Consumer Behavior Consumer behavior research Consumer Behavior Research

Consumer Behavior Consumer behavior research Outline Domains of research Substantive domain Conceptual domain Methodological domain –Correlational research –Experimental research –Internal vs. external validity

Consumer Behavior Consumer behavior research The three domains of research (Brinberg and McGrath) Conceptual domain Substantive domain Methodo- logical domain

Consumer Behavior Consumer behavior research The substantive and conceptual domains Substantive domain: –the real-world problem that is the focus of the research; Conceptual domain: –the theoretical representation of the real-world problem; –usually stated as propositions or hypotheses expressing relationships between theoretical constructs;

Consumer Behavior Consumer behavior research Expertise, source attractiveness, message quality and attitude change

Consumer Behavior Consumer behavior research The methodological domain the approach taken to investigate the real-world problem; theoretical constructs are tied to manipulated or measured observed variables via correspondence rules; the validity of theoretical propositions is inferred from associations between observed variables; two types of research: –correlational research –experimental research

Consumer Behavior Consumer behavior research Expertise, source attractiveness, message quality and attitude change

Consumer Behavior Consumer behavior research Types of research correlational research: the variables of interest are measured and the existence and possibly strength of the relationship between them is assessed by various methods (e.g., by computing a correlation); experimental research: preferred research strategy for testing causal hypotheses because of two features: –experimental control of extraneous variables –experimental manipulation of the variable(s) of interest

Consumer Behavior Consumer behavior research Experimental effects main effect: a main effect is the effect of an independent variable on the dependent variable when the effect of other independent variables is ignored (i.e., averaged over); interaction effect: an interaction effect is present if the effect of an independent variable on the dependent variable depends on the level of (an)other independent variable(s);

Consumer Behavior Consumer behavior research Interpreting the results of experiments no arguments presented argumentspresented attractivesource persuasion expertsource presented argumentspresented

Consumer Behavior Consumer behavior research Interpreting the results of experiments no arguments presented argumentspresented attractivesource expertsource persuasion presented argumentspresented

Consumer Behavior Consumer behavior research Interpreting the results of experiments no arguments presented argumentspresented attractivesource expertsource persuasion presented argumentspresented

Consumer Behavior Consumer behavior research Internal vs. external validity internal validity: question of whether there is a relationship between the observed and/or manipulated variables and whether there is a causal relationship between the variables in the form in which they were manipulated and/or measured; external validity: question of whether generaliza- tions can be drawn about higher-order constructs from research operations and whether observed relationships can be generalized to and across populations of persons, settings, and times;