The Augmentation Quality Scale (AQS) measures how consumers evaluate the technical goodness or badness of the integration of virtual elements into their real-world environment during an AR marketing experience. Developed through grounded qualitative work across two studies followed by two rounds of quantitative validation (total N = 670 across Studies 3 and 4), the scale conceptualises augmentation quality as a second-order factor with three first-order components. Embedding quality captures perceived realism of contextual integration — whether the virtual object fits naturally within the physical environment in terms of scale, positioning, and blending. Interaction quality reflects responsiveness — whether the virtual object reacts to user movements smoothly and in real time. Design quality captures the visual fidelity of the object itself — its level of detail, overall appearance, and realism from multiple perspectives. All three first-order factors load strongly onto the second-order augmentation quality factor, reflecting their status as complementary facets of a single quality experience. Higher augmentation quality predicts local presence, which in turn mediates effects on utilitarian and hedonic outcomes, purchase intention, and actual behavioural choices.
Schein, K. E., Rauschnabel, P. A., Praxmarer-Carus, S., & Babin, B. J. (2025). Unpacking augmentation quality and local presence: Factors that drive effective augmented reality marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 54, 49–69. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-025-01108-2
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