Business Commons^™

Understanding The Persuasive Attributes Of Twitch Advertisements: A Study On The Effects Of Current Advertisements And Sponsorships, Colleen Sharkey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The research in this study aims to investigate the effectiveness of Twitch’s current advertising option, which includes mid-roll, pre-roll, and sponsored streams. It will focus on usefulness of content, brand credibility, purchase intent, and streamer credibility. Twitch has seen a surge in growth and attention in recent years, with an average of 31 million daily visitors and 1.3 trillion minutes watched globally in 2021 alone (Twitch Sales, 2022). However, despite Twitch’s growing popularity as an entertainment and entrepreneurship platform, little research has been conducted on the impact of its advertising options on brand perception. This study seeks to address this …

An Examination Of Consumer Perceptions Of Sponsorship Authenticity Between A Major Beer Brand And Professional Women’S And Men’S Hockey Leagues, Matthew Reid

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol sponsorship of women’s professional hockey in North America began in 2019, yet men’s professional hockey has received financial support from alcohol brands for decades. The purpose of this thesis was to examine consumer perceptions of sponsorship authenticity as they relate to beer sponsorship of professional men’s and women’s hockey leagues. Moreover, this study examined the differences of gender on perceptions of authenticity towards the two alcohol and sport sponsorships, as well as two correlations: first, between alcohol consumption and sponsorship authenticity, and second, between attitudes towards alcohol sponsorship and sponsorship authenticity. A quantitative, cross-sectional design was utilized, and its …

Strength Of Weak Ties Theory And College-University Marketing: A Case Study Of Etsu's Clemmer College, Sarah Nobles

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As scholarly institutions enter a new era of hyper-competition, seeking innovative ways to engage with student populations has become central to social media marketing efforts. Developing strategies and tactics to interact with existing student populations presents new challenges for marketing departments, as well as the stakeholders who are often asked to provide user-generated content. Strong ties among stakeholder relationships can enhance communication with effective outcomes; however, it is the weak ties that may have the most impact. This study draws on existing literature regarding Strength of Weak Ties Theory and faculty and student surveys in East Tennessee State University’s Clemmer …

Personification In Advertising: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Digital Video Ads In The Insurance Industry, Dorm Kpedor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Major companies in the insurance industry—notably Allstate, Progressive, and Farmers—often employ personification as a creative rhetorical tool in digital video advertisements. By leveraging brand characters in various ways, these companies seek to establish trust and engender emotional impact in customers. Allstate ascribes destructive characteristics that are associated with house cats to its Mayhem character; in doing so they evoke the desired emotional responses of humor and fear. Progressive creates and deploys the Motaur character, a visual personification and play on the Centaur; in this case, the company’s rhetorical strategy is to evoke humor and nostalgia that resonate with motorcycle owners. …

The Value Relevance Of Retail Strategy, Kexin Xiang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

All three essays of this dissertation are under the umbrella of retail management and study the phenomenon of retail management from the following perspectives: retailers’ multichannel strategy, retailers’ store operation management, and retailers’ securities lawsuits likelihood. Specifically, the first essay studies the effect of a channel integration strategy called buy-online-and-pick-up-in-store on retailers’ stock value. The second essay studies the relationship between a retailer’s top management team (TMT) confidence and the store overexpansion. The third essay studies how TMT confidence is associated with securities class action (SCA) litigation. Essays 1 and 2 focus on retailers’ channel decision whereas Essays 2 and …

Emotional Appeals In Nonprofit Advertising: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Print Ads By The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation And The American Cancer Society, Dominique N. A. Harrison

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Emotional appeals are frequently employed in strategic messaging by nonprofit organizations. In this study, I identify instances of emotional appeals in select print adverts of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the American Cancer Society, and use rhetorical analysis to explore how each organization’s tactics are strategic in their appeal to target audiences’ emotions. In doing so, I identify several reoccurring emotional themes—including hope, love, and unity—that engage their target audiences and persuade them to respond to diverse calls-to-action. In order to make these appeals to audience emotion, the adverts employ rhetorical devices such as personification, metaphor, repetition, …

Web Analytics: Best Practices For An Organization’S Successful Performance; A Preliminary Analysis, Salma Dahbi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research presents an exploratory study concerning organizations’ best practices of Web analytics for a successful performance and the factors influencing the companies’ successful adoption of Web analytics.

A qualitative research methodology was used engaging a comprehension of Web analytics adoption using the Diffusion of Innovation theory (Rogers, 1995) and the theory building approach (Eisenhardt, 1989). Interviews with five companies from different industries were conducted.

