Business Commons^™

The Significance Of Sonic Branding To Strategically Stimulate Consumer Behavior: Content Analysis Of Four Interviews From Jeanna Isham’S “Sound In Marketing” Podcast, Ina Beilina

Student Theses and Dissertations

Purpose:
Sonic branding is not just about composing jingles like McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It.” Sonic branding is an industry that strategically designs a cohesive auditory component of a brand’s corporate identity. This paper examines the psychological impact of music and sound on consumer behavior reviewing studies from the past 40 years and investigates the significance of stimulating auditory perception by infusing sound in consumer experience in the modern 2020s.

Design/methodology/approach:
Qualitative content analysis of audio media was used to test two hypotheses. Four archival oral interview recordings from Jeanna Isham’s podcast “Sound in Marketing” featuring the sonic branding experts …

Brave New World Reboot: Technology’S Role In Consumer Manipulation And Implications For Privacy And Transparency, Allie Mertensotto

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Most consumers are aware that our data is being obtained and collected through the use of our devices we keep in our homes or even on our person throughout the day. But, it is understated how much data is being collected. Conversations you have with your peers – in a close proximity of a device – are being used to tailor advertising. The advertisements you receive on your devices are uniquely catered to your individual person, due to the fact it consistently uses our data to produce efficient and personal ads. On the flip side, our government is also tapping …

Artificial Intelligence-Enhanced Predictive Insights For Advancing Financial Inclusion: A Human-Centric Ai-Thinking Approach, Meng Leong How, Sin Mei Cheah, Aik Cheow Khor, Yong Jiet Chan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

According to the World Bank, a key factor to poverty reduction and improving prosperity is financial inclusion. Financial service providers (FSPs) offering financially-inclusive solutions need to understand how to approach the underserved successfully. The application of artificial intelligence (AI) on legacy data can help FSPs to anticipate how prospective customers may respond when they are approached. However, it remains challenging for FSPs who are not well-versed in computer programming to implement AI projects. This paper proffers a no-coding human-centric AI-based approach to simulate the possible dynamics between the financial profiles of prospective customers collected from 45,211 contact encounters and predict …

Adult Learners: A Targeted Marketing Approach, Sarah Baldelli, Camilo Botero, Camille Ferreol, Caleb Horton, Xinyue Ma, Stefan Sprinkmoller

School of Professional Studies

The development of the Adult Learner Capstone Project started with a focus and need to learn more about affinity groups in the Worcester area in order to reach the potential adult learner demographic. Although some partnerships already existed, the Director of Marketing and Communications for Graduate Admissions, Tara Probeck, yearned to explore the potential partnerships and alternative uses of professional organizations to market to the current working professionals. From this idea, our capstone project was introduced in hopes of establishing a comprehensive and exhaustive list of potential organizational partnerships, specific for the School of Professional Studies.

A Guide For Hiring Mature Employees At Ascentria, Binghe Change, Calleigh Leach, Elsie Lu, Hongquiang You, Mengge Wang, Nina Mariotti

School of Professional Studies

This paper will explore existing literature on aspects of an intergenerational workplace in a nonprofit organization and provide recommendations for recruiting and retaining older employees for a human service organization, Ascentria Care Alliance, in Worcester, MA. The paper will review research on trends in the nonprofit industry, a comprehensive breakdown of generational workplace values, reasons people are returning to work and effective marketing strategies that appeal to older generations. Marketing strategies specifically will explore best practices for website design, social media usage, and job descriptions. Additionally, this paper will research case studies of nonprofits with successful intergenerational workforce initiatives, as …

Inbound Marketing, Hasini Assiriyage, Isabelle Zoeckler, Emmanuel Aghado, Kefu Bu, Xiouyu Jiang, Rajesh Kamble, Yan Wang

School of Professional Studies

This study looks into inbound marketing practice through the process of secondary research. This insight on best practices and market examples have been employed in order to identify the benefits of Inbound Marketing for the School of Professional Studies at Clark University. Through the research, this team has consolidated a number of recommendations for the SPS marketing strategies moving forward. A focus has been placed on identifying solutions, which were effective and financially feasible. The primary solutions are internally sourced; with a future long term recommendation of seeking advice from a third party firm to automate the process.

