Quality, value, satisfaction, trust, a

2.4.1. Knowledge and Intangibility
In Goutaland’s empirical study (1999), subjective knowledge had a negative influence on
both difficulty of evaluation and perceived risk. As a moderator, subjective knowledge interacted
with physical intangibility (mental intangibility) to increase (decrease) perceived risk. However,
the expected moderating effect of knowledge on the relationship between intangibility and
difficulty of evaluation was not found. These somewhat inconsistent findings necessitate further
testing of the relationships between knowledge, intangibility, risk, and difficulty of evaluation.
Moreover, the moderating effect of knowledge will be retested from the brand and generic
category perspectives. Since brands reduce perceived risk and difficulty of evaluation, as
explained in earlier sections, the moderating effect of knowledge will be less in a brand context
than in a generic one. We thus hypothesize that:
H8: Knowledge moderates the relationships between the three dimensions of intangibility
(i.e., generality, physical intangibility and mentally intangibility) and a) difficulty of
evaluation and b) perceived risk.
H9: The more knowledgeable a consumer perceives himself to be regarding a
product/service a) the less difficult it is to evaluate it and b) the less risky it is perceived.
H10: The moderating effects of knowledge on a) difficulty of evaluation and b) perceived
risk at the generic level are greater than those at the brand level.
2.5. Involvement
Zaichkowsky (1985) stated that involvement had been diversely defined and measured
due to its different applications. In fact, involvement, applied under various objectives, led to
different responses for products (Howard and Sheth 1969), for advertisements (Krugman 1977),
and for purchase decisions (Clarke and Belk 1978). For the purpose of developing a scale,
Zaichkowsky defined involvement as “a person’s perceived relevance of the object based on
inherent needs, values, and interests” (1985, p. 342). Based on the definition proposed,
Zaichkowsky (1985) empirically developed the personal involvement inventory – a scale used to
measure one’s product involvement. Other researchers argued that the construct was
multidimensional rather than unidimensional. According to Laurent and Kapferer (1985), there
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