) and affect transfer (e.g.
[Keller
& Aaker, 1992] and
[Romeo,
1991]) have been extensively documented in past research. However,
research focussed mainly on knowledge transfer effects (see
Fig.
5 and
Table
1). It is evidenced that product-related negative associations with
the extension dilute product-related parent brand associations, whereas
non-product-related extension associations dilute non-product-related
parent brand associations
(Chen
& Chen, 2000). In addition, general product-related parent
brand associations (e.g. quality) are more difficult to alter than
specific product-related associations (e.g. taste)
[Keller
& Aaker, 1992] and
[Loken
& John, 1993]. Information accessibility also plays a role in
knowledge transfer from extension to the brand
(Ahluwalia
& Gürhan-Canli, 2000). Less accessible knowledge structures
concerning the extension, stocked in long-term memory, have less effect
on the parent brand than highly accessible new information.
The moderating role of fit on reciprocal effects has also received
sustained attention (e.g.
[Ahluwalia
& Gürhan-Canli, 2000],
[Boush
& Loken, 1991] and
[Morrin,
1999]). Increased fit generally leads to increased knowledge and
affect transfer from the extension to the parent brand. However, it
seems that dilution effects in terms of parent brand knowledge and
affect are more likely to occur for close extensions, whereas
enhancement effects are more likely to occur for far extensions
(Ahluwalia
& Gürhan-Canli, 2000).
6.2. Background factors
Consumer characteristics as moderators have also been included in the
basic model, namely, motivation and expertise. In high-motivation
conditions, consumers process every piece of new information in detail.
In these situations, associations with the extension may alter the
parent brand’s association network regardless of fit
(Gürhan-Canli
& Maheswaran, 1998). In low-motivation conditions, however,
this effect is dependent on fit because less similar extensions will be
quickly categorised as atypical instances and will not alter parent
brand knowledge. Consumer expertise also moderates the
dilution/enhancement effect of brand extensions on parent brand
knowledge. Experts possess strong brand-related memory structures, which
are difficult to affect by either negative or positive extension
information
[John
et al., 1998] and
[Morrin,
1999]. More specifically, extensions influence more the
product-related associations of unfamiliar parent brands than those of
familiar parent brands
(Sheinin,
2000).
At the level of firm-related background factors,
Morrin
(1999) shows that exposure to extension advertising might
strengthen existing parent brand knowledge structures. Retailer-level
decisions, on the other hand, can weaken parent brand knowledge. Thus,
the concentration of the new extension with competing brands on shelf
space tends to confuse consumers and makes extension advertising less
effective.
6.3. Research propositions
In sum, past research has mainly investigated the reciprocal effect
of extension attitude on the parent brand; the effect on the consumer’s
attitude toward the extension product category has scarcely been
investigated. Moreover, past studies have essentially dealt with the
transfer of product-related associations and less with the transfer of
non-product-related associations or affect from the extension to the
parent brand. A series of propositions are advanced aiming at filling
these gaps. The research propositions refer to the concepts and
relations in plain lines in
Fig.
5. The reasoning behind them is quite similar to that put forward
in the section on the primary attitude transfer from parent
brand/category to the extension.
6.3.1. Consumer characteristics
The first proposition refers to consumer expertise. It was mentioned
before that expert consumers possess a more elaborate product-related
knowledge structure about the parent brand and the product category than
novice consumers. Through external information search and concrete
product experience with the new brand extension, their knowledge
concerning the new extension will also be mainly product-related.
Concrete product-related associations are therefore more likely to be
transferred from the extension to the parent brand/product category than
non-product-related associations, which are more abstract and symbolic.
P 17. Higher consumer expertise leads to the
greater relative transfer of product-related associations vs.
non-product-related associations from the extension to the
brand/category.
The next proposition posits that self-monitoring also moderates the
process of reciprocal attitude transfer from the extension to the parent
brand and the product category. High self-monitors value more the
symbolic attributes of the extension than low self-monitors. Their
attitude toward the extension is shaped essentially by the extension’s
capacity to provide self-expressive or social symbolic benefits. It can
be hypothesized that their extension attitude will only enhance parent
brand/extension category attitude inasmuch as it provides
non-product-related benefits. It is hence expected that:
P 18. Non-product-related associations are more
easily transferred from the extension to the brand/category for high
self-monitors than for low self-monitors.