Do Hotel Guests Act According To Their Intentions As It Relates To Sustainability In A Hotel Setting?, Heather A. Price

Honors Theses and Capstones

As humans continue to use our planet’s resources at a rapid pace, we must act quickly to implement solutions and strategies that will create a positive impact on our environment. The hotel industry represents a huge opportunity for increasing sustainability practices, as these establishments tend to consume tremendous amounts of natural resources through energy and water usage; thus creating quite a bit of waste. For this customer-centric industry, change starts with consumer expectations and intentions to act. The purpose of this study was to assess hotel guests’ values and intentions for sustainable hotels, and compare how this aligns with their …

Small Business Strategies For Sustainability Beyond 10 Years, Gabriel E. Warren

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small businesses are vital to the health of the United States economy, as they account for approximately 50% of all jobs and 99% of all firms. Historically, there has been a problem with small businesses being able to sustain their operation beyond 10 years. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the business strategies some small business owners used to sustain their company beyond 10 years of operation. The sample consisted of 3 small business owners who have been in operation for 10 or more years in Birmingham, Alabama. The conceptual framework for this study was the …

An Information Privacy Examination Of The Practices Of Pharmaceutical Companies Regarding Use Of Information Collected Through Their Websites, Shonda Dellena Brown

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Consumers have begun to take a more proactive approach to their healthcare by accessing pharmaceutical companies Websites to obtain health and drug information, support groups, rebates, coupons, as well as free drug trials. In exchange for these benefits, companies require consumers to voluntarily disclose information. However, research has shown that consumers continue to be concerned about how their information is managed, used, and distributed by companies, especially if accessed via the Web. To date, there has been limited empirical research to examine the actual online practices of companies when it comes to privacy, especially those of pharmaceutical companies. Using Delphi …

Design, Programming, And User-Experience, Kaila G. Manca

Honors Scholar Theses

This thesis is a culmination of my individualized major in Human-Computer Interaction. As such, it showcases my knowledge of design, computer engineering, user-experience research, and puts into practice my background in psychology, com- munications, and neuroscience.

I provided full-service design and development for a web application to be used by the Digital Media and Design Department and their students.This process involved several iterations of user-experience research, testing, concepting, branding and strategy, ideation, and design. It lead to two products.

The first product is full-scale development and optimization of the web appli- cation.The web application adheres to best practices. It was …

Valuing “Green” How “Going Green” Affects A Company’S Stock Price, Alexia Bayer

Honors Projects in Finance

Environmentally conscious decision making has become a prominent topic in business that has the potential to affect the public opinion and performance of companies. This project seeks to identify whether or not positive changes in excess return might offer an incentive for companies to adopt green initiatives. It examines the ways in which companies’ green initiatives, as measured by their annual Carbon Disclosure Project S&P 500 Climate Change Report score, impact their stock price. In other words, is there value in “going green”? It is hypothesized that companies exhibiting greater variance in their environmental initiatives from one year to the …

Marketing Strategies Of Mobile Game Application Entrepreneurs, Talaya Waller

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Mobile game application entrepreneurs can offer many benefits to the U.S. economy; however, 80% of the entrepreneurs in this study stated that marketing their mobile applications was a major business challenge. Successful strategies that entrepreneurs have used to overcome their mobile game application marketing challenges may be beneficial to other entrepreneurs. Based on Schumpeter's theory of economic development and new value creation of technological innovation, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the strategies that entrepreneurs have used to market their mobile game application development businesses successfully. Twenty mobile game application entrepreneurs from northern California, who successfully sustained …

