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Measuring purchase decision involvement for nancial services: comparison of the Zaichkowsky and Mittal scales

Gordon R. Foxall Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, UK John G. Pallister Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, UK
A random sample of 308 UK consumers was used to compare two scales for the measurement of consumer involvement Zaichkowskys revised Personal Involvement Inventory and Mittals Purchase-decision Involvement Scale in terms of internal reliability, dimensionality, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and criterion validity. In general, both inventories perform well but the results raise interesting questions about the emotional versus rational structure of consumer involvement with nancial services. The practical implications of the results for consumer research and the marketing of nancial services are discussed.

Introduction
The analysis of consumer behaviour for nancial services has come into its own in recent years, both as an aspect of academic study and as a means to more effective corporate decision making. But many of the implications are troublesome for the marketing of nancial services. The reality of consumers nancial decision making in the late 1990s appears to be a mass of confusion, lack of condence and shortage of trust. Shelton (1994) reports, for instance, that consumers want more objectivity, long-term relationships, less pressure, more control, solutions to their problems, and excellent advice. Positive marketing would identify each of these demands as an opportunity, but far too many nancial service marketers seem to see them as threats. Because suppliers of nancial services apparently offer confusion, suspicion and scepticism, and because many consumers face economic uncertainty, job and career insecurity and negative equity, the potential buyers of nancial services understand well the importance of the purchase decision at the expense of its exciting/appealing elements. What are we to make of this situation? In the terminology of consumer involvement research, these buyers are inuenced by the rational aspect of involvement with nancial services while being untouched by the emotional aspects. Indeed, the concept of consumer involvement may hold important keys to the development of meaningful and effective marketing plans for nancial services (Gunter and Furnham, 1994; Laaksonen, 1991). But consumer researchers wishing to make use of this concept are faced with a bewildering array of constructs and measures. Krugman (1965), Ray (1973) and Houston and Rothschild (1978) laid the foundations for the conceptualisation and operational measurement of involvement some years ago, and Mittal (1989) explicitly invited comparative studies between his scale and those devised by other researchers. But recent interest in using the involvement construct in consumer research has not been matched by comparative studies of the reliability and validity of alternative measures.

International Journal of Bank Marketing 16/5 [1998] 180194 MCB University Press [ISSN 0265-2323]

There is some agreement in the literature that, at the bare minimum, involvement is to do with personal relevance, a perceived value in the goal object, an arousing motivation reecting interest in the goal object, and that this arousal or motivation can be stimulated by communication, by the product itself or by the purchase decision context. But beyond that bare minimum lurk numerous academic and practical debates. Is it enduring or situational involvement, an important distinction introduced by Houston and Rothschild (1978), that matters? When advertising and attentional/processing strategies are under investigation, should involvement be conceptualised as a state of activation (Cohen, 1983; Mitchell, 1981) or as process involvement (Greenwald and Leavitt, 1984; Krugman, 1966-67)? So, while there has been considerable interest in investigating consumers involvement with nancial services, in the absence of sound psychometric comparisons between different measures, it is impossible to be sure that different studies are measuring the same construct or whether the implications, often drawn somewhat freely, for consumer research and marketing management are justied. In this article, we are concerned with the psychometric properties of two key measures of involvement in the context of consumer behaviour for nancial services. We investigated four nancial products bearing a maturity value or benet sometime in the future: 1 pensions; 2 life assurance; 3 mortgages; and 4 savings and investment. These products not only contrast with the targets of the earlier research but are of intrinsic interest in view of the extent of strategic change and product development which characterises the contemporary nancial services industry The chosen scales . are Zaichkowskys (1987b) Revised Personal Involvement Inventory (RPII) and Mittals (1989) Purchase-decision Involvement Scale (PIS). We compare them in terms of their internal reliability, dimensionality, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and criterion validity .

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Gordon R. Foxall and John G. Pallister Measuring purchase decision involvement for nancial services: comparison of the Zaichkowsky and Mittal scales International Journal of Bank Marketing 16/5 [1998] 180194

The inventories
Zaichkowsky: the revised Personal Involvement Inventory
Zaichkowsky (1985) understands involvement as A persons perceived relevance of the object based on inherent needs, values and interests. She attempts to construct a scale for the measurement of this variable which is context-free and applicable over the full range of pertinent stimuli, namely products, purchase decisions and advertisements. The rigorous construction and scientic testing of the inventory resulted in a 20-item scale, the Personal Involvement Inventory (PII) of high reliability (Cronbach alpha scores of 0.97 are not unusual) and validity The empirical data . on which these tests were based were collected as convenience samples of 268 undergraduates, two data sets of 49 MBA students and two further data sets of 57 clerical and administrative staff. Numerous product classes were involved in this research; the construct validity tests were conducted for instant coffee, colour television and laundry detergent. The PII appears to capture one major factor, relevance, across all product categories; some other minor factors were not further considered since the major factor accounted for some 70 per cent of the variance. The appeal of the 20-item PII lay in its simple structure (20 pairs of adjectives, scored on a semantic differential basis) and the use of a single score to represent the degree of involvement, so that products can be easily compared on a continuum. The scale has been widely used by other researchers (e.g. Celsi and Olson, 1988; Celuch and Evans, 1989). Criticism of the PII arose on two counts. Park and McClung (1986) argued that some scale items were not applicable to involvement in advertising and that the scale was too long for repeated testing. Vaughn (1986) and McQuarrie and Munson (1987) found the scale incapable of embracing the various types of involvement conceptualised by some researchers. In addition to these views that the inventory was too simple and too long, McQuarrie and Munson (1987) were concerned with the potential attitudinal contamination of the PII: the required independence of involvement and attitudinal measures was not clear cut in the case of the PII. Zaichkowskys (1987b) consequent revision consists of ten items, the Revised Personal Involvement Inventory (RPII). Several items which had invited the charge of attitudinal contamination in the rst version were omitted: e.g. benecial not benecial; undesirable desirable. The revised and

reduced scale (Table I), having apparently overcome the criticisms of the detractors, has been used in a large number of additional studies (e.g. Goldsmith et al., 1991; McQuarrie and Munson, 1987; Foxall and Bhate, 1993) whose authors expressed satisfaction with the reliability and predictive validity of the new scale and its capacity to discriminate across products and situations.

