Values

Question 1

What is values?

Answer 1

• Values reflect beliefs on the desirability of a certain end-state
• Values transcend specific actions and situations
• Values serve as standards or criteria for evaluating behaviour, people, ideas, events, …
• Our own set of values and their relative importance constitute our value system
• Within our value system, some values have higher relative importance than others
• The tradeoff among relevant, competing values guides attitudes and behaviours
• Many approaches to classifying personal values
• Focus in this course on value theories common in quantitative consumer research
• Values can vary in terms of how specific they are
• Global values / broad-based cultural values
• Terminal values (e.g. social recognition, pleasure, comfortable life)
• Instrumental values (e.g. ambition, self-control)
• Domain-specific values, e.g.
• Work and career-specific values
• Consumption-specific values (e.g. materialism, environmental protection), product-specific values (e.g. durability, brand status, eco-friendliness)

Question 2

Are values difficult to measure?

Answer 2

Yes, people do not often think about their values
• People have a hard time articulating what is really important to them
• People may feel social pressure to respond to a values questionnaire in a certain way –> social desirability bias
• Structured ways to measure values (examples)
• Rokeach Values Survey
• Schwartz Values Survey
• List of Values (LOV)
• Personal Values Orientation
• Material Values Scale

Question 3

What is Schwartz Value Survey (SVS)?

Answer 3

The Schwartz Value Survey (SVS) reports values of participants explicitly, by asking them to conduct a self-assessment. The survey entails 57 questions with two lists of value items. Out of the 57 questions 45 are used to compute the 10 different value types, of which the number of items to measure a certain value varies according to the conceptual breath. The remaining 12 items are used to allow better standardisation in calculation of an individual’s value. The importance of each of value item is measured on a nonsymmetrical scale in order to encourage the respondents to think about each of the questions.
• Aim: identify and classify basic personal values that are recognized across cultures
• Nature of values and their structure may be universal
• But different value ‘priorities’ or ‘hierarchies’: Individuals and groups differ in the relative importance they attribute to the values

Question 4

What is list of Values (LOV) - Kahle (1983)?

Answer 4

•	List of Values (LOV) developed based on previous work (e.g. by Rokeach 1973, Maslow 1954) but with focus on relevance of values to daily life (Kahle 1986) 
•	Contains nine core values* 
o	Security
o	sense of belonging
o	being well respected
o	fun and enjoyment of life
o	warm relationships with others 
o	self-respect
o	sense of accomplishment 
o	self-fulfilment
o	excitement 
* cover different value dimensions: interpersonal vs. apersonal, internal vs. external

Question 5

What is Rokeach Value Survey?

Answer 5

The instrument is designed for rank-order scaling of 36 values, including 18 terminal and 18 instrumental values. The task for participants in the survey is to arrange the 18 terminal values, followed by the 18 instrumental values, into an order “of importance to YOU, as guiding principles in YOUR life”.

Question 6

What is Personal Value Orientation (PVO)?

Answer 6

• Personal Values Orientation (PVO) adapted and shortened version of the Schwartz Values Survey (De Groth and Steg 2008; Bouman, Steg, Kiers 2018)
• Aim: identify values related to individuals’ environmental beliefs and behaviours
o biospheric (i.e. concern for environment)
o altruistic (i.e. concern for others)
o egoistic (i.e. concern for personal resources)
o hedonic values (i.e. concern for pleasure and comfort)
• Well-suited for survey research: few items, easy to answer for respondents
• PVO often used in consumer research, not only on environment-related topics

Question 7

What is Material Values Scale?

Answer 7

• Material Values Scale (MVS) measures the relative importance people ascribe to the value of ‘materialism’ (Richins 2004)
• Materialism = the importance ascribed to the ownership and acquisition of material goods in achieving major life goals or desired states
o MVS contains 15 item
o Short MVS scale 9 items
• Well-suited for survey research: few items, easy to answer for respondents
• MVS applied in brand research

Question 8

Is it global or domain specific values in DRS?

Answer 8

Domain specific (consumption and sustainable behavior)

Question 9

What could be the issue with measuring values?

Answer 9

• People do not often think about their values
• People have a hard time articulating what is really important to them
• People may feel social pressure to respond to a values questionnaire in a certain way social desirability bias
• In terms of the specific measurement in our study, it might still be hard to conceptualize for the participant, however it is still one of the best possible ways to do it.

Question 10

PVO: Pros and cons

Answer 10

• Pros: Used in relation to environmental issues before, easy to measure
• Cons: Doesn’t take many other variables/mediators into account (attitude, personality, etc.), can be problematic to measure values