Implementation Of Slowly Changing Dimension To Data Warehouse To Manage Marketing Campaigns In Banks, Lihui Wang, Junyu Choy, Michelle L. F. Cheong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Management of updating and recording campaign leads in data warehouse of any banking environment is complex especially with multiple campaigns are active simultaneously. As a way to avoid overly contacting customers for sales-based marketing contacts, the concept of Recency Frame is introduced to “lock” the customers who are targeted in Sales-based campaign for a specified time period. During this Recency Frame, the customer cannot be targeted by other Sales-based campaign under the same channel. This approach increased the difficulties of managing the customers’ data with proper data updating and storing and procedures have to be placed and made sufficiently robust …

Can The Presence Of Online Word Of Mouth Increase Product Sales?, Alanah Mitchell, Deepak Khazanchi

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications

The power and potential impact of online word of mouth has increased substantially. Consumers have come to accept and rely upon online word of mouth, so it is important to understand how it works and what kind of impact it has on online product sales. This article provides an assessment of this question through an analysis of sales and online word of mouth data from a multi-product e-commerce retail firm.

Hotel Guests’ Perceptions Of Sustainable Hotel Practices In A Mexican Destination, Orie Berezan, Michelle Millar, Carola Raab

Caesars Hospitality Research Summit

Hotel selection and attributes that are important to travelers has been extensively researched using a variety of methods (Dolnicar, 2002). Dolnicar & Otter (2003) confirmed, after reviewing 21studies related to hotel attributes, cleanliness as the top priority, followed by hotel location. In total, 173 attributes were identified that were related to image, price/value, the hotel itself, and service (Lockyer, 2005). None of those attributes, however, were related to environmental attributes of a hotel. For more than a decade, the hospitality industry has been under pressure by government legislation and regulations to implement environmental strategies and thereby reduce their carbon footprint …

Predictive Modeling Of Alumni Donor Behavior, Lauren Prue

Honors Projects in Mathematics

In recent years, college and universities have relied increasingly upon the charitable contributions of its previous graduates; as the costs of tuition rise substantially, development offices are facing the challenge of creating annual fund campaigns that are minimally expensive while providing the maximum potential for return. This study addresses the available constituent database at one University in particular in an effort to identify what criteria are the strongest predictors of donor response at a small, private university located within New England. The analysis utilized predictive modeling and data-mining largely within the software program Rapid Insight to build several models in …

Color As A Source Of Brand Differentiation: Can It Be Defended?, Byron W. Keating, T. R. Coltman

Dr Byron W. Keating

Savvy marketers have long sought to exploit the psychological effects of color to differentiate their brands and create competitive advantage: IBM Blue, Coca- Cola Red, and BP Green. These are not new colors but well-known brand colors. While changes in international trademark law over the past decade paved the way for marketers to seek protection for a color associated with a brand, this case demonstrates some important challenges in defending such trademarks.

A Hybrid Firm's Pricing Strategy In Electronic Commerce Under Channel Migration, Robert John Kauffman, Dongwon Lee, Jung Lee, Byungjoon Yoo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Achieving an effective business design across the Internet and the off-line channel is a critical concern for a hybrid firm's choice of pricing strategy. Two pricing models are proposed to examine how consumer channel migration (one-way channel interaction from the traditional sales channel to the Internet) affects pricing strategy. One model has no interaction between the Internet and off-line channels. The other includes the possibility of one-way migration to the Internet channel and incorporates consumers' channel-switching costs and loyalty to the firm. The two models offer interesting results for understanding traditional and Internet-based selling. A high level of channel migration …

Color As A Source Of Brand Differentiation: Can It Be Defended?, Byron W. Keating, T. R. Coltman

Faculty of Informatics - Papers (Archive)

Savvy marketers have long sought to exploit the psychological effects of color to differentiate their brands and create competitive advantage: IBM Blue, Coca- Cola Red, and BP Green. These are not new colors but well-known brand colors. While changes in international trademark law over the past decade paved the way for marketers to seek protection for a color associated with a brand, this case demonstrates some important challenges in defending such trademarks.

