Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Tipping Point found in Value model: Attitude counts



It's been a big january with the target rewrite. With the tight deadline, I had to dramatically shrink and focus the Ch3 results, with surprising result.

I focussed on two things.
1. The properties of Value.
2. A single value connection between Value and Attitude.
This connection is the simplest two concept model of value. I excluded the other six value concepts (social network, consumer strategy, innovator strategy, value assessment, action and context) and will include this as a complex value model in an Appendix.

I analysed the Value attitude connection through three propositions.
P1: Value is stored as attitude
P2: Value is stored as a single result.
P2a: Value is stored as a multiple result.
P3: Value shifts with new relevant value information. ie Attitude endures
P3a: Attitude degrades over time.

This has meant some reanalysis (of interviews, and other tech consumer comments), and complete (part 3.2) rewrite, which is almost but not quite done. ANother few days.

Significant new results:
1. Attitude exists at two levels: general, and specific (or sub-attitude). The latter linked to value dimensions, and the former not.
2. Attitude is mainly a single result ie general attitude, but some people have a multiple general attitudes - simultaneous opposing general attitude eg 'necessary evil'
3. The connection between sub and general attitude is the key to the 'tipping point'. General attitude tips or flips between positive and negative, while multiple sub-attitudes are possible against multiple value dimensions ie happy with price, unhappy with reliability, happy with service, unhappy with convenience etc etc etc overall either happy or not. Have excluded from thesis scope the link between sub and overall attitude. Think this is a whole thesis on its own.

Prefer not to have to cover attitude literature ie whole new lit review but may have to, subject to your feedback.
Att lit eg cognitive dissonance Festinger 1957, theory of reasoned action (multi attribute ie multiple attitudes) Fishbein and Ajzen 1975, balance theory Heider 1946, congruity theory Osgood, Suci and Tannenbaum 1957. From Lawson, Tidwell et al Consumer Behaviour in Aust/NZ 1996.

4. General attitude would include tacit knowledge, while sub-attitude is explicit knowledge. if space/time would like to link to Polanyi. Perhaps in conclusion.
5. Attitude endures over time. No disconfirming evidence found. Though hard to prove a negative ie Popper.

I am conscious of my supervisor's need for quality, and my wife is cracking the time whip. I am in the middle.

I hope that now I have sufficient results for a significant contribution, while being simple (and tight) enough for the examiners to follow. And it will all fit in 80k words.

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