Findings suggest that for a successful performance, companies should consider:

• Data for better decision making.

• Web analytics barriers

• Selecting the right KPIs and metrics based on the company’s goals.

• Web analytics …

The Evolution Of The Marketing And Branding Strategies For The National Parks, Blake Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the first national park Yellowstone was established, people from across the world have come to visit the natural wonders that our national parks have to offer. While much empirical research has been conducted concerning the marketing and branding strategies of non-profit organizations, government agencies, and tourism destinations; not much has been conducted on national parks. This research seeks to understand how our national parks have marketed and branded themselves over time and determine how marketing and branding will play a role in the development and conservation of the parks. This research was conducted utilizing in- depth methods such as …

Thinging : Powerful Objects., Tammy M. Burke

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The works in "Thinging” are inspired by desire, the genuine and the false, systems of real and perceived values, the quest for immortality, the allure of things, our use of them to make ourselves, and imagining pasts and futures via objects. The following concepts are threaded through the work: cathexis, ritual as a value builder, collections, hoarding, display, object history, exchange, use, and sign values, and vibrant materiality. At the heart of my investigation is the quest to examine the origins of object power, and by what measures it can be evaluated: value from belief, market value, and something perhaps …

Cross-Docking: A Proven Ltl Technique To Help Suppliers Minimize Products' Unit Costs Delivered To The Final Customers, Vahid Ghomi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study aims at proposing a decision-support tool to reduce the total supply chain costs (TSCC) consisting of two separate and independent objective functions including total transportation costs (TTC) and total cross-docking operating cost (TCDC). The full-truckload (FT) transportation mode is assumed to handle supplier→customer product transportation; otherwise, a cross-docking terminal as an intermediate transshipment node is hired to handle the less-than-truckload (LTL) product transportation between the suppliers and customers. TTC model helps minimize the total transportation costs by maximization of the number of FT transportation and reduction of the total number of LTL. TCDC model tries to minimize total …

In Search Of Marketing's Genie: Essays On The Impact Of Ceo And Corporate Governance Factors On Marketing Strategies, Prachi Gala

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Past research has shown that the marketing function is struggling for survival in many companies. One of the causes to be blamed for, is internal corporate governance which consists of the composition of the top management team and the compensation given to them. How firms differ in their internal corporate governance and how can internal corporate governance be altered to solve the problem of decline in marketing is what this dissertation is built on. Essay 1 attempts to address heterogeneity in stock market reaction to new product introduction announcements and strategic alliance announcements by looking at the impact of internal …

Integrated Marketing Communication As Epideictic Rhetoric And Its Implications For Ethical Branding, Tricia Mcfadden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Traced to ancient scholarship, rhetoric, and the philosophy of communication and through interpretive perspectives, rhetoric, narrative and ethics have been established grounding of communication and social structures. IMC has emerged as a contemporary genre of epideictic rhetoric with ethical obligations to our postmodern polis. Through the redefining of the branding metaphor within an ethical, grounded and narrative framework, the focus on ethos and connection to the audience through Schrag’s “fitting response” may combat the previous challenges of narrative and marketing and its deconstructive effects. IMC as communicative praxis engages branding discourse in action with texture as the bonding agent between …

Power Effects On Consumer Well-Being: Two Essays On The Power Effects On Donation And Material/Experiential Consumption, Yue Liu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Power is a fundamental concept in social science (Russell 1938), which has gained much academic attention in various disciplines. Two essays of this dissertation examine the theoretical and practical implications of power effects on donation decisions and material/experiential consumption. The first essay demonstrates power's moderating effect on the relationship between publicity and donation. Specifically, it is proposed that powerful people tend to donate more in public (vs. private) situation, whereas powerless people do not show such a difference. This effect is driven by people's concern about self-presentation in a donation scenario. Additionally, this effect only holds when people strongly believe …

Consumers' Perceptions Of Voluntary And Involuntary Deconsumption: An Exploratory Sequential Scale Development Study, Kranti K. Dugar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory sequential mixed methods study of scale development was conducted among baby boomers in the United States to render conceptual clarity to the concepts of voluntary and involuntary deconsumption, to explore deconsumption behavior under the tenets of the attribution theory of motivation, and to examine the components, structures, uses, and measurement properties of scales of voluntary and involuntary deconsumption. It was also an attempt to reiterate the importance of the baby boomer segment(s) for marketing practitioners based on growth, economic viability, and the power of influence, and to establish a deep understanding of the deconsumption processes, which could enable …

