Price,product information,and purchase intention: An empirical study

Price, nonprice product information, and purchase intention, together with the intervening variables of perceived price, perceived quality, and perceived value, are empirically examined. The results indicate that perceived price is positively influenced by objective price and negatively influenced by reference price. They support the positive price-perceived quality relationship found in previous studies and, further, show that the influence of price on perceived quality is lessened in the presence of substantial direct product information. Finally, the results demonstrate that a trade-off between perceived price and perceived quality leads to perceived value, and perceived value is a primary factor influencing purchase intention. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri. His primary research interests are in the areas of consumer behavior and international marketing. He received his Ph.D. from Purdue University. He has published articles in various business, marketing, and social science journals.     

政府购买社会组织服务的动因、困境和策略

随着我国社会经济的不断发展和改革力度的不断加强,对政府提供公共服务的要求也在不断的提高,政府购买社会组织服务已经成为政府提供公共服务的重要途径之一。但由于我国政府在购买社会组织服务方面起步较晚,还存在很多的不足如购买范围不明确,缺乏相应的法律和制度的规范,实施效果不能得到有效的监督和评估,社会组织力量薄弱等。因此需要建立一个科学的决策机制,规范相应的法律法规,加强对社会组织的培育和监督。     

Firm-hosted online brand communities and new product success

Many firms use online brand communities to support the launch of their new products. This study proposes a typology of firm-hosted online brand communities and examines whether such a classification system can improve predictions of new product success. A cross-industry analysis of 81 firm-hosted online brand communities shows that these communities reflect three archetypes. A subsequent survey of 170 community-hosting firms in the consumer durable goods industry reveals that the three types of communities are not equally important for new product success. Moreover, one archetype generally underperforms the other two as a new product support mechanism. Overall, the results demonstrate that firm-hosted online brand communities can be a predictor of new product success.     

The influence of price,store name,and brand name on perception of product quality

The relationship between product price and perceived product quality has been developed extensively in the literature. Less work has been done to investigate the possible effects of other variables in combination with price as perceived-quality influentials. This paper examines the effect on perceived product quality of price, brand name and store name. The results tend to confirm the hypothesis that consumer quality perception is dependent on a combination of controllable marketing attributes, but that not all classes of products are subject to the same type of interaction.     

The influence of C2C communications in online brand communities on customer purchase behavior

Increasingly, consumers use the internet as a vehicle for pre-purchase information gathering. While technical specifications and potentially biased selling points can be gleaned from corporate web sites, online brand communities are becoming essential conduits for the customer-to-customer (C2C) sharing of product information and experiences. This study develops and tests a model of online C2C communications in developing desirable online brand community outcomes. Two studies were used to test the model. In Study 1, a netnography technique was employed and conversations between brand community members were coded and combined with survey data to test the research model. In Study 2 an experiment was conducted to further test the sequence of events in our base model. Our findings show that online brand communities are effective tools for influencing sales, regardless of whether these communities reside on company-owned or independently-owned websites. In addition, we demonstrate interesting asymmetrical effects, whereby the positive information shared by community members has a stronger moderating influence on purchase behavior than negative information. Further, we find that online brand communities are effective customer retention tools for retaining both experienced and novice customers. These findings highlight the need for all firms to carefully consider their online community strategies.     

The accuracy of brand and attribute judgments: The role of information relevancy, product experience, and attribute-relationship schemata

A multidimensional approach for accuracy of ratings is introduced that examines consumers’ abilities to assess various brands across a set of attributes and attribute performances across a set of brands. A model is presented that addresses the roles of the relevancy of information, attribute-relationship schemata, and consumers’ product category experience on the accuracy of their brand attribute ratings. Study participants were provided either with relevant or irrelevant attribute information for various automobile brands and later asked to rate the attribute performances of brands. The results indicate that the provision of relevant information in the judgment environment increases brand and attribute rating accuracy but does not favorably affect consumers’ brand attribute-relationship schemata. Rather, consumers’ product experience was directly related to their attribute-relationship schemata, which in turn were related to improved accuracy of brand and attribute ratings. Kevin Mason is an associate professor of marketing at Arkansas Tech University. His research interests include consumer information processing and choice strategies. He has published in theJournal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Central Business Review, Journal for the Association of Marketing Educators, andInternational Advances in Economics Research. Thomas Jensen is professor and Wal-Mart lecturer in retailing in the Department of Marketing and Transportation at the University of Arkansas. His research interests include consumer information processing, advertising and price perceptions, and retail image and patronage. His work has been published in theJournal of Consumer Research, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Psychology and Marketing, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Research, and other journals. Scot Burton is professor and Wal-Mart chairholder in marketing, Department of Marketing and Transportation, University of Arkansas. His research interests include public policy and consumer welfare concerns, survey research measurement issues, and consumer price and promotion perceptions. His work has been published in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Public Opinion Quarterly, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Journal of Retailing, and other journals. Dave Roach is a professor of management at Arkansas Tech University. His research interests include information processing, judgmental accuracy, and organization change. He has published inHuman Relations, Journal of Applied Psychology, International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, Journal of Information Technology Management, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Central Business Review, andJournal for the Association of Marketing Educators.     

