Measuring performance at trade shows - Scale development and validation

Participating in trade shows (TSs) is an increasingly important marketing activity for many companies, but current measures of TS performance do not adequately capture dimensions important to exhibitors. Based on the marketing literature's outcome- and behavior-based control system taxonomy, a model that captures an outcome-based sales dimension and four behavior-based dimensions (i.e., information-gathering, relationship-building, image-building, and motivation activities) is built. A 16-item instrument is developed for assessing exhibitors' perceptions of their TS performance. The paper presents evidence of the scale's reliability, factor structure, and validity on the basis of analyzing data from independent samples of exhibitors at the international TSs SIAL (Paris) and ANUGA (Cologne); it concludes a discussion of potential managerial applications and implications for future research. New explanations of antecedents beyond those previously explained in the TS literature are proposed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.