Business Commons^™

Is Brand Activism The New Normal?, Nuket Serin

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, brands have begun “taking a stand” on sociopolitical issues to influence societal change. As such, brand activism is a newly evolved form of brand communication. Consumer expectations of brands have been evolving rapidly, as brands are expected to profess a more purposeful ethos to society now more than ever before. In the modern marketplace, it has become an increasingly popular trend to see brands promote social movements and fight for issues happening worldwide. Although this emerging phenomenon has caught the attention of marketing literature in recent years, the effects of brand activism on consumer brand perceptions still …

What Factors Influence The Consumer Use Of Fully Autonomous Vehicles Within The U.S.?, Michael Russell

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The inclusion of autonomous vehicle technology in modern cars is causing both consumer familiarity and consternation amidst a growing interest in the future of fully autonomous vehicles (FAVs). This study’s contributions are the key research constructs and interrelationships that positively influence consumers’ behavioral intention to use FAVs. The research study concludes and advances a better understanding of perceptions and opinions from consumers about their behavioral intentions to use FAVs and the level of favorability toward self-driving vehicular technology.

As full vehicular autonomy does not yet exist, few extensive studies and experts exist within the automotive industry. Nevertheless, the number of …

Exploring Factors That Influence U.S. Consumer Intention To Covet Loose Change, Carlos Emilio Bared

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to assess U.S. consumer intention to save, store, and account for the coins received as change from a cash transaction. Using a behavioral economics framework and applying Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior (1985), this research provides a template to capture, observe, and analyze consumer perceptions about and behavior towards loose change or other similar byproduct decisions. Following procedures prescribed by Icek Ajzen (2006) and (2013), a questionnaire was developed for the critical constructs used to predict consumer intention to covet loose change. A sample population (n= 490) of adults residing in the United States participated …

Me, Myself And My Future-Self: How Self-Motives Impact Personal Financial Decision Making, Patricia Torres

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The role of self-motives on consumer behavior has been a subject of interest for researchers in the fields of marketing and psychology. With regard to consumer well-being, most of studies have focused on health-related issues (diet, physical activity, tobacco use, substance abuse). However, there is a specific area that is of significant interest in the American context: financial decision making, specifically, personal savings and debt (mis) management. Both the 2008 financial crisis and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic exposed Americans’ lack of savings and its devastating consequences. A record-high consumer debt (Federal Reserve, 2018) combined with a lack of savings (Northwestern …

Salespeople's Role In Offering Innovative Solutions To Business Customers: The Importance Of Design Thinking, Mohammed Alzanbagi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Salespeople play important role in selling products and services of their companies. One of the important parts of the Business to Business (B2B) salespeople’s role is to offer innovative solutions (i.e., a complex mix of products and services) to meet their business customers’ needs. Innovation is an important individual factor to prepare B2B salespeople to sell solutions. Additionally, collaboration between different functions of the organization is important for the success of the solution selling.

The primary purpose of this dissertation to explore how a well-accepted innovation method, which is Design Thinking (DT) can predict the readiness of B2B salespeople to …

Mindful Brand: Development And Validation Of A Mindful Brand Scale (Mbs), Ellen Campos Sousa

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this dissertation is to conceptualize and to define a mindful brand from a consumer perspective, a novel contribution to marketing and branding literature. The secondary purpose of this dissertation is to identify a set of characteristics associated with a mindful brand and to develop and validate a mindful brand scale (MBS). Previous research has demonstrated that consumers tend to create relationships with brands they perceive to have similar characteristics or values as they possess. As the number of individuals seeking mindful elements in brands is growing steadily, consumers are looking for a mindful connection with brands …

Tourist Responses To Tourism Experiences In Saudi Arabia, Faisal Mohammed Aldakhil

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A decade ago, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) was not perceived to be a popular tourism destination except for religious purposes, the government of KSA has been proactive in recent years building new destinations, changing longstanding policies, focusing on tourism and hospitality education, and renovating its image to attract domestic and international tourists. Tourism contributed to almost 9% of the Kingdom’s GDP in 2018, around 65 billion dollars (WTTC, 2019). The purpose of this paper is to understand the sentiment that tourists have regarding the new tourism campaigns in KSA, to have transparent feedback about the experiences and services …

Three Essays On Music And Consumer Behavior: The Impact Of Music Type On Product Evaluation And Purchase Intent, Gregory G. Maloney

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Music is omnipresent in consumer environments and is classifiable by multi-dimensional measures of affect. This research explores the relationship between affect perceived within music, and how the resulting affective state created by music influences product evaluations.

Three essays explore the relationship between affect valence and purchase intent, the moderating influence of music arousal, and the effect of positive affect cues perceived in products. Four studies provide supporting evidence that music influences product evaluations in the same direction as the music affect valence. Experienced affect in the listener mediates the relationship between music affect and product evaluations, and arousal moderates the …

Self-Brand Connection Effects On Consumers Goal Pursuit Behavior, Ahmed Mohammed Alradadi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While many marketers spend a considerable amount of their advertising dollars communicating the association between their brands and consumers’ goals, and although it is well established that consumers gravitate toward brands that represent images and ideals they desire to achieve (Chen, Wan & Levy, 2017), existing research is largely silent regarding when and how brands help versus hurt consumer goal pursuit. Thus, we need a greater understanding regarding when and how consumer use of brands to assist in goal pursuit is detrimental versus beneficial. Furthermore, the outcome of the consumer’s brand-assisted goal pursuit is likely to affect their relationship with …

Emoji Marketing: Strengthening The Consumer Brand Relationship And Its Downstream Effects, Tessa Marcela Garcia-Collart

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Brands communicate and engage directly with their consumers using online communications that often contain emojis. While recent research has examined some of the implications of emojis within marketing contexts, a question still remains regarding the role of emojis in the consumer-brand relationship, and how this digital language can create stronger connections with consumers. In this research, I find that emojis increase perceptions of the brand as a human, thereby enhancing consumer-brand connections with favorable downstream consumption consequences such as word of mouth, click through rates, brand attitudes, willingness to pay, and purchase behaviors.

Findings from this research contribute to marketing …

The Shift From Conspicuous To Inconspicuous Consumption And The Messages Hidden In Plain Sight, Jaclyn Tanenbaum

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the growing fragmentation of the luxury consumer market, the increasing mix of conspicuous and inconspicuous products offered by luxury brands, and the overlapping motivations for (in)conspicuous consumption behavior in the marketing literature, this research investigates under which circumstances a luxury consumer will choose to engage in either conspicuous or inconspicuous consumption. Three cross-sectional studies with experimental designs are conducted to test the proposed Triple C Model of (In)Conspicuous Consumption and determine if the proposed model can be used to predict, and ultimately change, consumption behavior among certain luxury consumers. The proposed model purports that construal level, sender cultural capital …

#Fomo: How The Fear Of Missing Out Drives Consumer Purchase Decisions, Michelle Van Solt

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research focuses on consumers’ experiential purchase decisions motivated by the fear of missing out (FOMO). I propose that consumers are more likely to attend an event when individuals with whom they have strong (weak) interpersonal ties will be present, because consumers will experience higher (lower) levels of FOMO. The results of one qualitative and four quantitative studies, including a behavioral study, demonstrate that purchase intent is higher when participants imagine that their close friends (i.e., strong ties) will attend, an effect mediated by FOMO and anticipated regret. Furthermore, the type of experience (i.e., ordinary, extraordinary) moderates the relationship of …