Reconceptualising and Reconstructing Consumer Involvement: Modeling Involvement in a Nomological Network of Relevant Constructs

The research reported herein concerns a specific stream of research within the general domain of consumer behaviour. The dissertation attempts to reconceptualise the construct of involvement and develop an instrument to measure consumers involvement. Largely, the significance of this dissertation rests in the development and presentation of a comprehensive model for the conceptualisation and analysis of involvement and key individual variables that act as antecedents to involvement and consequences of it. The study focuses on the philosophical and practical questions of involvement's content, nature and the direction and strength of its relationship with theoretically important constructs. It fundamentally asks the question: how should the construct of involvement be conceptualised and operationalised, and what is the relationship between involvement and self-image product-image congruency, consumer values, product knowledge/expertise, consumer confidence and consumption consequences. The methodology is based on the development and administration of a survey questionnaire. A mail survey was sent to a random sample of 900 students at an Australian University. The primary analytic procedure for the study was structural equation modeling using the computer program AMOS. The results of the research indicate significant support for the theoretical propositions developed in this study. The theoretical formulations of product involvement, purchase decision involvement, communications involvement and consumption involvement were strongly supported. Further, the introduction of consumer involvement as a second-order factor for the four forms of involvement proved significant. Nomological validity between involvement, values systems, product knowledge, consumer confidence, consumption consequences and self-image product-image congruency was established. A number of theoretical and managerial implications for marketers are identified and discussed

Developing positive consumer attitudes: examining attitudes towards mobile phone brands

Understanding and working towards developing positive attitudes has been an area of consumer research that has received much attention. This study contributes to consumer research by examining the influence of brand status, brand significance and brand value on the development of positive attitudes towards brands. Groups of generation Y, Australian mobile phone users were surveyed and it was found that brand significance more strongly influenced brand value and attitude toward the brand, than the influence of brand status; and that this effect was stronger in the market leader, Nokia, than for a market follower, Samsung

Building brand value: consumer assessment of value

In recent times attention has been given in consumer behaviour to consumer assessments of value. The view that brands provide value to consumers seems well entrenched both in academia and popular culture. This study focused on examining how consumer assessments of brand fit, brand significance, and attitudes towards brands influence consumer evaluation of value. A study of consumers between 18-25 years old, across two brands of sport shoe indicate that personal, idiosyncratic assessments, such as brand fit and brand significance, along with brand attitudes influence overall assessment of brand value

The effect of consumer risk perceptions and information search on willingness to buy GM food products: a cross cultural analysis

This paper seeks to address the widespread call in the literature for the cross-cultural examination ( and validation) of accepted concepts within consumer behaviour, such as consumer risk perceptions and information search. The findings of the study provide support for a number of accepted relationships, whilst identifying distinct cross cultural differences in external information search and willingness to buy genetically modified (GM) food products by consumers

A cross cultural examination of consumer behaviour and GM food products : results from Australian and South Korean female consumers

The call for the cross cultural examination and validation of commonly accepted relationships within consumer behaviour is strengthening. Consequently, this paper seeks to address this call by examining consumer risk perceptions, reliance on country of origin information and willingness to buy Genetically Modified (GM) food products on Australian and South Korean consumers. Findings indicate a number of cross cultural similarities and differences that have both theoretical and practical implications

Willingness to buy GM food products : the role of uncertainty orientation, consumer risk perceptions and information search in consumers from Australia

Genetically modified (GM) food products are the source of much controversy and in the context of consumer behaviour, the way in which consumers perceive such food products is of paramount importance both theoretically and practically. Despite this, relatively little research has focused on GM food products from a consumer perspective, and as such, this study seeks to better understand what effects consumer willingness to buy GM food products in Australian consumers

