Darren Paproski - final PhD submission.pdf - University of ...

and by consumers’ reactions toward accompanying stimuli such as advertising and even brand
name. Brand beliefs may then be formed or perhaps reinforced based on behavior.
2.15.5 Classifications of Involvement
As we discussed above with respect to different attitudes toward an attitude object, we can
identify different platforms of involvement toward involvement objects. Such platforms may
include advertising involvement, product involvement, and purchasing involvement (Chen and
Lin, 2005). To understand the difference between these three involvements, Lin and Chen
(2006) further divided them into situational involvement, enduring involvement, and response
involvement. Lin and Chen (2006) considered the effect of product involvement, which relates
to the importance that consumers attach to the product and their level of interest in it. They
examined the influence of country of origin, product knowledge, and product involvement on
purchasing intentions in the insurance and catering industries in Taiwan. They found that
country-of-origin image (discussed further in Section 2.16), product knowledge, and product
involvement have a significantly positive influence on consumer purchase decision. They
further found that country-of-origin image and product knowledge have significantly positive
influences on consumer purchase decisions under different product involvement
levels. Further, they concluded that the influence of a brand’s country of origin increases when
the consumer’s interest or involvement in the product is higher. 9
2.15.6 The de Chernatony and McWilliams Model of Involvement Typology Matrix
The de Chernatony and McWilliam's (1989) model clearly highlights the levels of involvement
based on functional and representational brand characteristics. This model consists of two
dimensions which conceptualize brands in terms of the extent to which they satisfy
performance or functionality needs (e.g. Tide clothing detergent) and personal expression or
representationality needs (e.g. Gucci handbag). The impetus for this model was to assist
marketers in developing more effective brand strategies by explicitly recognizing, and acting
upon, the main reasons their brand is being bought whether for its emotional or functional
satisfactions (de Chernatony and McWilliam, 1990).
Following the basis of the Saurazas's (2000) research, this study also applied the de Chernatony-
McWilliam model to examine moderators with respect to a variety of involvement categories.
This is because differences in involvement for purchasing decisions usually occur at the
category level and not the brand level (McWilliam, 1997). 10 Low-involvement decisions such as
purchasing bottled water require little effort whereas high-involvement decisions such as
mobile phones purchasing require expending more thought and effort. With high-involvement
purchases we can distinguish between one that is a high-price-ticket item, one that is a
complicated purchase, and one that is a high-emotion purchase regardless of price. This
framework is used in Chapter 5 as a basis for selecting product categories for the empirical
components of the thesis. Throughout this thesis, reference is made to cells 1 to 4 which refers
to the specific cells within the involvement matrix (see Figure 2.7).
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