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

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• 作者：M. Billur Akdeniz ; Roger J. Calantone
• 关键词：Quality perception gap ; Objective quality ; Perceived quality ; Marketing signals ; Panel data econometrics ; Automotive industry
• 刊名：Marketing Letters
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：March 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：28
• 期：1
• 页码：43-57
• 全文大小：
• 刊物类别：Business and Economics
• 刊物主题：Marketing;
• 出版者：Springer US
• ISSN：1573-059X
• 卷排序：28

文摘

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.