Consumer Behavior

Conceptualizing Involvement

The plethora of consumer behavior and social psychological literature on involvement suggests considerable interest in this construct. There has not, however, been a common conceptual or

methodological framework to its examination in either literature (Laaksonen, 1994; Jain and Srinivasen, 1990; Rothschild, 1984; Zaichkowsky, 1985; Traylor and Joseph, 1984).

Three main perspectives of involvement are evident in extant literature; product-centered, subject-centered and response centered orientations (Finn, 1983).

The product-centered perspective defines involvement as the perceived importance of the product to the consumer, i.e. whether the product is trivial and, therefore, unimportant, or serious and thus important.

The subject-centered view maintains that consumers differ in terms of involvement-type variables. Three sub-groupings of subject-centered definitions have been postulated. They include interest/importance, relevancy (goals/consequences) and commitment (ego involvement). In this perspective, involvement has been defined as either the level of interest the consumer has in a product category or how important it is to her; the level a consumer is involved with a product in so far as it is related to some achievable end or concerns information that will directly impact on them; and, the level of commitment the consumer exhibits with respect to her position on an issue (Greenwald and Leavitt, 1984; Rothschild, 1984; Simon, 1967).

The final alternative perspective views involvement as response-centered. This view holds that involvement is the active participation in information processing (Engel and Blackwell, 1982; Bettman, 1979).

Despite the many and varied definitions of consumer involvement that have emerged in the literature, two common ideas emerge: first, involvement is a multi-dimensional construct

(McQuarrie and Munson, 1986; Laurent and Kapferer, 1985), and, second, it is a motivational force which can help explain various behavioral outcomes, (for example, number and type of

choice criteria, extensiveness of information search, length of decision-making process, variety seeking, and brand switching). The multi-dimensional aspect of involvement has been demonstrated by various researchers who suggest that the dimensions include:

normative involvement - the importance of product class to values, emotions, and the ego. This has also been identified as sign involvement -the relation of self-image to the product (Higie and

Feick, 1988; Lastovicka and Gardner, 1979);

subjective risk - the felt probability of making a mispurchase, or risk involvement (Knox et al., 1994; Jain and Srinivasan, 1990; Peter and Olsen, 1987).

enduring involvement - the interest and familiarity with a product class as a whole (Beharrell and Dennison, 1995; Jain and Srinivasan, 1990; Higie and Feick, 1988; Ratchford,

1987; Vaughn, 1986);

situational involvement - the interest and commitment within a product class, e.g. loyalty to the brand choice (Beharrell and Denison, 1995; Mittal, 1989).

The construct of involvement may be germane at several levels of analysis (Finn, 1983): consumers may be involved at a product level (Alden et al., 1989), a purchase level (e.g. Clarke

and Belk, 1978) or at the communication level (e.g. Petty and Cacioppo, 1981). Purchase involvement may be perceived as a motivational purchase attitude.

Attitudes, however, are not necessarily good predictors of behavior (Burke, 1992). It is argued, therefore, that involvement

creates a predisposition to act in a certain manner, it is a state of motivation in which purchase behavior may take place. Environmental cues (for example, the in-store retail setting), however, stimulate the predisposition and convert it into action. Purchasing behavior, therefore, is the result of the interaction of the predisposition to act and the environmental cues that can stimulate action.

Additionally, the cultural context of behavior generates processes that account for the relationship between intra- or interpersonal antecedent conditions and behavioral outcomes (Baron and Kenny,

1986; Triandis, 1990). Thus, it is necessary to investigate the predisposition to act in each cultural environment of interest for application to a retail setting.

Contrary to Finn's categorization (1983) of the three involvement orientations above, it could be argued that these definitions should not be viewed separately, but are linked sequentially.

Involvement is a state of motivation mediating direct influences on behavior. Although involvement can take place at the communication, product or purchase level, the level of motivation results from product attributes from which the product tends to be more or less involving (product-centered view) and how related the product is to the consumer's psycho-social wants and needs (personal relevance). The motivation is expressed as an interest in the product category and this interest influences behavioral outcomes, including brand commitment. A revised conceptual definition of involvement, therefore, is outlined: consumer involvement is a motivational state that mediates the predictors of behavior through cognitive and affective assessment, and results in behavioral outcomes. This definition presents involvement as a mediator of the predictors of behavior through cognitive and affective assessment, which results in behavioral outcomes.

While most authors present involvement as a construct comprising of between one to eight dimensions (Knox et al, 1994; Beharrell and Denison, 1995; Laurent and Kapferer, 1985; Zaichkowsky, 1985), the literature also suggests an alternative perspective which separates cognitive from affective involvement assessment (Mittal and Lee, 1989; Mittal, 1983; Park and Mittal, 1985). Normative and risk involvement dimensions describe rational and emotional

cognitive assessment (Sheth, 1974; Sirgy, 1982; Laurent and Kapferer, 1985), whilst enduring and situational involvement seem to be the output of this cognitive assessment in terms of the affective value (Peter and Olsen, 1987; Houston and Rothschild, 1977). Thus involvement could be perceived as a two-stage development. Motivation arises from an assessment of the purchase situation in terms of normative and risk evaluation which leads to a positive or negative emotion in terms of enduring and situational interest. Enduring and situational involvement is hypothesized to have a positive causal influence over purchase behavior (e.g. Mittal and Lee, 1989).

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