| Perceived quality (PQ) | Percentage of respondents who chose the focal brand in response to the question “Which of the following brands do you think represents good quality?” minus the percentage of respondents who chose the focal brand in response to the question “Which of the following brands do you think represents poor quality?” during each month (a respondent could only choose high-/low-quality brands among those brands for which earlier they had indicated an awareness). | YouGov/Du et al. (2019) |
| Advertising expenditures (AD) | Brand’s total monthly advertising expenditures across different advertising channels (log-transformed). | Kantar Media |
| Advertising volatility (VOLATIL) | Variance in total monthly (log-transformed) advertising expenditures (AD) of a brand over the past six months (before the current time period). Higher values suggest more inconsistency. | Kantar Media |
| Ownership (OWN) | Average of percentage of people who are current customers and percentage of people who, in the past, were customers of services/products offered by the brand. | YouGov/Du et al. (2019) |
| Brand equity (EQUITY) | Whether the brand made it (.5) into the top 200 brands in the United States in the previous year, according to Young & Rubicam’s Brand Asset Valuator, or not (−.5). | Young & Rubicam |
| Product involvement (INVOLV) (α= .78) | Average of three items (“This category is very important to me,” “This category interests me a lot,” and “I would rate shopping in this category as being of the highest importance to me”), with each item rated on a 5-point Likert scale. | Mturk survey/Dholakia (2001); Steenkamp, Van Heerde, and Geyskens (2010) |
| Purchase frequency (FREQ) | Interpurchase time in a product category as measured by the following item: “How often do you purchase a product (or a service) in this category?” Responses were: weekly or more often; once a week to once a month; once a month to once every 6 months; once every 6 months to once a year; once a year to once every 5 years; and once every 5 years or more. | Mturk survey/Farris and Buzzell (1979) |
| Product category age (CATAGE) | A binary variable indicating whether the product category is old (−.5) or new (.5). The dichotomy is based on median split of average age of all brands in the category. | Google Search, Wikipedia, Factiva |
| New product launch frequency (NPL) | The extent of new product launch intensity in a category as measured by responses to the following item: “In this category, new products and services are frequently introduced” (5-point Likert scale). | Mturk survey/Fischer et al. (2010) |
| Macroeconomic condition (gross domestic product per capita; GDPPC) | Macroeconomic condition of the country as measured by real quarterly GDPPC. | Federal Reserve Economic Data |