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ABSTRACT
Means-end theory aims at explaining how consumers evaluate products by linking relevant attributes to perceived consequences to desired ends in a hierarchical way, based on core assumptions of cognitive psychology about human information processing. This study investigates the influence of affective states on information processing styles in a means-end measurement situation, thus taking into account an important antecedent and correlate of human decision making and behavior that has received scarce attention so far in the methodological literature on means-end chains. The results reveal that a person's affective state indeed influences the style of information processing. Respondents in a positive mood used more general knowledge structures and processed the laddering questionnaire faster than respondents in a negative or neutral mood. The laddering technique, which measures means-end chains, thus seems to be sensitive to situational effects, and this finding indicates that affective states then also might have an influence on product knowledge and the decision-making process in a purchase situation. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The first versions of means-end chain theory (MEC) were introduced by advertising practitioners (Young & Feigin, 1975) who developed guidelines for the creative process that take their point of departure in what degree of involvement and kind of information processing are typical for the product in question. Gutman (1982) developed this thinking further by suggesting that consumers use a cognitive chain for buying decisions that relates product attributes to benefits, which in turn contribute to fulfill personal values. The core assumption of this approach is that consumers view product attributes or service bundles as means to achieve desired ends, that is, that consumption-relevant knowledge is represented in memory as hierarchical cognitive structures at various levels of abstraction and their associative links to consumers' self-knowledge. These cognitive structures are labeled means-end chains and are the result of learning and experience processes (Reynolds & Gutman, 1988). To uncover means-end chains, an interview technique called laddering is used, which consists of a two-step procedure: elicitation of salient criteria to discriminate between products and then probing the informant at each level of the chain about the reason of importance for the attribute(s) and consequence(s), thus resulting in a ladder representing the hierarchical knowledge structure. Means-end analysis then combines the interviewing technique with subsequent content...