In the previous sections, the tentative effect of age on brand
extension evaluations was investigated. Based on prior literature in
cognitive psychology, it was argued that for elderly consumers, learning
and processing of information about a new extension is difficult. Their
extension attitude will be more of a matter of affect transfer from the
parent brand and the product category. Following this reasoning, the
next proposition states that affect transfer dominates the reciprocal
effect of extension attitude on parent brand/product category.
P 19. Affect transfer from extension to parent
brand/extension category increases whereas knowledge transfer declines
for elderly consumers.
6.3.2. Marketing strategy and external information
The last two propositions investigate the effect of extension
marketing strategy and external information sources on reciprocal
effects. As mentioned earlier, the effect of information amount and
exposure length has already been studied in this respect
(Morrin,
1999). Here, the focus is on the effect of information type. Any
information about the brand extension might alter not only the
consumer’s attitude toward the extension but also directly her/his
attitude toward the parent brand and the product category. The
hypothesis is that the reciprocal effect is dependent upon the
positioning of the parent brand or the product category (functional,
experiential, symbolic). For brands/categories with a functional or
experiential positioning, positive (negative) product-related
information will weigh more than non-product-related information.
Further, it is proposed that the size of this effect is dependent upon
the characteristics of the consumer in terms of expertise,
self-monitoring and age.
P 20. For brands/categories dominated by
experiential/functional positioning, consumer knowledge about the
brand/category is more sensitive to product-related extension
information than to non-product-related extension information. This
effect is stronger for novice consumers, low self-monitors and younger
people than for expert consumers, high self-monitors and elderly people.
P 21. For brands/categories dominated by
symbolic positioning, consumer knowledge about the brand/category is
more sensitive to non-product-related extension information than to
product-related extension information. This effect is stronger for
novice consumers, high self-monitors and younger people than for expert
consumers, low self-monitors and elderly people.
7. Future research directions
The first 15 years of research on consumer attitude toward brand
extensions have seen the development of an elaborate process-based model
grounded in cognitive psychology. Ample empirical evidence attests the
main effects in the model and interactions between them. Researchers
have also started to investigate consumer, marketer-controlled as well
as external factors that moderate the relations in the model. This
critical review has identified a certain number of gaps, underdeveloped
aspects and possible extensions of this essentially cognitive model. To
advance knowledge, future experimental studies can be guided by the
empirical investigation of the propositional inventory presented here.
Also, new consumer-level, marketer-controlled and external factors could
be added and tested in the proposed integrative model.
This brings me to conclude the article with a critical note on the
current research paradigm. On the methodological side, experimental
studies have largely dominated scientific inquiry on brand extensions.
Yet such a confinement may jeopardise the long-term perspectives for the
development of a field.
Eagly
(1992) warns that “if investigators look to only the most obviously
relevant research, not only do they miss many potentially useful
theoretical ideas, but also they allow their theories to be seriously
limited by the constraints of their research paradigms, which often
allow only certain processes to be manifest. Theory encapsulated within
an experimental paradigm is thus limited in scope”
(Eagly,
1992, p. 704). In agreement with Eagly, this article encourages
researchers to broaden their perspectives in future investigations of
consumer attitudes toward brand extensions.
In addition to experimental research, large-scale studies based on
longitudinal data can be employed to extend the empirical evidence of
the cognitive model outlined in this article. Specifically, they can
shed light on the influence of increasing category familiarity and
expertise on brand extension evaluations. Periodically repeated surveys
with the same consumers (e.g. panel data) are particularly useful for
the investigation of the effect of consumer expertise on fit perception
P
1,
P
3,
P
4 and
P
5, primary extension attitude
P
7,
P
8,
P
9,
P
11,
P
12 and
P
13, the attitude–behaviour link
(Proposition
14) and reciprocal effects
P
17,
P
20 and
P
21. Specifically, such longitudinal studies might uncover a
possible nonlinear effect of an increase in consumer expertise on
extension attitude formation. For example, could it be that the effect
of expertise increase follows an S-shaped curve, whereby its effect is
weak at early periods, then grows progressively and becomes roughly
linear, while decreases down again at later stages?
