Randall L. Rose

Consumer Self-Confidence: Refinements in Conceptualization and Measurement

The development and validation of measures to assess multiple dimensions of consumer self-confidence are described in this article. Scale-development procedures resulted in a six-factor correlated model made up of the following dimensions: information acquisition, consideration-set formation, personal outcomes, social outcomes, persuasion knowledge, and marketplace interfaces. A series of studies demonstrate the psychometric properties of the measures, their discriminant validity with respect to related constructs, their construct validity, and their ability to moderate relationships among other important consumer behavior variables. Copyright 2001 by the University of Chicago.

The Effects of Environmental Concern on Environmentally Friendly Consumer Behavior: An Exploratory Study

Abstract The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate the relative effects of environmental concern (a general attitude) and social norms pertaining to concern for the environment on three consumer behaviors and six behavioral intentions. Our primary research question was “Which has the strongest effect on environmentally concerned behaviors and behavioral intentions: attitude, the injunctive norm, or the personal norm?” Answers to this basic research question have important implications for marketers and public policy makers. A mail survey was administered to a sample of consumers who were the primary shoppers in their household. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to determine unidimensionality of measures. Hypotheses were tested using multivariate and univariate analysis of variance (MANOVA/ANOVA). MANOVA analysis indicated significant main effects of environmental concern, the personal norm, and the injunctive norm on the behaviors and behavioral intentions. There were no significant interactions. ANOVA results indicated that the personal norm had the primary influence on the behaviors while the attitude had the primary influence on behavioral intentions.

Attention to Social Comparison Information: An Individual Difference Factor Affecting Consumer Conformity

Interpersonal influence in consumer behavior is moderated by the extent of consumer sensitivity to social comparison information concerning product pruchase and usage behavior (cf. Calder and Burnkrant 1977). Two survey studies indicate that Lennox and Wolfes (1984) attention-to-social-comparison-information (AT-SCI) scale has adequate convergent and discrimination validity and moderates the relative influence of normative consequences on behavioral intentions, as predicted. A quasi-experiment and an experiment in which control subjects under no social pressure are compared with high and low ATSCI subjects under pressure reveal that high ATSCI subjects are more likely to comply with normative pressures. Copyright 1990 by the University of Chicago.

Paradox and the Consumption of Authenticity through Reality Television

We position reality television within the broader category of consumer practices of authenticity seeking in a postmodern cultural context. The study draws on relevant perspectives from consumer research, literary criticism, sociology, and anthropology to argue that viewers of reality television encounter three elements of paradox in the process of constructing authenticity. The negotiation of each paradox exceeds the process of coping with or resolving their inherent contradictions to encompass the creation of new values. We argue that consumers blend fantastic elements of programming with indexical elements connected to their lived experiences to create a form of self-referential hyperauthenticity. (c) 2005 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

When is Ours Better Than Mine? A Framework for Understanding and Altering Participation in Commercial Sharing Systems.

Sharing systems are increasingly challenging sole ownership as the dominant means of obtaining product benefits, making up a market estimated at more than US

Credit Cards as Lifestyle Facilitators

100 billion annually in 2010. Consumer options include cell phone minute-sharing plans, frequent-flyer-mile pools, bicycle-sharing programs, and automobile-sharing systems, among many others. However, marketing research has yet to provide a framework for understanding and managing these emergent systems. The authors conceptualize commercial sharing systems within a typology of shared goods. Using three studies, they demonstrate that beyond cost-related benefits of sharing, the perceived risk of scarcity related to sharing is a central determinant of its attractiveness. The results suggest that managers can use perceptions of personal and sharing partners’ usage patterns to affect risk perceptions and subsequent propensity to participate in a commercial sharing system.

On the need for relative measures when assessing comparative advertising effects

Credit cards are an increasingly essential technology, but they carry with them the paradoxical capacity to propel consumers along lifestyle trajectories of marketplace freedom or constraint. We analyze accounts provided by consumers, credit counselors, and participants in a credit counseling seminar in order to develop a differentiated theory of lifestyle facilitation through credit card practice. The skills and tastes expressed by credit card practice help distinguish between the lifestyles of those with higher cultural capital relative to those with lower cultural capital. Differences in lifestyle regulation practice are posited to originate in cultural discourses related to entitlement and frugality.

Do Payment Mechanisms Change the Way Consumers Perceive Products

Abstract Although comparative advertising is often intended to affect how the advertised brand is perceived in relation to the comparison brand, research in this area has typically tested for effects using nonrelative measures that require judgments about the advertised brand alone. As a result, such tests are rather uninformative about comparative advertisings ability to influence perceived differentiation. We propose in this article that nonrelative measures are unlikely to yield as sensitive an assessment of comparative advertising effects as are relative measures. The results from three studies involving both known and unknown advertised brands support the superior sensitivity of relative measures. Implications for copy testing methods are drawn.

Understanding the Mental Representations Created by Comparative Advertising

Do payment mechanisms change the way consumers perceive products? We argue that consumers for whom credit cards (cash) have been primed focus more on benefits (costs) when evaluating a product. In study 1, credit card (cash) primed participants made more (fewer) recall errors regarding cost attributes. In a word recognition task (study 2), participants primed with credit card (cash) identified more words related to benefits (costs) than those in the cash (credit card) condition. In study 3, participants in the credit card (cash) condition responded faster to benefits (costs) than to costs (benefits). This differential focus led credit card primed consumers to express higher reservation prices (studies 1–3) and also affected their product choices (study 4) relative to those primed with cash.

Correlates of conformity in the consumption of illicit drugs and alcohol

Abstract Despite theories suggesting that the cognitive impact of comparative advertisements differs from that of noncomparative ads, little progress has been made toward empirically understanding the types of mental representations engendered by these forms of advertising. The current research provides evidence pertinent to this issue across three experiments. As anticipated, comparative ads are more likely to cause mental impressions about the advertised brand relative to competitors than are noncomparative ads. The results also indicate that differentiative comparative ads generate disassociative rather than the associative mental impressions previously thought to characterize the processing of such ads. In addition, the findings demonstrate that both relative and nonrelative impressions may be formed following exposure to comparative ads. Implications are drawn for interpreting the findings of prior investigations, as well as for undertaking future research on comparative advertising.