Naveen Donthu

Developing and validating a multidimensional consumer-based brand equity scale

Abstract Little systematic research has been done to develop a scale to measure consumer-based brand equity. The authors report the results of a multistep study to develop and validate a multidimensional consumer-based brand equity scale (MBE) drawn from Aakers and Kellers conceptualizations of brand equity. A total of 1530 American, Korean American, and Korean participants evaluated 12 brands from three product categories (athletic shoes, film for cameras, and color television sets). Multistep psychometric tests demonstrate that the new brand equity scale is reliable, valid, parsimonious, and generalizable across several cultures and product categories. The authors discuss theoretical and practical implications of the study.

Developing a Scale to Measure the Perceived Quality of an Internet Shopping Site (PQISS)

Internet shopping sites must be of high quality to attract consumers and influence their shopping decisions. We have developed a scale to measure the perceived quality of an Internet shopping site (PQISS). This scale can be used to evaluate Internet shopping sites and to examine the relationships between the site quality and relevant variables.

Cultivating Trust and Harvesting Value in Virtual Communities

Although previous scholars have examined the value of virtual communities to customers, in this study we investigate the role of a firms efforts in cultivating trust and harvesting value for themselves via the virtual communities that they sponsor. We hypothesize that the perceptions of a firms efforts to provide quality content, to foster member embeddedness, and to encourage interaction foster favorable customer beliefs about and trust in a virtual community sponsor. Further, we hypothesize that trust motivates customers to behave relationally toward the sponsoring firm by sharing information with, coproducing new products with, and granting loyalty to, the sponsoring firm. Data from 663 customers are analyzed using structural equation modeling techniques. We find that efforts to provide quality content and foster member embeddedness have positive effects on customer beliefs about the sponsor. In fact, fostering member embeddedness has a stronger explanatory effect on customer beliefs than does providing quality content. However, despite the fact that previous studies show that customers value interaction in virtual communities, our findings suggest that firms must do more than encourage interaction among their community members if they hope to create value from their virtual communities.

Measuring Hofstede's Five Dimensions of Cultural Values at the Individual Level: Development and Validation of CVSCALE

ABSTRACT Hofstedes (1980 and 2001) renowned five-dimensional measure of cultural values is the overwhelmingly dominant metric of culture. His measure has been used as a contextual variable, but it is often required to directly measure cultural values for individual consumers or managers. The purpose of this research is to respond to the call for developing a psychometrically sound measure of Hofstedes culture at the individual level. Past research in this area has developed a scale for only one of Hofstedes dimensions, a highly work-oriented scale, or a scale with poor reliability. By overcoming every major weakness of past studies, this research offers CVSCALE, a 26-item five-dimensional scale of individual cultural values that assesses Hofstedes cultural dimensions at the individual level. The scale shows adequate reliability, validity, and across-sample and across-national generalizability.

The Effects of Marketing Education and Individual Cultural Values on Marketing Ethics of Students

This study investigates the relationships between marketing education and individual cultural valuesand college stu dents’ marketing ethics. Using Vitell, Rallapalli, and Singhapakdi’smarketing normsscale and Yoo, Donthu, and Lenartowicz’s five-dimensional measure of culture operationalized at the individual level, the study reveals that formal and informal marketing educationsare positively related to the level of marketing ethics. Collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, and Confucian dynamism are positively related to the level of marketing ethics, whereas masculinity and power distance are negatively related to the level of marketing ethics. Implications for ethics education are discussed.

