Table 1.
Factor analysis of the 15-item involvement scale (factor loadings from principal component analysis).
| Items of Involvement Scale | Mean c | Factor 1 | Factor 2 | Factor 3 | Factor 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Product importance | |||||
| I do not care at all about light lamb meat a | 5.2 | 0.62 | |||
| Light lamb meat is very important to me | 4.1 | 0.80 | |||
| For me, light lamb meat is absolutely necessary | 3.8 | 0.68 | |||
| Hedonic value | |||||
| I can say that I actually do not like to eat light lamb meat a | 5.9 | 0.65 | |||
| I enjoy a meal with light lamb meat more than a meal without it | 4.5 | 0.62 | |||
| I appreciate light lamb meat very much | 5.2 | 0.78 | |||
| Symbolic value | |||||
| You can tell a lot about a person based on his/her choice of light lamb meat | 3.5 | −0.73 | |||
| My choice of light lamb meat gives other people an image of me | 3.0 | −0.75 | |||
| My choice of light lamb meat conveys nothing about me to other people a | 3.3 | −0.67 | |||
| Risk importance | |||||
| I do not have a lot to lose when I make a bad choice about light lamb meat a,b | 4.6 | 0.44 | |||
| I would find a bad choice about light lamb meat terrible | 4.5 | 0.79 | |||
| I find it very annoying to make a wrong choice about light lamb meat b | 4.8 | 0.43 | |||
| Risk probability | |||||
| I never know if I make the right choice about light lamb meat | 3.5 | 0.83 | |||
| When I buy light lamb meat, I know that I make the right choice a | 3.6 | 0.75 | |||
| I feel lost when having to choose light lamb meat | 3.3 | 0.81 | |||
| Variability (%) | 25.1 | 16.2 | 13.3 | 8.4 | |
| % accumulated variability | 25.1 | 41.3 | 54.7 | 63.1 |
a Item reversely scaled. b These items were not included to extract the individual scores and not used to define the involvement profile and the involvement-based segmentation of consumers (Figure 2). c Seven-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 = “totally disagree” to 7 = “fully agree”. Factor loadings in bold denote variables included in the final involvement profile