Raj Arora

Involvement: Its measurement for retail store research

Several marketing scholars have noted the importance of the concept of involvement with respect to marketing strategy. Various definitions of involvement have been offered. These definitions have resulted in two major measures: the importance measure (importance attached to the attributes of the object under consideration in a choice process) and the “matrix approach”. This paper addresses the reliability and validity of these two measures.

Consumer Involvement in Retail Store Positioning

The concept of consumer involvement in products and issues and its theoretical importance in attitude change strategy have been discussed in the past. This paper reports empirical findings relating to retail store perceptions and preferences, using involvement as a moderator variable.

Consumer Involvement: What It Offers to Advertising Strategy

Several marketing scholars have stressed the importance of involvement to marketing strategy, and have suggested areas where the application of involvement offers the greatest potential benefit. This paper presents a synthesis of previous conceptualizations and implications, with specific reference to advertising strategy. Implications with respect to advertising strategy in the areas of scheduling, frequency and content of advertising are discussed.

Image and cost factors in the choice of mental health-care organizations: A causal model

The importance of image as a determinant of choice has been demonstrated for banks, supermarkets, hospitals and other service organizations, but not in the instance of mental health-care providers. Based on a mail survey of residents of a medium-sized metropolitan area, this study explores the components of image for mental health-care institutions. A causal model is hypothesized and validated, specifying the relationships between preferences towards mental health-care institutions, with image and cost factors as potential determinants. The findings suggest that cost does not play a significant role in the choice of mental health providers, whereas image has a significant impact.

Advertising Specialties: A Note on Recall

The effectiveness of a sponsor’s communication program is often used to determine the amount and scheduling of advertising. However, very little research evidence exists on recall in the area of specialty advertising. The purpose of this study is to explore the recall of advertising specialties. Awareness rates were measured at different points in time for 3 specialties in order to secure knowledge about the decay of information.

Opinions and Preferences Towards a Community Mental Health Center

The last decade marks the application of marketing theory in the areas of non-profit organizations, for example schools, hospitals, mental health centers, etc. This article assesses the perceived needs of the community by asking respondents to indicate their awareness of individuals who are in need of such services. The study also focuses on the variables of mental health center that are important in the choice of the organization. Marketing implications of the findings are discussed.

Multicollinearity: Detection and Some Solutions

A great deal of research has been done to estimate parameters of a model in the presence of multicolline-arity. This paper focuses on various methods for formally detecting the presence and severity of multi-collinearity. The paper also compares some of the commonly used methods for estimation of ill-conditioned data.