Involvement with Services: An Empirical Replication and Extension of Zaichkowsky's Personal Involvement Inventory

Abstract

The involvement construct is a key theoretical entity within the general marketing as well as the consumer satisfaction, dissatisfaction, and complaining behavior literatures. Involvement with services is used in the conceptualization and measurement of satisfaction with services and complaining behavior regarding services. The following study investigates the efficacy of using Zaichkowsky's Personal Involvement Inventory (PIT) as a basis for operationalizing the involvement construct within the context of service research. Zaichkowsky (1994)   suggests that her original 20-item instrument can be efficiently reduced in marketing research to a ten-item scale representing both affective and cognitive dimensions. Stafford and Day (1995) empirically assess this proposition in two unique service settings, and report evidence providing some initial support for Zaichkowsky's (1994) assertions. The current research replicates and extends these two studies in a study conducted across four unique service settings located throughout the United States. The results of the current research provide strong support for a further reduced eight-item subset of Zaichkowsky's PU that appears as a relatively reliable and valid measure of the affective and cognitive dimensions of the involvement construct within the context of services. Further, the two-dimensional psychometric properties identified in the eight-item scale (i.e., cognitive and affective dimensions) appear robust across service settings thereby potentially minimizing the impact of service heterogeneity. Research and managerial implications of this study are presented and discussed.