Customer Heterogeneity Scale

What it measures

Measures the degree to which a company's customers have diverse needs across product type and features, price and quality preferences, and service requirements. Higher scores indicate greater heterogeneity in customer needs across the company's customer base.

Response format

Likert

Scale items

• Our customers are very diverse in terms of type of products and product features they like to consider.
• Our customers are very diverse in terms of price and quality preferences.
• Our customers are very diverse in terms of service needs.

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

Usage notes & scoring

CR = .85, AVE = .66, ICC(1) = .24. 7-point scale (1='strongly disagree', 7='strongly agree'). Adapted from Jindal et al. (2007) and supplemented via prestudy interviews. Moderates the impact of MC segment differentiation on horizontal conflict and cooperation: under high customer heterogeneity, segment differentiation has no effect; under low heterogeneity, it strongly reduces conflict but also inhibits cooperation.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Fürst, A., Leimbach, M. & Prigge, J-K. (2017). Organizational multichannel differentiation: An analysis of its impact on channel relationships and company sales success. Journal of Marketing, 81(1), 59–82.

Keywords