| Summary: | 碩士 === 元智大學 === 管理研究所 === 90 === The present article explores attribute knowledge transfer in brand extension. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the role of functional attributes of the core brand in dissimilar extension in which the majority of knowledge transfer is image-based, and the role of image attributes of the core brand in similar extension in which the major knowledge transfer is function-based. First the distinction between functional vs. image attributes is made, followed by the discussion of the roles of extension distance and perceived fit. It is found that in a similar extension in which there is more functional information transfer than image transfer, a good image of the core brand can also help the extension evaluation, and this happens when both the core brand functions are positive as well as negative. In contrast, in a dissimilar extension in which there is more image information transfer than function information transfer, a good function of the core brand would actually dampen the extension evaluation, but this effect only happens with positive image. When the image of the core brand is negative, positive and negative functions of the core brand lead to similar extension evaluations. The difference in domain specificity of function and image attributes is employed to explain this asymmetric effect of function and image attribute knowledge transfer in brand extension. Academic and managerial implications of this asymmetric effect of function vs. image information in dissimilar vs. similar extensions are discussed.
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