Review Of Alfie Kohn, No Contest: The Case Against Competition, J. Scott Armstrong

J. Scott Armstrong

Kohn's No Contest reviews empirical research on competition. In fact, much work has been done to determine whether competition is better than cooperation and some work has compared competition with doing the best for oneself. The research comes from many fields, but primarily from education, sports, the performing arts,and psychology. The results have been consistent, clear-cut, and surprising: competition typically results in less creativity, poorer performance, and reduced satisfaction.

Formative Versus Reflective Measurement Models: Two Applications Of Formative Measurement, T. Coltman, T. M. Devinney, D. F. Midgley, S. Venaik

Faculty of Informatics - Papers (Archive)

This paper presents a framework that helps researchers to design and validate both formative and reflective measurement models. The framework draws from the existing literature and includes both theoretical and empirical considerations. Two important examples, one from international business and one from marketing, illustrate the use of the framework. Both examples concern constructs that are fundamental to theory-building in these disciplines, and constructs that most scholars measure reflectively. In contrast, applying the framework suggests that a formative measurement model may be more appropriate. These results reinforce the need for all researchers to justify, both theoretically and empirically, their choice of …

The Impact Of Cultural And Religious Values On Adoption Of Innovation, Angela Hausman, Morris Kalliny

Business and Information Technology Faculty Research & Creative Works

Although managing the adoption of innovations domestically can be frustrating, the complexity of the issue increases tremendously when companies take a global approach to marketing. Differences in cultural and religious values can have a great impact on the process of innovation adoption. This study investigates the role of these cultural and religious values, specifically, collectivism/individualism/, uncertainty avoidance and power distance. a conceptual model is presented to illustrate the relationship between cultural/religious values and adoption of innovation.

Forecasting Consumer Adoption Of Technological Innovation: Choosing The Appropriate Diffusion Models For New Products And Services Before Launch, Roger Calantone, Lance Gentry

Business and Information Technology Faculty Research & Creative Works

There are many good articles on various forecasting models. There is consensus that no single diffusion model is best for every situation. Experts in the field have asked for studies to provide empirical-based guidelines for recommending when various models should be used. This research investigates multiple diffusion models and provides recommendations for which diffusion models are appropriate for radical and really new products and services before the launch of the innovation.

Japanese, U.S Tourists: Hotel Selections, Minho Cho

Hospitality Review

The author reports the results of an exploratory study concerning the importance placed on attributes of hotel selection by Japanese and American guests and cultural differences between these two groups, which represent the largest market for Korean international tourist hotels. The findings suggest that Hofstede's (1960) four dimensions of cultural values can be used to help marketers better understand their guest's hotel selection criteria.

Crop Updates 2000 Cereals - Part 4, C. Tang, Z. Rengel, E. Diatloff, B. Mcgann, Mehmet Cakir, Nick Galwey, David Poulsen, M. Carter, A. Briney, R. Wilson, R. H. Potter, M. G. K. Jones, Ian Barclay, Robyn Mclean, Dean Diepeveen, Robert Loughman, Ross Kingwell, Michael O'Connell, Simone Blennerhasset, Benjamin Michael Tiller, Senthold Asseng, Holger Meinke, Bill Bowden, Jeff Russell, Ivan Lee, Clare Johnson, Chris Newman, Robert Emery, Romolo Tassone, Ernestos Kostas, Graeme Ralph, Robert Sudmeyer, David Hall, Harvey Jones

Crop Updates

This session covers twelve papers from different authors:

BREEDING

1.Response to subsoil acidity of wheat genotypes differing in Al-tolerance, C. Tang, Z. Rengel, E. Diatloff and B. McGann, Soil Science and Plant Nutrition/CLIMA, University of Western Australia

2. Application of molecular markers in Barley Improvement, Mehmet Cakir¹, Nick Galwey¹ and David Poulsen^{2, 1}Plant Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Western Australia, ²Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Hermitage Research Station, Queensland

3. Implementation of molecular markers for wheat improvement in the Western Region, M. Carter¹, A. Briney¹, …