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There are few attempts at empirically validating the effectiveness of brand differentiation, leading to a long-lived debate regarding whether it is a necessary condition for brand success. Drawing from metacognition and decision process theory, the current research suggests that the relationship between perceived differentiation and purchase is stronger when there is a weaker match between the brand’s perceived position and consumers’ purchase goal (i.e. between what the brand stands for and what consumers are seeking). In addition to the condition of purchase goal, consumers’ confidence in their judgement of the brand’s position acts as an additional contingency factor in the relationship between differentiation and purchase. The hypotheses were supported by two studies across common consumer purchase goals: ‘value for money’ and ‘top of the range’ and two product categories, with different adult samples (n1 = 291 and n2 = 283 for the respective studies). Implications for brand communication strategy are discussed.

© 2018 The importance of interpersonal trust in exchange relationships is well-established, and trust is known to have two important and distinct underlying forms, one cognitive, the other affective. Despite this, trust studies often model only the cognitive task-related form and omit the affective form. This article achieves two main objectives. First it demonstrates that interpersonal trust is best considered a bidimensional construct consisting of both cognitive and affective components, and that omitting either form of trust from empirical studies is a conceptual and specification error. Second, we reveal that both forms explain a large amount of variance in the quality of exchange relationships. Also, studies omitting affective trust ignore the more potent of the two trust dimensions. In addition, models examining only one form of trust strongly inflate the apparent effects of that form, and are diagnostically unsound. Our results have important theoretical and managerial implications regarding the conceptualization and measurement of interpersonal trust, and its role in improving the effectiveness of exchange relationships.

© 2017, © Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine two alternative consumer behavioural intention models that have been developed from the marketing and information systems disciplines in a service environment. Specifically, it reports an empirical assessment of the two non-nested structural models in the context of Australian restaurant industry. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a web-based survey by an online research organization and structural equation modelling with AMOS was used to compare the two non-nested behavioural intention models. Findings: This study found that the second model that incorporates expectation-confirmation theory outperformed the first model in terms of model fit with the empirical data. Practical implications: The findings of this study provide service managers with important insights into the appropriate design of service delivery systems to increase consumer satisfaction which, in turn, leads to more positive behavioural intentions. Moreover, the restaurant research setting means that marketing managers in the growing tourism and hospitality industry should benefit from the study findings. Originality/value: This study synthesized two consumer behavioural intention models from different disciplines and provided an approach to the empirical comparison of the non-nested structural models.

© 2013 Taylor & Francis. The evaluation and selection of advertisements with desired levels of attributes such as ethicality, likeability, humour, or information content, can be undertaken using a variety of methods. These include researchers' personal judgments, focus groups, expert panels, and ratings scale approaches. However, there is still no generally accepted systematic evaluation or selection procedure. This paper details a simple but powerful method known as ‘best–worst scaling’ (BWS) to evaluate and select advertisements on criteria of interest. BWS represents an important new tool for advertising researchers, advertising agencies and their clients, communications scholars, and policy makers to evaluate and select advertisements. This paper achieves three ends. First, it critiques existing methods of advertisement evaluation. Second, it demonstrates that BWS has greater validity than existing methods. Third, this is the first paper to present a worked example of how to use BWS, and demonstrate its use in an advertisement evaluation context. Importantly, BWS is not restricted to evaluating advertisements – it can be used to evaluate any items on criteria of interest.