Besides survey-type research, qualitative methodologies may also
prove useful in broadening the scope of our knowledge about brand
extension evaluations. In-depth interviews with consumers may extend
research within the current cognitive theoretical paradigm, essentially
through a deeper understanding of the role of non-product-related
associations in fit perception
P
1,
P
2,
P
3 and
P
4 and extension attitude formation
P
7,
P
10,
P
11 and
P
12. Quantitative studies have failed to identify a typology of
possible non-product-related associations that might shape extension
evaluation, such as user imagery and brand personality dimensions
(Keller,
1998). Indeed, consider these questions: Are these concepts
applicable to both brands and product categories? If so, what is the
relative role of user imagery and brand personality in brand-level fit
perception? Is brand/category
user imagery or brand/category
personality
more important in the consumer’s evaluation of a brand extension? Under
which consumer-level, marketer-controlled and external background
factors is the former more salient, and therefore more easily
transferred, than the latter? In this respect, researchers may use the
critical incident method, advocated by
Lincoln
and Guba (1985): the analysis of detailed consumer narratives about
recent or older brand extension experiences may elucidate answers to
the questions raised.
In-depth interviews with brand managers and case studies offer other
promising paths for future research. They can enhance our knowledge
about the influence of managerial decisions, competitive activity and
other external factors on the extension evaluation process. In
particular, these information sources may help us to better understand
which specific elements of the marketing mix are more effective than
others in increasing fit perceptions
P
3,
P
4 and
P
5 and favourable extension knowledge
P
11,
P
12 and
P
13. In addition, insights from managers may also show if the same
marketing mix elements have the same weight on extension evaluations,
whether the company or its competitors use them.
Last but not least, in the spirit of
Fournier
and Mick (1999), qualitative consumer research can be used to
challenge the dominant cognitive paradigm and test alternative
theoretical perspectives on brand extensions. One of such perspectives
is the emergent relationship paradigm, which sees brands as humanlike
partners in types of relationships with the consumer that vary both in
quality and intensity
(Fournier,
1998). From this standpoint, brand extension can be conceptualised
as an important type of brand behaviour that affects the relationship
developed between the consumer and the brand. What is the impact of a
brand extension announcement on the evolution of brand relationship
quality? How do concrete experiences with the extension affect the
relationship? Also, which relationship types are conducive to which
types of brand extension in terms of positioning and level of fit ?
Indeed, do consumers with stronger brand relationships tolerate more
dissimilar extensions than consumers with looser brand ties? Or is it
the opposite, in the sense that some strong relationships may lead to a
“possessive” brand attitude, whereby the consumer becomes less
favourable to drastic changes in the brand offer? Future inquiry is
warranted to answer these interesting questions. Indeed, such an
enterprise is likely to move us from the current linear, individual and
predominantly process-based view of brand extension evaluation toward a
holistic understanding of the relation between a consumer and a brand
extension.
The role of the social-identity function of attitudes in
consumer innovativeness and opinion leadership
Pengarang :
Rajdeep
Grewal
Abstract
Attitudes serving the social-identity function relate nonsocial
objects (e.g., products) to social objects (e.g., people). As new
products tend to be more exciting than old, familiar products, the
authors suggest that these attitudes influence innovativeness and
opinion leadership. Based on recent research on attitude functions and
adoption of consumer innovations, this research examines the
relationship between the social-identity function, innovativeness, and
opinion leadership, in addition to expertise and involvement; the two
traditional antecedents of innovativeness and opinion leadership. The
results across two product categories show that social-identity function
exerts a strong impact on innovativeness and opinion leadership.
1. Introduction
The recent resurgence of interest in the motivational underpinnings
of cognitive constructs
(Kruglanski,
1996) has stimulated interest in issues relating to the
psychological needs served by attitudes (cf.,
Greenwald,
1989). One related and important stream of research concerns
attitude functions (cf.,
Shavitt,
1992). Functional theories of attitudes (cf.,
[Katz
and Stotland, 1959] and
[Sarnoff
and Katz, 1954]) ask the question: Why do people hold the attitudes
they do? Development of new methods to measure attitude functions
helped overcome the operational difficulties that have plagued research
on attitude functions
(Herek,
1987). We suggest that attitude functions may play an important
role in the adoption and the diffusion of consumer innovations
(Gatignon
& Robertson, 1985). The success of new consumer products rests
on the construct of innovativeness, which introduces the product
(innovation) to the social system, and opinion leadership, which
provides social legitimacy to the innovation. Thus, it is important to
develop an understanding both innovativeness and opinion leadership.
2. Theoretical background and research hypothesis
Functional theorists classify attitudes according to the functional
needs that they meet
[Snyder
and DeBono, 1989] and
[Shavitt,
1989a]. General classifications categorize attitude functions as
utilitarian, ego-defensive, knowledge, value-expressive, and
social-adjustive
(Smith,
Bruner & White, 1956). One important objective of consumer
psychology is to be able to persuade consumers and change their
attitudes. According to the functional theorist, the prerequisite for
changing an attitude is to determine the psychological need served by
the attitude
(Shavitt,
1989a).
