Measuring personal cultural orientations: scale development and validation

Cross-cultural studies using Hofstede’s national scores to operationalize his five cultural factors at an individual level suffer from ecological fallacy, and those using self-report scales treat cultural factors as unidimensional constructs and provide little or no evidence of the construct validity and measurement equivalence of these scales. This paper reconceptualizes Hofstede’s five cultural factors as ten personal cultural orientations and develops a new 40-item scale to measure them. It also establishes the validity, reliability, and cross-cultural measurement equivalence of the new scale, and discusses its advantages over other scales.     

SERVCON: development and validation of a multidimensional service convenience scale

As customers have demanded greater convenience in service exchanges, researchers have responded by incorporating the convenience construct into their conceptual models and empirical studies, but a comprehensive, formally validated measure of convenience remains lacking. This study conceptualizes service convenience as a second-order, five-dimensional construct that reflects consumers’ perceived time and effort in purchasing or using a service. Service convenience dimensions are salient at different stages of the purchase decision process. Given this conceptualization, the study presents the development and validation of the SERVCON scale, a comprehensive instrument for measuring service convenience. The five dimensions are independent within a nomological network that illustrates distinct antecedent and consequent effects, and the results reinforce the multidimensional representation, offering insight into the distinctive relationships between each service convenience dimension and its antecedents, such as competitive intensity, and consequences, such as repurchase behavior. The findings help researchers and managers understand a fully conceptualized convenience construct and facilitate the measurement of convenience in future empirical studies.     

Customer-based corporate reputation of a service firm: scale development and validation

Although corporate reputation has attracted significant attention among marketing scholars, current measures of it do not adequately capture the perceptions of the most important stakeholder group, customers, and often overlook its relationship to important customer-outcome variables. In this article, we identify dimensions of customer-based corporate reputation and develop scales to measure these dimensions (Study 1). Based on comprehensive validation procedures across three service firm types, we found support for a five-dimensional scale with the following dimensions: Customer Orientation, Good Employer, Reliable and Financially Strong Company, Product and Service Quality, and Social and Environmental Responsibility. In Study 2, using a second sample, we validate our scale and examine its relationship with important customer-outcome variables—customer satisfaction, loyalty, trust, and word of mouth. Most of the reputation dimensions were strongly associated with important outcome variables, with a few exceptions. We discuss the results with reference to the marketing implications.

The measurement of intergenerational communication and influence on consumption: Development, validation, and cross-cultural comparison of the IGEN scale

This article develops and validates measures of intergenerational communication and influence about consumption. Despite the widespread belief that parents play a pivotal role in the consumer socialization of their children, empirical research on the skills, attitudes, and preferences transmitted from one generation to the next is quite limited. One factor that may explain this deficiency is the lack of appropriate instruments for assessing intergenerational issues. Drawing on consumer socialization theory and research, intergenerational transmission is defined in terms of three components directly relevant to marketplace transactions: (1) consumer skills, (2) preferences, and (3) attitudes toward marketer-supplied information. Multi-item scales are developed to measure each of these components. The findings of three studies supporting the reliability, dimensionality, and validity of the intergenerational scales are reported. Validation efforts incorporate cross-cultural analyses from the United States and Thailand, as well as dyadic-level comparisons between parents and children. Madhubalan Viswanathan is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Illinois. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. His research interests include consumer psychology and measurement. His research appears in several journals including theJournal of Consumer Psychology, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Applied Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, andPsychology and Marketing. He serves on the editorial review boards of theJournal of Consumer Psychology andPsychology and Marketing. Terry L. Childers is a professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. His research interests include visual information processing, measurement, and psychometrics. His work has been published in several journals including theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Consumer Psychology, and theJournal of Mental Imagery. He serves on the editorial review boards of theJournal of Consumer Research and theJournal of Business Research. Elizabeth S. Moore is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Notre Dame. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Florida. Her research interests include consumer decision processes within the household, the effects of advertising and promotion on children, as well as marketing and society issues. Her work has been published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Consumer Research (in press), and theJournal of Macromarketing, as well as other books and conference proceedings.     

