ELSEVIER Direct Marketing Ishmael R Akaah WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY Pradeep K. Korgaonkar FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY Daulatram Lund UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA-RENO Attitudes The study examines empirically consumers' attitudes toward direct marketing using a sample of 354 consumers. The sample was randomly drawn from a large southern metropolitan area. The study instrument comprised items developedfrom literature sources. Respondents' evaluations of the items were obtained through in-home personal interviews. Underlying the study is the hypothesis that consumers' attitudes toward direct marketing are afunction of their shopping orientation and patronage intention, and that consumers' attitudes toward direct marketing, in turn, influence their patronage intention. The study results indicate that four of the five shopping orientation factors examined szgnificantly underlie consumers"attitudes toward direct marketing, i.e., too much direct mail, like to examine product before purchase, retail people are pushy, and past direct marketing experience. The results also suggest that consumers' attitudes toward direct marketing significantly influence their intention to patronize direct marketing offerings but not vice versa. The industry implications of the findings are discussed, j BUSN RES 1995. 34.211--219 irect marketing is growing at twice the rate of traditional retailing methods (May, 1989). A Time magazine cover story estimated the number of Americans responding to direct marketing solicitations to be 92 million in 1989 and the dollar amount of purchases to be $183 billion (Time, 1990). According to Statistical Fact Book (1993-1994), the percentage of adults spending $200 or more per year on merchandise ordered through direct marketing rose from 16 to 21% in 1992. In fact, more money is presently spent on direct marketing programs and solicitations than on magazine or television advertising (Direct Marketing, 1994; Marketing News, 1992). In particular, direct mail comprises the third largest percentage of all advertising expenditure, increasing from 16% in 1982 Address correspondence to IshmaelRAkaah, Departmentof Marketing, WayneState University, Detroit, MI 48202. to 19% in 1992 (Statistical Fact Book, 1993-1994). Additionally, an increasing number of firms are now members of the Direct Marketing Association, including Fortune 500 firms and leading advertising agencies (Direct Marketing-Annual Survey, 1984; Statistical Fact Book, 1993-1994). Despite the rapid growth in membership and sales, the di- rect marketing industry is not without its problems. A recent survey found the sale of defective products to be commonplace (Storholm and Friedman, 1989). Another study found that a sizable proportion of consumers perceive direct marketing solic- itations to be a nuisance or an invasion of privacy (Marketing News, 1992). Also, the increased level of competition among firms in the industry has resulted in the overload of consumers with direct marketing solicitations (Schwadel, 1988). Indeed, the widespread nature of these problems has led some observers to predict an industry shakeout unless corrective measures are taken (Business Week, 1985). However, for any corrective measures to succeed, they must derive from knowledge of consumers' attitudes toward direct marketing and the factors that underlie their attitudes. The sig- nificance of such knowledge lies in the fact that attitudes in- fluence most aspects of consumption behavior (Ajzen and Fish- bein, 1980; Sheppard, Hartwick, and Warshaw, 1988). As such, knowledge of consumer attitudes and their determinants is vi- tal to the proper identification and implementation of correc- tive measures. This notwithstanding, not much empirical re- search has been conducted on the topic- exceptions being the studies byJolson (1970) and Lumpkin, Caballero, and Chonko (1989). Moreover, neither of the two studies focused directly on the determinants of consumers' attitudes toward direct mar- keting. The objective of the present study, therefore, is to ex- plore empirically the influence of shopping orientation factors as determinants of consumers' attitudes toward direct market- ing and the linkage between their attitudes and intention to pa- tronize direct marketing offerings. Journal of Business Research 34, 211-219 (1995) © 1995 ElsevierScience Inc. 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010 ISSN 0148-2963/95/$9.50 SSDI 0148-2963(94)00119-Y