Dawn Iacobucci

Brand Attachment and Brand Attitude Strength: Conceptual and Empirical Differentiation of Two Critical Brand Equity Drivers

Research has not verified the theoretical or practical value of the brand attachment construct in relation to alternative constructs, particularly brand attitude strength. The authors make conceptual, measurement, and managerial contributions to this research issue. Conceptually, they define brand attachment, articulate its defining properties, and differentiate it from brand attitude strength. From a measurement perspective, they develop and validate a parsimonious measure of brand attachment, test the assumptions that underlie it, and demonstrate that it indicates the concept of attachment. They also demonstrate the convergent and discriminant validity of this measure in relation to brand attitude strength. Managerially, they demonstrate that brand attachment offers value over brand attitude strength in predicting (1) consumers’ intentions to perform difficult behaviors (those they regard as using consumer resources), (2) actual purchase behaviors, (3) brand purchase share (the share of a brand among directly competing brands), and (4) need share (the extent to which consumers rely on a brand to address relevant needs, including those brands in substitutable product categories).

A Meditation on Mediation: Evidence That Structural Equations Models Perform Better Than Regressions

In this paper, we suggest ways to improve mediation analysis practice among consumer behavior researchers. We review the current methodology and demonstrate the superiority of structural equations modeling, both for assessing the classic mediation questions and for enabling researchers to extend beyond these basic inquiries. A series of simulations are presented to support the claim that the approach is superior. In addition to statistical demonstrations, logical arguments are presented, particularly regarding the introduction of a fourth construct into the mediation system. We close the paper with new prescriptive instructions for mediation analyses.

Gender differences in the impact of core and relational aspects of services on the evaluation of service encounters

Research in services marketing suggests that services consist of two components: (a) the core service (e.g., the dinner served at a nice restaurant) and (b) the relationship between the service provider and the client (e.g., the friendliness of the waiter). These dimensions are logical analogues to those in the social psychological literature describing leaders effective at task-oriented behaviors (i.e., those focused on getting the job done) and social-oriented behaviors (i.e., those leaders focused on maintaining group cohesion). A third literature, on gender differences, consistently describes men as agentic (i.e., goal oriented) and women as communal (socially oriented). A synthesis of the ideas from these literatures suggests hypotheses regarding which factors should be most influential to male and female consumers in determining customer satisfaction with service encounters. The results from three experiments provide support for the hypothesis that women may be generally more sensitive to relational aspects of a service encounter and men to core aspects, though there appear to be several factors moderating these findings which are not easily explained in a simple, unified theory.

Advancing Alpha: Measuring Reliability with Confidence

In this research, we present the inferential statistics for Cronbach’s coefficient alpha. This index of reliability is extremely important in consumer research. The estimation of alpha and its confidence intervals are described and an analytical demonstration illustrates the effects on these statistics of their components, including the number of items, the item intercorrelations, and sample size. SAS and SPSS programs are offered for easy implementation. We conclude with a prescription that every time a researcher reports a coefficient alpha, the confidence interval for alpha should accompany the alpha estimate.

Modeling Dyadic Interactions and Networks in Marketing

Many substantive areas in marketing share a basic concern with relationships. Social network and dyadic interaction methods are techniques that can enrich a researchers understanding of the structure of relationships, whether a few actors or many are involved and whether the relationships are at the consumer or business level. Network models are discussed in a variety of substantive areas, including coalition formation in buying centers, identification of opinion leaders in word-of-mouth networks, power and cooperation in channel dyads, conflict resolution in family purchasing, and the management of expectations in service encounters. In addition, important modeling advances are described, including techniques that enable researchers to make comparisons between networks and adaptations of reciprocity parameters to allow for identification of stochastic cliques.

Dynamic Effects Among Movie Ratings, Movie Revenues, and Viewer Satisfaction

This research investigates how movie ratings from professional critics, amateur communities, and viewers themselves influence key movie performance measures (i.e., movie revenues and new movie ratings). Using movie-level data, the authors find that high early movie revenues enhance subsequent movie ratings. They also find that high advertising spending on movies supported by high ratings maximizes the movies revenues. Furthermore, they empirically show that sequel movies tend to reap more revenues but receive lower ratings than originals. Using individual viewer–level data, this research highlights how viewers’ own viewing and rating histories and movie communities’ collective opinions explain viewer satisfaction. The authors find that various aspects of these ratings explain viewers’ new movie ratings as a measure of viewer satisfaction, after controlling for movie characteristics. Furthermore, they find that viewers’ movie experiences can cause them to become more critical in ratings over time. Finally, they find a U-shaped relationship between viewers’ genre preferences and genre-specific movie ratings for heavy viewers.

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.

Alpha's Standard Error (ASE): An Accurate and Precise Confidence Interval Estimate

This research presents the inferential statistics for Cronbachs coefficient alpha on the basis of the standard statistical assumption of multivariate normality. The estimation of alphas standard error (ASE) and confidence intervals are described, and the authors analytically and empirically investigate the effects of the components of these equations. The authors then demonstrate the superiority of this estimate compared with previous derivations of ASE in a separate Monte Carlo simulation. The authors also present a sampling error and test statistic for a test of independent sample alphas. They conclude with a recommendation that all alpha coefficients be reported in conjunction with standard error or confidence interval estimates and offer SAS and SPSS programming codes for easy implementation.

Toward an encompassing theory of business marketing relationships (BMRS) and interpersonal commercial relationships (ICRS): An empirical generalization

Abstract This paper explores business marketing relationships (BMRs) and interpersonal commercial relationships (ICRs). The literature in these two areas is analyzed to develop an overarching theoretical understanding of how marketing relationships function in the marketplace. The authors create empirical generalizations by analyzing the interrelationships among constructs that researchers have studied in a variety of operationalizations and settings during the past decade. This analysis is used to build a conceptual model for marketing relationships as they are studied in BMRs and ICRs. The authors then compare the models in order to develop a higher-level conceptual understanding of relational phenomena.

The effect of guarantees on consumers’ evaluation of services

Recently, several service firms (e.g. Hampton Inn, Delta Dental Plan of Massachusetts) have successfully implemented service guarantees. Little research, however, has been done examining the conditions under which service guarantees are the most effective. The current research examines how the presence of a guarantee affects consumers’ pre‐purchase evaluations. It also investigates interactions between multiple extrinsic cues such as the presence of a guarantee and information about the quality level of firm offering the guarantee. The results suggest that while guarantees can enhance consumers’ perceptions of quality, especially in situations characterized by greater service quality variability, they are less effective in the presence of other quality cues.