Branding strategies,marketing communication,and perceived brand meaning: The transfer of purposive,goal-oriented brand meaning to brand extensions

This article develops and tests a conceptual model of the transfer process whereby perceived similarity organized around shared goals facilitates the transfer of knowledge and affect from a parent brand to an extension of that brand. Empirical results, based on two well-known brands and two hypothetical product extensions for each brand, demonstrate that the availability of well-formed, goal-derived categories associated with a parent brand establishes an organizing framework for consumers' assessments of similarity thatfacilitates the transfer of consumer knowledge and attitude from the parent brand to a brand extension in another product category. This facilitating effect of similarity does not occur in the absence of goal-derived categories. The results also reveal how marketing communication can be used to facilitate the transfer process by framing similarity in terms of common goals. Implications are discussed for the organization of consumer knowledge and affect across product categories and for understanding prior research findings on brand extension. Ingrid M. Martin (imartin@csulb.edu) is an associate professor of marketing at California State University at Long Beach. Her research has examined issues in the area of consumer goals as they guide structuring and processing marketing information, product choice and usage. Her research has been published in theJournal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Public Policy & Research, and five book chapters. David W. Stewart (david.stewart@marshall.usc.edu) is the Robert E. Brooker Professor of Marketing in the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. He is the immediate past editor of theJournal of Marketing. Dr. Stewart has authored or co-authored more than 200 publications and seven books. Shashi Matta (matta@marshall.usc.edu) is a doctoral candidate in marketing at the Marshal School of Business, University of Southern California. His research interests include branding, and services marketing. Shashi’s research has been published in theJournal of Consumer Research.     

Implications of accurate usage of nutrition facts panel information for food product evaluations and purchase intentions

The nutrition facts panel on food packages was designed to provide comprehensible quantitative nutrition information that would allow consumers to make more informed food choices that could result in significant long-term health benefits. This study (1) examines how accurately consumers can use nutrient information in the facts panel to determine if a product has more or less than the recommended daily values of certain nutrients and (2) offers predictions and tests of the relationships between this usage ability and product nutrition evaluations and purchase intentions. Results show that more accurate use moderates the effect of product nutrition value on consumer evaluations, as predicted. Findings also reveal that several variables (e.g., measures of nutrition knowledge, attitude toward the “facts” label) are related to accuracy in the usage task. Implications based on these findings are offered. Scot Burton is a professor and Wal-Mart chairholder in the Department of Marketing and Transportation at the University of Arkansas. His research interests include public policy and consumer welfare concerns, consumer price and promotion perceptions, and survey research measurement issues. His work has been published in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Public Opinion Quarterly, Journal of Applied Psychology, and other journals. Judith A. Garretson is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Marketing and Transportation at the University of Arkansas. Her research interests include promotion issues public policy and consumer welfare, and consumer behavior in general. Her work has appeared in journals including theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, and theJournal of Professional Services Marketing, as well as in conference proceedings such as the American Marketing Association and the Association for Consumer Research. Anne M. Velliquette is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Marketing and Transportation at the University of Arkansas. Her research interests include consumer behavior and public policy. She has published in theJournal of Public Policy & Marketing, Journal of Professional Services Marketing, and proceedings of the Association for Consumer Research as well as other conference proceedings and journals.     

