The measurement of the relative influence of husband and wife upon a purchase decision

There is some empirical evidence which indicates that current measures of the relative influence of husband and wife upon a purchase decision may not be completely valid. In this paper, a new measure of relative influence is presented. Extent of influence is determined primarily by the extent that one member of the dyad's brand preferences are influenced by the other member or by comparing the brand purchased to the brand preferences of one or both members of the dyad. This measure should be an improvement over current measures because respondents do not need to define the term “influence” with the measure, and because it assumes that an individual may not be able to determine whether an attempt to influence a decision is successful and/or assess whether he or she influences a decision without attempting to do so.