A Little Difference Makes A Big Difference: Essays On The Link Between Top Management Team Traits And Strategic Marketing Decisions, Cameron Duncan Nicol

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The importance of marketing is growing. This is not just a perception: CEOs appear to see its importance as well. Despite the increase in the understood importance of marketing, there still remains a relatively scant amount of research on the impact that can be had by top management team members on a firm's strategic marketing outcomes. The research which follows explores an important question that has previously been comparatively neglected by researchers: what top management team individual differences can impact the strategic marketing outcomes of the firm? The first essay, based on a multi-industry sample of 325 publicly listed fortune …

The Effect Of Food Labeling And Environmental Cues On Food Consumption Judgments And Choices., Sarah Lefebvre

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As obesity levels reach epidemic levels globally, an understanding of the multitude of factors that influence both eating behavior and food choice is necessary. This dissertation attempts to investigate the role of emerging food categories, namely organic foods, and the influence of environmental cues on eating behaviors and choices. This goal is accomplished through three essays. The first essay focuses on the organic food trend and consumer taste expectations. Specifically, this essay explores how the presence of an organic label influences taste expectations differently for minimally processed versus highly processed foods due to the level of consistency (congruency) between the …

Gender Matters: Perceptions Of Corporate Leadership, Kylie A. Braegelmann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Women remain conspicuously underrepresented at the highest levels of corporate management; thus, it seems, gender matters. Gender bias in financial markets would imply an inefficient market, which necessarily constrains economic performance and social welfare more generally. To measure gender bias, I examine the cumulative abnormal returns around CEO announcements from 1992 through 2016 using a modified event study methodology. Existing event studies in this field are inconclusive as to whether or not such a bias exists. Therefore, this research contributes to the literature by extending the data, using a larger event window, and studying bias over time and firm size. …

Finding The Sweet Spot Of Cause-Related Marketing: Consumer Response To Campaign Tactics, Katharine Michelle Howie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cause-related marketing is an effective promotional tool that connects with consumers’ emotions and increases sales. Two essays are presented that explore how consumers respond to different marketing tactics. The first essay presents two studies that examine cause-related marketing (CRM) promotions that require consumers’ active participation. Requiring a follow-up behavior has very valuable implications for maximizing marketing expenditures and customer relationship management. Theories related to ethical behavior, like motivated reasoning and defensive denial, are used to explain when and why consumers respond negatively to these effort demands. The first study finds that consumers rationalize not participating in CRM by devaluing the …

Three Essays On Retail Branding, The Makings Of A Great Retail Brand: Antecedents, Outcomes, And Retailer Ad Spending Strategies, Chi Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Brands are valuable intangible assets with long-term benefits. In the retail industry, branding is of particular importance because of the highly competitive nature of the industry. Even though many of the important branding principles apply, retail brands are distinct from product brands. This dissertation aims to clarify the nature and dimensionality of retail brand equity and explore the effect of retail advertising on its market and financial performance. In the first essay, the primary antecedents of retail brand equity are examined using both functional and experiential dimensions of retail brand association. The results illustrate the salient role of the consumer …

Essays On Sales Force Career Incentives, Somnath Banerjee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation uses game theoretic models in a principal-agent framework to study how firms optimally manage long term career related incentives for their sales people. When sales people put sales effort they face incentives not only from short term incentives like commissions and bonuses but also from long term rewards associated with progression in their career. In particular, sales people are often motivated to get promoted and avoid being laid off, to get selected to managerial positions and to form stronger relationships with customers so that they can bargain for higher wages in the future, respectively. Three different essays examine …

The Effects Of Facial Cues On Consumer Judgment And Decision-Making, Fan Liu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the roles of facial cues in consumer behavior. Specifically, the research examines the effect of facial structural resemblance, facial expressions, and other perceptual cues—in both individual and group settings—on consumer judgment and decision-making. Essay 1 examines the influence of facial resemblance on consumers* product purchase likelihood. This effect is moderated by consumers* mental construal, such that the effect of increased facial resemblance on product purchase likelihood occurs among consumers with high-level construals but not among those with low-level construals. Results of three experimental studies show that increased facial resemblance among team members enhances the perceived entitativity of …

Essays On Marketing Strategies In The Context Of Interdependent Consumption, Minoo Talebi Ashoori

