ABSTRACT
This study aims to evaluate the extent to which two scales of consumer involvement with products converge: PII (Personal Involvement Inventory), by Zaichkowsky (1994), and NIP (New Involvement Profile), by Jain and Srinivasan (1990). The literature review encompasses the main studies on measuring the involvement of consumers with products. Data was collected through a survey that was applied to a non-probabilistic quota sample of undergraduate students from different institutions across the state of Rio de Janeiro. A total of 1,122 questionnaires were collected, of which 1,025 (91.4%) were considered valid. In order to investigate the different levels of consumer involvement through different product categories, four products were used - sneakers, mobile phone, sports drinks and soft drinks. ANOVA and post hoc tests were used to verify the existence of significant difference on answers among product groups. This study’s substantive hypothesis, the degree of convergence between the classification results of the PII and NIP scales, was verified in two ways: through Spearman’s non-parametric correlation test and through the observation of the scales’ similar classification proportion rates. The scores’ independence was evaluated through the non-parametric Chi-Square test. Results show high classification convergence. The main contribution of this study is thus to empirically test the PII and NIP scales in the Brazilian context. Furthermore, the convergence of the scores of these scales suggests the possibility of comparing results of studies, using either scale.
Keywords:
Consumer behavior; Consumer involvement with products; PII scale; NIP scale