A measure of long-term orientation: Development and validation

Long-term orientation (LTO) is a salient aspect of national culture values and as such influences consumers’ decisionmaking processes. This article describes the development and validation of measures to assess LTO. Scale development procedures resulted in a two-factor, eight-item scale that reflects the tradition and planning aspects of LTO. A program of studies involving more than 2,000 respondents in four countries demonstrated the psychometric properties of the measures, their discriminant and convergent validities, and the relationship of the measures to other important theoretical concepts (e.g., consumer frugality, compulsive buying, and ethical values). The measures are applicable for investigating individual differences in LTO both within and across cultures. William O. Bearden (bbearden@moore.sc.edu) is the Bank of America Chaired Professor of Marketing in the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. His articles have been published in journals such as theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Marketing, the Journal of Marketing Research, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and theJournal of Retailing. His research interests include consumer perceptions of value and prices, the measurement of consumer and marketing constructs, and the effects of marketplace promotions. R. Bruce Money (moneyb@byu.edu) is the Donald Staheli Fellow and an associate professor of marketing and international business in the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University. His articles have been published in journals such as theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of International Business Studies, andSloan Management Review. His research interests include the international aspects of national culture’s measurement and effects, business-to-business marketing, word-of-mouth promotion, services marketing, and negotiation. Jennifer L. Nevins (nevinsjl@appstate.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing in the Walker College of Business at Appalachian State University. Her research interests include export marketing, distribution channels, and the influence of cultural values on international channel relationships.     

A cross-country construct validation of cognitive age

This study tests the universality of the Western-based concept known as cognitive age within Japan. It assesses both the internal and external validity of cognitive age among Japanese seniors and compares the findings to the same measures of cognitive age with a sample of senior respondents from the United States. The study finds that the semantic differential scale has the largest trait variance among all aging concepts studied (average cognitive age, average ideal age, and average least-desired age), while the Likert scale possesses the largest trait variance for average cognitive age. The ratio scale was found to have the lowest trait variance of the three scaling formats evaluated. External construct validation studies revealed a remarkable similarity between Japanese females and males, and contrasts between Japanese and American seniors revealed reasonably good generalizability between countries. Average cognitive age appears to be universal within two culturally disjoint countries (the United States and Japan), yet the efficacy of individual measurement scales varies between them. Stuart Van Auken (svanauke@fgcu.edu; PhD) is an Eminent Scholar and holder of the Alico Chair in Marketing at Florida Gulf Coast University. His previous research has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Psychology and Marketing, Journal of Advertising, andJournal of Advertising Research, among others. His current research interests are in psychological aging, across-class associational advertising, and pedagogical issues. He currently serves on the editorial review boards of theJournal of Marketing Education and theMarketing Education Review. Thomas E. Barry (tbarry@mail.smu.edu; PhD) is professor of marketing in the Cox School of Business and vice president for executive affairs at Southern Methodist University. His previous research has been published in theJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Advertising, andJournal of Advertising Research, among others. His current research interests are in psychological aging, word-of-mouth advertising, and brand-equity issues. He currently serves on the editorial boards of theJournal of Interactive Advertising, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, andJournal of Advertising. Richard P. Bagozzi (bagozzi@rice.edu; PhD) is the J. Hugh Liedtke Professor of Management in the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management, and professor of psychology, in the Department of Psychology, at Rice University. His current research investigates goal setting and goal striving, social identity, group decision-making processes, emotions, and the role of desire in action. These research topics are studied in such contexts as organizational identification, brand and virtual communities, sales force behavior, Black ethnicity, affirmative action, decision making by hypertensive patients, decision making in pharmaceutical and therapeutics committees, and exercising and dieting.     

A structural assessment of the original and a modified version of the CAD scale

Validation of Cohen's CAD scale was attempted on a sample similar to that used in the scale's original development. Results were not in accord with the underlying theory. This prompted an attempt to refine the CAD instrument by deletion of ineffective items. The revised scale was examined for reliability and validity. Results were sufficiently weak to suggest that marketers should have diminished confidence in applying CAD as a measure of interpersonal orientation and should initiate development of other approaches for personality assessment.     

国债的规模控制与管理问题研究

我国改革以来国债规模的现状是：债务依存度和偿债率过大,债务负担率偏发行不仅没有起到应有的经济调控效应,反而对20年来的经济过热起到了“推波助澜”的作用。为此,我们得出结论：国债的累积规模不大但发行规模过大,当务之急是降低国债的发行规模。当然,通过财政的增收节支可以控制国债的发行规律,但在我国目前可行性却不大。当前,我们只能通过加强国债管理的方式解决我国国债规模问题,具体措施有：实现国债期限结构的合理化;进一步推进国债品种的创新;积极培育和完善国债流通市场;适当增加国外公债的比例;适时发展地方公债等。     

对加速中小企业发展的思考

为了应对日趋激烈的国际经济竞争，不少大型企业走优势互补、强强联合之路；中小企业在市场经济中怎样发挥快捷灵活的作用，怎样发展壮大?是一个非常值得关注的问题：本文就当前中小企业发展所面临的问题进行了比较深入的分析。     

