Business Commons^™

Understanding The Influence Of Follower Count On Purchase Behavior And Consumer Perception In Influencer Marketing, Emaan Aziz

Honors Theses

In recent years, influencer marketing has emerged as a popular strategy for brands to connect with consumers on social media. This study examines the impact of influencer follower count on consumer purchase behavior and perception of influencers in the context of influencer marketing. A qualitative research approach was employed, surveying 60 participants familiar with the concept. The findings suggest a relationship between influencer follower count and consumer perceptions of influencer attractiveness indicating that influencers with larger followings are more likely to be deemed attractive to social media users. This research contributes to the growing body of literature on influencer marketing …

Consumers' Acceptance To Buy And Dispose Of Recycling Textile Products, Roa Alsayed

Theses and Dissertations

The textile industry is the second most polluting worldwide, following food manufacturing. It is one of the industries that is rarely scrutinized in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This work analyzes the fashion industry from the perspective of consumer attitudes towards the purchase and disposal of clothing, and their behavior with regards to old garments. The study was conducted in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, two countries that achieved similar results in the fashion industry. The methodology is divided into three phases. First, the manuscript begins with a review of topics such as sustainability, consumer behavior in the …

Clueless: Revolutionizing Sustainable Fashion And Combating Overconsumption, Tanya Ravichandran

Graphic Communication

“Clueless” revolutionizes sustainable fashion by combating wardrobe overconsumption and the industry’s carbon footprint, using AI to suggest personalized outfits from existing wardrobes tailored to weather and wear history. It enhances user engagement through features like outfit ‘shuffle’ and provides insights into wardrobe utilization and carbon impact.

It’s more than an app; it’s a step towards a greener wardrobe and a healthier planet.

Three Essays On Anti-Consumers: Conpcetualizing, Envisioning, And Expanind Based On Self-Construal And Political Ideology, Soochan Choi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The current dissertation is designed to contribute to our understanding of anti-consumers and their behaviors. Although past literature on anti-consumers gets attention from researchers and marketers, it lacks a deeper understanding of who and how anti-consumers behave societally and ideologically against targeted companies. Given this lack of understanding of anti-consumers, this dissertation conceptualizes anti-consumers, develops anti-consumer measurements, tests marketing strategies to attenuate their behaviors, and adds additional type of anti-consumption behavior, switching behavior, for marketers to maximize profits. The first essay develops a typology of anti-consumers by drawing on the literature on political ideology and self-construal. The essay suggests that …

The Acceleration Of The Fashion Trend Cycle Through Social Media, Katelin M. Callery

Selected Honors Theses

Fashion is known for its cyclical nature, but this cycle has been careening out of control in recent years. To deduce the cause of this acceleration of the fashion trend cycle, research was conducted to determine social media’s role in the trend cycle. Since coming into prominence in the last 20 years, social media has monumentally impacted countless different areas of modern culture, this paper analyzes its impact on the diffusion of fashion objects into societal relevance. This analysis is conducted through Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation curve and an in depth look into both short and long term fashion trends …

Experiencing The Formalness: The Role Of Contextual Cues In Consumers’ Luxury Perception And Lifestyle Preference, Zhenyu Jin

Theses and Dissertations

Formalness, which refers to the sense of seriousness, importance, and significance, is a commonly-encountered experience in consumers’ daily lives and can influence consumer behavior in wide domains. Despite its ubiquitous nature, research on consumer experiences of formalness in marketing settings is limited. This dissertation investigates the sense of formalness in consumer behavior, exploring its antecedents and consequences in sensory marketing, luxury consumption, and consumer lifestyles.

Essay 1 identifies one of the antecedents and consequences of formalness sense by exploring how music used in marketing communications and retail environments can induce a sense of formalness in consumers, which in turn shapes …

The Power Of Algorithms And Big Data: A Marketing Perspective On Consumer Manipulation In Business, Jordan C'Rene Reuille-Dupont

University Honors Theses

In marketing, predictive analytics molds big data into tools that can create demographics, target pleasurable neuromodulator chemicals like dopamine, and influence individual and societal behavior patterns. Professionals and scholars alike can use machine-based computation to transform big data into usable knowledge that accurately represents and tracks human behavior. In the past couple of decades this has led to the acceleration of the attention economy and has fueled the age of information. It has pushed countries to not only enforce new laws and regulations, but also race to secure control over data science technologies. The research for this thesis will ultimately …

The Consumer Behavior Impact Of Data Capture Through Artificial Intelligence, Sally Emory Hiott

