Cross‐national applicability of a perceived quality model
| Date | 01 July 2002 |
| Pages | 213-236 |
| Published date | 01 July 2002 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/10610420210435425 |
| Author | Sanjeev Agarwal,R. Kenneth Teas |
| Subject Matter | Marketing |
Cross-national applicability of a
perceived quality model
Sanjeev Agarwal
Associate Professor of Marketing, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa,
USA
R. Kenneth Teas
Distinguished Professor of Business, Iowa State University, Ames,
Iowa, USA
Keywords Product quality, Value, Loss, National cultures, Marketing, Pricing
Abstract Marketing scholars have long debated whether marketing programs and
processes can be standardized across countries. However, empirical examination of
cross-national applicability of marketing models, which are originally generated for a
single market ± usually the USA ± are rare. This study tests the standardizability of the
Dodds, Monroe, and Grewal model that explains consumers' willingness to buy based on
extrinsic cues ± such as brand name, price, and retailer reputation ± and on their
perceptions of quality, sacrifice, and value. The study examines the model via experiments
conducted in the USA, Belgium, and Sweden. The results suggest that while the model is
supported across countries, the relative importance of the extrinsic cues may vary across
countries.
Introduction
Consumers' use of extrinsic cues, such as price, brand name, and store name,
to impute product quality perceptions has been demonstrated in numerous
studies (Dodds and Monroe, 1985; Erickson and Johansson, 1985; Jacoby et
al., 1971; Render and O'Connor, 1976; Scitovszky, 1945; Stokes, 1985).
Dawar and Parker (1994) studied this phenomenon in an international
context and found that this is not culture bound. They found that not only
does the use of these cues as quality cues exist in many cultures, the relative
and absolute importance of the three cues in imputing quality perceptions
may be consistent across cultures. Specifically, the results of their study
indicated that brand name was the most important quality cue, followed by
price and retailer reputation, in order of decreasing importance. These
findings are valuable to marketers because they clarify whether or not
marketing strategies pertaining to price, brand name, and retailer reputation,
can be standardized across cultures and countries.
Dawar and Parker's (1994) study is an important first step toward examining
relationships between quality cues and perceived quality across different
cultural groups. However, there is a need to examine more complex
theoretical models involving the role of quality cues not only on consumers'
quality perceptions but also on consumers' value perceptions and
willingness-to-buy. Examining the issue of perceived value is important
because, when compared to perceived quality, perceived value is more
directly linked to consumers' willingness-to-buy (Dodds and Monroe, 1985).
In addition, value is a more complex concept than quality because it involves
a trade-off of ``give'' and ``get'' components of a transaction (Zeithaml,
1988). Consumers' willingness-to-buy, therefore, is influenced by value,
which in turn is influenced by both quality (the ``get'' component) and
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Extrinsic cues
More complex theoretical
models
JOURNAL OF PRODUCT & BRAND MANAGEMENT, VOL. 11 NO. 4 2002, pp. 213-236, #MCB UP LIMITED, 1061-0421, DOI 10.1108/10610420210435425 213
An executive summary for
managers and executive
readers can be found at the
end of this article
monetary sacrifice (the ``give'' component) needed to purchase the product
(Dodds and Monroe, 1985; Rao and Monroe, 1989; Zeithaml, 1988).
Dodds et al. (1991) proposed a model (see Figure 1) involving linkages
among extrinsic quality and sacrifice cues, perceived quality, perceived
sacrifice, perceived value, and willingness-to-buy based on four premises.
First, consumers' willingness-to-buy is a function of their perception of
product value. Second, consumers' perception of value is a function of a
trade-off between their perceived product quality and monetary sacrifice.
Third, consumers' perception of product quality is a function of extrinsic
cues, such as brand name, price, and retailer reputation. Fourth, consumers'
perception of sacrifice is a function of price. Dodds et al. (1991) report
empirical findings that support these hypothesized linkages among the three
extrinsic cues, perceived quality, perceived value, and willingness-to-buy for
a sample of US-based consumers. They did not measure monetary sacrifice,
and thus relationships involving sacrifice were not empirically examined in
their study.
The purpose of this paper is to test the generalizability of the Dodds et al.
(1991) model across different countries. Toward that purpose, experiments
were conducted in the USA, Belgium, and Sweden. On a geographical basis,
the data allow us to examine the generalizability of the model across the
world's two largest trade-area clusters ± North America and the European
Union. The fact that all three countries are economically well developed
(which enhances the comparability of the study samples) suggests that the
model should be generalizable. According to Jain (1989), standardization is
more practical in markets that are economically alike. Nevertheless, there are
some cultural and structural differences among these countries that must be
acknowledged. For instance, these countries differ on the four[1] cultural
dimensions ± individuality, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and
masculinity ± proposed by Hofstede (1980). Other scholars have classified
the USA as an Anglo country, Belgium as a Latin country, and Sweden as a
Nordic country (Ronen and Shenkar, 1985). In addition, according to Dawar
and Parker (1994), the countries can be classified into different clusters
based on the level of consumer-marketing activity as indicated by the
percentage of labor force engaged in the retail sector. The USA and Belgium
are classified as countries with high engagement in the retail sector whereas
Sweden is classified as a country with low engagement in retail sector. An
empirical test of the model across these countries will enable us to gain
Figure 1. Conceptual model of the effect of price, brand name, and store name
on product evaluation
Linkages based on four
premises
Cultural and structural
differences
214 JOURNAL OF PRODUCT & BRAND MANAGEMENT, VOL. 11 NO. 4 2002
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