农产品区域品牌视角下的家庭农场发展模式研究

基于农产品区域品牌化发展的视角,通过研究了农产品区域品牌化发展对推动家庭农场在农业发展、农业企业发展和农民增收方面的促进作用,从而构建了基于发展农产品区域品牌的家庭农产发展新型模式。并提出加大农产品区域品牌的扶持力度,制定重点产业产品支持和扶持培养龙头家庭农场的政策建议。     

Quality uncertainty,brand reliance,and dissipative advertising

Consumers may have learned to generalize from usage experiences that nationally advertised, name-brand items tend to be higher in quality than unadvertised brands. Such generalization may have prompted the substitution of brand-name evaluations for search in quality assessments of nondurable experience goods. This paper offers theoretical arguments which suggest that if some consumers do not search, all firms in nondurable, experience goods markets can increase their profits if some substitute dissipative advertising (i.e., advertising which ignores information about product performance characteristics) of brand names for product quality enhancements. Undersearching by consumers invites firms to downgrade value in nondurable, experience goods markets. In support of the hypothesized substitution by consumers of brand-name evaluations for search in nondurable, experience goods markets, this paper reports results of a field experiment in which the influences on quality assessments of brand name and product composition were studied in two categories where dissipative advertising is heavily relied upon. Results suggest that branding is relied upon more heavily than search to assess quality, even when brand cues are inconsistent with actual quality levels and search is costless, suggesting that dissipative advertising can be extremely effective.     

Product-, corporate-, and country-image dimensions and purchase behavior: A multicountry analysis

This research focuses on consumer perceptions that are developed on the basis of a firm’s advertising appeals as well as other factors. In conceptualizing brand-image perceptions, the authors extend the frequent use of productrelated images to include corporate and country images attached to brands. The authors report findings based on secondary economic and cultural data at the macro level and the results of a global brand-image survey conducted in the top 20 international automobile markets at the individual level. The findings suggest that while consumers’ attitudes toward corporate image and country image exert main effects on their brand purchase behavior, the effects of certain product-image appeals are moderated by sociodemographics and national cultural characteristics. The empirical results are broadly supportive of the proposed hypotheses and provide a consumer-based extension of Roth’s work on global brand image. Ming-Huei Hsieh (hmh@saturn.yzu.edu.tw), Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of International Business, Yuan Ze University, Taiwan. She has obtained her Ph.D degree (2002) from Warwick Business school of the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. Prior to her Ph.D. study, she conducted several market research projects for major multinationals, including General Motors, Procter & Gamble, Bayer, Johnson & Johnson, and Prudential in Taiwan. She is currently studying a variety of topics in cross-national consumer research. Specifically, she is exploring topics in brand management. She is also interested in the areas of Internet marketing and customer relationship management (CRM). She has articles published in theJournal of International Marketing, theJournal of Product and Brand Management, and theJournal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce. Shan-Ling Pan (pansl@comp.nus.edu.sg), Ph.D., is an assistant professor and the coordinator of the Knowledge Management Laboratory (http://kmlab.comp.nus.edu.sg) in the Department of Information Systems of the School of computing at the National University of Singapore. He received his MBA degree (1993) from the University of Texas at San Antonio, his MA degree (1996) from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), and his Ph.D. degree (2000) from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. His primary research focuses on the recursive interaction of organizations and information technology (enterprise systems), with particular emphasis on organizational issues such as work practices, cultures, structures, decision making, change, and strategy implementation. His research work has been published inInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Transaction on Engineering Management, theJournal of the American Society for Information Systems and Technology Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery, Information and Organization, theJournal of Strategic Information Systems, theEuropean Journal of Information Systems, andDecision Support Systems. Rudy Setiono (rudys@comp.nus.edu.sg) received his Bachelor of Science degree from Eastern Michigan University and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1984, 1986, and 1990, respectively. He has been with the National University of Singapore since 1990 and he is currently an associate professor in the School of Computing. His research interests include linear programming, nonlinear optimization, and neural networks. He is a senior member of IEEE and serves as an associate editor ofIEEE Transactions on Neural Networks. His publications have appeared in theSIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, theEuropean Journal of Operational Research, theJournal of Optimization Theory and Applications, IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks, IEEE Transactions on Data and Knowledge Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics, Neural Computation, Neurocomputing, Connection Science, Management Science, and many other reputable journals.     

An examination of the effects of perceived difficulty of manufacturing the extension product on brand extension attitudes

This paper examines the relationship between extension difficulty, defined as the perceived difficulty of manufacturing the extension product, and attitudes toward brand extensions. Although extant literature has hitherto modeled this relationship as a simple monotonic relationship, a study by Bottomley and Holden (Journal of Marketing Research, 38(4):494–500, 2001) has questioned its empirical generalizability. We suggest that the relationship between extension difficulty and extension attitudes may be far more complex than a simple linear relationship. Based on theoretical evidence drawn from the concept of evaluation difficulty, we suggest that the relationship between extension difficulty and extension attitudes is best modeled as a curvilinear (inverted U-shaped) relationship. Further, we explore the specific role of perceived transferability as a moderator of this curvilinear relationship. Empirical tests conducted using two studies provide support for both the theoretical mechanism and the proposed hypotheses. Entry into “easy” or “extremely difficult” extension categories carries its own penalties while entry into “moderately difficult” categories appears to garner high consumer attitudes for brand extensions.     