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Artificial intelligence is changing the way consumers search for information and purchase items and, thus, how people behave across generations. Due to the nature of this cutting-edge technology, organizations are investigating how much to wisely invest, but the artificial intelligence offerings are outpacing the research. Academic scholars and marketing professionals have issued timely prompts for additional studies to supplement the existing literature, which is limited. This research provides insights into privacy concerns surrounding the data collection of artificial intelligence and whether people feel exploited or served by it. Across two articles, surveys were deployed and collected to provide quantitative data …

Does Covid Have An Effect On Consumer Behavior Towards Vacation Rental Homes?, Whitney Wiley

Honors Theses and Capstones

While Covid has significantly impacted the tourism industry, this research study analyzes the effect of the pandemic on consumers’ behavior towards vacation rental homes. More specifically, it focuses on the three main stages of vacation rental: the choice, booking, and stay. A qualitative research approach was used along with primary data collection. Interviews with individuals in Gen Z were collected in a semi-structured format with open-ended questions. The findings reveal that consumers are now more likely to choose vacation rental homes over other accommodations due to the space and privacy that rental homes provide. As a result of Covid, individuals …

Understanding Consumers' Use Experience On Electrically Heated Jacket: A Study On Online Review Using Topic Modeling, Md Nakib-Ul Hasan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The demand for heated jackets is anticipated to be fuelled by frequent temperature drops, severe winter weather, and increasing outdoor activities. Electrically heated jackets (EHJ) are primarily marketed through online distribution channels and expansion of online sales channels is expected to boost the global market. Consumers are increasingly relying on online reviews from other consumers to help them decide what to buy. Businesses also actively monitor and manage their online reviews to build trust in their brand and make it more likely that customers will buy. Traditional approaches for assessing customer behavior, such as market research surveys and focus groups, …

The Influence Of Sponsorship Engagement On Brand Loyalty: An Analysis Of The On-Site And Social Media Activational Communications., Achyut Kulkarni

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of sponsorship engagement (enacted via sponsorship activations) on consumers’ responses to sponsors’ activational communications. Specifically, this study aimed at examining if interaction and engagement with their team’s sponsors’ activational communication on-site, as well as on social media, influenced loyalty towards the sponsors. The study utilized service-dominant (S-D) logic as the theoretical framework. The S-D logic perspective recognizes that consumer behavior is centered on the interactive experiences between a consumer and an object, in this case the sponsor, and that a level of consumer interest and/or personal relevance with respect to …

Covid-19 And The Subsequent Change On Buyer Behavior, Chloe J. Chadwick Miss

Honors Capstones

The purpose of this Honors Capstone research project is to gain insight and understanding into how buyer behavior may or may not have changed after by the COVID-19 Pandemic through the perspectives of sales professionals, marketing professionals, and consumers themselves. This research project compared data from literary based research, 1:1 interviews, and three unique mass surveys dispersed on LinkedIn to gather information from multiple touch points. There were limitations to this research given the Pandemic is ongoing and there continues to be adjustments to this global phenomenon. Additionally, data collection from interviews and surveys was strictly voluntary and survey responses …

A Historical And Practical Analysis For Neuromarketing In Business Practices Today, Scott Wicinski

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

What thoughts come to your mind when you think of the term neuromarketing? In a digital age where personal privacy seems to be diminishing and data exploitation appears to be rising, many people are skeptical about businesses' attempts to combine neurology, psychology, and business. This skepticism is unfortunately, legitimate. Our history reveals plenty of occasions where businesses have exploited their customers through unethical means and traded valuable relationships and resources for profits. However, despite the flaws business can introduce, business is arguably still the most powerful tool for creating value in a community. Through business, customers have had access to …

Racial Composition In Advertisements And Its Effects On White Consumers' Perceptions And Purchase Intention, Chung-Ting Wang

Honors Program Theses

Previous marketing research has generally not examined how ethnic majority consumers perceive advertisements featuring mixed racial compositions of model groups. This paper presents an investigation into how White consumers’ perceptions and purchase intentions change depending on the racial composition of the people represented in an advertisement. The study uses a single 12-condition experiment, in which we examine the type of advertisement (product vs. social advocacy advertising), racial composition (all-White vs. diverse mix vs. all-Black), and racial priming effects (racially-primed vs. racially-neutral message). Additionally, consumers’ levels of self-referencing to the ad and strength of ethnic identification are explored as possible mediation …

A Comparison Of Implicit And Explicit Error Detection And Their Effects On Purchase Intention And Judgments Of Quality, Rachel Fernandes

