Bobby J. Calder

Designing Research for Application

Two distinct types of generalizability are identified in consumer research. One entails the application of specific effects, whereas the other entails the application of general scientific theory. Effects application and theory application rest on different philosophical assumptions, and have different methodological implications. A failure to respect these differences has led to much confusion, regarding issues such as the appropriateness of student subjects and laboratory settings. T here is always the expectation in conducting research that the findings ultimately will be useful in addressing situations beyond the one studied. Yet, there exists a concern that much of consumer research, and behavioral research in general, is not generalizable. It frequently is argued that research procedures, particularly the use of student subjects and laboratory settings, necessarily limit the application of findings. Underlying this contention is a failure to recognize that generalizability is not a single issue. Two distinct types of application may be identified in consumer research. The purpose of this paper is to examine the two types of application, and to specify their

Focus Groups and the Nature of Qualitative Marketing Research

Use of the focus group technique is widespread in qualitative marketing research. The technique is considered here from a philosophy of science perspective which points to a confusion of three dist...

The Concept of External Validity

Many researchers feel that external validity must be emphasized even in theoretical research. The argument for both a sophisticated and a common sense version of this contention is refuted in this paper. It is concluded that the very nature of progress in theoretical research argues against attempting to maximize external validity in the context of any single study.

Television Commercial Wearout: An Information Processing View

Repetition of a pattern of television commercials caused wearout in viewers’ evaluation of the commercials and the products being advertised. As predicted by an information processing view, wearout...

Brand Diagnostics: Mapping Branding Effects Using Consumer Associative Networks

Understanding consumer perceptions and associations is an important first step to understanding brand preferences and choices. In this paper, we discuss how cognitive theorists would posit network representations of consumer brand associations. We rely upon several empirical examples of consumer associative networks, based on data from a variety of data collection techniques, in order to demonstrate the tools available to the brand manager using network analytic techniques. In addition to being grounded in theory, networks are shown to be quite important to mapping an extensive array of branding effects, including: (1) branded features, (2) driver brands, (3) complements, (4) co-branding, (5) cannibalization, (6) brand parity, (7) brand dilution, (8) brand confusion, (9) counter-brands, and (10) segmentation. This list of 10 issues is fairly ambitious but we desire this research to be truly useful to brand managers, and we believe we have made some progress in addressing all 10 questions and in providing tools and a road map to the brand manager.

Interpersonal Influence on Consumer Behavior: An Attribution Theory Approach

Attribution theory is used to develop a new approach to interpersonal influence. As a first step in investigating this approach, an experiment explores how people infer personal dispositions from observing a consumers behavior. The results illustrate the value of the attribution approach but suggest the need for extending existing attribution theory.

Media Transportation and Advertising

Advertising is commonly presented in the context of media articles or programs that are intended to engage the consumer. An important aspect of this engagement is media transportation, where a person not only attends to information but also is absorbed into the narrative flow of a story in a pleasurable and active way. This research examines the effects of the transportation experience produced by the media context on the impact of ads that appear in that context. Three studies show that transportation can have both positive and negative effects on advertising. Intrusion of the ad into the transportation process is shown to mediate the negative effects, which occurs independently of involvement.

What Consumer Research Is

R esearchers frequently have explicitly or implicitly posed the question: What is consumer research? (Belk 1986; Jacoby 1975; Holbrook 1987). While a formal definition of consumer research may be of little value, since consumer research will ultimately be defined by what researchers achieve, there is a need for direction. We begin with the premise that consumer research, whatever form it might take, seeks to produce knowledge about consumer behavior. Although simple, this premise points up the fact that consumer research is a means to an end. Of course consumer research is about consumers and about behavior, but this is hardly limiting or even informative. After all, anything can be construed as the consumption of something and consumption must entail some kind of behavior. Emphasis should be on the knowledge produced: What possible kinds of knowledge could be created by consumer research?

Engagement with Online Media

Abstract Engagement has emerged as an important concept for newsorganizations. Yet lack of agreement within the industry and the academy on the definition of engagement has left news companies vulnerable to the definitions dictated by advertisers, who focus on brand placement not news content. This paper relies on quantitative and qualitative methodologies to define online engagement as a collection ofexperiences, illustrates that there are actually two important types of engagement (personal and social-interactive engagement) for media companies, and demonstrates their predictive validity by showing bothare associated with readership.

Confirmatory versus Comparative Approaches to Judging Theory Tests

This article examines the widely held view that manipulation checks, measures of process, and repeated operationalizations in different settings are frequently essential for rigorous tests of theory. This Confirmatory Approach to theory testing is contrasted with the Comparative Approach, which asserts that any procedures are adequate if they serve in demonstrating the superiority of one explanation to its rivals. Our analysis favors the Comparative Approach. It is shown that manipulation checks, measures of process, and repeated operationalizations are not necessary nor always sufficient for rigorous tests. They have no special status in relation to other convergence procedures that are accepted by the Comparative Approach for producing rigorous theory tests.