Mittal: the Purchase-decision Involvement Scale


Mittal (1989) criticised Zaichkowskys original inventory on the grounds that some items are attitudinal, others hedonic, and others having no bearing on purchase decision involvement, e.g. needed not needed; essential unessential. In regard to the latter, he argued that essential products can engender less purchase decision involvement than unessential luxury products. (Clearly the force of this criticism is somewhat diminished by the revised PII.) Mittal (1989) denes purchase decision involvement as the extent of interest and concern that a consumer brings to bear on a purchase decision task. He claried this denition by indicating that purchase decision involvement was similar to situational involvement as discussed by Houston and Rothschild (1977) but offered the advantage of referring to situational variations in the process (i.e. emergency purchase of a product as opposed to its routine selection). The fact that this concept and measure have the purchase decision task as their goal object does not imply that this construct should be assessed only at the time of purchase. Mittal (1989) argues however that, like other purchase-related mindsets (e.g. brand attitudes and purchase intentions), purchase decision involvement should be measured as close to the time of purchase as possible. It follows from this that the concept attempts to embrace and the proposed scale to measure a mindset rather than a response behaviour manifested in the decision-making process. For instance, a consumers routine purchase of cigarettes should not score low on the purchase involvement scale if the consumer is not indifferent to which brand among many is purchased. In the course of its construction and testing, Mittals inventory was reduced from ve to four items, though three further items were added in order to measure product importance. (Table II shows the nal sevenitem scale.) (We refer again to the ve original items below.) Empirical data were collected through two studies which employed convenience samples. The rst, consisting of 256 consumers, considered three product groups: beer, cameras and jeans; the

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Gordon R. Foxall and John G. Pallister Measuring purchase decision involvement for nancial services: comparison of the Zaichkowsky and Mittal scales International Journal of Bank Marketing 16/5 [1998] 180194

second, of 138 students considering two to three products each, yielded data on 15 product groups and 317 observations. Comparison of Zaichkowskys (1987a, 1987b) and Mittals (1989) denitions of involvement reveals little apparent difference. Both denitions are context free and, while Zaichkowsky (1987a, 1987b) emphasises relevance, needs, values and interests, Mittal (1989) stresses interest and concern. It could be argued that the concern dimension expressed by Mittal (1989) comprises the relevance, needs and values expressed by Zaichkowsky (1987a, 1987b). Hence the key difference between the denitions is that Mittals (1989) PIS is specically developed to measure purchase decision involvement, whereas in order to tap this aspect, users of Zaichkowskys (1987a, 1987b) RPII must specify purchase decisions as the context of the measuring instrument. The measurement scales should, therefore, show high convergent validity .

estimates) reported buying a nancial services product in the previous nine months. A replied-paid postal questionnaire was then placed with these adults 550 adults accepted the questionnaire (66 per cent of the buying population). This in turn produced 330 replies of which 308 were usable (56 per cent of those who accepted the questionnaire or 37 per cent of the buying population). A comparative analysis, between the population who reported buying (n = 830) and the sample population (n = 308), on the variables of age/ socio demographic grouping/area/nancial product bought suggested no difference between the two populations. The exception was gender, where 52 per cent of the population who reported buying were females but only 40 per cent were females in the sample used. Further information on the sample and sampling can be found in Pallister and Foxall (1998).

Analysis
Internal reliability was assessed by means of Cronbach alpha scores and item-to-total correlations. Dimensionality, determined by factor analysis, is used to establish the extent to which one factor accounts for the majority of the variance in each case. Convergent validity is the extent to which, when the two scales are correlated, the convergent coefficients are high and signicantly different from zero, while discriminant validity is the extent to which the discriminant coefficients for the two scales, when measured against a construct believed to be orthogonal to involvement, are low and not signicantly different from zero. For this purpose, we employed the innovativeness scale devised by Hurt et al. (1977). Criterion validity is assessed by determining how far each involvement scale discriminates signicantly among consumers on chosen criterion measures across the four products. The two scales are tested against criterion variables derived from three sources. (The wording of these criterion items adapted, after piloting, for our questionnaire differs slightly from that given by the original authors.) The rst ve, developed by Zaichkowsky (1985) from the work of Robertson (1976), Lastovicka and Gardner (1979), Mitchell (1979), Tyebjee (1979) and Belk (1975) are: 1 the reading of information about the nancial product; 2 the reading of consumer reports about the nancial product; 3 comparing product characteristics among companies; 4 think there are a lot of differences among companies;

Method
Sample
A nationwide commercial omnibus survey identied respondents who had purchased at least one of the four nancial products within the preceding nine months. From the omnibus survey, 830 adults (21 per cent of the total sample and in line with industry

Table I Zaichkowsky (1987a, 1987b) revised Personal Involvement Inventory scale The purpose of this study is to measure your involvement in ****. If you feel closely related to one end of scale, please place your check mark as follows: interesting to me_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:boring to me interesting to me_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:boring to me If you feel quite closely related to one end of scale (but not extremely) please place your check mark as follows: interesting to me_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:boring to me interesting to me_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:boring to me If you feel only slightly related (but not neutral) to one end of scale, please place your check mark as follows: interesting to me_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:boring to me interesting to me_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:boring to me Buying of is: 1. important to me _:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_: 2. boring to me _:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_: 3. relevant to me _:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_: 4. exciting to me _:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_: 5. means nothing to me _:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_: 6. appealing to me _:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_: 7. fascinating to me _:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_: 8. worthless to me _:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_: 9. involving to me _:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_: 10. not needed by me _:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_: [ 182 ] unimportant to me interesting to me irrelevant to me unexciting to me means a lot to me unappealing to me mundane to me valuable to me uninvolving to me needed to me

Gordon R. Foxall and John G. Pallister Measuring purchase decision involvement for nancial services: comparison of the Zaichkowsky and Mittal scales International Journal of Bank Marketing 16/5 [1998] 180194

5 a company always preferred. The next two criterion variables, developed by Mittal (1989), contain two items designed to cover the extent of information search, as suggested by Houston and Rothschild (1978) and Bloch and Richins (1983)): 1 the amount of information considered in the brand selection. 2 the extent of brand comparisons. Finally four global criterion variables were adopted from the work of Mittal and Lee (1989) and had been developed from the work of Mittal (1983), Laurent and Kapferer (1985), Zaichkowsky (1985) and Beatty and Smith (1987). These items were used as general statements of nancial product buying as opposed to the product/brand specic nature of the rst two groups of criterion variables. They were: 1 enjoyment of buying nancial services; 2 condence in selecting the right product; 3 discussion of nancial services purchasing with friends; 4 frequency of attending to nancial advertising.