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In an online study of purchase intent based on Chinese menu inspection, explicitly noticing grammatical errors by hotspot click was more detrimental to judgments of quality than implicit detection by error estimation. When they estimated errors in a survey question (ordinal measure), participants who reported many (more than nine) errors had lower purchase intent and ratings of quality compared to those with few (about six) or no errors. However, with the more novel, continuous measure based on hotspot detection, participant purchase intent did not decrease as the number of errors noticed increased. Importantly, there were no differences between the hotspot …

Perceived Value Of Technology Product Features By Crowdfunding Backers: The Case Of 3d Printing Technology On Kickstarter Platform, Nina Chaichi

Dissertations and Theses

Crowdfunding is an activity that gathers funds by drawing on a relatively small contribution from a relatively large number of individuals using the internet. One of the crowdfunding purposes is to fund entrepreneurial ventures. Modern crowdfunding activities--that utilize the internet--go back to 1997 and gained popularity in the music and video community. However, the most common platforms for entrepreneurial activities, including Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, have been established as recently as 2008. Thus the understanding of crowdfunding's dynamic is in its infancy.

Crowdfunding has been studied from various perspectives, primarily focusing on the factors that increase the platform's participation and determinants …

Politics Of Privacy: The Role Of Individual Political Views In Consumer Data Privacy Concerns, Connor Neill

Honors Theses

Today, every choice that is made, from where to shop to what music to listen to, has turned into a reflection of one’s political views and identity. The main purpose of this research is to explore the relationship between an individual’s political views and his or hers attitudes toward the security of personal information in the consumer realm. Two studies were conducted in the form of surveys. The first study aims to measure the consumer’s trust and risk beliefs for a company of a certain size as well as their feelings toward the dimensions of control, collection, and awareness of …

The Effects Of Corporate Social Responsibility On Consumer Behavior And Buyer Attitudes, Bailey Dial

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

With the size and scope of Corporate Social Responsibility’s (CSR’s) presence in corporate America and beyond, this thesis dives into the history, composition, and application of a CSR framework within an organization. This thesis also reports the results of a survey of students to apprehend the framework’s external impacts on consumers, including brand perceptions and purchase decisions. Most individuals have experienced some degree of exposure to CSR in their professional lives. Levels of awareness and liking towards both the CSR framework and its application demonstrate a direct impact on consumers’ buying processes and company judgements.

Multiple Identities In Sport Fandom: Balance, Conflict, & Negotiation, Aaron Mansfield

Doctoral Dissertations

Simultaneous to the sport industry’s ascent, obesity has become an issue of growing societal concern. Scholars have explored the role of social-psychological identification in both fandom and physical health, but have not yet explored the intersection of the two. Throughout life, individuals must negotiate all of their identities, including their attachment to sport teams, yet understanding of role identity within sport management is limited. Likewise, scholars have noted the need for greater illumination of the relationship between fandom and physical well-being. I address these gaps through three studies. In Study One, I completed semi-structured interviews with individuals who consider both …

An Examination Of Sport Ticket Price Acceptability And Surcharge Transparency In Partitioned Pricing, Misun Won

Theses and Dissertations

There has been a recent price policy change in the sport industry that ticket resale companies attempted to reveal any additional fees upfront to increase price transparency and protect consumers in the marketplace. This policy change was announced in early 2020 (Thompson, 2020). However, as the coronavirus outbreak affected live events to be canceled, become virtual, or have a limited facility capacity (Apstein, 2020; Perry, 2020), it disabled the resale companies to see consumer responses to their policy change that may increase or decrease ticket revenues. In addition, charging additional fees to the ticket face value is a form of …

Understanding The New Wealthy: Ideologies, Consumption Patterns, And Organizational Strategies For A New Generation Of High-Net Worth Individuals, Ana Brant

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the fact that the Ultra High-Net Worth (UHNWI) belong to the wealthiest, most powerful, and influential group of consumers in the society, and nearly 70% created wealth on their own, current marketing approaches fail to consider what drives consumption behavior of this group of consumers and how can brands maximize their socio-economic impact. Across two studies, I develop a model that guides theory and practice regarding this consumer group. The first part of the first study deployed netnography and grounded theory to understand the ideologies of 30 self-made UHNWI derived from self-presentation on 3,393 Instagram posts. To ensure self-made …

Effects Of Demography On Opportunistic Product Return Behaviors In E-Commerce, Nikhila Anand

Honors Undergraduate Theses

College student consumers are an increasingly important segment for marketers and scholars, particularly with the advent of online shopping. This research aims at exploring the effect of college students' decision-making styles on online purchase and return behavior. An online questionnaire survey was conducted on 1100 college students at the University of Central Florida to understand how respondents' return behavior changed with various scenarios and demographic factors. Analysis shows that scenarios involving late arrivals are the highest drivers of returns, while guilt and post- purchase regrets drove far fewer returns. Statistically significant differences in return behavior were found between demographic groups. …

