Developing a multi-dimensional product evaluation scale

This research develops and validates a scale to assess products on salient characteristics that influence consumers' decision-making. The product characteristics (PC) scale assesses products on 12 major dimensions using 34-items. Next, the paper demonstrates the scale's validity and value in a study of the effects of PC on the consumer information search effort, impulse buying, and word-of-mouth behavior, representing different stages of the consumer decision-making process. The findings highlight the need for a revitalized examination of the consumer decision-making process with a focus on PC by showing that (1) PC have significant direct effects on a variety of critical marketing outcomes, (2) these effects interact with demographic variables such as age and gender that are currently undergoing major shifts, and (3) these effects vary across offline and online settings. Thus, the findings highlight the value of incorporating PC into models of consumer behavior especially in the current era of shifting demographics and e-commerce. To this end, this study contributes to the literature by offering a multifaceted, reliable, and valid scale to assess products on a wide range of characteristics that can be used in the study of any marketing-related phenomena that can be assumed to be product-contingent.