This role of attitude functions opens a plethora of opportunities to
investigate persuasion processes
[Johar
and Sirgy, 1991],
[Park
et al., 1991] and
[Shavitt,
1992]. Indeed, most applications of attitude functions in consumer
behavior investigate the persuasiveness of advertising messages (cf.,
[Park
et al., 1986] and
[Snyder
and DeBono, 1985]. For example,
Shavitt
and Lowrey (1992) investigate the impact of product-related and
audience-related factors on the persuasiveness of value-expressive and
utilitarian advertising messages. Other applications examine objects
serving different attitude functions (cf.,
[Shavitt
and Fazio, 1991] and
[Sirgy
et al., 1991]. For instance, in their investigation of brand
extensions,
Park
et al. (1991) explore functional (utilitarian function) and
prestige (social-adjustive function) related brand names.
Our research studies the social-identity attitude function within the
context of consumer innovations.
Shavitt
(1990) associated the self-expression (value-expressive) and social
interaction (social-adjustive) role of attitudes to symbolize the
social-identity function. Social-identity function defines a larger
symbolic category of attitudes
[Abelson,
1982] and
[Sears
and McCohanay, 1973] and mediates the self and the other
interactions
(Smith
et al., 1956). This function discriminates between individuals who
prefer to display their true inner self and those for whom attitude
helps to harmonize into important social situations
(Snyder
& DeBono, 1989).
Products help one achieve private and public identity goals
[Abelson
and Prentice, 1989] and
[Shavitt,
1989a]. Product perception is a social process if the perceiver
perceives the product, either consciously or unconsciously, as a social
entity. Products also help in defining self and to maintain important
self-definitions (cf.,
Belk,
1988) and, often provide people with a characteristic they feel
they lack. In fact, people exhibit self-enhancing biases when making
judgments about product they own, the mere ownership effect
(Beggan,
1992). The products that perform the social-identity function: (1)
mediate the self and other relationships, (2) instill pride in a person
as they help the person to fit in desired social settings, and (3)
determine the centrality of the object to the person.
Innovations, because they are generally exciting and trend setting,
become primary candidates for eliciting the social-identity function.
For example, if cars are important for portraying self-image for Sam,
then Sam is highly likely to own a state-of-art model of car. Thus, it
is our contention that the social-identity function of attitude plays an
important role in the adoption and the diffusion of innovations. To
gain a better understanding of this phenomenon, we investigate the
relationship between the social-identity function and the parameters of
consumer innovations: innovativeness and opinion leadership. To be
comprehensive in our investigation, we also incorporate two traditional
innovation research variables, that is, expertise and involvement.
2.1. Opinion leadership
In a social system, communication flows from the source to the
opinion leaders, who pass it on to the others in the social system
(Katz
& Lazarsfeld, 1955). Indeed, opinion leadership is considered
an important factor in word-of-mouth communication, which contributes
towards the success of an innovation (cf.,
[Childers,
1986] and
[King
and Summers, 1970]). Opinion leadership reflects an individual’s
ability to influence other individuals’ attitudes or overt behavior in a
desired way in a particular domain.
The important gate-keeping role of opinion leaders makes it
imperative to understand its antecedents. We conjecture that one
unexplored antecedent of opinion leadership is the social-identity
function. People for whom a product performs the social-identity
function feel that their desired social identity is contingent on owning
the product. Product ownership and experience facilitates consumers
learning about the product
(Hoch
& Deighton, 1989). Public access to ownership and, thereby,
learning, paints the owner as informed. Therefore, we hypothesize that
these owners are more likely to become opinion leaders.
H1: The social-identity function of
attitudes positively impacts opinion leadership.
2.2. Innovativeness
Innovativeness is the bottom-line type of behavior in the diffusion
process
(Rogers,
1995). Innovators launch a new idea into a system by importing the
idea from outside the system. Thus, it is important to develop an
understanding of innovativeness. In addition, a good understanding of
the process of diffusion of innovations requires an understanding of
innovativeness
(Gatignon
& Robertson, 1991). Consistent with
Gatignon
and Robertson (1985), we contend that innovativeness is domain
specific. For consumer products, this implies that a person might be an
innovator in one product category (say computers) and a follower in
another product category (say cars). Keeping this domain specific nature
of innovativeness in mind, we adopt
Goldsmith
and Hofackers’ (1991) theorizing of innovativeness as the
predisposition to learn about and adopt products in a specific domain.
