Quality, value, satisfaction, trust, a

1. Introduction
Like inseparability, heterogeneity, and perishability, intangibility is one of the four major
characteristics used to classify services (Rust et al. 1996; Shostack 1977; Zeithaml et al. 1985).
Considered to be the key characteristic that differentiates products from services (Bebko 2000;
Zeithaml and Bitner 2000), the role of intangibility has shifted from a service-exclusive term to a
product-related one as well. Faced with the changes and challenges brought forth by a new
category of virtual or semi-virtual products/services (e.g., Web browsers, MP3 music files),
academicians are now equipped to study the effects of intangibility on perception of risk and
evaluation difficulty using a three-dimensional intangibility construct. Developed by Laroche,
Bergeron and Goutaland (2001), the intangibility construct now comprises three dimensions:
physical intangibility, mental intangibility, and generality. Each of these dimensions may have a
differential impact on consumers’ decision making processes both for branded and generic
products/services. The importance of studying intangibility within a branding context rests on
the premise that brands are believed to reduce consumers’ perceived risk and difficulty of
evaluation.
Given the dearth of research on intangibility, the focus of this study is, first, to confirm
the with new data the three dimensions of intangibility (Laroche, Bergeron and Goutaland 2001)
and then to study the effects of intangibility on perceived risk and difficulty of evaluation (for
the proposed model, see Figure 1). Another aim of this study is to determine how knowledge and
involvement, acting as moderators, affect the relationships between intangibility and difficulty of
evaluation, and intangibility and perceived risk. By comparing generic products/services with
branded ones, we also explore how the two strategies impact the relationships among the
proposed constructs. The overall goal of this research is thus to determine whether branding
80