IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/jconrs/doi10.1086-664987.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Difference between Differences: How Expertise Affects Diagnosticity of Attribute Alignability

Author

Listed:
  • Myungwoo Nam
  • Jing Wang
  • Angela Y. Lee

Abstract

Whereas past research showed that people rely more on alignable than nonalignable differences when evaluating alternative products, the current article shows that consumer expertise moderates this effect and that novices' reliance on alignable attributes can be attenuated when they are motivated or are provided with category knowledge. The authors conducted four experiments to test their hypotheses. Participants considered nonalignable (vs. alignable) attributes to be more differentiating between two competing brands, especially among experts (study 1). In addition, compared to novices, experts more actively sought out nonalignable attributes (study 2) and relied more on nonalignable than alignable attributes when making brand choice decisions (studies 3 and 4). Consistent with the hypothesis that experts' processing of nonalignable attributes is driven by their deeper motivation and knowledge, enhancing motivation (study 3) and the knowledge base (study 4) among novices led to their increased use of a nonalignable attribute as the basis of judgment.

Suggested Citation

  • Myungwoo Nam & Jing Wang & Angela Y. Lee, 2012. "The Difference between Differences: How Expertise Affects Diagnosticity of Attribute Alignability," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 39(4), pages 736-750.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:doi:10.1086/664987
    DOI: 10.1086/664987
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/664987
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/664987
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/664987?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jihoon Cho & Swinder Janda, 2023. "Perception carryover in cross-buying: the role of interpurchase time and product locus," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(4), pages 809-819, December.
    2. Ifie, Kemefasu, 2020. "Excellent Product … But Too Early to Say: Consumer Reactions to Tentative Product Reviews," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 35-51.
    3. Florence Jeannot & Eline Jongmans & Maud Dampérat, 2022. "Visual design and online shopping experiences: When expertise allows consumers to refocus on website attractiveness," Post-Print halshs-04159592, HAL.
    4. Jahanmir, Sara F. & Silva, Graça Miranda & Gomes, Paulo J. & Gonçalves, Helena Martins, 2020. "Determinants of users’ continuance intention toward digital innovations: Are late adopters different?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 225-233.
    5. Huang, Yufeng, 2015. "Empirical analysis of consumer behavior," Other publications TiSEM 9cc96a79-43d7-436d-87d3-3, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    6. Wu, Ruijuan & Chen, Jiuqi & Lu Wang, Cheng & Zhou, Liying, 2022. "The influence of emoji meaning multipleness on perceived online review helpfulness: The mediating role of processing fluency," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 299-307.
    7. Dean C. H. Wilkie & Lester W. Johnson & Wynne W. Chin, 2018. "Does the type of attribute matter? Examining whether underlying factors explain product attribute preference," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(4), pages 305-321, July.
    8. Mejía, Victor D. & Aurier, Philippe & Huaman-Ramirez, Richard, 2021. "Disentangling the respective impacts of assortment size and alignability on perceived assortment variety," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    9. Florence Jeannot & Eline Jongmans & Maud Dampérat, 2022. "Design visuel et expérience d’achat en ligne : quand l’expertise permet aux consommateurs de se (re)centrer sur l’attractivité du site d’e-commerce," Post-Print halshs-04159585, HAL.
    10. Feihong Xia, 2023. "Why to use Poisson regression for count data analysis in consumer behavior research," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(3), pages 379-384, September.
    11. Sun, Jin & Keh, Hean Tat & Lee, Angela Y., 2019. "Shaping consumer preference using alignable attributes: The roles of regulatory orientation and construal level," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 151-168.
    12. Katie Kelting & Adam Duhachek & Kimberly Whitler, 2017. "Can copycat private labels improve the consumer’s shopping experience? A fluency explanation," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 45(4), pages 569-585, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:doi:10.1086/664987. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/jcr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.