This four-item semantic differential assesses how tangible, material, and physically touchable a consumer perceives a particular product feature to be, as opposed to digital or immaterial. Garbas, Schubach, Mende, Scott, and Schumann (2023) used it with customers of a global car leasing company in research on reactions to internal product upgrades. The items were developed from ideas in Schmitt (2019) on digital versus physical consumption and Shostack (1977) on intangibility.
7-point semantic differential (higher scores indicate greater tangibility; scoring not explicitly reported)
Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.
Alpha was .81 (Study 5, n = 313) (Garbas et al. 2023, p. 307); validity was not discussed. Stem: 'The ___ of a ___ is ...'; the first blank names the feature and the second gives a generic name for the product (Garbas et al. used a stem along the lines of 'The heads-up display of a leased car is ...'). The response format was not described in detail; a seven-point scale with higher scores reflecting greater tangibility appears to have been used. See also Product Feature Centrality (this batch), Product Intangibility (ID 90076), and Physical Tangibility Perception (ID 1327).
Garbas, Janina, Sebastian Schubach, Martin Mende, Maura L. Scott, and Jan H. Schumann (2023), "You Want to Sell This to Me Twice!? How Perceptions of Betrayal May Undermine Internal Product Upgrades," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 51 (2), 286-309.
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