Market Knowledge Breadth Scale

What it measures

Measures the breadth of a firm's market knowledge — the extent to which the firm has understanding of a wide range of diverse customer and competitor types. Captures the horizontal dimension of market knowledge. Uses 5-point semantic differential anchors. Higher scores indicate broader market knowledge.

Response format

Semantic differential

Scale items

• Compared to major competitors, our firm's knowledge of competitors' strategies is: narrow vs. broad.
• Compared to major competitors, our firm's knowledge of competitors' strategies is: limited vs. wide ranging.
• Compared to major competitors, our firm's knowledge of our customers is: narrow vs. broad.
• Compared to major competitors, our firm's knowledge of our customers is: limited vs. wide ranging.

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

Usage notes & scoring

CR = .79, AVE = .49. AVE marginally below .50; discriminant validity verified via Bagozzi, Yi, and Phillips (1991) chi-square difference tests for all construct pairs. Adapted from Zahra, Ireland, and Hitt (2000). 5-point semantic differential scale. Two items dropped during purification: 'Competitors' strategies is specialized vs. general' and 'Our customers is specialized vs. general'. Market knowledge breadth had a direct unmediated effect on product innovation performance — the most potent market knowledge driver.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

De Luca, L.M. & Atuahene-Gima, K. (2007). Market knowledge dimensions and cross-functional collaboration: Examining the different routes to product innovation performance. Journal of Marketing, 71(1), 95–112.

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