Journal of Marketing Research

Manifest channel conflict is operationalized in terms of the frequency and intensity of disagreements between channel members and the importance of the issues about which they disagree. Six different multiple-item unidimensional measures including from one to all three of these components are evaluated with respect to reliability and validity with a sample of automobile dealers. The measure combining frequency, intensity, and importance multiplicatively is judged superior to the others.

Statistical power and effect size are not considered sufficiently by marketing researchers. The authors discuss how better attention to these two factors can improve the planning, execution, and reporting of marketing and consumer research. Suggestions are offered about how to increase effect size and improve statistical power.

Although the concept of moderator variables has been used extensively in marketing-related studies, much confusion persists as to how they are defined and identified. To alleviate this confusion, the authors present a typology of moderator variables with a framework for identifying their presence and type. Simulated data are used to illustrate and validate the proposed framework.

The diagnostic and predictive efficacy of market segmentation and the relative power of two segmentation schemes (benefit and situational) are investigated by using a market share probabilistic choice model (LOGIT) as a dependent variable. The model relates consumer perceptions of several alternatives on various characteristics to discrete choice and is estimated first for the entire sample and then for each of the benefit and situational market segments. Empirical findings derived from data on consumers’ transportation preferences, perceptions, and choices in the San Francisco Bay area suggest that the models provide fairly accurate estimates of market share and that using the segmentation concept affords diagnostic and predictive advantages.

Most clustering techniques used in product positioning and market segmentation studies render mutually exclusive equivalence classes of the relevant products or subjects space. Such classificatory techniques are thus restricted to the extent that they preclude overlap between subsets or equivalence classes. An overlapping clustering model, ADCLUS, is described which can be used in marketing studies involving products/subjects that can belong to more than one group or cluster simultaneously. The authors provide theoretical justification for and an application of the approach, using the MAPCLUS algorithm for fitting the ADCLUS model.

Fishbein's attitude theory posits that beliefs are the only mediators of attitude formation and change. The validity of this proposition for consumers’ beliefs about product attributes and brand attitudes was exmained in the context of an advertising effects study. To manipulate product attribute beliefs and to create settings in which other mediation processes might occur, the authors exposed subjects to simple advertisements that contained either a verbal claim or visual information. Level of repetition also was varied. As expected, product attribute beliefs mediated attitude formation. However, another variable, termed attitude toward the advertisement, also mediated brand attitudes and purchase intentions. The authors discuss alternative explanations for the results and offer suggestions for future research.

A cognitive response approach is used to examine the effects of one- and two-sided comparative and noncomparative commercials seen over three levels of repetition. Results indicate qualitative differences in the mediating roles of cognitive responses for comparative and noncomparative messages. However, no differences in the relative effectiveness of comparative and noncomparative messages are found for attitude and purchase intention measures. Also, message sidedness does not have a moderating impact on reactions to the two types of messages, and reactions to comparative messages are not influenced by prior preferences for the comparison brand.

Voice analysis has received attention recently both in the marketing/advertising literature and among marketing research practitioners. The authors summarize the concept behind the technique and identify major concerns with its use. They draw upon research from other disciplines, particularly psycholinguistics, psychosomatic medicine, polygraphy, and acoustics for their discussion.

In on-site research the sponsor is often obvious. Whether participation in research creates consumer dissatisfaction with being in the study and with the sponsor's service is an important question. Using an experimental design, the authors investigated consumer reaction to and satisfaction with participation in on-site research and the food and service in a restaurant. The effect of a pretest also was studied. Results indicate a positive response to the research and no adverse effects on the sponsor. No effect due to the pretest is found.

The theory of stochastic preference and brand switching uses market share data and a parameter ρ for generating switching matrices. In particular, ρ facilitates the generation of different matrices for different product categories having similar market shares. The parameter ρ has been termed a measure of product class brand loyalty. Because of the numerous conceptual definitions of brand loyalty, the author provides some additional insights into the meaningful interpretation of ρ. Furthermore, he emphasizes that at a general level a nonhomogeneous multinomial model can be used to represent most of the brand switching models.

Using a survey of 500 members of the general public and 500 lawyers from four cities, the authors examine uninformed response error in survey research. By asking respondents to evaluate the past performance of a fictitious public agency, the authors examine the impact of interest in the topic, the nature of the surrounding material, and the presence of a “don't know” option on the tendency to provide an uninformed response.

The author comments on Fornell and Larcker's article in the February 1981 issue of JMR. He indicates some limitations of the analyses, pinpoints where they can be misleading, and introduces some new notions.

Several issues relating to goodness of fit in structural equations are examined. The convergence and differentiation criteria, as applied by Bagozzi, are shown not to stand up under mathematical or statistical analysis. The authors argue that the choice of interpretative statistic must be based on the research objective. They demonstrate that when this is done the Fornell-Larcker testing system is internally consistent and that it conforms to the rules of correspondence for relating data to abstract variables.