Results
Internal reliability
Tables III and IV show that, without exception, the internal reliability of both tests reaches

Table II Mittal (1989), Purchase-decision Involvement Scale 1. In selecting from the many types and brands of this product available in the market, would you say that: I would not care at all I would care a great deal as to which one I buy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 as to which one I buy Do you think that the various types and brands of this product available in the market are all very alike or are all very different? They are alike 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 They are all very different How important would it be to you to make a right choice of this product? Not at all important 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Extremely important In making your selection of this product, how concerned would you be about the outcome of your choice? Not at all concerned 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Very much concerned

2.

3. 4.

Also, the fth item which was initially included but subsequently dropped: 5. How important will be the purchase of this product in your life? Not at all important 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Very important Strongly disagree 6. 7. 8. (Product) is very important to me For me (product) does not matter (Product) is an important part of my life Strongly agree

_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_: _:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_: _:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:

high levels. The RPII achieves Cronbach alpha scores of between 0.85 (for buyers of mortgages) and 0.95 (non-buyers of pensions), with item-tototal score correlations of 0.49 to 0.85 for buyers and 0.55 to 0.86 for non-buyers. One item, needed by me, produced an unacceptable correlation of 0.27 for mortgage buyers (Table V). Item-to-total correlations test the homogeneity of the scale which, apart from this item, is impressive. The Mittal scale achieves Cronbach alpha scores of between 0.77 (mortgage buyers) and 0.87 (pensions buyers), with item-to-total score correlations of 0.49 to 0.79 for buyers and 0.50 to 0.79 for non-buyers. In each product group and for both buyers and non-buyers, the item brands/types being very alike or very different produced unacceptable item-to-total score correlations of between 0.21 and 0.37, suggesting that this item requires at least rewording and possibly elimination (Table VI). Mittal (1989) reports high loadings for this item for beer and cameras, but a low loading for jeans. The high item-to-total correlations for the remaining items indicate an acceptable level of homogeneity (See also . the results of the factor analysis, below.) Mittals seven-point scale produces Cronbach alphas consistently lower than those for the ten-point Zaichkowsky scale. Cronbach alpha is known to be sensitive to the length of the scale and it is to be expected that the alpha scores for the Mittal seven-item scale would be consistently lower than those for Zaichkowskys ten-point scale. Some authors (e.g. Briggs and Cheek, 1986) suggest that the mean inter-item correlation, which is independent of scale length, should supplement Cronbach alpha. But another explanation is also relevant. Our results may reect the bipolarity of the Zaichkowsky scale as compared with the Likert-type statement approach employed by Mittal: while a Cronbach alpha score of 0.90 can be anticipated in the former case (Nunnally 1978), a norm of 0.80 is , expected for the latter (Carmines and Zeller, 1979). The present results compare favourably with those produced in earlier research: for the RPII: 0.95 (Zaichkowsky 1985), 0.91-0.94 , (Zaichkowsky 1987a, 1987b), 0.96 (Goldsmith , and Emmert, 1991), 0.84 (Foxall and Bhate, 1993); and for the Mittal (1988) ve-point scale: 0.80 (Goldsmith and Emmert, 1991). Tables III and IV show that buyers were more involved than non-buyers with life assurance, mortgages and savings and investments on the Zaichkowsky (1987b) scale and with mortgages and savings and investments on the Mittal (1989) scale. No signicant difference is found for pensions on either scale. Involvement levels do not differ among the buyer groups by product, though signicant differences are apparent for non-buyers

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Gordon R. Foxall and John G. Pallister Measuring purchase decision involvement for nancial services: comparison of the Zaichkowsky and Mittal scales International Journal of Bank Marketing 16/5 [1998] 180194

Table III Involvement (Zaichkowsky (1987a, 1987b) ten-point RPII scale) Cronbach alpha test Pensions Life assurance * sd a * 49.5 12.96 86 0.95 47.49 16.21 206 0.95 48.07 15.94 292 Not signicant 90 0.93 42.72 16.21 204 0.93 44.75 16.17 294 Signicantly different at p < 0.001 level Mortgages a * 56 0.95 43.73 17.39 234 0.94 45.00 16.48 290 Signicantly different at p < 0.002 level Savings and investment a * sd 0.90 51.13 12.56 160 0.92 46.21 13.92 132 0.91 48.91 13.4 292 Signicantly different at p < 0.002 level

a Buyers 0.91

sd

sd

0.93 49.36 15.19

0.85 50.32 10.47

n=
Non-buyers

n=
Overall

n=
Difference of means of buyers buyers and non-buyers t-test

Buyers are more involved Between buyers tests No signicant differences Between non-buyers tests Signicant difference between pensions and life (p < 0.000 level) pensions and mortgages (p < 0.000 level)

Buyers are more involved

Buyers are more involved

Notes: a = Cronbach alpha * = Mean score on involvement range 10-70 sd = Standard deviation

Table IV Involvement (Mittal, 1989) seven-point PIS scale) Cronbach alpha test Pensions * sd 90 0.84 40.29 8.07 217 0.85 40.70 7.83 307 Not signicant Life assurance a * sd 0.85 40.82 95 0.85 38.86 210 0.85 39.47 305 Not signicant 8.62 8.68 8.4 Mortgages a * sd 0.77 41.75 59 0.82 38.03 245 0.81 38.75 304 Signicantly different at p < 0.000 level 8.26 0.86 5.8 Savings and investment a * sd 0.80 41.49 6.74 161 8.61 38.37 7.98 145 0.82 40.01 7.51 306 Signicantly different at p < 0.000 level

a Buyers

0.87 41.88 7.14

n=
Non-buyers

n=
Overall

n=
Difference of means of buyers buyers and non-buyers t-test

Buyers are more involved Between buyers tests No signicant differences Between non-buyers tests Signicant differences between pensions and life assurance (p < 0.05 level)

Buyers are more involved

Notes: a = Cronbach alpha * = Mean score on involvement range 7-49 sd = Standard deviation [ 184 ]

Gordon R. Foxall and John G. Pallister Measuring purchase decision involvement for nancial services: comparison of the Zaichkowsky and Mittal scales International Journal of Bank Marketing 16/5 [1998] 180194

of pensions and non-buyers of life assurance and mortgages on the Zaichkowsky (1987b) scale, and between non-buyers of pensions and non-buyers of life assurance on the Mittal (1989) scale.

