Oprah Winfrey is going out in style by giving each member of her studio audience keys to the as-yet-unseen 2012 Volkswagen Beetle. The promotion is part of Oprah's Ultimate Favorite Things giveaway, in which audience members are lavished with pricey surprise gifts of all descriptions. While VW officials declined to talk in detail about the 2012 Beetle, Browning did confirm that the new model will feature technologies like Bluetooth integration and a touchscreen stereo display, along with branded audio systems and ambient lighting. More importantly, Browning insists that the new model will have a decidedly sportier bent than previous iterations. The 2012 Beetle will feature available performance-minded items like a stiffer suspension, sport seats, 19-inch wheels and dual exhausts. This more sporting attitude is interesting, in part because VW officials have previously indicated that they hope to 'degender' the new model (the New Beetle's image and ownership base has long skewed heavily female). It has been confirmed that not only will VW's TDI engines figure in to the model's plans, but clean diesel technology will even be available in the Cabriolet model. The company's venerable 2.0-liter turbo gasoline engine will also be available, but there's no word yet about a dedicated high-performance model or a possible hybrid variant.
Multicollinearity among predictor variables in the theory of reasoned action makes the interpretation of the relative weights in the motel problematic. Since this paper attempts to examine the relative weights in the motel, caveats regarding this problem are warranted. However, in an effort to address the multicollinearity issue, both correlated and uncorrelated motels are tested and, for one set of analyses, an extra-sums-of-squares test is used involving reductions in explained variance when predictors are omitted. Miniard and Cohen (1981) have outlined the theoretical arguments for interdependence among the personal and normative components of the Fishbein and Ajzen model. In fact, it has been proposed that for those interested in distinguishing between personal and normative influences that an alternative model is more appropriate. Innovativeness has been defined as the degree to which an individual makes innovation decisions independently of the communicated experience of others, i.e., information passed verbally between individual consumers (Midgley and Dowling 1978, p.
This hypothesis is similar to the recent proposition of Gatignon and Robertson (1985, p. H1: Subjective norms will exhibit less relative influence on behavioral intentions for innovators than for noninnovators. Crossover effects from normative structure to attitude representing the impact of social influence on affect reflect a susceptibility or general willingness to incorporate or infer social influences on one's attitude structure. Normative information from others signals the direction of the attitudinal norm and implies that others will like the subject for holding an attitude consistent with these norms (Oliver and Bearden .985). H2: Innovators will exhibit a lesser tendency than noninnovators to exhibit crossover effects from normative structure to attitude. As alluded to above, the normative structure component of the theory of reasoned action reflects exclusively beliefs about referent expectations (Miniard and Cohen 1981, p. However, social-influence can be based upon both informational and normative sources. The findings of Berning and Jacoby (1974) suggest that innovators seek information from others. In contrast, the Midgley and Dowling (1978) definition stresses the absence of communicated experiences for innovators (i.e., information).
Given these conflicting perspectives, no formal hypothesis is offered regarding the differential role of informational versus utilitarian influences. However, the relationships between overall subjective norms and both informational and utilitarian (normative) influences will be examined for innovators and noninnovators. Data were collected from 139 undergraduate male and female marketing students. Responses were obtained for nine brands of two products -- toothpaste and luxury automobiles. The products were selected to represent products varying in susceptibility to reference group influence. Consistent with the typologies of Bourne (1957) and Bearden and Etzel (1982), toothpaste and luxury automobiles represent private necessities (PRN) and public luxuries (PUL), respectively. Private necessities are hypothesized to be not susceptible to reference group influence while reference group influence is hypothesized to operate for brand selection decisions among luxury automobiles. The sample was divided equally using a median split into innovators and noninnovators. Responses to the ten seven-place agree-disagree statements comprising the innovativeness factor identified by Raju (1980, p. Aggregate cross-sectional tests of the principle behavioral intention equation of the theory of reasoned action were conducted first for each subsample.
Second, crossover effects from normative structure to attitudes were tested for both innovators and noninnovators. Third ordinary least squares regression was used to estimate the subjective norm equations using utilitarian and informational influences as predictors. The two sets of modal referent groups (Ajzen and Fishbein 1980, p. 15 undergraduate students. The elicitation procedure employed open-ended questions to identify referents most likely to influence toothpaste and luxury automobile purchases. Three referents were found for each product: close friends, family members, and dentist for toothpaste and close family members, friends and relatives, and salesperson for luxury automobiles. All measures were developed in the context of the respondent's next purchase. Two measures of subjective norms (SN) were employed. Respondents provided their attitude toward the act of purchasing (Aact) each brand on three seven-point semantic differential scales labeled good-bat, foolish-wise, and beneficial-harmful. Behavioral intentions (BI) was assessed using a single seven-place item scale labeled likely-unlikely designed to reflect intentions to purchase. The direction of the SN and Aact items were reversed to limit acquiescence bias. Normative beliefs were also assessed using measures similar to those typically employed in tests of the Fishbein extended model.
