International Journal of Market Research

Book Review: Brand Together: How Co-creation Generates Innovation and Re-energizes Brands, by Nicholas Ind, Clare Fuller and Charles Trevail [PDF]
Alan Wilson Vol. 55 No. 3, 2013 pp. 465–466
Alan Wilson's book review looks at "Brand Together" by Nicholas Ind, Clare Fuller and Charles Trevail, which is about innovation that is developed in partnership with the creativity of customers, within the boundaries that a strong and coherent brand has developed. Written in two parts, the first focuses more on the philosophy of co-creation, while the second part looks at the steps involved in implementing co-creation. The theory is supported by many case examples and Wilson recommends the book for the many marketing managers and researchers who see customer engagement as being no more than an online survey and the odd group discussion.
Published 17 May 2013

Research Association 2012 annual conference: Blurring the boundaries: New Social Media, New Social Science (NSMNSS) [PDF]
Grant Blank Vol. 55 No. 3, 2013 pp. 461–464
These conference notes from the Research Association 2012 annual conference look at the advantages and disadvantages of using data from social media and the ethical implications associated with the practice. They suggest that there will be more social media data used in research in the future but development of theories that would use this data usefully is necessary.
Published 17 May 2013

Research Association 2012 annual conference: Digital Methods as Mainstream Methodology (DMMM) [PDF]
Yvette Morey Vol. 55 No. 3, 2013 pp. 459–461
The National Centre for Research Methods’ (NCRM) Networks for Methodological Innovation programme funds several Networks to promote debate, innovation and the dissemination of methodological skills in the social sciences. Both Networks discussed here, Digital Methods as Mainstream Methodology and Blurring­ the Boundaries – New Social Media, New Social Science, are concerned with the implications of the tools and possibilities offered by digital methods and social media for social science researchers. We summarise a plenary session of the Social Research Association Annual Conference where Drs Yvette Morey and Grant Blank, respectively, described the events and activities of each Network team. Please refer to the links at the end of the paper for further information about the NCRM and the Networks for Methodological Innovation. Information about the projects and their respective team members can also be found by following­ the links provided.
Published 17 May 2013

We know exactly what you want: the development of a completely individualised conjoint analysis [PDF]
Markus Voeth, Uta Herbst and Frank Liess Vol. 55 No. 3, 2013 pp. 437–458
Improving the predictive validity of conjoint analysis has been an important research objective for many years. Whereas the majority of attempts have been different approaches to preference modelling, data collection or product presentation, only a few scholars have tried to improve predictive validity by individualising conjoint designs. This comes as a surprise because many markets have observed an augmented demand for customised products and highly heterogeneous customers’ preferences. Against this background, the authors develop a conjoint variant based on a completely individualised conjoint design. More concretely, the new approach not only individualises the attributes, but also the attribute levels. The results of a comprehensive empirical study yield a significantly higher validity than existing standardised-level conjoint approaches. Consequently, they help marketers to gain deeper insights into their customers’ preferences.
Published 17 May 2013

The comparative impact of critics and consumers: applying the Generalisability Theory to online movie ratings [PDF]
Ling Peng, Geng Cui and Chunyu Li Vol. 55 No. 3, 2013 pp. 413–436
This study employs a new measurement theory (i.e. Generalisability Theory) to investigate the comparative influence of early movie ratings from professional critics versus ordinary consumers on latent movie performance. The empirical results show that both ordinary consumers and critics have great impact on the latent movie performance. In particular, the main effect of rater sources and the two-way interaction between raters and movies are substantial contributors to the variation in movie performance, with the contribution from ordinary consumers even more substantial than that from professional critics. However, professional critics provide more reliable ratings (a higher G coefficient) than ordinary consumers. Moreover, we found that genre familiarity is an important factor that moderates the differential effect of these two sources of ratings. Professional critic ratings contribute more to the total variance of movie performance evaluations in the case of less familiar genres, while ordinary consumer ratings contribute more to that in the case of more familiar genres. The aggregate level validity (correlation) results for each rater source indicate that professional critics consistently provide better concurrent and predictive validity than ordinary consumers. While our analyses focused on the impact of two sources of ratings on movie performance evaluations, the findings have implications not limited to the movie industry. They are also applicable to the broad category of experience goods such as music, restaurants, video games and books, where consumers could seek opinion from both experts and ordinary consumers.
Published 17 May 2013

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