2010 - Public Relations Society of America

Table 1
Impact of Corporate Reputation on Purchase and Investment Decisions as Affected by Income
Response mean for income levels
Survey
question < $20k
$20k-
$39,000
$40k-
$59,999
$60k-
$79,999
$80k-
$99,999
$100k-
149,999 $150k+
Decision to
purchase
2.24 2.47 2.73 2.63 2.63 2.68 2.61
Decision to
invest
3.00 2.77 2.65 2.43 2.56 2.34 2.56
Note. N=691 for purchase question, 689 for investment question.
As with income level, age category does not appear to reveal significant variation. Table
2 depicts responses segmented by age. Mean responses for each age category rest between
“occasionally” and “frequently,” as they did by income level. Cumulative means for all age
categories were 2.61 for purchase decisions (sd = 1.24) and 2.59 for investment decisions (sd =
1.74). Again responses by age were compared using a one-way ANOVA. No significant
difference was found for intent to purchase (F(4, 828) = 1.369, p = .243) or for intent to invest
(F(4, 827) = 1.232, p = .169). Tukey’s HSD post-hoc test revealed no significant differences
across the entire range of comparisons by age segment.
Table 2
Impact of Corporate Reputation on Purchase and Investment Decisions as Affected by Age
Response mean for age segments
Survey
question 18-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+
Decision to
purchase
2.65 2.60 2.65 2.72 2.39
Decision to
invest
2.42 2.44 2.79 2.61 2.72
Note. N=833 for purchase question, 832 for investment question.
Continuing the pattern of examining demographically segmented respondent groups,
level of education also fails to produce significant differences for purchase decisions, but
education level does appear to matter in regard to investment decisions. Table 3 shows that
regardless of education level, mean response levels again fall between “occasionally” and
“frequently” for goods and services purchase decisions. For investment decisions, though,
respondents with only a high school diploma or less education appear to be affected less by a
company’s reputation, reporting means between “occasionally” and “rarely” to describe
reputation’s impact on their investment calculations. Cumulative means for all education levels
were 2.60 for purchase decisions (sd = 1.24) and 2.59 for investment decisions (sd = 1.74).
When responses by education level were compared using a one-way ANOVA, no significant
difference was found for intent to purchase (F(4, 832) = 1.861, p = .115), and Tukey’s HSD
post-hoc test confirms that this is true for all cross-comparisons among education levels.
Differences are significant, however, for intent to invest (F(4, 831) = 5.381, p = .000). To
determine specific comparisons among education level segments, Tukey’s HSD post-hoc test
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