The Skyline Group launched its Skyline Air airline in 2000 -a case of brand expansion, as the company capitalized on its name recognition as a music retailer to venture into a service area where it had not operated before To investigate whether perceived category similarity predicts how likely consumers are to purchase extended brands researcher Emily Chen and her colleagues selected 30 brand - extension pairs (for instance, the same brand of robotic vacuum and microwave) in 52 weeks of shopping data from about 60,000 households .For every pair, Chen and coauthors asked consumers to rate how alike the two product categories seemed and then computed the shift in the probability of purchasing a brand in one category if the consumer had bought that same brand in the other category Which finding, if true.would provide evidence that the possibility Chen and colleagues examined does in fact occur? A) Consumers tended to make more purchases in categories containing brand - extension pairs than in categories not featuring any brand - extension pairs. B) There was a high positive correlation between consumers' similarity assessments and the probability changes that the researchers calculated. C) Consumers similarity assessments differed greatly by category pair, yet the researchers calculated probability shifts remainedroughly the same for all pairs. D) Both consumers similarity assessments and the researchers' computed probability shifts were influenced by the degree of brand familiarity.

Okay, let's break down this question. The core of the research is to see if there's a link between how similar people *think* two product categories are and how likely they are to buy a brand in one category if they've already bought it in the other.<br /><br />* **The Goal:** Find evidence that perceived category similarity *predicts* purchase probability.<br /><br />Now let's look at the answer choices:<br /><br />* **A) Consumers tended to make more purchases in categories containing brand - extension pairs than in categories not featuring any brand - extension pairs.** This doesn't address the *similarity* aspect. It just says people buy more in categories with brand extensions, which isn't what the research is about.<br /><br />* **B) There was a high positive correlation between consumers' similarity assessments and the probability changes that the researchers calculated.** This is exactly what we're looking for! If people think the categories are similar, and that *correlates* with a higher probability of buying the same brand across those categories, then perceived similarity *does* predict purchase probability.<br /><br />* **C) Consumers similarity assessments differed greatly by category pair, yet the researchers calculated probability shifts remained roughly the same for all pairs.** This is the *opposite* of what we want. If similarity assessments vary but purchase probability doesn't, then similarity isn't a good predictor.<br /><br />* **D) Both consumers similarity assess ments and the researchers' computed probability shifts were influenced by the degree of brand familiarity.** While brand familiarity might be a factor, this doesn't directly address whether *perceived similarity* predicts purchase probability. It introduces another variable.<br /><br />**Therefore, the correct answer is B.**