Dimensionality
The computation of coefficient alpha presupposes scale unidimensionality (Cronbach, 1951). Zaichkowsky (1985, 1987b) developed

Table V Internal reliability item-to-total score correlations Zaichkowsky (1987a, 1987b) RPII Pensions Life assurance Mortgages Savings and investment

Buyers 1. Important 2. Relevant 3. Means nothing 4. Boring 5. Worthless 6. Exciting 7. Appealing 8. Mundane 9. Involving 10. Not needed Non-buyers 1. Important 2. Relevant 3. Means nothing 4. Boring 5. Worthless 6. Exciting 7. Appealing 8. Mundane 9. Involving 10. Not needed

0.75 0.72 0.75 0.71 0.74 0.62 0.69 0.63 0.68 0.63 0.86 0.83 0.87 0.74 0.86 0.74 0.82 0.72 0.76 0.82

0.84 0.77 0.85 0.68 0.84 0.65 0.75 0.60 0.71 0.68 0.82 0.82 0.80 0.66 0.85 0.61 0.72 0.59 0.77 0.77

0.67 0.59 0.63 0.68 0.49 0.49 0.49 0.63 0.57 0.27 0.86 0.81 0.85 0.65 0.84 0.70 0.76 0.69 0.76 0.83

0.75 0.64 0.74 0.60 0.70 0.66 0.60 0.49 0.66 0.62 0.78 0.79 0.80 0.73 0.78 0.55 0.64 0.66 0.71 0.66

Table VI Internal reliability item-to-total score correlations Mittal (1989) PIS Pensions Life assurance Mortgages Savings and investment 0.62 0.35 0.67 0.54 0.60 0.48 0.62 0.68 0.28 0.75 0.65 0.68 0.64 0.53

Buyers 1. Care which brand bought 2. Brands are all alike 3. Important to make right choice 4. Concerned about choice 5. Product important 6. Product does not matter 7. Important part of my life Non-buyers 1. Care which brand bought 2. Brands are all alike 3. Important to make right choice 4. Concerned about choice 5. Product important 6. Product does not matter 7. Important part of my life

0.76 0.35 0.77 0.72 0.67 0.75 0.67 0.67 0.36 0.71 0.64 0.75 0.48 0.66

0.72 0.29 0.79 0.69 0.77 0.50 0.63 0.57 0.37 0.66 0.57 0.79 0.73 0.68

0.60 0.21 0.53 0.58 0.61 0.64 0.55 0.62 0.26 0.61 0.59 0.77 0.52 0.66

her scale as a unidimensional construct, compared, for instance, with the intentionally multi-dimensional measure devised by Laurent and Kapferer (1985). McQuarrie and Munson (1987) questioned the unidimensionality of the original 20-item PII but the revised, ten-item version developed by Zaichkowsky in 1987 was intended to maintain unidimensionality and overcome the issue of attitude contamination. Mittals (1989) scale is not explicitly unidimensional, though there is some indication that its author expected a unitary structure. In order to test for unidimensionality, the scores for the two involvement scales were factor analysed using varimax rotation with squared multiple correlations in the diagonal for factor extraction (Lee and Comrey, 1979). Table VII shows the general pattern of results for Zaichkowskys RPII. With one exception, buyers of mortgages, one major factor can broadly be said to account for the vast majority of the variance and all items loaded positively on this factor. Reviewing the factor analysis of the Zaichkowsky (1987b) scale (Table VII), it is clear that with the buyers of pensions, life assurance, and savings and investments, the major factor is the external states (Bloch and Bruce, 1984; Muncy and Hunt, 1984) aspect of involvement, indicated by important, relevant, needed, means a lot. For these three groups of buyers, this factor accounted for 58 per cent, 63 per cent and 53 per cent of the variance, respectively The . second factor is internal states (Bloch and Bruce, 1984; Muncy and Hunt, 1984). The same pattern is found for non-buyers across all four products, though it is noteworthy that this rational factor accounts for a higher amount of variance for the non-buyers. This nding is consistent with those of Zaichkowsky (1987b) for the product level; at the brand level, however, she found that the major factor loaded on the emotional level of involvement with the rational aspects becoming secondary In this research, the buyers of . particular nancial products (and, therefore, by implication, brands) did not go through this transformation process, i.e. they did not become emotionally involved with the brand. The exception to this, buyers of mortgages, do seem to have gone through this transformation with the major factor being the emotive one (exciting, appealing, fascinating) and accounting for nearly 44 per cent of the variance. The rational aspect splits, however, into two factors for this group. A possible explanation for this is that since some 39 per cent of mortgage buyers were under 36 years old, the loading on means a lot and valuable

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Gordon R. Foxall and John G. Pallister Measuring purchase decision involvement for nancial services: comparison of the Zaichkowsky and Mittal scales International Journal of Bank Marketing 16/5 [1998] 180194

