Measurement Scales for Obsolescence Risk in Business Buying of High-Technology Products

Abstract

Consumer-perceived risk is typically captured along six dimensions, namely, physical risk, financial risk, performance risk, time risk, social risk and psychological risk. These are considered generic risk dimensions, relevant in most buying situations. In addition to these, context-specific risk dimensions (e.g security risk in online buying) have been included in several studies. This exploratory research aims to develop measurement scales for one such risk dimension termed as “obsolescence risk”, in the context of purchase of high-technology products by business buyers. High-technology products are characterised by state-of-the-art development and have typically short and volatile lives. For the consumers, high technology is synonymous with high risk of obsolescence. Hence, studies that attempt to capture consumer risk for high-technology products need to necessarily incorporate the impact of obsolescence risk. However, while scales to measure generic risk dimensions exist, there is none to capture obsolescence risk.