A measure of service quality for retail stores: Scale development and validation

Current measures of service quality do not adequately capture customers’ perceptions of service quality for retail stores (i.e., stores that offer a mix of goods and services). A hierarchical factor structure is proposed to capture dimensions important to retail customers based on the retail and service quality literatures as well as three separate qualitative studies. Confirmatory factor analysis based on the partial disaggregation technique and cross-validation using a second sample support the validity of the scale as a measure of retail service quality. The implications of this Retail Service Quality Scale for practitioners, as well as for future research, are discussed. She received her Ph.D. from Georgia State University. Her research interests include attitude and choice models, service quality and customer satisfaction issues, technology in service delivery, and business-to-business relationships. She has published articles in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction, and Complaining Behavior, Journal of Health Care Management, International Journal of Research in Marketing, andPsychology and Marketing, as well as in various conference proceedings. She also holds a B.S. and an M.S. from Florida State University and an M.B.A. from Mercer University. Her research interests include services marketing, service quality, retailing, and manager-employee relationships. Her publications include articles in theJournal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction, and Complaining Behavior, The Service Industries Journal, and in various conference proceedings. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. His research interests include cohort analysis, measurement issues, generalizability studies, and customer satisfaction. He has published articles in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, as well as in several conference proceedings.     

Customer evaluation of retail salespeople utilizing the SOCO scale: A replication,extension, and application

Measuring retail salesperson performance is a critical, though relatively neglected research issue. We suggest that the SOCO scale may be an appropriate tool for measuring salesperson performance from the buyer’s perspective. Therefore, a replication of the SOCO scale was undertaken by having consumers evaluate retail salespeople. The SOCO scale items were slightly modified to fit the consumer sample and retail focus of the study. In addition, the number of points on the SOCO response scale was also reduced and the verbal anchors modified to better suit the needs of telephone surveys. Despite these changes, the properties of the scale were found to be strikingly similar to those reported in prior studies. It was recommended that retailers adopt the SOCO scale to measure salesperson performance.     

Reversed-polarity items and scale unidimensionality

A standard procedure in the development of multi-item measurement scales is to incorporate reversed-polarity items to control for and/or identify acquiescence response bias. In spite of the broad acceptance of this approach, very little work has been done to evaluate the impact of reversed-polarity items on the dimensionality of scales. This study empirically evaluates the impact of reversed-polarity items on the unidimensionality of several well-known marketing measures. The authors suggest that use of reversed-polarity items may present a substantive problem for marketing scholars because of the resulting degradation of scale unidimensionality. The existence of this phenomenon is confirmed in a multisurvey, multiscale, binational research design. Implications for marketing scale developers and measurement theoreticians are discussed, theoretical bases that might explain the phenomenon are explored, and further research suggestions are presented. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon in 1989. His current research interests include cross-cultural marketing strategy, sales force management, and psychometrics. He is a previous contributor to theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science and has also been published in theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, International Marketing Review, andEuropean Journal of Marketing, among others. Before receiving his D.B.A. from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, he served in marketing positions for international firms and as marketing chairs for two industry associations. His research interests include product innovation and new product strategy.     

转轨时期我国小农经济改造思想演变与争议

改造小农经济是转轨时期社会主义建设的最艰巨的任务之一。本从家庭经营、规模经营、农业产业化、农村剩余劳动力、农地制度创新等5个方面总结了理论界对小农经济改造的争议与研究，并认为改造小农经济应以邓小平“两个飞跃”理论作为理论基础。     

物业连锁及其规模效应探究

物业管理行业属于第三产业中的服务业。在三十年的发展过程中，物业管理为促进国民经济发展、解决社会就业问题及提升城市居民生活质量等方面做出了重要的贡献。但据调查发现，当前多数物业服务企业生存困难，主要原因之一是企业规模整体偏小。因此，物业服务企业可以通过连锁经营的方式扩大规模，并促成资源共享，从而降低生产成本，实现规模效益。     

新经济时代服务规模与质量的均衡发展

随着经济的发展，文化、娱乐服务业、运输与通讯服务业、保健服务业、维修服务业、公用服务业、商贸服务业、金融保险服务业、科学教育服务业、技术服务业、行政服务业等第三产业在我国的很多地方成了新的经济增长点，带动着城市经济的发展。服务业与消费者日常生活的联系越来越紧密，可以说服务在我们的生活中无处不在。我们在享受服务业给我们提供的便捷的时候，不禁对我国服务业的规模与质量提出了质疑。我国服务业质量整体水平偏低，甚至比发展中国家的平均水平还低，同时服务业总量较少，总体规模较小，随着国际竞争环境的进一步开放，寻求一种服务业规模与质量均衡发展模式，已成了我们亟待思考和解决的问题。     