Table VII Factor analysis of the Zaichkowsky (1987a, 1987b) RPII scale (rotated factor matrix) Pensions Life assurance Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 1 Factor 2 Mortgages Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 0.16 0.10 0.19 0.80 0.03 0.91 0.75 0.88 0.43 0.17 4.39 43.90 0.90 0.92 0.88 0.23 0.87 0.23 0.38 0.23 0.47 0.91 6.74 67.40 0.55 0.55 0.87 0.41 0.90 0.05 0.20 0.17 0.02 0.22 2.35 23.50 0.33 0.24 0.33 0.83 0.33 0.89 0.80 0.88 0.69 0.27 1.59 15.90 0.73 0.69 0.29 0.03 0.21 0.08 0.36 0.07 0.71 0.68 1.01 10.10 Savings and investment Factor 1 Factor 2 0.86 0.86 0.84 0.29 0.82 0.23 0.14 0.05 0.35 0.87 5.29 52.90 0.85 0.89 0.90 0.42 0.84 0.05 0.27 0.28 0.37 0.80 5.97 59.70 0.27 0.14 0.28 0.72 0.26 0.84 0.85 0.80 0.70 0.10 1.90 19.00 0.29 0.26 0.27 0.72 0.30 0.90 0.77 0.77 0.75 0.19 1.58 15.80

Buyers 1. Important 2. Relevant 3. Means a lot 4. Interesting 5. Valuable 6. Exciting 7. Appealing 8. Fascinating 9. Involving 10. Needed Eigen value Percentage variance Non-buyers 1. Important 2. Relevant 3. Means a lot 4. Interesting 5. Valuable 6. Exciting 7. Appealing 8. Fascinating 9. Involving 10. Needed Eigen value Percentage variance

0.86 0.92 0.89 0.29 0.87 0.08 0.27 0.16 0.52 0.81 5.75 57.50 0.91 0.90 0.82 0.32 0.87 0.27 0.41 0.26 0.56 0.88 7.08 70.80

0.26 0.14 0.23 0.83 0.23 0.94 0.83 0.86 0.54 0.15 2.00 20.00 0.31 0.29 0.43 0.83 0.36 0.89 0.83 0.87 0.59 0.29 1.32 13.20

0.90 0.87 0.90 0.34 0.89 0.20 0.39 0.13 0.67 0.86 6.32 63.20 0.91 0.91 0.84 0.27 0.86 0.20 0.39 0.17 0.66 0.89 6.35 63.50

0.29 0.22 0.30 0.78 0.29 0.90 0.80 0.80 0.39 0.13 1.68 16.80 0.22 0.22 0.30 0.84 0.34 0.86 0.77 0.86 0.49 0.18 1.62 16.20

could relate to rst-time buyers, thus producing this dichotomy . Reviewing the factor analysis of the Mittal (1989) scale (Table VIII), it is clear that with buyers of pensions, life assurance and mortgages, the rational aspect of involvement is the major factor, accounting for 61, 57 and 48 per cent of the variance, respectively (important to me, matters a great deal, important part of my life) and that the emotive factor is secondary In . contrast to our ndings for the Zaichkowsky scale, the reverse is true here of the nonbuyers. In this instance, pensions, life assurance and mortgages load on the emotional aspect of involvement: this, the major factor, accounts for 54, 55 and 51 per cent of the variance, respectively This time . the exception is savings and investments products which adhere more closely to the predicted pattern of both Zaichkowsky (1987b) and Mittal (1989) in which non-buyers (at the product level) load more heavily on the rational aspect of involvement and the buyers (at the brand level) load more heavily on the emotional aspects. This happened only with

the savings and investment product group with the Mittal scale and, to a slightly lesser extent, with the mortgages product group with the Zaichkowsky scale. It is interesting to note that if Mittals original fth item (Importance of the purchase of this product on your life) is included in the Mittal inventory, the factor analyses for the Zaichkowsky and Mittal scales produce more consistent results. Including this item yields the result that the rational aspect is consistent across the two scales for buyers and non-buyers, with the exception of mortgages in the case of the Zaichkowsky scale and savings and investments for the Mittal scale. For the Zaichkowsky scale for buyers and non-buyers, all Cronbach alpha scores exceed 0.90 (with the exception of mortgage buyers, which was 0.85) and most items loaded on the rst factor, which accounted for most of the variance. (This does not imply that the second factor be ignored see Harman, 1976 but that, for practical purposes, the scale might well be treated as unitary The .) assumption of linear combination of the ten

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Gordon R. Foxall and John G. Pallister Measuring purchase decision involvement for nancial services: comparison of the Zaichkowsky and Mittal scales International Journal of Bank Marketing 16/5 [1998] 180194

Table VIII Factor analysis of the Mittal (1989) PIS scale (rotated factor matrix) Pensions Life assurance Mortgages Savings and investment Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 1 Factor 2

Buyers 1. Care a great deal in selecting brand 0.40 2. Brands all very different 0.04 3. Right choice very important 0.43 4. Very concerned about outcome of choice 0.35 5. Important to me 0.92 6. Matters a great deal 0.86 7. Important part of life 0.84 Eigen value 4.23 Percentage variance 60.70 Non-buyers 1. Care a great deal in selecting brand 0.83 2. Brands all very different 0.67 3. Right choice very important 0.73 4. Very concerned about outcome of choice 0.85 5. Important to me 0.35 6. Matters a great deal 0.01 7. Important part of life 0.31 Eigen value 3.78 Percentage variance 54.00

