Despite recurring concerns about common method variance (CMV) in survey research, the information systems (IS) community remains largely uncertain of the extent of such potential biases. To address this uncertainty, this paper attempts to systematically examine the impact of CMV on the inferences drawn from survey research in the IS area. First, we describe the available approaches for assessing CMV and conduct an empirical study to compare them. From an actual survey involving 227 respondents, we find that although CMV is present in the research areas examined, such biases are not substantial. The results also suggest that few differences exist between the relatively new marker-variable technique and other well-established conventional tools in terms of their ability to detect CMV. Accordingly, the marker-variable technique was employed to infer the effect of CMV on correlations from previously published studies. Our findings, based on the reanalysis of 216 correlations, suggest that the inflated correlation caused by CMV may be expected to be on the order of 0.10 or less, and most of the originally significant correlations remain significant even after controlling for CMV. Finally, by extending the marker-variable technique, we examined the effect of CMV on structural relationships in past literature. Our reanalysis reveals that contrary to the concerns of some skeptics, CMV-adjusted structural relationships not only remain largely significant but also are not statistically differentiable from uncorrected estimates. In summary, this comprehensive and systematic analysis offers initial evidence that (1) the marker-variable technique can serve as a convenient, yet effective, tool for accounting for CMV, and (2) common method biases in the IS domain are not as serious as those found in other disciplines.

Common Method Variance in IS Research: A Comparison of Alternative Approaches and a Reanalysis of Past Research

Branding has emerged as a top management priority in the last decade due to the growing realization that brands are one of the most valuable intangible assets that firms have. Driven in part by this intense industry interest, academic researchers have explored a number of different brand-related topics in recent years, generating scores of papers, articles, research reports, and books. This paper identifies some of the influential work in the branding area, highlighting what has been learned from an academic perspective on important topics such as brand positioning, brand integration, brand-equity measurement, brand growth, and brand management. The paper also outlines some gaps that exist in the research of branding and brand equity and formulates a series of related research questions. Choice modeling implications of the branding concept and the challenges of incorporating main and interaction effects of branding as well as the impact of competition are discussed.

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Brands and Branding: Research Findings and Future Priorities

The authors conduct a meta-analysis that aggregates empirical findings from the market orientation literature. First, the study provides a quantitative summary of the bivariate findings regarding the antecedents and the consequences of market orientation. Second, the authors use multivariate analyses of aggregate study effects to identify significant antecedents of market orientation and the process variables that mediate the relationship between market orientation and performance. In addition, using regression analysis, the authors find that the market orientation–performance relationship is stronger in samples of manufacturing firms, in low power-distance and uncertainty-avoidance cultures, and in studies that use subjective measures of performance. The authors also find that the market orientation–performance correlation is stronger for both cost-based and revenue-based performance measures in manufacturing firms than in service firms. On the basis of the findings, the authors conclude with a ...

https://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~moorman/Marketing-Strategy-Seminar-2015/Session%202/Kirca,%20Jayachandran,%20and%20Bearden.pdf

Market Orientation: A Meta-Analytic Review and Assessment of Its Antecedents and Impact on Performance

Although public interest in sustainability increases and consumer attitudes are mainly positive, behavioral patterns are not univocally consistent with attitudes. This study investigates the presumed gap between favorable attitude towards sustainable behavior and behavioral intention to purchase sustainable food products. The impact of involvement, perceived availability, certainty, perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE), values, and social norms on consumers’ attitudes and intentions towards sustainable food products is analyzed. The empirical research builds on a survey with a sample of 456 young consumers, using a questionnaire and an experimental design with manipulation of key constructs through showing advertisements for sustainable dairy. Involvement with sustainability, certainty, and PCE have a significant positive impact on attitude towards buying sustainable dairy products, which in turn correlates strongly with intention to buy. Low perceived availability of sustainable products explains why intentions to buy remain low, although attitudes might be positive. On the reverse side, experiencing social pressure from peers (social norm) explains intentions to buy, despite rather negative personal attitudes. This study shows that more sustainable and ethical food consumption can be stimulated through raising involvement, PCE, certainty, social norms, and perceived availability.

Sustainable Food Consumption: Exploring the Consumer “Attitude – Behavioral Intention” Gap

Meta-analytic procedures for social research

The authors investigate the empirical generalizability of Aaker and Keller’s model of how consumers evaluate brand extensions. Various replications have reported different results. Using a comprehensive data set containing the data from the original study and seven replications conducted around the world, the authors undertake a secondary analysis to understand what generalizations emerge. The study has implications for the understanding of how brand extensions are evaluated and how empirical generalizations are made. For brand extensions, Aaker and Keller’s model hypothesizes that evaluations of brand extensions are based on the quality of the original brand, the fit between the parent and extension categories, and the interaction of the two. The authors find support for this full model despite published results, including Aaker and Keller’s own, that support only some of the hypotheses. The authors find evidence that the level of contribution of each of these components varies by brand and culture. With respect to empirical generalizations, the key implication is that it is premature to make firm conclusions about theory on the basis of only one study.

Do we really know how consumers evaluate brand extensions? Empirical generalizations based on secondary analysis of eight studies

Food marketing is facing increasing challenges in using portion size (e.g., “supersizing”) as a marketing tool. Marketers have used portion size to attract customers and encourage purchase, but social agencies are expressing concern that larger portion sizes encourage greater consumption, which can cause excessive consumption and obesity. This article addresses two questions that are central to this debate: (1) How much effect does portion size have on consumption? and (2) Are there limits to this effect? A meta-analytic review reveals that, for a doubling of portion size, consumption increases by 35% on average. However, the effect has limits. An extended analysis shows that the effect of portion size is curvilinear: as portions become increasingly larger, the effect diminishes. In addition, although the portion-size effect is widespread and robust across a range of individual and environmental factors, the analysis shows that it is weaker among children, women, and overweight individuals, as well as for...

Sizing Up the Effect of Portion Size on Consumption: A Meta-Analytic Review.

An understanding of the various motivational determinants of environmental consumer behavior is developed based on Batson's (1987) model of prosocial behavior. A correlational study finds support for two independent determinants of environmental behavior, the first being motivation based on internal responses of distress, the second being motivation based on empathy. The advantage of motivating environmental behavior through distress and empathy, over the more standard approaches based on attitudes and rewards or punishments, are discussed. In addition, the research supports the role of perceived consumer effectiveness and faith in others as determinants of some environmentally conscious consumer behaviors. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Understanding the determinants of environmentally conscious behavior

This research shows that a single auditory exposure to fictitious brand names may create the impression, one day later, that these brand names actually exist. It appears that the judgment that the brands are known is based on brand familiarity coupled with a failure to remember the exposure context. This demonstration, inspired by the false fame effect, is interpreted as the product of an implicit memory process. The result implies that measurement of explicit memory of an ad or other marketing communication may misrepresent (in this case, understate) the influence of that communication. However, the effect was obtained only when attention to the fictitious brand names was deliberate (as opposed to incidental). This suggests that there are lower attentional limits to the influence of one exposure to a brand name on creating familiarity without memory of the exposure context. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Stephen S Holden

Papers

Do we really know how consumers evaluate brand extensions? Empirical generalizations based on secondary analysis of eight studies

Sizing Up the Effect of Portion Size on Consumption: A Meta-Analytic Review.

Understanding the determinants of environmentally conscious behavior

Know the name, forget the exposure: Brand familiarity versus memory of exposure context

Know the name, forget the exposure: Brand familiarity versus memory of exposure context