THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EXPERIMENTAL MANIPULATIONS AND TESTS OF THEORY IN AN ADVERTISING MESSAGE INVOLVEMENT CONTEXT

Advertising message involvement (AMI) has been identified as an import ant individual/situational factor influencing advertising processing. In order to isolate and examine various theoretical relationships, res earchers often experimentally manipulate AMI. In this study, several m anipulations of the construct were tested for their ability to place i ndividuals into high- and low-involvement groups. The results of the a nalyses indicated that modifications in manipulation instructions may alter the pattern of results obtained on manipulation- and confounding -check measures. The findings also suggest that relationships between theoretical constructs may be dependent upon the involvement manipulat ion utilized. The study is intended to demonstrate the delicate balanc e/relationship between methodological rigor and theoretical developmen t/advancement.