A Theoretical and Empirical Exegesis of the Consumer Involvement Construct: The Psychology of the Food Shopper

Despite the plethora of consumer behavior and social psychology literature on consumer involvement, no common conceptual or methodological framework is evident in either literature. The paper presents an exegesis of the consumer involvement construct through a meta-analysis of extant literature and an empirical investigation in five European countries, where food is selected as an appropriate application. The findings show that four of the five most commonly observed dimensions of involvement remain robust, suggesting the four-factor involvement model might have universal meaning. Finally, the conceptual and operational clarification of the construct proposes a more precise context in which it should be placed for predictive analysis.