Peter R. Dickson

Buyer Uncertainty and Information Search

Preliminary measures of pre-purchase uncertainty were developed through focus group interviews and were administered to a nationwide sample of recent appliance purchasers. Responses indicated the presence of two general types of uncertainty: knowledge uncertainty (uncertainty regarding information about alternatives) and choice uncertainty (uncertainty about which alternative to choose). In exploring how each of these uncertainty dimensions was related to search behavior, we found that choice uncertainty appeared to increase search, but knowledge uncertainty had a weaker, negative effect on search. Implications of the findings for previous research on the relationship between uncertainty and search are discussed, along with research directions.

Picture-based Persuasion Processes and the Moderating Role of Involvement

Although pictures have been shown to enhance the impact of persuasive communications, little is known about the robustness of such effects. This study examines how involvement moderates the process by which pictures affect brand attitudes and purchase intentions. The results show that involvements moderating role depends on whether pictures convey product-relevant information. Whereas the impact of affect-laden pictures devoid of product-relevant information declines as involvement increases, involvement exerts the opposite effect for product-relevant pictures. The results also demonstrate that the images evoked by pictures and thoughts about a pictures appropriateness play an important mediating role in the persuasion process underlying peripheral pictures. Coauthors are Sunil Bhatla, Kenneth R. Lord, Peter R. Dickson, and H. Rao Unnava. Copyright 1991 by the University of Chicago.

Missing the Boat and Sinking the Boat: A Conceptual Model of Entrepreneurial Risk

The use of financial portfolio theory to guide new venture planning is discussed and rejected. Instead, a dual conceptualization of business risk is offered that is more consistent with statistical...

Dynamic Strategic Thinking

Market analysts and marketing strategists stress understanding the fundamental dynamics of a market, but how deeply do they think about the interplay of such fundamentals and what frameworks do they use in such thinking? How do business schools teach managers to think this way? The premise of this article is that in their strategizing, senior marketing executives, boards of directors, consultants, and financial analysts should see the market and the firm’s embeddedness in a market as a moving video rather than a static snapshot. The authors propose that what makes the video move are fundamental feedback effects that create the evolutionary paths that a market and a firm may travel. A taxonomy of systemic feedback regularities is presented with applications that demonstrate how the taxonomy and proposed soft mapping techniques can be use to construct dynamic mental models that help managers and consultants improve their dynamic strategic thinking and the strategic foresight of firms.

Insights into cross- and within-store price search: retailer estimates vs. consumer self-reports

Past research of the accuracy of retail grocers’ beliefs about consumer search and patronage behavior has found that executives tend to overestimate the size of the consumer segment that regularly switches stores for price specials. With surveys of consumers and executives in a large midwestern market, we extend and replicate the earlier research. In this study, we find that executives demonstrate, on average, an accurate sense of the proportion of consumers who are primarily loyal to one store or are shoppers of multiple stores. However, they still tend to overestimate aggregate price comparison behavior and cross-store shopping. At the same time, we also find that managers simultaneously underestimate consumer newspaper readership, in-store search for specials, and stockpiling. This new result suggests that the more loyal primary customers may account for a greater proportion of incremental promotional sales than has been recognized in the past. These results suggest a significant increase in the information value to be derived from the desegregation of sales data by shopper loyalty status.

Understanding the Trade Winds: The Global Evolution of Production, Consumption, and the Internet

The purpose of this article is to encourage research on the evolution of consumer behavior within and across nations by illustrating how super-diffusion technologies spawn and drive great surges in economic innovation that profoundly change consumer behavior that leads to further economic innovation and progress that plays out over centuries. Economic history can be used as a frame for understanding past, present, and future consumer behavior, particularly in thinking about the likely impact of cyberspace technology on global consumer behavior. A systems-dynamic perspective is recommended to fully appreciate the intended and unintended winds of economic change that are now blowing around the globe. In the right hands, systems-dynamic feedback maps may become as valuable today as were the treasured maps that described the trade winds 500 years ago. Copyright 2000 by the University of Chicago.

The fundamentals of standardizing global marketing strategy

Purpose – To examine issues of standardization and adaptation in global marketing strategy and to explain the dynamics of standardization.Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual research paper that has been developed based on gaps in prior frameworks of standardization/adaptation. A three‐factor model of standardization/adaptation of global marketing strategy was developed. The three factors include homogeneity of customer response to the marketing mix, transferability of competitive advantage, and similarities in the degree of economic freedom.Findings – The model through the use of feedback effects explains the dynamics of standardization.Research limitations/implications – Future research needs to empirically test the model. To enable empirical validation, reliable and valid measures of the three factors proposed in the model need to be developed. Additionally, the model may be used in future research to delineate the impact a variable may have on the ability of a firm to follow a standardiz...

On-line Market Research

This article focuses upon innovation and issues in on-line market research. On-line research, on-line consumer behavior, and e-commerce are new areas of academic study in marketing. Most of the early work in these areas was done by practitioners, as illustrated by research reports and case studies presented at professional conferences. The present article reviews technologies and methods of on-line research and points to various methodological and ethical issues. On-line research is evaluated from two perspectives: orthodox thinking about the validity of research, and out-of-the-box thinking about how on-line research can increase the impact of market research and develop the core competitive capabilities of firms. Further academic research and learning from the data of on-line research and electronic commerce are encouraged.

Consumer Acquisition Priorities for Home Appliances: A Replication and Re-evaluation

This paper reports on research that replicates and extends the previous Guttman scaling studies. The Guttman-scaled priorities are compared to average years of ownership for 12 appliances. Some limitations of the technique are revealed, and the role of a new innovation that disturbs an otherwise stable acquisition priority is discussed.

Understanding managers' strategic decision-making process

This goal of this paper is to establish a research agenda that will lead to a stream of research that closes the gap between actual and normative strategic managerial decision making. We start by distinguishing strategic managerial decision making (choices) from other choices. Next, we propose a conceptual model of how managers make strategic decisions that is consistent with the observed gap between actual and normative decision making. This framework suggests a series of interesting issues, both descriptive and prescriptive in nature, about the strategic decision-making process that define our proposed research agenda.