This article examines how the simultaneous use of customer-centric marketing (CCM) and revenue management (RM) affects travelers' perceptions of fairness and ultimately their purchasing choices. To address this issue, we propose and empirically test a choice model that incorporates reference-dependent fairness adjustments for both price and nonprice attributes within a random utility framework. The findings from two empirical studies using stated-preference choice experiments show that travelers engage in fairness-related reference point comparisons for price and other product attributes induced by RM and CCM. They offer additional evidence concerning the need to account comprehensively for attributes associated with both RM and CCM when predicting customer demand in travel and tourism firms. Accordingly, firms need to account not only for the effects of RM and CCM attributes but also for the corresponding reference-dependent fairness adjustments relating to those attributes. © 2013 SAGE Publications.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to show that culture has differential effects on purchase intent, using respondents from four very different cultural groups within Indonesia, and two different advertisements (one ethical, another unethical). Design/methodology/approach The study uses survey methods and a highly structured questionnaire to collect data from respondents in four cultural groups. In total, 100 responses were received from each of these groups within Indonesia (Bali, Batak, Java, and Minang). Data were analyzed using partial least squares. Findings The results suggest that when advertising to culturally conservative groups, caution is required. Such groups have lower purchase intent when they do not like the advertisement. Moreover, other variables such as attitude towards the advertiser may become salient drivers of purchase intent for such groups if the advertisement is perceived to be unethical. Importantly, neither of these factors are salient for more permissive cultures, regardless of whether the advertisement is perceived to be ethical or unethical. In addition the authors identify a set of universal paths by which advertisement-related factors, and company-related factors indirectly influence purchase intent for both permissive and conservative cultures, regardless of the perceived ethicality of the advertisement.

This paper tests both the internal and external validity of the Erdem and Swait (1998) brand equity framework using two measurement modelling approaches, namely the relatively new Best-Worst scaling (BWS) method (Finn and Louviere, 1992; Marley and Louviere, 2005) and the more traditional confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) method. Data were collected from the Australian banking and mobile services sectors. We find the measurement models derived from BWS outperformed the models based on CFA of the rating data in predicting both stated and real brand choices. The findings have implications for both academics and practitioners in brand equity measurement and management. © 2011 Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy.

The emerging economies are key factors in the future growth of world trade and the maintenance of global financial stability. Little is known about the way in which firms in emerging economies strategically manage the learning â creativity process to develop competitive advantage in both domestic and global markets. We extend the literature on learning and human capital by positing a model and examining 1) the mediating role of higherorder human capital in the relationship between learning facilitation and knowledge exploitation (KE); and 2) the mediating role of endogenous creativity in the KE â firm performance relationship. Qualitative method based on the sample in Chinaâs firms was adopted and the results indicate that all the hypothesized relationships are supported.

The impact of acquiescence bias in online samples is real and deserves serious research attention. This paper assesses the impact of acquiescence bias of online respondents on research output. Specifically, this paper addresses one type of acquiescence bias being increasingly observed in online panel rating scale data, where respondents exhibit low variability across rating scale items. This type of acquiescence bias is defined as flat line response bias in this study. The insidious effects of flat line response bias will be demonstrated on market segmentation and structural equation modelling in the context of a brand equity framework. This paper urges the market research industry to improve online recruitment and management to reduce flat line response bias in online panel surveys.

An assumption made in many applications of stated preference modeling is that preferences remain stable over time and OYer multiple exposures to information about choice alternatives. However, there are many domains where this assumption can be challenged. One of these is where individuals learn about new products. This paper aims to test how attribute preferences as measured in an experimental choice task shift when respondents are exposed to new product information. The paper presents results from a study investigating consumer preferences for a new consumer electronics product conducted among 400 respondents from a large consumer panel. All respondents received several choice tasks and were then able to read additional information about the new product.

This paper introduces a simple way to identify attribute by covariate interactions in discrete choice models. This is important because modelling such interactions is an effective way to account for systematic taste variation or preference heterogeneity across different consumers. Using a simulated data set to mimic a well-known phenomenon of selective attention to design attributes, we tested our proposed approach in the banking service context. Our proposed approach was successful in detecting the attribute by covariate interactions implied by the data generation process and was found to outperform both full and stepwise interaction models. Such findings have implications for both academics and practitioners of the marketing research community in general and choice modelling field in particular.

This paper tests both the internal and external validity of the Erdem and Swait (1998) brand equity framework using two measurement modelling approaches, namely the relatively new Best-Worst Scaling (BWS) method (Finn and Louviere, 1992; Marley and Louviere, 2005) and the more traditional Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) method. Data were collected from the Australian banking services sector. We find the measurement models derived from BWS outperformed the models based on CFA of the rating data in predicting both stated and real brand choices. The findings have implications for both academics and practitioners in brand equity measurement and management.