Attitudes serving the social-identity function facilitate the
acceptance of a person in a particular social setting
(Katz,
1960). The attitudes, operationalized by the object, facilitate the
image the person wants to portray. As the social-identity function
facilitates the acceptance of a person in a particular social setting,
the person is likely to adopt innovations in that domain. Thus, we
expect the social-identity function to positively influence
innovativeness.
H2: The social-identity function of
attitudes positively impacts innovativeness.
One way to become an opinion leader in a product domain is to
consistently own contemporary models of that product
(Rogers,
1995). Thus, we expect innovativeness to determine opinion
leadership.
H3: Innovativeness will have a positive
influence on opinion leadership.
2.3. Expertise
Consumer knowledge manifests itself in finely differentiated and
hierarchically organized knowledge structures, with well-developed
consumption rules, and firmly entrenched beliefs about product
performance
(Sujan,
1985). Consumer knowledge has two components: familiarity and
expertise
(Jacoby,
Troutman, Kuss & Mazursky, 1986). A consumer acquires
familiarity by virtue of product related experiences, whereas expertise
is the consumer’s ability to perform product related tasks successfully
(Alba
& Hutchinson, 1987).
Previous research has shown that innovators are heavy users of the
relevant product category
(Rogers,
1995). Although expertise is different from familiarity gained by
virtue of experience with the product
(Alba
& Hutchinson, 1987), these two are expected to correlate
(Gatignon
& Robertson, 1991). Further, as experts understand a product
domain better than novices do, the perceived risk of adoption of an
innovation should be lower for experts. Thus, we expect expertise to be
an antecedent of innovativeness.
H4: Expertise would have a positive
influence on innovativeness.
Experts by definition are knowledgeable in the concerned domain. They
own information not possessed but sought by others. In addition, the
leadership status of opinion leaders is due to their technical
competence
(Rogers,
1995). Therefore, there is a higher likelihood for an expert to be
an opinion leader in comparison to a novice.
H5: Expertise will have a positive influence
on opinion leadership.
2.4. Involvement
Involvement signifies long-term interest in a domain and plays a
central role in defining self-concept
(Bloch,
1981). Consumer involvement with products depends on the personal
relevance of that product
[Celsi
and Olson, 1988] and
[Park
and Hastak, 1994]. Persons involved with a product category gain
experience with the product and acquire product-related knowledge. In
this way, one can argue that involvement is an antecedent of expertise.
Further, scholars assert that knowledge renders the world more
comprehensible and predictable
(Alba
& Hutchinson, 1987). As this assertion is more cognitive than
motivational, scholars have argued that knowledge is an unlikely
candidate for arousing intense forms of personal involvement
(Thomsen,
Borgida & Lavine, 1995). To test these contradictory
explanations, we propose two alternative hypotheses.
H6: Involvement will have a positive
influence expertise.
H6ALT: Involvement does not influence
expertise.
People are involved with a product category that is central to their
beliefs about self
[Bloch,
1981],
[Boninger
et al., 1995] and
[Petty
and Cacioppo, 1979]. People for whom the concerned product performs
the social-identity function hold the product as being central to them
and, therefore, are likely to be involved with the product.
H7: The social-identity function of
attitudes is positively related to involvement.
Innovativeness in the concerned domain implies adopting relevant
innovations, which requires an understanding of the innovation. One way
to gain this understanding is by being involved with the concerned
domain.
H8: Involvement positively influences
innovativeness.
Finally, we expect involvement to positively influence opinion
leadership. Opinion leaders have knowledge that is useful to others.
This repository of information that the opinion leaders accumulate is by
virtue of being involved with the concerned domain.
H9: Involvement positively influences
opinion leadership.
3. The study
3.1. Measures
We use self-reported measures to operationalize products serving the
social-identity function of attitudes for two products, viz., cars and
computers. Indeed, we use a mixture of object based (product categories –
Shavitt,
1989b) and individual difference (self-report measure) approaches
to measure the social-identity function of attitudes (also see
Clary,
Snyder, Ridge, Miene & Haugen, 1994). We adopt four items,
pertinent to our conceptualization, from the scale developed by
Traylor
and Joseph (1984) to measure context specific involvement and
Childers’
(1986) version of the product-specific opinion leadership scale
developed by
King
and Summers (1970). Following
Sujan
(1985), we use ten multiple-choice questions to measure expertise.