Advertising Repetition and Placement Issues in On-Line Environments

This study investigates the ways of improving banner advertising effectiveness by suggesting alternative advertising repetition strategies in varying on-line environments. Specifically, we investigate the effectiveness of repeating varied executions versus repeating single executions of a banner ad on brand recall and intention to click in different competitive and content-relevant on-line environments. The results of our experiment show that (1) banner advertising repetition leads to greater brand name memory and intention to click in on-line environments; (2) in a noncompetitive Internet environment, an ad variation strategy leads to higher brand name recall and intention to click than an ad repetition strategy; (3) in a competitive Internet environment, a single ad repetition strategy leads to higher brand name recall than a varied ad repetition strategy; (4) brand name recall is higher when the ad is presented in a content-relevant Web site; (5) a single ad repetition strategy generates marginally greater recall in a content-relevant Web site; and (6) a varied ad repetition strategy generates marginally greater recall in a content nonrelevant Web site. The effects of repeating varied versus same executions of an ad on intention to click in content-relevant Web sites did not generate any significant findings.

A Profile of the Internet Shopper: Evidence from Six Countries

Internet usage and commerce are expected to grow significantly across the world. However, as each part of the world is unique in its social norms, culture, and infrastructure, these differences may cause the profiles of Internet shoppers and nonshoppers to be different worldwide. Hence, the importance of understanding the similarities and dissimilarities among consumers in different regions is crucial for both marketing theory and practice. In this paper, the authors report the characteristics relating to attitudes, motivations, and demographics of Internet shoppers in six countries (United States, England, New Zealand, China, Brazil, and Bulgaria), thereby contributing to understanding differences between Internet users and online shoppers in different regions of the world. Findings show that online shoppers share many similar traits around the world. Internet shoppers in all countries examined are similar in regard to their desire for convenience, are more impulsive, have more favorable attitudes toward direct marketing and advertising, and wealthier, and are heavier users of both e-mail and the Internet. Implications of the findings for theory and practice are discussed.

The Effect of Personal Cultural Orientation on Consumer Ethnocentrism

Abstract A great challenge in the global environment lies in consumers reluctance to buy imports rather than domestic products. Recently, research has begun to explore the link between consumer type and adversarial attitudes toward imports. However, relatively little is known about the relationship between individual consumers cultural orientation and their bias against imports. The objective of our research is to examine the relationship between cultural orientation and consumer ethnocentrism. We hypothesize that each of Hofstedes (2001) five dimensions of cultural orientation, operationalized at the individual level, affects consumer ethnocentrism. We test our hypotheses, investigating U.S. consumers evaluations of and behaviors toward Japanese products. The results show that collectivism (versus individualism), masculinity (versus femininity), and uncertainty-avoidance are related positively to consumer ethnocentrism, whereas long-term (versus short-term) orientation are related negatively to consumer ethnocentrism. The results also confirm the relationships between consumer ethnocentrism and its consequential variables of U.S. consumers evaluations and behaviors toward Japanese products are meaningful and strong.

Beyond traditional word-of-mouth: An expanded model of customer-driven influence

Purpose – Business and academia alike have become aware of the crucial role of customer‐to‐customer interactions. Facilitated by the increasing customer connectedness through online media possibilities, companies need to understand how customers influence each other and how to manage these customer interactions. The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize an expanded model of customer‐driven influence (CDI) that presents an overview of the influence process and its determinants. The model covers important issues, such as deliberate versus unintentional sender actions, verbal and non‐verbal communication, and reflective and impulsive receiver reactions.Design/methodology/approach – This article is the result of the first Thought Leadership Conference on Service Marketing, held in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, June 2012.Findings – The model shows the importance of considering goal theory in studying customer‐driven influence. Both sender and receiver can act and react in deliberate and unintentional ways. Th...

Gender Differences in Trust Formation in Virtual Communities

Building trust with consumers leads to higher sales, profits, and loyalty, and gender is an important marketing variable. Yet it remains unknown whether gender differences exist in the trust formation process online. Noting the importance of social media in marketing strategy, this study explores how gender affects the process of trust formation online with a survey of 232 virtual community members. By integrating social role theory with the uses and gratifications approach, this study reveals that gender moderates the effect of managerially controlled trust influencers. Managers can use these guidelines to build trust online, considering the role of gender.