Skip to main content
Disciplines
Automotive Business IT + Informatics Construction + Real Estate Electrical Engineering + Electronics Energy + Sustainability Insurance + Risk Finance + Banking Management + Leadership Marketing + Sales Mechanical Engineering + Materials
Events
DE
EN
Books
Journals
Topic Page
Marketing
Start single access now
Access for companies
EXTENDED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Marketing Letters
Published in: Marketing Letters 1/2017

11-09-2015

A longitudinal examination of the impact of quality perception gap on brand performance in the US Automotive Industry

Authors: M. Billur Akdeniz, Roger J. Calantone

Published in: Marketing Letters | Issue 1/2017

Log in

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config
loading …

Abstract

A quality perception gap, defined as the difference between perceived and objective quality, indicates either consumers’ overappreciation or underappreciation of product or brand quality and can have critical effects on performance. The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of a quality perception gap on brand performance and its moderating role in the relationship between marketing-mix signals and performance. Analyses based on a longitudinal dataset from the US automotive industry reveal that the relationship between the quality perception gap and brand performance has an inverted U-shape. Findings also demonstrate that, except for advertising, the impact of marketing signals on performance is higher when the quality of a brand is perceived as higher than its actual quality. Finally, over an 18-year period, the average gap between perceived and objective quality demonstrates a decreasing trend, indicating that the nature of demand in the automotive industry has become more utilitarian.
previous article Is what you choose what you want?—outlier detection in choice-based conjoint analysis
next article The influence of positive affect on consideration set formation in memory-based choice

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 102.000 Bücher
  • über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Automobil + Motoren
  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
  • Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
  • Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 67.000 Bücher
  • über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Versicherung + Risiko




Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now
Footnotes
1
“Actual” and “objective” are used interchangeably in the manuscript.
 