Political marketing : the application of marketing to politics

The application of marke ting to the political process has been advanced in a number of writings . A marketing perspective in e xamining the political process and electoral behaviour offers n ew insights into electoral behaviour and understanding the c ampaign p r ocesses of polit i cal parties . Research on the actual marketing orientation of political parti es is not signif i cant at this stage and as such this r e search addr esses the market i ng orientation and structur al and process charact eristics of political marketing with the research problem being: To determine what extent marketing has been inc orporated i n to the ope rations of the QLD Liberal Party and identify the struc tural and process characteristics of par ty's market ing environment. The research questions were : RQ 1. To what extent has the QLD Liberal Party adopted the marketing concept and is there support within t he party for the researcher's redefini tion of the Ma rke ting Concept i nto poli tical terminology to suit political marketing? RQ 2. To what extent are the QLD Liberal Party market ing oriented? RQ 3 . What are the struct ural and process characteristics o f the QLD Liberal Party's marketing environment? These research questions provided a focus for the investigations and the r esearcher' s endeavor to address the research problem. Chapter 1 of this thesis set the scene and identif i ed the broad d ire ctions and boundaries for t he study. It i ntroduced the topic and set out the purpose of the s tudy and its background. Chapte r a lso justif i ed the study on a number of theoretical and pra ctical 1 grounds and h ighlights the signif icance of the study because of its focus on polit i cal marketing which is postulated to b e part of marketing's e xtended doma in . Chapter 2 provided a review of the relevant literat u re , addressing the broader parent discipline f ocusing on the market ing concept, e xchange, market orientation and other key concepts and parent di s cipline issues . Importantly the r eview identified t he arguments for proposing that mar keti ng or more pre cisely a marketing orientation has been incorporated into politics by political parties rests upon the generic concept of marketing and that it (the generic concept) has been accepted as a central paradigm in marketing. Chapte r 2 then focused on the immediate discipline of political marketing and reviews the similari ties between commercia l marketi ng and pol itical marketing and other issues and concepts that the political marketing literature has addressed. From the two areas gaps in the literature are identified and the research questions developed. Chapter 3 aqdressed the methodological issues related to the research area and discussed the selected methodology. I t descri bed the data gathering techniques to be employed and types of analysis to be performed in the two stage primary research desi gn of this case study. Chapter 3 also established that the study was rigorous, methodologically sound and repl icable. Chapter 4 presented t he patt erns of results of the two s t age data gathering of the primary research for the three research question. The anal ysis of results i ndicated that the key dimensions and concepts addressed in the survey were significantly associated and the scale was quite rel i able and as such the measure of internal consistency was satisfactory . The results were judged not to be an artifact of the individual or separate stages . The pattern of results indicated that the interviewees had mini mal to none existent understanding of the marketing concept and a somewhat negative attitude toward ic. However survey results indicated a positive acceptance and attitude toward the marke ting concept generally and also its application in politics. The researcher's redef inition of t he marketing concept i nto political terms also received a high level of acceptance from respondents . The results indicated t he marketing concept has not been adopt~d by the party and their voter focus is minimal and they do not have a market orientation . The results indicated that the organisation is highly ' organisa tion centered ' which i ndicates the l a ck of a true marketing orientation; it has a strong sales orientation, where it believed electora l success is obtained if it can persuade the voters to accept its policy and issues stands rather than its competitors. The QLD Liberal Party does not possess a marketing 'mind set', structure or follow processes that yield a marketing orientation. The structural and process characterist i cs of the QLD Liberal party's marketing environment indicated that the product is a complex blend of various elements and that ser vice is a component . The results also indicate that loya lty was very important for the par ty and that mutability created pr oblems because of the party's minor status and alignment with the National Party. Furthe r the r esults indicated amateurism and volunteers creat ed p r oblems of control and motivation for the party and that a negative percept i on of marketing exists in some sections of t he party. The results also indicated that campaigns are based on style over substance and there is a high use of negative advertising and with the media being both a market and communications channel . The r esearch orientation of the party is toward polling and tactical voting was a critical strategy in campaigns. Chapter 5 discussed the findings and detailed the conclusions drawn f r om the data pre sented in c hapter 4 t o a nswer the r esearch prob lem , and discussed the implications of the study's findings. The r esearch problem as such went beyond e xami ning singular concepts that are appropriate in marketing and looked for the i n tegrated and synergistic appli cati on of marketing concept s and tools by- the party. It also focused on the political marketing environment to e xamine the structural and process characteristics that affect the party's operations . The conclusion about the research problem was that the party has not incorporated marketing into it operations. Specifically marketing whi ch is i ntegrated and s ynergistic . Further the study identified those structural and process characteristics that wer e identified in the literature and discovered t hat the produ~L was more comp lex than the literature indicated. Further the ~arketplace was identified as being competitive and volatile . Al so the process element of party tactical voting in a preferential voting system was ide n tified as being a critical s trategy to ensure t he opposing candidates were allocated last on the ballot by loyal voters. Further the mar keting concept with its custome r centered orientation creates a major concern from the perspective of interviewees, as they indicate the role and significance of the voter{customer) in deve l oping the political product is negligible. In conclusion the results of this study indicated that marketing has not been successfully extended into the QLD Liberal Party 's political operations, even though the party argues it successfully uses advertising and political polling. Contrary t o the party's belief marketing is characterised by an integrated and synergistic mix of product development and design , dis tribution, pricing or economic cost and promotion . This set of marketing activities is the twin edge. sword of marketing, the first edge is the mix of these elements that are developed to meet the needs and wants of target customers (voters) and the second edge is to meet the objectives of the organisation