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Power Effects On Consumer Well-Being: Two Essays On The Power Effects On Donation And Material/Experiential Consumption, Yue Liu Jan 2017

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 …


The Effect Of Food Labeling And Environmental Cues On Food Consumption Judgments And Choices., Sarah Lefebvre Jan 2017

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 …


Essays On Sales Force Career Incentives, Somnath Banerjee Jan 2015

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 Jan 2015

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 Jan 2015

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 …


Peering Into The Future: Three Essays On The Nascent Phenomenon Of Collaborative Consumption, Rebeca Dellegrazie-Perren Jan 2015

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 …


Social Media Effectiveness, Ya You Jan 2013

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 …


Three Essays On The Marketing Strategies Of A Durable Goods Manufacturer, Ngan Ngoc Chau Jan 2012

Three Essays On The Marketing Strategies Of A Durable Goods Manufacturer, Ngan Ngoc Chau

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

When purchasing durable goods, consumers not only pay for current but also future consumption; consequently, forward looking behavior is an important consideration in durable goods markets. For example, anticipating that prices will go down in the future, consumers may delay the purchase today; such behavior has a significant impact on the firm’s marketing strategies. This dissertation investigates the impact of durability on two marketing strategies: new product introductions and supply chain design. The first part of this dissertation (Chapter 3) examines a durable goods manufacturer’s new product introduction strategy under different market environments where network effects and product compatibility are …


Marketing Innovation And Firm Performance Research Model, Research Hypotheses, And Managerial Implications, Robert P. Cascio Jan 2011

Marketing Innovation And Firm Performance Research Model, Research Hypotheses, And Managerial Implications, Robert P. Cascio

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research conceptualizes and develops a scale for the marketing innovation construct for the purpose of furthering research in marketing strategy. This marketing innovation construct and its associated strategic activities are clearly distinguished from product and process innovation, better enabling researchers and practitioners to identify new and updated paths from innovation to firm performance. Marketing innovation is defined as the degree of novelty in the implementation of three core business processes: (1) product development management, (2) supply chain management, and (3) customer relationship management, as identified in the Srivastava, Shervani & Fahey (1999) framework. Results from qualitative interviews indicate marketing …


Good Guys Don't Always Finish Last: The Moderating Role Of Brand Extension Fit On Product Evaluations Based On Corporate Ability (Ca) And Corporate Social Responsibility (Csr) Associations, Zachary Scott Johnson Jan 2011

Good Guys Don't Always Finish Last: The Moderating Role Of Brand Extension Fit On Product Evaluations Based On Corporate Ability (Ca) And Corporate Social Responsibility (Csr) Associations, Zachary Scott Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Termed corporate associations, consumer corporate brand perceptions influence evaluations of new products made by consumers. Corporate associations are conceptualized as falling within two categories (Brown and Dacin 1997): a corporation may develop a reputation for Corporate Ability (CA) by developing quality products or for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) through its corporate commitment to societal obligations. Past research suggests that product-related CA associations lead to more favorable product evaluations than CSR, which is a contextual association that is less product-related. However, past research has been limited to line extensions, which are evaluated in a piecemeal cognitive process. Unlike line extensions, evaluations …


Essays On Consumer Charity, Joseph Thomas Paniculangara Jan 2011

Essays On Consumer Charity, Joseph Thomas Paniculangara

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Two essays comprise this doctoral dissertation on consumers and their charitable donations. The overall objective is to investigate the role of psychological distance in charitable donations, with each essay dealing with a different moderator of this relationship. In the first essay, I study the interactive effect of social distance and processing mode (affect vs. cognition). Specifically, people tend to donate more if they use their emotions rather than cognition as diagnostic inputs for decision making, especially when donor and recipient are separated by greater social distance. This may be because affect-driven and cognition-driven donors are influenced by different goals. Affect-driven …


Two Essays On Product Design And Consumer Evaluations, Sangwon Lee Jan 2010

Two Essays On Product Design And Consumer Evaluations, Sangwon Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper is about the central role of product design on consumer evaluations. While the design literature has articulated two different types of design, i.e. form-based design and function-based design (Khalid 2004), most extant marketing literature has mostly focused on the impact of functional design on performance (see Chitturi, Raghunathan, and Mahajan (2007) for a notable exception). In this paper, I examine the individual and joint effects of the two design dimensions: form design and functional design on consumer evaluations of new products. In the first essay, employing theoretical underpinnings from processing fluency theory, I investigate four major research questions. …


Market-Based Asset Management And Shareholder Value: Investigating The Roles Of Human Capital And Factor Markets In Maximizing Returns On Customer Relationships, Chad Milewicz Jan 2009

Market-Based Asset Management And Shareholder Value: Investigating The Roles Of Human Capital And Factor Markets In Maximizing Returns On Customer Relationships, Chad Milewicz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The accountability of marketing investments continues to be a key area of concern for researchers and practitioners (MSI Research Priorities, 2008). In particular, market-based assets, specifically customer relationships, and their potential impact on firm performance are a significant source of interest. Though research in this area continues to grow, little is understood about how investments in human capital and the acquisition of alliance partners through factor markets relate to customer relationship management and the impact of customer relationships on performance. This dissertation presents two studies which, together, investigate how investments in market-based assets influence on abnormal stock returns. In the …


Two Essays On Screening Strategies, Rajani Ganesh Pillai Jan 2009

Two Essays On Screening Strategies, Rajani Ganesh Pillai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Consumers form consideration sets by screening from all available alternatives. Consumers typically utilize one of two types of screening strategies: an exclusion screening strategy wherein alternatives not worthy of further consideration are rejected or an inclusion strategy wherein worthy alternatives are selected for further evaluation. Extant literature has documented the important role played by screening strategies in decision making. However, there is very limited understanding of when and why consumers may employ one screening strategy over the other as well the impact of the screening strategy for decision accuracy. This dissertation attempts to study the antecedent and consequence of screening …


Two Essays On Satisfaction, Vishal Bindroo Jan 2009

Two Essays On Satisfaction, Vishal Bindroo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two essays that study the relevant boundary conditions to the relationship between the customer satisfaction and loyalty. Retaining current customers is critical to a firm's performance and has been well-established in the literature. Extant literature tells us that loyal customers are typically less price sensitive, spend more than non-loyal customers, less expensive to retain, and more importantly, provide new referrals through positive word of mouth. In the first essay, drawing from decision justifiability theory, I posit that consideration set size and price-consciousness moderate the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty. At higher levels of consideration set sizes, …


Critical Reviews And Market Performance, Elena Pomirleanu Jan 2009

Critical Reviews And Market Performance, Elena Pomirleanu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Firms invest significant resources to improve the quality of their products but also to communicate to consumers about their efforts. However, information regarding quality of product offerings is now increasingly being generated by short or long term users of products or services. The growing popularity of critical reviews has prompted attention from both academics and practitioners alike. Current academic findings do not seem conclusive with respect to the impact critical reviews have on product performance on the market. The current dissertation aims to clarify the role critical reviews have in relation to economic outcomes such as sales, category market share, …


Impact Of Returns Policies And Group-Buying On Channel Coordination, Thanh Tran Jan 2009

Impact Of Returns Policies And Group-Buying On Channel Coordination, Thanh Tran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the role of two marketing practices—returns policies and group-buying services—in improving channel coordination. The first study (presented in Chapter Two) focuses on the interaction between two types of returns policies—returns of unwanted products from consumers to retailers and returns of unsold inventory from retailers to manufacturers. Even without the right to return unsold inventory to the manufacturer, the retailers may accept returns from consumers; by doing so, they benefit from a less pricesensitive market demand, an ability to screen for high-valuation consumers, and a competitive advantage (offering a returns policy makes a retailer more attractive to consumers). …


Marketing Partnerships: Impact Of Monitoring Schemes And Cooperative Advertising Agreements, Pavan Chennamaneni Jan 2009

Marketing Partnerships: Impact Of Monitoring Schemes And Cooperative Advertising Agreements, Pavan Chennamaneni

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Marketing partnerships may involve either horizontal relationships (e.g., a co-marketing alliance between firms selling different products) or vertical relationships (e.g., between an upstream manufacturer and its downstream retailers). Either type of partnership often includes multiple members and the marketing efforts (e.g., level of advertising) of any member typically affect the profitability of the other members. When selecting their effort levels, however, the individual members of the partnership do not account for such externalities. Consequently, the overall effort on behalf of the partnership is not optimal. This dissertation investigates the value of contractual mechanisms such as monitoring schemes (for horizontal partnerships) …


Accomplishment Of Dual Focus In Exploration And Exploitation: The Influential Role Of The Customer Relationship Management (Crm, Janet Tinoco Jan 2007

Accomplishment Of Dual Focus In Exploration And Exploitation: The Influential Role Of The Customer Relationship Management (Crm, Janet Tinoco

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Organizations that can successfully develop both radical and incremental innovations positively impact sustained competitive advantage, dramatically improving their chances of survival and success in both dynamic and stable environments (Han et al. 2001; Tushman and O'Reilly 1996). Experimentation and radical innovation are mandatory knowledge assets for competitive play in emerging markets, but efficiency and incremental innovation are essential for mature markets (He and Wong 2004; Tushman and O'Reilly 1996). The attainment of dual focus between radical and incremental innovation is challenging and calls for organizational architectures of sometimes conflicting processes, structure, and culture (cf, Tushman and O'Reilly 1996; Wind and …


Creating Sustainability Through Corporate Branding, Hayley Lynn Ritz Jan 2007

Creating Sustainability Through Corporate Branding, Hayley Lynn Ritz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides a thorough definition of corporate branding, including its benefits when used as a strategic marketing tool. There are many who believe that the logo of a corporation is its brand. However, the logo is only one interpretation of the brand. The brand is the corporation's ethos. It is the fundamental character or spirit of the corporation. It is an expression of who the corporation is. It is the essence that links the corporation's product or service with its consumer through loyalty and emotional attachments. Corporations use various processes and methodologies when they begin to create and enhance …


Extracting Quantitative Informationfrom Nonnumeric Marketing Data: An Augmentedlatent Semantic Analysis Approach, Inigo Arroniz Jan 2007

Extracting Quantitative Informationfrom Nonnumeric Marketing Data: An Augmentedlatent Semantic Analysis Approach, Inigo Arroniz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite the widespread availability and importance of nonnumeric data, marketers do not have the tools to extract information from large amounts of nonnumeric data. This dissertation attempts to fill this void: I developed a scalable methodology that is capable of extracting information from extremely large volumes of nonnumeric data. The proposed methodology integrates concepts from information retrieval and content analysis to analyze textual information. This approach avoids a pervasive difficulty of traditional content analysis, namely the classification of terms into predetermined categories, by creating a linear composite of all terms in the document and, then, weighting the terms according to …


A Consumer-Based Assessment Of Alliance Performance: An Examination Of Consumer Value, Satisfaction And Post-Purchase Behavior, Nacef Mouri Jan 2005

A Consumer-Based Assessment Of Alliance Performance: An Examination Of Consumer Value, Satisfaction And Post-Purchase Behavior, Nacef Mouri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Strategic alliances have become a recognized strategy used by firms in the pursuit of their diverse organizational objectives. Consequently, the literature on alliances is replete with research investigating the value strategic alliances generate for participating organizations. Strategic alliances have been shown to contribute to firm value through numerous sources, including scale economies, effective risk management, cost efficient market entries, and learning from partners. Largely overlooked in the literature however, are issues investigating the relationship between strategic alliances and one of the organization's most important constituents, the consumer. Questions such as how the consumer reacts to inter-firm alliances, how strategic alliances …


Market Foresight Capability: Determinants And New Product Outcomes, Michael Mccardle Jan 2005

Market Foresight Capability: Determinants And New Product Outcomes, Michael Mccardle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To achieve and maintain a superior competitive position, firms must develop market sensing capability-the ability to sense events and trends in markets ahead of competitors (Day 1994a). According to Day, in firms with superior market sensing capability, "the processes for gathering, interpreting, and using market information are more systematic, thoughtful, and anticipatory than in other firms" [emphasis added]. Although Day asserted that market orientation captures the essence of a market sensing capability, researchers have suggested that market orientation, by itself, does not provide the requisite ability to develop competitive advantage because of its focus on detecting rather than anticipating market …