0.83 0.70 0.80 0.83 0.14 0.31 0.21 1.21 17.20

0.45 0.14 0.56 0.52 0.76 0.82 0.82 3.95 56.50

0.73 0.78 0.71 0.67 0.41 0.01 0.19 1.08 15.40

0.52 0.16 0.29 0.35 0.89 0.83 0.82 3.36 48.00

0.57 0.75 0.67 0.74 0.07 0.25 0.13 1.25 17.90

0.81 0.71 0.69 0.82 0.16 0.04 0.32 3.42 48.90

0.26 0.01 0.45 0.15 0.86 0.85 0.75 1.35 19.10

0.28 0.00 0.43 0.22 0.84 0.87 0.78 1.24 17.70

0.86 0.41 0.88 0.86 0.30 0.24 0.17 3.84 55.00

0.16 0.28 0.26 0.18 0.89 0.89 0.90 1.32 18.80

0.82 0.62 0.84 0.87 0.26 0.02 0.25 3.58 51.20

0.28 0.06 0.25 0.20 0.91 0.91 0.82 1.59 22.60

0.31 0.08 0.44 0.35 0.89 0.81 0.80 3.77 53.90

0.82 0.63 0.80 0.80 0.21 0.24 0.10 1.17 16.80

items is thus substantiated (McDonald, 1981). For the Mittal scale, however, the situation is less clear cut for both buyers and non-buyers. As was expected for this shorter scale, the Cronbach alphas were somewhat lower than for the Zaichkowsky scale. With the same exception of mortgagee buyers, for whom the alpha was 0.77, however, all of the scores were above the norm of 0.80. While one major factor accounted for most of the variance, there is evidence that the scale item the brands/types being very alike or very different caused problems in respect of buyers of pensions, life assurance and mortgages: for these buyers, this item loaded negatively on the rst factor. With non-buyers, the item matters a great deal loaded negatively for pensions and mortgages. We have seen that it is not clear whether Mittal intended to design a unidimensional scale, though he differentiated the four scale items relating to purchase involvement from the three relating to product importance/ involvement. Both Mittals (1989) results and the present ndings suggest unidimensionality, however. But while Mittal reported that this was purchase involvement, we have found that the product importance dimension

is more prominent than purchase involvement. (Mittals results may have been distorted by the inclusion of cameras which produced a negative loading on the three product importance items.)

Convergent and discriminant validity


Convergent validity is demonstrated by positive correlations between different measures of the same trait; discriminant validity, by low and nonsignicant correlations between identical measures of different traits (Campbell and Fiske, 1959; Churchill, 1979). We assessed convergent validity by correlating the total scores on each of the four product scales with both the scores from the Zaichkowsky measure and those for the Mittal scale (Table IX). In all instances, there are high and statistically signicant correlations between the two scales. The two scales, therefore, are measuring the same trait of purchase involvement for nancial services. We are aware that our testing for convergent validity uses a total score approach which assumes a unidimensional construct. This is common practice which we feel justied in adopting for present purposes, but it must be borne in mind that

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Table IX Convergent validity utilising the Zaichkowsky (1987a, 1987b) and Mittal (1989) scales Pensions Life Mortgages Savings

measured by Hurt et al. (1977). Celuch and Evans (1989) conrm this nding in the case of high involvement products.

Criterion validity
The pattern of signicant and positive correlations shown in Tables XI-XIII (Zaichkowsky) and XIV XV and XVI (Mittal) between the , product category involvement measures and the behavioural criteria variables indicates that both scales possess some criterion validity However, the concern across the four . products and two scales is the relatively low and nonsignicant level of correlation frequently found. The virtual absence of any signicant correlations for both buyers and non-buyers of life assurance and mortgages (Zaichkowsky scale) and for buyers of these products (Mittal) is especially evident. Several criterion variables are related to Zaichkowskys scale for buyers and nonbuyers combined (Table XI). Interested in reading information.* Interested in reading consumer reports.* Compared product characteristics between companies. Think there are a lot of differences between companies. Choice based on a great deal of information. Extensive product comparisons. Enjoy buying nancial products.* Condent to select the right product. Often discuss nancial products with friends. Often pay attention to nancial advertising.* However, only the four asterisked items show correlations of 0.40 or above. For buyers, nine criterion variables correlate with Zaichkowsky involvement for pensions, and seven for savings and investment (Table XII). But the other products show little consistent relationship with this measure of involvement. For non-buyers of pensions, there is a high number of correlations between criterion variables and Zaichkowsky involvement all but A company always preferred though not all of the associations are of more than moderate strength (Table XIII). Mortgages also attracts a reasonable number of correlations for the non-buyers, though none of the seven is of more than moderate strength. Five criterion variables are consistently related to all four products for buyers and non-buyers combined (Table XI). Interested in reading consumer reports. Choice based on a great deal of information. Extensive product comparisons. Enjoy buying nancial products. Often discuss nancial products with friends.

Correlations between Zaichkowsky and Mittal scales by product, buyers, non-buyers and overall
Buyers Non-buyers Overall 0.55a 0.57a 0.60a 0.72a 0.60a 0.66a 0.46b 0.69a 0.65a 0.58a 0.61a 0.56a

Notes: a = signicant at the p < 0.001 level b = signicant at the p < 0.01 level
there are problems in using a total score approach for dimensional constructs (Bagozzi, 1982, 1985). Table X shows the results for discriminant validity, in which each of the involvement measures was correlated with respondents scores on the innovativeness inventory of Hurt et al. (1977). The correlations are generally low and not signicantly different from zero. The same pattern of exception to this generalisation is apparent for both of the involvement scales. Three of the groups show low yet signicant correlations between each of the Zaichkowsky and Mittal scales on one hand and the Hurt-Joseph-Cook scale on the other: buyers of savings and non-buyers of pensions. Despite these exceptions, this test of discriminant validity suggests that the involvement scales of Zaichkowsky and Mittal are measuring a construct that is different from innovativeness as conceptualised and

Table X Discriminant validity utilising the Zaichkowsky (1987a, 1987b) and Mittal (1989) scales with Hurt et al. (1977) Innovativeness scale Pensions Life Mortgages Savings

Correlations between Hurt et al. Innovativeness scale and the Zaichkowsky and Mittal scales by product, buyers, non-buyers and overall Correlations between the Hurt et al. and Zaichkowsky ten-point scale Buyers 0.20 0.10 0.02 0.24b Non-buyers 0.21b 0.07 0.10 0.18 Overall 0.20 0.06 0.09 0.22b Correlations between the Hurt et al. and Mittal sevenpoint scale Buyers 0.10 0.01 0.06 0.28a b Non-buyers 0.18 0.05 0.07 0.08 Overall 0.17 0.03 0.06 0.12
Notes: a = signicant at the p < 0.001 level b = signicant at the p < 0.01 level [ 188 ]