Discrete choice experiments typically assume that preference structures remain stable over time and over multiple exposures to information about choice alternatives. However, this assumption may not be valid when the study concerns a new product, which individuals are less familiar with. This paper tests how attribute preferences shift when respondents are exposed to new product information in an experimental choice task. The findings indicate how attribute utilities vary across the before and after exposure conditions; further analysis however shows these effects to partly disappear when the effect of information on the scale constant is accounted for.

This paper presents a case study of new product development (NPD) for a private health insurance (PHI) provider in Australia. The information respondents need to process when considering PHI in Australia is extremely complex and intricate to say the least. The client needed to test multiple product options, thereby calling for a discrete choice experiment to elicit preferences so that we could model the utility of each product component, where we would later combine each component to simulate a new product, via a decision support system (DSS).

The introduction of a new technology into the marketplace generally is a risky endeavour for a company, however, when there are competing new technologies of which it is believed only one can survive, winning over customers is one of the major corporate battles to be fought. This paper presents results of a survey among 1495 people regarding their awareness of the two DVD competing formats (Blu-ray and HD-DVD) in the early stages of the recent DVD format war. The results reveal that in the early stages of the format war more people were aware of the HD-DVD than of the Blu-ray format. A model is presented that predicts format awareness from four consumer characteristic constructs and four demographic variables.

This paper tests the Erdem and Swait (1998) brand equity framework using latent class structural equation modelling. While there are a number of conceptual and measurement models of brand equity in the literature, we focus on the Erdem and Swait brand equity framework because it is based on formal theory in information economics. The Erdem and Swait framework was originally tested in a structural equation modelling framework without taking into account consumer preference heterogeneity. In this study, we extend the Erdem and Swait framework to incorporate preference heterogeneity via the use of latent class structural equation modelling. Data were collected from the financial services sector and results show two distinct segments of brand equity. The findings have implications for both academics and practitioners in brand management.

The nature of tasks undertaken by consumers in the course of decision-making and consumption are an important consideration for researchers and practitioners alike, but on the whole neglected in the literature. In an effort to reinstate its significance, this paper provides a dedicated general analysis of consumer tasks under the tenet of goal-directed consumer behavior. A critique of alternative means by which to classify consumer tasks precedes the introduction of a new conceptualization with a model of task enactment, and a new means to classify and analyse tasks based on task demands. A study currently being undertaken is used to illustrate the development and operationalization of task demands. Some promising preliminary results pave the way for future research endeavours.

The availability of relevant information is an important factor when customers are evaluating the purchase of a new technology. Information can be obtained from a range of sources, with varying levels of trustworthiness. This paper presents some findings regarding how different media are perceived and the effect of media exposure on purchase intent in the DVD recorder category. In an online survey regarding consumer preferences for DVD recorders respondents were exposed to different media with information either supporting the new Blu-ray or HDDVD disc technology. The paper presents results regarding the effects of this implementation of Information Acceleration (IA) on purchase intention and media trust. It is found that consumers exposed to positive information about Blu-Ray are significantly more inclined to consider purchasing a recorder with Blu-Ray technology.

Brands play an important role in consumers' perception and choice of a product. Measuring brand equity has thus become a topic of growing interest among both practitioners and researchers in marketing. This paper examines the Erdem and Swait (1998) brand equity framework, which is one of the key consumer-based brand equity models developed in the brand literature. Specifically, it investigates the external validity of the Erdem-Swait framework using two alternative approaches: One is based on structural equation models (SEMs) and the other is based on discrete choice experiments (DCE). Four data sets pertaining to four different product categories were collected from the Australian financial services sector to compare the ability of expected utilities calculated from SEMs and DCEs to predict the actual brand choices of real consumers in real markets. Although both models performed well, results showed that the predictions of the DCE models were consistently better than those of the SEMs in all cases. These findings have implications for both academics and practitioners in brand evaluation and management. © 2007 Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy.