Business Commons^™

Our Celebrities Our Selves: Reconstructing Ourselves As Online Personalities, Arne Baruca

WCBT Faculty Publications

Celebrity influence on consumer behavior at the online macro level is the motivation for this study that addresses the nature of celebrity consumption and how consumers apply that consumption to develop their online self-presentation.

The sample for this study is limited to consumers with active accounts at online social networks such as Facebook or Twitter. Methodology is a three-part design. A multi-factor qualitative exploratory study (n=73) reveals four celebrity-consumer relationships whose proposed measurement scales are tested in a quantitative pilot study (n=85). Finally, a large sample study (n=593) is used to test the measurement model and to test the proposed …

Endorser Source Credibility: Redefining Spokesperson Influence Through Development Of The Celebrity-Hero Matrix, Joshua Shuart

WCBT Faculty Publications

Endorsement of sport and non-sport products by athletes is an extremely popular method that corporations use to drive sales and advertising. Traditionally, celebrity endorsement research has focused on the physical attractiveness of the endorser; while this makes sense, it provides only a partial explanation why consumers purchase athlete-endorsed products. Several other components of source credibility, as well as previously unexplored elements such as "heroic" traits, prove to be stronger predictors of intent-to-purchase. A 3-phase research study of Americans aged 18-35 was conducted, with a Celebrity-Hero Matrix© (CHM) developed and several marketing recommendations made based on the findings.

The Media Dichotomy Of Sports Heroes And Sport Celebrities: The Marketing Of Professional Women's Tennis Players, Joshua Shuart

WCBT Faculty Publications

There is perhaps no better example of media created frenzy over heroism and celebrity than in the world of professional women’s tennis. Two of the most recognizable personalities, Venus Williams and Anna Kournikova, are known for very different reasons: Williams because of her on-court success and her rivalry with her sister Serena, Kournikova because of her on-court failures yet curiously strong endorsement success. Survey research was undertaken to examine perceptions of both women, to determine a) how society views them (as heroes or celebrities), and b) to determine their marketing worth, with regards to consumer intention to purchase an endorsed …