To measure domain specific innovativeness, we adapted the three-item
scale developed by
Goldsmith
and Hofacker (1991). Research on reverse polarity (cf.,
Herche
& Engelland, 1996) recommends against using negatively worded
items; thus we deleted the three reverse polarity items from
Goldsmith
and Hofacker’s (1991) six-item scale to get the three-item scale.
Based on our definition of the construct of social-identity function
of attitudes, we generated four items to capture the construct. To
verify face validity of these items, two fourth year doctoral students,
not concerned with this research, performed a card sorting exercise.
These students were given definitions of each construct along with cards
with one item printed on each card (thus, they had 14 cards each). The
classification of the items was 100% correct. Finally, three of the four
items were used to measure social identity function (see section on
measure validation –
Table
1). The first item captures the construct directly by asking the
importance of respondents’ friends’ knowing that the respondent owns the
product. The second item emphasizes the importance of owning the
“latest style”. Note that the emphasis is on “latest style” and not on
either technological advancement (that is, innovativeness) or inner
gratification (that is, involvement). The third item captures the
construct indirectly by asking whether product ownership determines the
respondents’ likelihood of preference for a person.
3.2. Context
Data were collected for two product categories: cars and computers.
The order in which the items for these products were presented was
randomized to eliminate any order effects. Cars were chosen because they
are publicly consumed products that witness frequent incremental
enhancements (innovations). On the other hand computers represent
products that can be described as being primarily privately consumed and
have also seen a lot of innovations lately. Following
Bearden
and Etzel (1982), we would expect social-identity function to be
more important for publicly consumed products and involvement to be
important for privately consumed products. We use a pretest to classify
cars and computers along the public–private continuum. We adopted the
six-item–six-point scale of
Bearden
and Etzel (1982) for the pretest. The mean for cars and computers
were 5.32 and 3.17, with 1 signifying private consumption and 6
depicting public consumption.
3.3. Sample
Two hundred and twenty-six undergraduate students at a large
mid-western US university participated in the study for extra credit.
Two hundred and twenty-four responses were usable. All the students were
within one year of finishing their undergraduate education and most of
them already had jobs. One could argue that student sample is not
suitable for our context, that is, cars and computers. On the contrary,
as we are more interested in basic psychological processes than
generalization, a student sample is appropriate. In fact, for research
like ours that focuses on process generalization as opposed to effect
generalization, scholars recommended using student samples (cf.,
[Calder
et al., 1981],
[Calder
et al., 1982] and
[Mook,
1983]. For instance,
Kardes
(1996, p. 287) recommends student research participants for “basic
research on causal mechanisms”. Moreover, in a case very similar to
ours, where students may not be experienced with purchasing cars or
computers,
Petty
and Cacioppo (1996) persuasively argue that the effects of
experience on judgment can be modeled effectively in laboratory settings
with student participants. Finally, in a comparison of laboratory and
field studies,
Locke
(1986) found substantively equivalent results in studies relating
to industrial-organizational psychology, organizational behavior, and
human resource management. Therefore, we think that there is ample
precedence and evidence for us to use college students to study consumer
behavior relating to cars and computers.
3.4. Results
We adopted
Gerbing
and Anderson’s (1988) scale development paradigm to develop a scale
for the social-identity function of attitudes. To test our proposed
model, we use
Anderson
and Gerbing’s (1988) two-step approach for structural equation
modeling. First, exploratory factor analysis on the social-identity
function of attitudes items identified one factor with an eigenvalue
greater than 1 for cars, but in the case of computers there were two
factors with eigenvalues greater than 1. The first factor had an
eigenvalue of 6.40 and the second factor had an eigenvalue of 1.07.
Eigenvalues are a measure of variance explained (or analytic importance)
by a factor. An eigenvalue of 1 implies that a factor explains variance
equal to that of an item. As there was a large difference between the
eigenvalues of the first and second factor and the second eigenvalue was
very close to one. Although, there are numerous rules of thumb that one
could use to determine the number of factors (we refer the readers to
Nunnally
and Bernstein (1994, pp. 482–483) for a review), usually a cutoff
of 1 for eigenvalues is used to suggest the number of factors. However,
this cutoff is just a rule of thumb. As we have large differences
between the first and the second eigenvalues and the second eigenvalue
is very close to 1, we used our judgment and theory to interpret
social-identity function as a unidimensional construct. Note that in the
case of cars we had only one factor with this eigenvalue rule of thumb.