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two essays in which I study the impact of two interdependent consumer behaviors, fairness concerns and exclusivity seeking, on a companys marketing strategies and profits specifically in a context where it tries to expand its clientele with the objective of generating repeat purchases, for example by running deals on daily deal platforms. In the first essay, I examine the impact of customers fairness concerns on the profitability of a company running promotions on daily deal platforms. With the prevalence of social media and the internet, information about such targeted promotions can become available to all consumers …

Essays On The Implications Of Specialty Review Websites’ Electronic Word-Of-Mouth (Ewom) On Firm Value And Consumer Perceptions, Robert Allen King

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Peering Into The Future: Three Essays On The Nascent Phenomenon Of Collaborative Consumption, Rebeca Dellegrazie-Perren

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The primary objective of this dissertation is to examine the theoretical and practical implications of the collaborative consumption phenomenon for individuals, businesses and society. To accomplish this goal, a research approach at three levels of analysis is used to explore how market institutions and consumer practices negotiate a social order that combines the social domain of peers with the economic domain of market exchange. The first essay of the dissertation approaches this objective from a macro level to examine how social order is produced and sustained through the systemic interactions of service firms and peers. This essay provides a framework …

The Project Shop, Lindsey Sullivan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Project Shop is a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) brand designed to promote a value-creating activity that impacts the lives and personal development for those who participate. The strategic culmination of research, marketing, and graphic design generated during the creation of this brand is intended to attract a target demographic of 18-24 year olds. This target market is identified as a transient population often typified by being civic-minded and pragmatically idealist.

The Project Shop caters to the needs of its target market by concentrating on habits and particular styles of living. This demographic often seeks DIY projects that are customizable due to …

The Influence Of Location Of Firm Ownership On Consumers, C. Clifton Eason

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An increasing number of consumers are making consumption decisions based on perceptions of a firm's social performance. In other words, many consumers take into account a firm's impact on society and the environment when deciding where they will spend their money. Thus, it is important for firms to understand what these consumers perceive to be important indicators of a firm's social performance. A potential element of social performance that has yet to be studied is local ownership as well as its influence on consumers' store perceptions and consumption decisions. As large, national chains increasingly threaten the existence of smaller, locally-owned …

Consumers' Perceptions Towards Sustainability: A Cross-Cultural Analysis, Mertcan Tascioglu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sustainability has become a subject of increasing concern to academics and practitioners in recent years. Increasing consumer demand for socially responsible products encouraged supply chains to put increasing emphasis on sustainability. In adapting sustainability practices consumers play a very important role for supply chains. Thus this dissertation examines consumers’ perceptions towards sustainability practices. Although most previous research has examined environmental sustainability practices, the social dimension of sustainability has received little attention. This dissertation attempts to explore both environmental and social sustainability and their effects on consumer perceptions in different cultural contexts and price levels. Two scenario based experiments are utilized. …

Social Media Effectiveness, Ya You

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the last decade, the advent of social media such as online product reviews (e.g., Amazon.com),blogs and other social networking sites (e.g., Facebook.com) has dramatically changed the way consumers obtain and exchange information about products. This dissertation investigates the impact of various types of social media on product performance and compares the effectiveness of social and traditional media under various conditions. Specifically, the first chapter performs a meta-analysis of consumer-generated WOM elasticity in social media to identify the factors that influence the impact of WOM on product sales and to assess the generalizability of the relationship. The second chapter examines …

Main Street 2.0: A Guide To Online And Social Media Marketing For Small Business Through The Use Of Online Analytics And Content Marketing Strategies, Peter John Cleary

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project is intended to serve as a guidebook for small businesses interested in developing digital marketing strategies to reach prospective and existing customers online. The guide will serve three main functions. The first is to provide a review of literature on integrated marketing communications, relationship marketing and content marketing to use as a foundation for planning online communications. Business owner interviews will also provide various perspectives to small business online marketing. The second is to provide instruction on evaluating existing website data to gain customer insight in planning communications. The third is a network structure for distributing content through …

Stuck Like Glue: The Formation Of Product Attachments Among Salespeople, Erin Gillespie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Determining why salespeople put forth more effort than others is of particular interest to sales researchers. Identifying factors that influence the intensity of effort is an important area of research. This research proposes that salesperson product attachment is a key factor in determining effort levels. Expectancy theory has been frequently used to support the use of quotas in that salespeople engage in behaviors that will be perceived by them as most likely to yield valued rewards. Thus, according to this theory, salespeople will place the most effort on products that are expected to yield the best results in regards to …