The Challenges And Opportunities Created By A Global Pandemic's Effects On Consumer Shopping Behavior Within The Fashion Retail Industry, Kate O'Connor

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The fashion retail industry has already been undergoing an extensive transformation since the introduction of e-commerce in the late 1990s. However, changes in consumer shopping behavior caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have fundamentally altered the industry in a matter of months. Because the COVID-19 pandemic is relatively recent, there is a lack of literature regarding the challenges and opportunities for fashion retailers in light of these changes in consumer behavior. This project will illuminate the challenges and opportunities created by the COVID-19 pandemic for the different distribution modes in the fashion retail industry: brick and mortar stores, e-commerce, and omnichannel …

An Exploratory Study Of Generational Coffee Preferences, Lindsey Falkner

Honors College Theses

This research focuses on generational differences in preferences towards coffee-style beverages. The aim of this research is to provide recommendations to marketers within the saturated coffee industry. An online exploratory study was conducted with two-hundred and fifty-two participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk. The results show that differences exist between the coffee preferences across all generations, especially when it comes to the current trends (e.g., premiumization, convenience, and sustainability). Further, the results reveal several factors that may cause these generational differences. Finally, the study explored several ways that marketers in the coffee industry can appeal to different generations’ preferences, especially utilizing …

Rising Action: The Effect Of Narrative Transportation On Consumer Purchase Behavior, Bryan Samuelsen

Undergraduate Honors Theses

We investigate whether narrative transportation can have an effect, not only on beliefs and purchase intentions, but on purchase behavior. Participants watch a video related to digital assistants and choose whether to enter a drawing for their choice of a digital assistant or a gift card; we hypothesize that those whose transportation is inhibited will be less likely to choose the digital assistant. We successfully inhibit transportation in the pretest, but do not see similar results in the study and are thus unable to determine if there is an effect on behavior.

Regulating Relationship Needs Via Joint Consumption: An Attachment Perspective, Jana M. Rosewarne

Doctoral Dissertations

Attachment style functions to regulate affect in relationships. I hypothesized that consumer decisions serve a similar purpose, producing distinct patterns of product preferences depending on people’s attachment goals. In a series of studies, I found that attachment avoidance predicted reduced preference for products framed as meeting closeness relationship goals and greater preference for products framed as meeting autonomy goals. The link between attachment anxiety and product preference depended on consumers’ emotions (S2) and relationship commitment (S3). Attachment style also predicted differences in the extent to which consumers thought about their partners when choosing products and their perceptions of how consumption …

Like What You See? The Influence Of Program Assortment Organization And Viewing Motivation On Video-On-Demand Consumption, Boram Nam

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research investigates the effect of program assortment organization and consumers’ viewing motivation on Video-on-Demand (VOD) consumption. In doing so, we examine the formation of viewers’ choice set and product interests in the context of the largely unexplored VOD marketplace. Specifically, we test the interaction between program assortment organization and the specificity of consumers’ motivation toward content for viewing on VOD to show that the size of choice set increases when program assortment is organized by content (genre) vs. a non-content specific alternative (recommendation) among consumers with an activity-focused (vs. content-focused) viewing motivation. We also provide preliminary evidence that consumer …

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 …

Exploring The Role Of Collective Narcissism In Sport Team Identification, Ben Larkin

Doctoral Dissertations

Team identification is among the most widely studied concepts in sport fan behavior. This is largely due to the fact that highly identified fans exhibit drastically different and more avid consumption and purchase behavior compared to those low and/or moderate on team identification. Most notably, this has been manifested in a greater propensity to attend games, watch the team on television, and purchase team merchandise. While the study of team identification has focused both on its development and outcomes, one constant is that scholars have generally assumed team identification to take the form of a healthy and positive team attachment. …

How Technology Is Reshaping Financial Services: Essays On Consumer Behavior In Card, Channel And Cryptocurrency Services, Dan Geng

Dissertations and Theses Collection

The financial services sector has seen dramatic technological innovations in the last several years associated with the “fintech revolution.” Major changes have taken place in channel management, credit card rewards marketing, cryptocurren-cy, and wealth management, and have influenced consumers’ banking behavior in different ways. As a consequence, there has been a growing demand for banks to rethink their business models and operations to adapt to changing consumer be-havior and counter the competitive pressure from other banks and non-bank play-ers. In this dissertation, I study consumer behavior related to different aspects of financial innovation by addressing research questions that are motivated …