Enduring Involvement: Conceptual and Measurement Issues

Abstract

Enduring involvement has been a focus of consumer research in recent years. Based on that research, we define enduring involvement as an individual difference variable representing the arousal potential of a product or activity that causes personal relevance. Specifically, with enduring involvement, personal relevance occurs because the individual relates the product to his self-image and attributes some hedonic qualities to the product This research examines the appropriateness of using existing operationalizations of involvement to measure enduring involvement, and concludes there are some basic weaknesses in existing scales. Thus, based on the conceptual work of Bloch and Richins (1986)and the measurement work of Zaichkowsky (1985) and McQuarrie and Munson (1987), we have developed a valid and reliable measure of enduring involvement.