Brand portfolio, corporate image, and reputation: Managing brand deletions

Brand portfolio management addresses, among other issues, the interrelated questions of what brands to add, retain, or delete. A small number of brands in a firm’s brand portfolio can often have a disproportionately large positive or negative impact on its image and reputation and the responses of stakeholders. Brand deletions can be critical from the standpoint of a firm being able to free up resources to redeploy toward enhancing the competitive standing and financial performance of brands in its portfolio with the greatest potential to positively affect its image and reputation. Against this backdrop, the authors focus on the organizational and environmental drivers of brand deletion propensity, the predisposition of a firm to delete a particular brand from its brand portfolio. The authors propose a conceptual model delineating the drivers of brand deletion propensity and suggest directions for future research, including the related concept of brand deletion intensity. Rajan Varadarajan (varadarajan@tamu.edu) is Distinguished Professor of Marketing and holder of the Ford Chair in Marketing and E-Commerce in the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University. His primary teaching and research interest is in the area of strategy. His research on strategy has been published in theJournal of Marketing, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theAcademy of Management Journal, theStrategic Management Journal, and other journals. Rajan served as editor of theJournal of Marketing from 1993 to 1996 and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science from 2000 to 2003. He currently serves on the editorial review boards of theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of International Marketing, theJournal of Interactive Marketing and other journals. He is a recipient of a number of honors and awards, including the Academy of Marketing Science Distinguished Marketing Educator Award (2003), the American Marketing Association Mahajan Award for Career Contributions to Marketing Strategy (2003), and the Texas A&M University Distinguished Achievement Award in Research (1994). Mark P. DeFanti (mdefanti@tamu.edu) is a doctoral student in marketing at Texas A&M University. He received his M.B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin and his B.A. from Amherst College. His current research interests include brand portfolio management, corporate name changes, and business-to-business branding. His teaching interests include advertising, brand management, and marketing strategy. Paul S. Busch (p-busch@tamu.edu) is a professor of marketing in the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University. He received his Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University. His research has been published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, Decision Sciences, theJournal of Business Research, andBusiness Horizons. He serves on the editorial review boards of theJournal of Business-to-Business Marketing, theAsian Journal of Marketing, andMarketing Management. His research interests include buyer-seller relationships, business-to-business branding, and brand portfolio management. His teaching interests include promotional strategy and new product development.     

The effect of employee behavior on brand personality impressions and brand attitudes

This research examines how consumers update their brand personality impressions and brand attitudes after interacting with one of the brand's employees. Drawing on stereotyping theory, the author develops a framework that proposes that the impact of an employee's behavior depends on how the employee is categorized. When the employee is considered primarily as an exemplar of the brand's workforce, his or her behavior is generalized more strongly to the brand. When, however, the employee is judged as a relatively unique individual (i.e., when the employee is subtyped), the behavior is not transferred to the brand to the full extent. The results of three studies provide converging evidence and show that the degree to which consumers subtype an employee is determined by the amount of information they possess about the employee, the extent to which they depend on the employee, and their motivation to form an accurate impression. The findings have direct implications for marketers interested in understanding how employees affect the brands they represent.

文化创意企业品牌延伸对母品牌形象回溯影响研究

以文化创意企业品牌联想和品牌延伸契合度为基础,把延伸的品牌划分为知名品牌和一般品牌,把延伸距离划分为近延伸和远延伸,通过问卷调查的方式,用spss17．0统计分析工具中的相关分析及回归分析,在形成的2 x2矩阵中研究消费者对于企业延伸的接受性,并判断品牌延伸对母品牌形象的影响程度,便于文化创意企业品牌延伸的过程中,充分利用相关影响要素,避免资金、人力等方面的浪费,提高品牌延伸的成功率,达到稳步提高文化创意企业核心竞争力的目的。     

