Investigating the Effectiveness of Comparative Advertising: The Roles of Structural Alignability and Message Informativeness

Abstract

In the marketing literature, there are inconclusive findings about the effectiveness of comparative advertising. The mixed results from previous studies would certainly lead us intuitively to believe in the possibility of the existence of moderating or mediating variables. This research aims for contributing to the extant literature by investigating the moderating effects of structural alignability and the mediating effects of message informativeness. To our best knowledge, no previous published research has specifically focused on how these two variables influence comparative ads. An experimental study was conducted and the research findings are presented. The managerial implications, limitations, and future research recommendations are also discussed.