招商引资与有效执法

资本的逐利性和流动性使得投资行为在地区间具有较强的选择性。政府政策与法规的执行效能对于吸引投资有决定性作用。熵定律作用使行政系统内的无序状态首先在部门之间产生。严重影响了行政执法效率。提高行政执法有效性的关键是形成执法链。要保持行政组织具有活力，必须不断地用制度创新来打破组织内逐步趋于平衡的无序状态。制造出组织内新的秩序即差异，增大负熵值而减少正熵值，用制度创新克服行政效率递减。     

农村人口向城镇"永久性"迁移规模的测算

改革开放以来,由于统计资料的欠缺,我国每年到底有多少农村人口"永久性"地迁移城镇成为城镇常住人口,一直是个谜.利用现有的统计资料,用3种不同的方法对数据缺失年份市镇(城镇)人口自然增长率进行估算,进而测算出1979～2003年历年我国农村人口向城镇"永久性"迁移的规模.     

A scale for measuring attitude toward private label products and an examination of its psychological and behavioral correlates

A measure of consumers’ attitude toward private label brands is developed, and its psychometric properties are assessed. Predictions are then tested regarding relationships between private label attitude and (1) latent perceptual and sales promotion constructs, and (2) purchase behaviors measured in a field setting. The measure is positively related to value consciousness, deal proneness, and smart-shopper self-perceptions, and negatively related to the propensity to be brand loyal and hold price-quality perceptions. Predictive validity of the private label measure is supported by a positive relationship with private label purchases from a grocery store shopping trip. Despite a positive relationship between the latent constructs of private label attitude and deal proneness, the consumer segment that allocated a high percentage of total purchases to private label products made fewer purchases on sale or with a coupon. These findings suggest that consumers may choose between price-related deals and private label purchases. Scot Burton is 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, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Public Opinion Quarterly, theJournal of Applied Psychology, and others. Donald R. Lichtenstein is a professor in the Department of Maketing at the University of Colorado. His research interests include consumer processing of price and sales promotion information and consumer welfare issues related to marketplace choice. His work has been published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Consumer Research, and others. Richard G. Netemeyer is a professor in the Department of Marketing, E. J. Ourso College of Business Administration at Louisiana State University (LSU). He received his Ph.D. in business administration from the University of South Carolina in 1986. Since then, he has been a member of the marketing faculty at LSU. His research interests include measurement and scaling, public policy, maladaptive behaviors, and consumer behavior in general. His research has been published in theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Applied Psychology, theJournal of Public Policy & Marketing, and others. He is also a member of the editorial review boards of theJournal of Consumer Research and theJournal of Public Policy & Marketing. 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 and public policy and consumer welfare. her work has appeared in theJournal of Public Policy & Marketing, theJournal of Professional Services Marketing, and proceedings of the American Marketing Association and Association for Consumer Research.     

Brand personality appeal: conceptualization and empirical validation

A substantial literature stream indicates there are benefits to having a favorable brand personality, such as enhanced brand attitudes and purchase intentions and higher levels of consumer trust and loyalty. Contemporary advertisements and promotional activities by a host of firms demonstrate a managerial belief in the value of establishing a brand personality that mirrors that of branding scholars. Yet extant research has yet to fully evaluate the perceived appeal of brand personality to consumers. This issue is important to managers because it is precisely this level of appeal that influences target consumers’ purchase decisions and helps to sustain the endurance of a brand’s perceived personality between promotional cycles. This article conceptualizes, develops, and validates measures for assessing a consumer’s perception of brand personality appeal (BPA). Three dimensions of BPA (favorability, originality, clarity) emerge and are empirically demonstrated to directly and positively impact consumer purchase intentions.     

The ad creativity cube: conceptualization and initial validation

Advertising creativity is conceptualized as a function of three dimensions—novelty, meaningfulness, and connectedness. Novelty and meaningfulness involve infocentric aspects, while connectedness incorporates the perspective of the audience. The relationship among these dimensions and ad effectiveness, and the linkage of ad creativity level to persuasion is then posited. Two experiments were conducted among 201 undergraduates. The first tested novelty and meaningfulness; while the second tested connectedness and meaningfulness. The results affirm the proposed conceptual framework. Relative to non-novel and meaningful ads, novel and meaningful ads generated higher ad recall, more favorable ad attitudes, and more upbeat feelings. Novel and non-meaningful ads elicited higher recall, more favorable attitudes toward non-claim elements (Aad-nc), and negative feelings, and less favorable ad attutides toward claim elements (Aad-c) than non-novel and non-meaningful ads. Relative to ads that did not connect with the audience, connected ads elicited higher ad recall, more favorable Aad-c under meaningful ads, lower Aad-c under non-meaningful ads, and higher levels of Aad-nc and warm feelings under both meaningful and non-meaningful ads. The authors Swee Hoon Ang, Yih Hwai Lee and Siew Meng Leong are listed alphabetically as each contributed equally to this paper.