Reliability and cross-validity of trade-off analysis in an industrial setting

More than 200 applications of trade-off analysis now have been completed. A review of the literature uncovers only four sources that evaluate the reliability or validity, or both, of trade-off analysis using the concept evaluation approach. Detailed evaluations of trade-off analysis based on trade-off grid data are unavailable. This paper reports reliability and cross-validity experience using this approach.     

Impulsive consumer buying as a result of emotions

The concept of impulse buying is discussed and characterized as encompassing purchases with high emotional activation, low cognitive control, and a largely reactive behavior. A study is conducted to investigate whether emotions causing impulse buying can be identified empirically by interview data and observation of the mimical expression of buyers and nonbuyers. The results support the validity of the techniques employed.     

Disconfirmation processes and consumer evaluations in product usage

Recent works on satisfaction theory have shown that disconfirmation plays a major role in the determination of satisfaction levels. Less, however, is known about the mental process used by consumers to form disconfirmation cognitions. This study operationalized and tested the role of two types of disconfirmation, inferential and overall (perceived), on the satisfaction of appetite suppressant users after first trial and repeat usage situations. Results showed that overall perceptions mediated the relationship between inferred disconfirmation and satisfaction in both time frames, as hypothesized.     

Consumer habit forming,information acquisition,and buying behavior

Based on the three stages of consumer decision making proposed by Howard, this study analyzes the influences of consumer habit formation on information acquisition, stored information, and buying behavior. Using a sample of women having or expecting their first child, their habit formation with regard to three baby-related products is assessed. The data confirm most of the hypotheses derived from the theoretical model. Implications for marketing are discussed.     

Perceived industrial innovation advantage and export commitment

There are increasingly sales opportunities for capital equipment in developing countries. Concomitantly, concern is that capital intensive technologies are too widely employed. Yet there has been little reported empirical research on why LDC manufacturers choose specific equipment. Textile manufacturers accounting for a significant part of Peru's spinning and weaving capacities participated in this study by providing perceptions of two capital versus labor intensive technologies capable of producing identical output. Exporters and nonexporters scores, using a five-point scale, were compared by t tests on 19 equipment attributes selected from innovation diffusion studies. Factor analysis determined innovations underlying dimensions. Factor scores were regressed on export commitment proxies. Higher export dependence related to more concern with ease of altering output specifications and less concern with cost, thus supporting that dependence on foreign versus domestic markets will affect equipment decisions. The method of comparing product attribute perceptions provides a simple possibility for segmenting LDC capital equipment markets.     

Product familiarity and information processing strategies: An exploratory investigation

A theoretical and empirical examination of the relationship between product class familiarity and usage of information processing strategies is presented. Four major dimensions of information processing strategies are identified and used to conceptualize the linkage between product class familiarity and usage of particular strategies. Research hypotheses are tested in an exploratory study using a laboratory choice situation. Implications of the study with respect to usage of specific strategies and for future research are discussed.     

Integer goal programming model for the implementation of multiple corporate objectives

The problem of long-range planning and investment project evaluation is complicated by the presence of multiple conflicting goals measured in incommensurable units, indivisibility of alternative projects, and the desire of management to consider mutually exclusive marketing-pricing strategies. The model proposed in this study attempts to allow for these complexities through the use of integer goal programming. It is the hope of the authors that this model will provide management with an additional decision-making tool for implementation of multiple corporate objectives.     

Using simultaneous latent structure models to analyze group differences: Exploratory analysis of buying style items

This article shows how methods for simultaneous latent structure analysis can be used to test for intergroup differences in unobservable characteristics. In many respects these techniques are similar to those for simultaneous factor analysis. To show how these methods can be used, we analyze data obtained from the 1979 Study of Media and Markets collected by the Simmons Market Research Bureau. Five dichotomized items pertaining to buying style attitudes were chosen as “indicators” of a latent variable (or variables): brand loyalty, willingness to experiment, degree of conformity to buying style of others, persuadibility, and style consciousness. The sample was composed of full-time employed, married, white females in the middle social class categories recognized on the survey. Two groups were compared in terms of latent structure model parameters. The first group consisted of those who work “at a career” and the second consisted of those whose work was “just a job.” Using the methods advocated here there is no significant difference between these two groups once the “brand loyalty” item is excluded. The model-search procedure takes account of within-group contributions to lack of fit. Generalizations of this procedure may be useful in exploratory analysis using the simultaneous latent structure model.     

The linking pin role in organizational buying centers

The buying center concept has been widely accepted in the organizational buying behavior literature. Nevertheless, the application of the concept in empirical investigations has been limited in scope. Most research has examined either the composition of the buying center or the influence processes operating within it. The intraorganizational dynamics (among members of the buying center) and the interorganizational dynamics (between buying center members and outside organizations) have been ignored in buying center research. Common to these two sets of relationships is the presence of a “linking pin” or “boundary role” person.The purposes of this paper are twofold. The first is to suggest the concept of the “linking pin” role in a buying center and to highlight the conceptual importance of this role in furthering the understanding and prediction of organizational buying processes and outcomes. Explication of this role should also lead to an enriched conceptualization of the relationships between the buying and selling organizations. The second objective is to report on the results of some initial empirical investigations into the role of a designated linking pin in hospital buying centers. These results offer preliminary evidence of the value of the linking pin concept.     

Linear processing in a semantic network: An alternative view of consumer product evaluation

While the linear model has been very successful in explaining the product evaluation process of consumers, it is quite uncertain what the model actually means in terms of underlying cognitive processes. An alternative model is developed, based on semantic network models developed in the psychology of memory, and used to explain the product evaluation process. It is shown that in certain cases this model leads to an information integration process structurally similar to the lineat model.     

Risk distribution and bonding mechanisms in industrial marketing

This paper models the interactive process of planning, negotiating, selling, and putting into operation a highly complex technical object as a “precarious partnership.” The process consists of several steps or phases. Typically, the participants in such a process are in different relative positions of strength and especially information. For the weaker side, these differences usually bring about the danger of being exploited by the other side. If the interactive process consisted of isolated phases only, this danger could prevent the interaction. However, in the course of the entire process, the relative positions are repeatedly switched. This fact influences incentives, behavior, and expectations of both sides, which in return reduces the potential confilict over time, strengthens the mutual commitment, and limits the risks of cooperation to the extent that cooperation becomes possible and reasonable. Many procedural and institutional characteristics of the marketing of complex technical objects fit into this interpretation. The method of analysis used in this article could help to narrow the gap between marketing science and the economic analysis of market processes.     

Marketing of noncommercial test institutions

A marketing concept for nonprofit or noncommercial institutions conducting comparative product tests is developed. Special emphasis is placed on a coordination of sales and acquisition marketing. The German “Stiftung Warentest” serves as a example. Its unique aspects in both producing and dissemination a nontangible good, namely information, raise a number of interesting and different issues in which the marketing concept can be creatively adapted so as to further institutional goals.