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Table XI Criterion validity statements Zaichkowsky (1987a, 1987b) ten-point scale RPII Overall 4.2 Interested in reading information 4.3 Interested in reading consumer reports 4.4 Compared product characteristics between companies 4.5 Think there are a lot of differences between companies 4.6 A company always preferred 4.7 Choice based on great deal of information 4.8 Extensive product comparison 15.1 Enjoy buying nancial products 15.2 Condent to select the right product 15.3 Often discuss with friends nancial products 15.4 Often pay attention to nancial advertising Notes: a = Signicant at p < 0.001 level b = Signicant at p < 0.01 level Pensions 0.40a 0.40a 0.37a 0.27a 0.09 0.32a 0.38a 0.47a 0.20a 0.28a 0.45a Life assurance 0.14 0.15b 0.14 0.00 0.04 0.17b 0.18b 0.22a 0.13 0.28a 0.17b Mortgage 0.18b 0.18b 0.13 0.08 0.02 0.20a 0.21a 0.20a 0.23a 0.28a 0.12 Savings and investment 0.30a 0.29a 0.20b 0.08 0.04 0.17 0.13 0.34a 0.17b 0.23a 0.22a

Table XII Criterion validity statements Zaichkowsky (1987a, 1987b) ten-point scale RPII Buyers 4.2 Interested in reading information 4.3 Interested in reading consumer reports 4.4 Compared product characteristics between companies 4.5 Think there are a lot of differences between companies 4.6 A company always preferred 4.7 Choice based on great deal of information 4.8 Extensive product comparison 15.1 Enjoy buying nancial products 15.2 Condent to select the right product 15.3 Often discuss with friends nancial products 15.4 Often pay attention to nancial advertising Notes: = Signicant at p < 0.001 level b = Signicant at p < 0.01 level
a

Pensions 0.47a 0.30a 0.39a 0.28b 0.07 0.35a 0.42a 0.56a 0.19 0.31b 0.47a

Life assurance 0.23 0.19 0.19 0.03 0.06 0.01 0.29b 0.30b 0.14 0.21 0.35b

Mortgage 0.27 0.17 0.14 0.12 0.13 0.37b 0.13 0.44a 0.41b 0.12 0.14

Savings and investment 0.54a 0.47a 0.21b 0.01 0.03 0.21b 0.21b 0.37a 0.18 0.26a 0.18

For buyers, however, only one criterion correlates consistently with the Zaichkowsky scale for all four products: Enjoy buying nancial products; this is also the sole criterion that correlates with this scale for non-buyers for all of the products. This pattern is not mirrored in the case of the Mittal scale. The results for the combined sample (Table XIV) indicate a more comprehensive display of signicant correlations. In fact, there are only two criterion statements which do not achieve signicance for any of the products: A company always preferred and Condent to select the right product.

Most of the remaining criterion variables correlate with all four products, though many of the relationships are relatively weak in absolute terms. The pattern of relationships is somewhat similar for buyers and nonbuyers for pensions, though the correlations are higher for buyers on the two criteria suggested by Mittal (1989): Choice based on a great deal of information, and Extensive product comparisons (Tables XV and XVI). In summary the Zaichkowsky scale demon, strates criterion validity on pensions and savings and investments (with the notable exception of A company I always prefer);

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Table XIII Criterion validity statements Zaichkowsky (1987a, 1987b) ten-point scale RPII Non-buyers 4.2 Interested in reading information 4.3 Interested in reading consumer reports 4.4 Compared product characteristics between companies 4.5 Think there are a lot of differences between companies 4.6 A company always preferred 4.7 Choice based on great deal of information 4.8 Extensive product comparison 15.1 Enjoy buying nancial products 15.2 Condent to select the right product 15.3 Often discuss with friends nancial products 15.4 Often pay attention to nancial advertising Notes: = Signicant at p < 0.001 level b = Signicant at p < 0.01 level
a

Pensions 0.38a 0.45a 0.37a 0.27a 0.10 0.32a 0.37a 0.44a 0.21b 0.27a 0.45a

Life assurance 0.12 0.13 0.13 0.00 0.09 0.23b 0.13 0.19b 0.09 0.29a 0.09

Mortgage 0.20b 0.20b 0.11 0.08 0.03 0.17b 0.20b 0.19b 0.23a 0.31a 0.12

Savings and investment 0.43a 0.44a 0.13 0.14 0.03 0.17 0.07 0.25b 0.13 0.18 0.22

Table XIV Criterion validity statements Mittal (1989) seven-point PIS Overall 4.2 Interested in reading information 4.3 Interested in reading consumer reports 4.4 Compared product characteristics between companies 4.5 Think there are a lot of differences between companies 4.6 A company always preferred 4.7 Choice based on great deal of information 4.8 Extensive product comparison 15.1 Enjoy buying nancial products 15.2 Condent to select the right product 15.3 Often discuss with friends nancial products 15.4 Often pay attention to nancial advertising Notes: a = Signicant at p < 0.001 level b = Signicant at p < 0.01 level
criterion validity cannot be claimed for this scale; however, in the cases of life assurance and mortgages for either buyers or non-buyers. The Mittal scale achieves criterion validity for pensions, life assurance, and savings and investment (though for buyers only in the last case) and for non-buyers of mortgages[1]. assurance, mortgages and savings, and investments, both Zaichkowskys (1987b) RPII and Mittals (1989) PIS inventories exhibit high and acceptable levels of reliability, convergent and discriminant validity Based . on this analysis, the two scales appear equally capable of capturing the construct of purchase decision involvement. Our assessment of the dimensionality of the scales indicates that one major factor accounts for most of the variance and that an additional factor plays a secondary part. This is so for both scales and conrms them as homogeneous, internally consistent or

Pensions 0.39a 0.39a 0.32a 0.35a 0.10 0.34a 0.30a 0.37b 0.09 0.20a 0.39a

Life assurance 0.17b 0.19a 0.18a 0.15b 0.01 0.29a 0.25a 0.13 0.08 0.30a 0.13

Mortgage 0.21a 0.20a 0.20a 0.28a 0.06 0.27a 0.28a 0.20a 0.13 0.22a 0.16b

Savings and investment 0.42a 0.38a 0.26a 0.31a 0.01 0.32a 0.28a 0.33a 0.08 0.15b 0.29a

Implications
For consumer research
The results indicate that for purchase decision involvement in respect of pensions, life

