Does Perceived Quality Predict Consumer Response Across Industries?

Evidence from Insurance, Perfume, and Restaurant Services

Abstract

Purpose: This study examines whether the effect of perceived quality on consumer response generalizes across industries that differ in involvement, risk, and tangibility, testing industry sector as a moderator.

Research Method: Survey data from three independently collected Indonesian samples, namely credit life insurance customers (n = 159), perfume consumers exposed to influencer marketing (n = 402), and restaurant patrons (n = 211), were harmonized into composite indices and analyzed using a fixed-effects, dummy-coded moderated regression with robust standard errors.

Results and Discussion: Perceived quality strongly predicted consumer response (b = .896, p < .001; R² = .623). The overall quality × sector interaction was not significant (F(2, 766) = 2.11, p = .122), although the relationship was weaker in the restaurant sector, and the interaction became significant after excluding uniform responses (p = .033). Mean levels of both constructs differed significantly by sector.

Implications: Firms managing diverse business units can apply a unified customer-experience strategy while setting sector-specific performance benchmarks. Future research should test individual-level moderators and the full stimulus–organism–response mediation chain.

Originality: This study provides a formal cross-industry test of the quality–response relationship and demonstrates a composite-index harmonization and fixed-effects moderation approach for comparisons involving few higher-level units.