Innovation attributes and service brand equity in the context of information technology innovations

Abstract

Information technology innovations have become a major strategic priority for service companies in building their brands and enhancing their customer-based brand equity. Despite this fact, no theoretical model or empirical studies exist that fully define and analyze the direct relationship between attributes of information technology innovations and customer-based brand equity of service brands. This dissertation fills the gap by building and testing a complete theoretical model relating innovation attributes and dimensions of customer-based brand equity through a series of exploratory qualitative studies, followed by four survey-based quantitative studies focusing on different service industries. We find that there exists a direct relationship between attributes of an information technology innovation and dimensions of customer-based service brand equity, however the nature and strength of this relationship varies based on a variety of factors. In addition to service industry characteristics, three moderators were identified to affect the innovation attributes–brand equity relationship: Perceived brand innovativeness, perceived risk, and perceived voluntariness of use. We define and introduce perceived brand innovativeness as a new construct that needs to be further developed in future empirical studies and used in research focusing on marketing implications of innovations. Our findings not only contribute to theory through the development and testing of a thorough and concrete model relating innovation attributes and service brand equity, but they also have strong implications for practitioners who would like to maximize the impact of information technology innovations on their brands.