Therefore, we believe that the exploratory factor analysis results
indicate that the construct of the object’s invoking the social-identity
function of attitudes is unidimensional.
Subsequently, we used LISREL to: (1) obtain the factor loadings for
the confirmatory factor analysis and (2) test our hypotheses by
estimating a structural equation model. LISREL is a software that uses
maximum likelihood estimation to analyze covariance structures to model
relationships between multiple latent variables. Usually, a researchers
uses multiple items (observed variables) to measure a latent variable.
Specifically, we estimate a four-construct, viz., social-identity
function, opinion leadership, innovativeness, and involvement
confirmatory factor model. High-standardized residuals, high
modification indices, and low factors loading were used to refine the
scales. We used low factor loadings, high modification indices, and high
normalized residuals to refine the measures. Specifically, we use a
multi-group analysis. As each respondent answered questions on both cars
and computers, a multi-group analysis is appropriate.
Table
1 has the factor loadings for the two product domains. Overall, the
factor loadings are satisfactory. For the two products, the overall fit
statistics for the measurement model signal mixed results. For the two
products, the
χ2 statistic is significant (see
Table
1:
χ2=848.9, d.f.=168,
p=0.00). This
anomaly of
χ2 statistic not agreeing with other
measures of overall goodness of fit statistics is common for larger
sample sizes (cf.,
[Bagozzi
and Warshaw, 1990] and
[Stump
and Heide, 1996]). The NNFI (0.7672) and CFI (0.8138) values are
below the recommended levels, whereas GFI (0.9037) and Standardized RMR
(0.0537) meet the recommended cutoff levels. At the very least, these
fit statistics signal that future research should further refine the
measure for the social-identity function.
Discriminant validity was assessed my means of average variance
extracted and the confidence interval around
φ2
between these constructs (
Table
2). With two exceptions (one for each product), the average
variance extracted was greater than the recommended 0.5 cut off
(Bagozzi
& Yi, 1988) and in all cases it was greater than the
appropriate squared structural link (
φ). Discriminant validity
was further established as none of the confidence intervals around the
maximum likelihood estimate of
φ2 (±2 standard
error) contained
1
(Anderson
& Gerbing, 1988).
Nomological validity of the construct of social-identity function has
been assessed in two ways: By means of correlation coefficients and by
estimating the path model in
Fig.
1.
Table
3displays the correlation coefficients and
Table
4summarizes the parameter estimates for the path model (
Fig.
1). First, we find support for the nomological validity of the
social-identity function of attitudes as it is positively correlated
with involvement, innovativeness, and opinion leadership (
Table
3). However, these are some anomalies in the case of expertise.
Expertise is significantly correlated with innovativeness and opinion
leadership in the case of cars, whereas for computers, expertise is
positively correlated with opinion leadership. Note that for both cars
and computers, the correlation between expertise and involvement was not
significant.
We used structural equation modeling (LISREL 8.12) to test the
proposed path model with the covariance matrix as the input
(Anderson
& Gerbing, 1988). Manifest indicators were created for each
variable by averaging the items of each scale (cf.,
[Kenny,
1979] and
[Williams
and Hazar, 1986]). For the unidimensional scales (all our scales
were unidimensional), we used the reliability coefficient (Cronbach’s
alpha) to calculate the factor loadings and measurement error for each
manifest variable. The path from the latent variable to its manifest
variable was set equal to the square root of the reliability of the
measured variable (cf.,
Settoon,
Bennett & Liden 1996). The error variance for each manifest
indicator was set equal to one minus reliability times the appropriate
variance from the covariance matrix. The only exception was the
reliability of expertise, which was set equal to 0.9
(Anderson
& Gerbing, 1982). Specifically, we estimate the system of
following equations (we summarize these equations
.
In the case of car (H
1), the social-identity function is
an antecedent of opinion leadership, however this assertion is not
supported for computers. Indeed, the social-identity function determines
innovativeness for both product categories (H
2) and
innovativeness determined opinion leadership for both cars and computers
(H
3). Although expertise determined innovativeness only for
computer (H
4), it does seem to be an antecedent to opinion
leadership for both product categories (H
5). The hypothesis
linking social-identity function and involvement (H
7) was
supported for both the product categories, however, involvement did not
determine innovativeness or expertise (H
8 and H
6).