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Table XV Criterion validity statements Mittal (1989) seven-point PIS Buyers 4.2 Interested in reading information 4.3 Interested in reading consumer reports 4.4 Compared product characteristics between companies 4.5 Think there are a lot of differences between companies 4.6 A company always preferred 4.7 Choice based on great deal of information 4.8 Extensive product comparison 15.1 Enjoy buying nancial products 15.2 Condent to select the right product 15.3 Often discuss with friends nancial products 15.4 Often pay attention to nancial advertising Notes: a = Signicant at p < 0.001 level b = Signicant at p < 0.01 level Pensions 0.36a 0.28b 0.38a 0.39a 0.22 0.45a 0.43a 0.32b 0.13 0.24 0.39a Life assurance 0.22 0.13 0.24 0.07 0.04 0.35a 0.38a 0.15 0.09 0.31a 0.23 Mortgage 0.23 0.19 0.14 0.16 0.01 0.27 0.11 0.24 0.12 0.10 0.14 Savings and investment 0.50a 0.41a 0.36a 0.29a 0.01 0.40a 0.42a 0.44a 0.20 0.20b 0.43a

Table XVI Criterion validity statements Mittal (1989) seven-point PIS Non-buyers 4.2 Interested in reading information 4.3 Interested in reading consumer reports 4.4 Compared product characteristics between companies 4.5 Think there are a lot of differences between companies 4.6 A company always preferred 4.7 Choice based on great deal of information 4.8 Extensive product comparison 15.1 Enjoy buying nancial products 15.2 Condent to select the right product 15.3 Often discuss with friends nancial products 15.4 Often pay attention to nancial advertising Notes: = Signicant at p < 0.001 level b = Signicant at p < 0.01 level
a

Pensions 0.39a 0.43b 0.30a 0.34a 0.06 0.30a 0.25a 0.39a 0.07 0.18b 0.38a

Life assurance 0.16 0.22b 0.17b 0.21b 0.02 0.26a 0.19b 0.12 0.03 0.29a 0.06

Mortgage 0.23a 0.21a 0.20a 0.30a 0.07 0.27a 0.19a 0.21a 0.14 0.24a 0.16b

Savings and investment 0.31a 0.32a 0.13 0.29a 0.01 0.23b 0.14 0.14 0.05 0.11 0.11

unidimensional measures of purchase decision involvement. With the exception of the buyers of mortgages, the Zaichkowsky scale demonstrated that the rational aspect of purchase involvement was the major factor for buyers and non-buyers. The emotional aspect was the secondary factor for non-buyers. This nding is conrmed by Vaughn (1986) and Park and Young (1986) who also identied the factors of importance/relevant/needed for purchase decision involvement. Zaichkowsky (1987b) also conrmed this nding at the

product involvement level but she found that the emotional aspect became the major factor at the brand involvement level. The research might have expected this transformation also to have taken place at the buying level, i.e. that the emotional aspects of purchase decision involvement would become the major factor once the brand has been selected. The dimensionality of the Mittal scale, with the exception of savings and investment, is consistent with our ndings on the Zaichkowsky scale at the buying level, i.e. the rational aspect of purchase involvement was the

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major factor. The opposite was the case for non-buyers. Mittals own ndings were consistent with the latter nding in that he found that at the product level the emotional aspect was the major factor as was the case with our non-buyers. Buyers, in our research, utilising the Mittal scale, exhibited the rational aspect of purchase decision involvement, consistent with our ndings on the Zaichkowsky scale. Clearly the issue is why doesnt the buyer of nancial services become emotionally involved with the brand?. Is the product market so different from others? by raising this question it runs counter to the argument, which is agreed by this research, that involvement research should be based on individual behaviour (Antil, 1984; Ray, 1973) thus the question is more to do with why has the individual not changed when moving from the non-buying situation to the buying situation in this product market?

For nancial services marketing


Hence, the importance (and therefore rational) dimension of the decision seems to override the more emotional side of purchase decision involvement. Maybe a key issue in this analysis is the item The various types and brands of nancial products are all very alike or are all very different, which is the second item on the Mittal (1989) scale. Other researchers (Assael, 1984; Engel et al., 1986) have argued that perceived brand differences are a condition of involvement. Whilst these researchers did not use the term purchase involvement, in the context of this research perceived brand differences should, perhaps, be the most relevant of all the variables; yet, when the item-to-total correlations are considered, this item produces the lowest correlation and well below the 0.50 level of acceptance across all products and in both the buying and non-buying situations. The cause of this may be more to do with the consumers (buyers) uncertainty, doubt and confusion with the nancial product market. Sheltons (1994) research which was mentioned in the Introduction and which was conducted for Clerical Medical Investment Group, suggests that consumers are sceptical, confused, pressurised, suspicious, dominated and poorly treated, particularly by the life industry, but also by nancial services providers in general. An example is the recent misrepresentation in the selling of pensions. This situation is compounded by the contrast between perceived risk and information search, a critical element in the buying of nancial products. Germunden (1985) put forward a number of reasons why the risk-information-search hypothesis did not necessarily hold, namely, high perceived

risk decision makers do not search intensively for information because they perceive available information sources either as not trustworthy or as not competent. Early researchers of the risk-informationsearch hypothesis (Arndt, 1967; Cunningham, 1967) stressed that consumers would prefer to use independent and personal sources to reduce risk. (This is conrmed in part in this research by the fact that with savings and investment, buyers, in particular, use such sources): Information acquisition increases perceived risk rather than decreasing it. Germunden (1985) discusses the work of Weigel (1980), Katz (1960) in the context that a decision maker may want to increase the perceived risk in order to make a more efficient buy The social inuence process may well . make the buyer more risk conscious after consulting with family friends and colleagues. , The warnings and threats which result from these interaction processes serve to produce higher risks. The inuences of perceived risk on information search are suppressed by numerous barriers and the costs of information. Clearly, searching, storing and processing of information can be a time-consuming process in a complex product market, i.e. cognitive capacity can be limited, and, as Germunden (1985) states: with increasing complexity, barriers to understanding a problem and expressing information-needs also increase. It is noteworthy, then, that our results indicate that non-buyers indulge more extensively in initial information search and processing than do buyers, but as the purchasing decision is reached, complexity and barriers seem to emerge.

Note
1 One further observation has implications for future research. The differences between buyers and non-buyers of nancial services that we have identied may be depressed because of the sampling procedure we adopted each respondent had bought at least one of the products under investigation. Further work employing these scales should, therefore, use a broader range of samples.

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