Attitude Toward the Website (Image)

What it measures

A three-item scale measuring the perceived social status and prestige associated with using a particular website within one's personal reference group. Items assess whether website users are seen as having higher prestige, a high profile, or elevated status among their peers. This social image dimension of website evaluation captures the symbolic and identity-relevant aspects of online service usage — the degree to which a website serves as a social signal of status within one's environment.

Response format

7-point Likert

Scale items

• People in my personal environment who use this website have more prestige than those who do not.
• People in my personal environment who use this website have a high profile.
• Using this website is a status symbol in my personal environment.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Construct reliability = .95 — Falk, Hammerschmidt & Schepers (2010). VALIDITY: AVE reported; formal validity testing not explicitly described. LANGUAGE NOTE: Study was conducted in German; English items shown here are the published translations and may read awkwardly to native English speakers — review for naturalness before field deployment. Adapted from Venkatesh & Davis (2000, Management Science 46(2), 186–204), originally developed for technology acceptance in corporate settings and rephrased here for consumer website evaluation. Companion scales: Website Design (ATWD), Website Security (ATWS), and Website Shopping Enjoyment (ATWE) from the same study.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Falk, Tomas, Maik Hammerschmidt, and Jeroen J. L. Schepers (2010). The service quality-satisfaction link revisited: Exploring asymmetries and dynamics. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 38(3), 288–302.

Keywords