Literature
Aaker, D. A., & Jacobson, R. (1994). The financial information content of perceived quality. Journal of Marketing Research, 31, 191–201.CrossRef
Aiken, K. D., & Boush, D. M. (2006). Trustmarks, objective-source ratings, and implied investments in advertising: investigating online trust and the context specific nature of internet signals. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 34(3), 308–323.CrossRef
Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park: Sage Publications Inc.
Akdeniz, M. B., Calantone, R. J., & Voorhees, C. M. (2014). Signaling quality: an examination of the effects of marketing‐and nonmarketing‐controlled signals on perceptions of automotive brand quality. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 31(4), 728–743.CrossRef
Akerlof, G. A. (1970). The market for "lemons": quality uncertainty and the market mechanism. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 84(3), 488–500.CrossRef
Assmus, G., Farley, J. U., & Lehmann, D. R. (1984). How advertising affects sales: meta-analysis of econometric results. Journal of Marketing Research, 21(1), 65–74.CrossRef
Basuroy, S., Desai, K. K., & Talukdar, D. (2006). An empirical investigation of signaling in the motion picture industry. Journal of Marketing Research, 43(2), 287–295.CrossRef
Bharadwaj, S. G., Tuli, K. R., & Bonfrer, A. (2011). The impact of brand quality on shareholder wealth. Journal of Marketing, 75(5), 88–104.CrossRef
Bolton, R. N., & Drew, J. H. (1991). A multistage model of customers’ assessments of service quality and value. Journal of Consumer Research, 17(4), 375–384.CrossRef
Boulding, W., & Kirmani, A. (1993). A consumer-side experimental examination of signaling theory: do consumers perceive warranties as signals of quality? Journal of Consumer Research, 20(1), 111–123.CrossRef
Boulding, W., & Staelin, R. (1995). Identifying generalizable effects of strategic actions on firm performance: the case of demand-side returns to R&D spending. Marketing Science, 14(3), 222–236.CrossRef
Boulding, W., Kalra, A., Staelin, R., & Zeithaml, V. (1993). A dynamic process model of service quality: from expectations to behavioral intentions. Journal of Marketing Research, 30(1), 7–27.CrossRef
Bronnenberg, B. J., & Wathieu, L. (1996). Asymmetric promotion effects and brand positioning. Marketing Science, 15(4), 379–394.CrossRef
Douglas, E. J., Glennon, D. C., & Lane, J. I. (1993). Warranty, quality and price in the U.S. automobile market. Applied Economics, 25(1), 135–141.CrossRef
Drukker, D. M. (2003). Testing for serial correlation in linear panel-data models. The Stata Journal, 3(2), 168–177.
Erdem, T., & Swait, J. (1998). Brand equity as a signaling phenomenon. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 7(2), 131–157.CrossRef
Garvin, D. A. (1984). What does 'product quality’ mean? Sloan Management Review, 26(1), 25–43.
Golder, P. N., Mitra, D., & Moorman, C. (2012). What is quality? An integrative framework of processes and states. Journal of Marketing, 76(4), 1–23.CrossRef
Juran, J. M. (1974). Quality control handbook. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Kirmani, A., & Rao, A. R. (2000). No pain, no gain: a critical review of the literature on signaling unobservable product quality. Journal of Marketing, 64(April), 66–79.CrossRef
Kopalle, P. K., & Assuncao, J. L. (2000). When (not) to indulge in 'puffery': the role of consumer expectations and brand goodwill in determining advertised and actual product quality. Managerial and Decision Economics, 21, 223–241.CrossRef
Kopalle, P. K., & Lehmann, D. R. (1995). The effects of advertised and observed quality on expectations about new product quality. Journal of Marketing Research, 32(3), 280–290.CrossRef
Kopalle, P. K., & Lehmann, D. R. (2006). Setting quality expectations when entering a market: what should the promise be? Marketing Science, 25(1), 8–24.CrossRef
Kordupleski, E., Rust, R. T., & Zahorik, A. J. (1993). Why improving quality doesn't improve quality (or whatever happened to marketing? California Management Review, 35(3), 82–95.CrossRef
Koutsoyiannis, A. (1977). Theory of econometrics. 2nd Edition, Palgrave Macmillan.
Mannering, F., & Winston, C. (1991). Brand loyalty and the decline of American automobile firms," in Brookings Paper on Economic Activity: Microeconomics: The Brookings Institution, 67–103.
Mitra, D., & Golder, P. N. (2006). How does objective quality affect perceived quality? Short-term effects, long-terms effects, and asymmetries. Marketing Science, 25(3), 230–247.CrossRef
Morgan, N. A., & Vorhies, D. W. (2001). Product quality alignment and business unit performance. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 18, 396–407.CrossRef
Olsen, M. C., Slotegraaf, R. J., & Chandukala, S. R. (2014). Green claims and message frames: how green new products change brand attitude. Journal of Marketing, 78(5), 119–137.CrossRef
Padmanabhan, V., & Rao, R. C. (1993). Warranty policy and extended service contracts: theory and an application to automobiles. Marketing Science, 12(3), 230–247.CrossRef
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. (1985). A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research. Journal of Marketing, 49(Autumn), 41–50.CrossRef
Purohit, D. (1997). Dual distribution channels: the competition between rental agencies and dealers. Marketing Science, 16(3), 228–245.CrossRef
Rao, A. R., Lu, Q., & Robert, W. R. (1999). Signaling unobservable product quality through a brand ally. Journal of Marketing Research, 36(2), 258–268.
Rhee, M., & Haunschild, P. R. (2006). The liability of good reputation: a study of product recalls in the U.S. automobile industry. Organization Science, 17(1), 101–117.CrossRef
Rust, R. T., Inman, J., Jia, J., & Zahorik, A. (1999). What you don't know about perceived quality: the role of customer expectation distributions. Marketing Science, 18(1), 77–92.CrossRef
Simonson, I., & Rosen, E. (2014). What marketers misunderstand about online reviews. Harvard Business Review, 23–25.
Spence, M. (1973). Job market signaling. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 87(3), 355–374.CrossRef
Steenkamp, J. B. E. M., Heerde, H. J. V., & Geyskens, I. (2010). What makes consumers willing to pay a price premium for national brands over private labels? Journal of Marketing Research, 47(6), 1011–1024.CrossRef
Tang, T., Fang, E., & Wang, F. (2014). Is neutral really neutral? The effects of neutral user-generated content on product sales. Journal of Marketing, 78(4), 41–58.CrossRef
Tavassoli, N. T., Sorescu, A., & Chandy, R. (2014). Employee-based brand equity: why firms with strong brands pay their executives less. Journal of Marketing Research, 51(6), 676–690.CrossRef
Tellis, G. J. (1988). The price elasticity of selective demand: a meta-analysis of econometric models of sales. Journal of Marketing Research, 25(4), 331–341.CrossRef
Tellis, G. J., & Johnson, J. (2007). The value of quality. Marketing Science, 26(6), 758–773.CrossRef
Vakratsas, D., & Ambler, T. (1999). How advertising works: What do we really know? Journal of Marketing, 26–43.
Wernerfelt, B. (1988). Umbrella branding as a signal of new product quality: an example of signalling by posting a bond. RAND Journal of Economics, 19(3), 458–466.CrossRef
Wooldridge, J. M. (2003). Introductory econometrics: a modern approach. Mason: Thomson South Western.
Zeithaml, V. A. (1988). Consumer perceptions of price, quality, and value: a means-end model and synthesis of evidence. Journal of Marketing, 52, 2–22.CrossRef
Zhao, H. (2000). Raising awareness and signaling quality to uninformed consumers: a price advertising model. Marketing Science, 19(4), 390–396.CrossRef
Metadata
Title
A longitudinal examination of the impact of quality perception gap on brand performance in the US Automotive Industry
Authors
M. Billur Akdeniz
Roger J. Calantone
Publication date
11-09-2015
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Marketing Letters / Issue 1/2017
Print ISSN: 0923-0645
Electronic ISSN: 1573-059X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-015-9392-8

Other articles of this Issue 1/2017

Marketing Letters 1/2017 Go to the issue

OriginalPaper

Setting prices in mixed logit model designs

OriginalPaper

“No sale” items in auctions: do they really matter?

OriginalPaper

Is what you choose what you want?—outlier detection in choice-based conjoint analysis

OriginalPaper

Distortion of price discount perceptions through the left-digit effect

OriginalPaper

Brand love: development and validation of a practical scale

OriginalPaper

The pitfall of nutrition facts label fluency: easier-to-process nutrition information enhances purchase intentions for unhealthy food products