Epistemological Jangle and Jingle Fallacies in the Consumer-Brand Relationship Subfield: A Call to Action

Abstract

Abstract For more than 20 years, the consumer–brand relationship (CBR) subfield has flourished with scores of constructs being employed. We provide an epistemological examination of its 14 most commonly measured relational constructs (e.g., Brand Love, Self-Brand Connection) collected from 767 research articles, reflecting 1,753 scales and approximately 9,200 items. We demonstrate that constructs overlap an average of 43% across all journals and 21% in top journals due to assessing highly similar or synonymous ideas (i.e., jangle). We use a combination of text and cluster analyses to show that measures of allegedly the same construct are polysemic, having an average of 5.3 different meanings (i.e., jingle). The results document in the CBR subfield the types of measurement inconsistencies and ambiguities that have sown confusion and frustration in other academic fields. We discuss the roots of these problems and offer recommendations aimed at helping scholars to improve measurement practices and to limit the presence of jingle and jangle in the CBR subfield.