Materialism, status signaling, and product satisfaction

The consumer satisfaction literature has not, for the mos part, integrated individual values into the product evaluation process. Yet a comprehensive understanding of consumer satisfaction can best be attained by including both consumer and product factors. To demonstrate the usefulness of including individual values, this research focuses on one consumer value, namely, materialism. The authors empirically explore how this individual value is linked to consumers’ evaluations of products they have purchased. Using surveys, the authors collected data from a sample of college students (n=211) and a sample of adults (n=270). Across these two studies, using divergent samples and products, they find consistent evidence that materialism is negatively related to product satisfaction in product categories with high potential for status signaling, but unrelated to product satisfaction in product categories with lower potential for status signaling. The consumption goals that produce these product evaluations are empirically addressed Jeff Wang (jianfeng76@yahoo.com; PhD, City University of Hong Kong) is an assistant professor of marketing in the Faculty of Business at the City University of Hong Kong. This work was conducted when he was a doctoral student of marketing in the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona. His research interests include social networks and consumer behavior, consumer satisfaction and well-being, materialism and consumption meanings, and consumer interests and public policy issues. His dissertation studies credit card debt as a socially embedded phenomenon and investigates how consumers leverage their interpersonal ties as they accumulate and repay their debt. Melanie Wallendorf (mwallendorf@eller.arizona.edu) is Soldwedel Professor of Marketing in the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona. She holds an MS in sociology and a PhD in marketing from the University of Pittsburgh. Her articles on the sociocultural aspects of consumption have been published in theJournal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Advertising and Society Review, Addiction, Journal of Macromarketing, andAmerican Behavioral Scientist, among others. Her coauthored article on “The Sacred and Profane in Consumer Behavior” won theJournal of Consumer Research Best Article Award in 1992. Her research has been featured in theWall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, American Demographics, andFortune, and has been funded by the Marketing Science Institute, the Arizona Disease Control Research Commission, and the Office of Earth Science at NASA.     

Bias and variability in purchase intention scales

Although purchase intention scales are widely used, relatively little is known about bias and variability in the estimated purchase proportions. Psychometric techniques have been developed to correct for such problems, and analytical approaches have shown that most predictive errors can be explained as probabilistic variability. However, there is a lack of systematic empirical work in the area. We address this problem using two meta-analyses of published work. Our results show that purchase intention scales are empirically unbiased. Furthermore, the variability is much less than previously assumed. This finding improves the confidence researchers can have in the use of such scales. Interestingly, purchase probability scales performed even better than purchase intention scales. The greater precision of probability scales suggests that they may be more useful both as direct measures of likely behavior and as dependent variables in consumer behavior research.     

Effects of loyalty programs on value perception,program loyalty,and brand loyalty

The authors investigate how reward schemes of a loyalty program influence perceived value of the program and how value perception of the loyalty program affects customer loyalty. The results show that involvement moderates the effects of loyalty programs on customer loyalty. In high-involvement situations, direct rewards are preferable to indirect rewards. In low-involvement situations, immediate rewards are more effective in building a program's value than delayed rewards. Under high-involvement conditions, value perception of the loyalty program influences brand loyalty both directly and indirectly through program loyalty. Under low-involvement conditions, there is no direct effect of value perception on brand loyalty. Youjae Yi (uoujae@snu.ac.kr) (Ph.D., Stanford University, 1987) is a professor of marketing in the College of Business Administration at Seoul National University. He was at the University of Michigan as an assistant professor, Sanford Robertson Assistant Professor, and tenured associate professor. His work has appeared in theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Applied Psychology, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Consumer Psychology, theJournal of Advertising, and theJournal of Econometrics. He is currently an editor of theKorean Journal of Consumer Studies and was an editor of theSeoul Journal of Business. Hoseong Jeon (jeonho1@snu.ac.kr) is a doctoral candidate in the College of Business Administration at Seoul National University. He received his M.A. in advertising from Michigan Sate University. His current research interests include customer relationship management, advertising effects on consumer attitudes, and determinants of customer loyalty.     

Transcendent customer experience and brand community

Transcendent customer experiences (TCEs), which have aspects of flow and/or peak experience, can generate lasting shifts in beliefs and attitudes, including subjective self-transformation. With data from a pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental field experiment we examine the impact of TCEs on customers’ integration in a brand community. Because TCEs are highly desirable and valued for their own sake, customers value marketing activities they perceive as instrumental to them. This study demonstrates that a TCE in the context of a marketer-facilitated consumption activity can strengthen a person’s ties to a brand community, delivering a particularly strong form of brand loyalty. Alternate phone numbers for James H. McAlexander.