Do note that we were skeptical of involvement determining expertise, as
expertise is a cognitive construct, whereas involvement is a
motivational construct (H
6ALT). The hypothesis concerning the
link between involvement and opinion leadership receives support in the
case of computer (H
9). In summary, we find support for (1) H
2,
H
3, and H
7 for both the product categories, (2) H
1
for cars, and (3) H
4 and H
9 for computers
4. Discussion
The present study shows that for publicly consumed products,
attitudes that serve a social-identity function play an important role
in consumer innovativeness and opinion leadership. Attitudes that serve
the social-identity function facilitate interpersonal interaction by
communicating consumers’ consumption-related values and goals to other
consumers. Social identity function is particularly important for
publicly consumed products because such products reflect consumers’
personal tastes and preferences to a much greater extent than privately
consumed products.
In the case of cars, experts tend to become opinion leaders; however,
the social-identity function determines both innovativeness and opinion
leadership. This pattern of results would be expected for a publicly
consumed product, as visibility for publicly consumed goods is high
(cf.,
Bearden
& Etzel, 1982). For computers, expertise is an antecedent of
both innovativeness and opinion leadership. The social-identity function
is an antecedent of innovativeness but not of opinion leadership. The
diminished role of social-identity function for computers relative to
cars can be attributed to the fact that computers are privately consumed
products.
4.1. Limitations
We highlight four limitations of our research. First, we only study
the influence of personal characteristics of an individual on opinion
leadership and innovativeness. Future research should investigate
personal characteristics with other aspects of adoption and diffusion of
consumer innovations such as interpersonal influence, characteristics
of the innovation, the marketing activity of the innovating firm, and
competitive activity
(Gatignon
& Robertson, 1985). Second, we only examine the social-identity
function of attitudes as opposed to other functions that attitudes
could perform. Given the strong results we obtain with respect to the
social-identity function, future research should investigate other
attitude functions. Third, as hypothesized, we did find our results to
be context dependent – future research should further investigate this
issue by examining other contexts. Finally, our confirmatory factor
analysis results concerning the properties of our measurement model have
scope to be improved.
4.2. Implications
Innovation plays a crucial role in consumer preference, competition
among firms, and industry performance. Consumers prefer automobiles to
streetcars, planes to trains, and small portable computers to large
bulky computers. In a classic survey of 700 firms (60% industrial, 20%
consumer durables, 20% consumer non-durables), new product innovations
accounted for 28% of the observed growth of organizations
(Booz,
Allen, and Hamilton, 1982). More recently,
Wind,
Mahajan and Bayeless (1990) found that 25% of firms’ current sales
resulted from new product innovations introduced within the last three
years of the survey. All products go through the stages of introduction,
growth, maturity, and decline, and recent technological advances and
intensifying competition continue to shorten the duration of each of the
product life cycle stages
(Urban
& Hauser, 1993).
Although innovation is critical to the growth and the success of any
organization, consumers differ in their receptiveness to new product
innovations. Some consumer segments actively seek out new product
innovations and communicate the benefits of these innovations to other
consumers. Other segments are much slower to adopt new innovations. Some
segments (e.g., the laggard segment) are so resistant to innovation
that by they time they adopt a new product it has already been replaced
by a newer innovation
(Urban
& Hauser, 1993). Our research suggests that measuring
consumers’ attitude functions concerning different product categories
affords firms with the opportunity to identify those consumer segments
that are likely to be most sensitive and responsive to new product
offerings. Segments of consumers that hold attitudes serving the
social-identity function are most likely adopt early, provided that the
new product innovation is likely to be publicly rather than privately
consumed. Not only are these segments likely to increase early sales and
profits, they provide the added benefit of word-of-mouth communications
to other segments that could also stimulate growth. Later adopters look
to early adopters for information and opinion leadership that can
greatly influence their purchase decisions.
In theoretic terms our research adds to current understanding of the
process of adoption and diffusion of consumer innovations and sheds
light on new antecedents of innovativeness and opinion leadership. Such
an explanation of both innovativeness and opinion leadership has
important theoretical implications as we are explaining two behavioral
variables with the help of an attitudinal construct. The influence of
attitude on behavior is well documented in literature, however which
attitude influences what behavior is an important question for both
researchers and practitioners. In addition, identifying opinion leaders
and innovators is important for organizations as these leaders give the
innovation legitimacy and innovators introduce it to the social system.
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