Marketing research

Three models have been proposed to measure service quality in the marketing literature. These models are: (1) Perception minus Expectations (P-E) Model, (2) Ideal Point (IP) Model, and (3) Performance-based (P-based) model. Underlying the models are two types of attributes: (a) vector point attributes (in the P-E and P-based models), and (b) ideal point attributes (in the IP model). With vector point attributes, increasing performance levels produce increased levels of favorable evaluation by customers. With ideal point attributes, increased levels of performance produces favorable evaluation up to the ideal, but beyond the ideal further performance is unfavorably evaluated. This research extends the attribute typology by introducing a third type called the "threshold point attribute." Threshold point attributes are those where customers' evaluation are posited to be favorable when performance increases up to a threshold point. Beyond the threshold point increases in performance are not accompanied by incremental increases in favorable evaluation (as with vector attributes), nor do they turn negative (as with ideal point attributes). That is, the marginal change in evaluation (whether an increase or decrease) is zero after the threshold level. In addition to extending the attribute typology, this research also proposes an enhanced model which subsumes vector, ideal and threshold point attributes. Because of its inclusiveness, the enhanced model is hypothesized to better represent the construct of service quality than the P-E, IP, and P-based models. A survey was mailed to 4,975 customers of an internationally known service firm. Results of a piecewise regression analysis on the data show that threshold point attributes exist in services. The enhanced model, however, does not perform better than other models in criterion and construct validity tests. One significant implication for managers is that they can avoid expenditures on features that customers do not desire beyond a threshold level. The most important direction for future research is to develop and test a contingency theory of customers' attribute classifications.

Buyer decision-making, a fundamental marketing activity, is studied from a variety of perspectives. This study proposes Net Transaction Value (NTV), a unified theory of buyer decision-making. NTV hypothesizes that a buyer makes an implicit and subjective calculation before making a purchase in a high involvement context. In making this calculation, the buyer deducts the costs anticipated from a transaction or transaction stream from its associated benefits. Benefits in the NTV equation reflect not only the product or service offering itself, but the monetary aspects of the transaction or purchase deal. Costs reflect the buyer's own self-imposed costs over and above price as well as those costs over and above price imposed by the seller on the buyer. This study uses the NTV model to develop and test the relationships between these benefit and cost variables and the buyer's perceptions of net transaction value. Results confirm that the buyer includes the benefits of the product or service offering itself and seller-imposed costs in the calculation of NTV. As a result, NTV provides a valuable tool for predicting and describing buyer decision-making.