Business Commons^™

Why Do People Give? Similarity Based Persuasion On Charitable Appeals And Self-Presentation On Social Media, Jihye Lee

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the sizable donations and the variety of views to research an individual's charitable motivations, the individual's charitable giving has remained somewhat stagnant. Ever since the economic crisis of 2008, contributions to charities have decreased. Therefore, garnering donations is a significant challenge for charitable organizations. Moreover, for individuals who have decided to make voluntary contributions, determining which of the over 800,000 nonprofit organizations to contribute to can be a challenging task, as well. The question of how nonprofit organizations should foster awareness and receive donations is of critical importance, yet the answer is not quite clear. In the current fierce …

November 2014, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

The 3 Major Sins of Sales Management It’s a

simple fact of business: Without sales, no one else

downstream can do their jobs. To ensure continued

growth, Jack Daly says the people at the top must

avoid the following 3 major sins of sales

management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

How Do Trustworthy Leaders Behave? Roderick

Kramer has found that 8 out of 10 report being

burned at least once because they trusted too …

October 2014, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

New Data Shows Riverside-San

Bernardino-Ontario is a Leading

Metropolitan Area for Exports The

U.S. Department of Commerce’s International

Trade Administration announced new export

data that shows merchandise exports from

the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario

Metropolitan area totaled a record $9.6 billion,

an increase of 20 percent or $1.6 billion from

2012 to 2013. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Why It’s Important for Business Owners to

Get Out of the Office and Participate in

Conversations Gabie Boko …

September 2014, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

Checking Account Transparency Report: How Easily Can Consumers Shop for a Checking Account Online?

There are more than 100 million

checking accounts in the U.S. and close to nine out of

10 households have an existing account. Having

access to and understanding the costs associated

with checking accounts is essential for consumers. . . . . 3

You Can Negotiate Anything: 13 Negotiating Techniques Taught at the Wharton School of Business

Everything is open for negotiation—

even prices, schedules, and product offerings that

seem carved in stone. No one has to just accept

what’s offered…..but first you must hone your …

Three Essays On Consumers' Activities In The Online Domain, Shaoqiong Zhao

Theses and Dissertations

Nowadays, with the explosive growth in the usage of the Internet, consumers are performing all kinds of activities over the Internet like searching or buying. We want to study the different activities of consumers in the online domain.

In our daily lives, people are often making various kinds of product purchases. When making such purchases, a lot of factors can affect consumers' decisions. This includes the nature of the product category, and especially in the online domain, the nature of their search activities. In the first essay/chapter, we develop an econometric model to understand the relationships between different dimensions of …

Consumer Locus Of Control As A Moderator Of The Relationship Between Mood And Consumers` Likelihood To Purchase, Felix Septianto, Minghao Huang, Jaeseok Jeong

Asia Marketing Journal

Although previous works have established that mood can considerably influence consumer behavior (Vohs et al. 2007), they provided inconsistent results (Cohen et al. 2008). In particular, previous works only examined the willingness of consumers to regulate their mood and implicitly assumed that consumers have the control to regulate their mood states. Thus, this research intends to fill the current gap in the extant literatures by investigating whether consumer locus of control (CLOC) can act as a moderator for mood effects on consumers` likelihood to purchase. In an experiment, participants` CLOC was initially measured. Afterwards, they watched different video clips to …

July 2014, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

Does the Economic Big Picture Drive Your

Decisions? Three “Context Clues” Leaders Should

Never Ignore How can your company’s leaders

make better decisions where challenges are concerned?

Some of those decisions have short-term consequences

while others will affect the business for much longer.

Ron Scherer and Joel Naroff points out three clues

leaders should never ignore. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Talk Your Way to the Top: Why Old-School

Communication Skills are the Competitive Edge

New Grads Need Geoffrey Tumlin advises new

grads not …

Integrating Advertising And News About The Brand In The Online Environment: Are All Products The Same?, Anca C. Micu, Iryna Pentina

WCBT Faculty Publications

This research compares the effects of paid advertising (banner ad plus banner ad) and publicity (news article plus banner ad) on attitude toward the brand in the context of different product categorization approaches. The authors utilize both the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and the economics of information theory to test the mechanism through which different electronic communication modes impact consumers' attitude toward the brand for various product categories. Findings indicate that the product categorization based on the level of involvement (ELM) to be superior to the one distinguishing search from experience goods (economics of information). Including news about the brand …

June 2014, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

Michael Spence: China’s Rising Middle Michael

Spence explains how a slowing Chinese economy

could be good for China—and for the rest of us. . . . . . 3

Are Your Employees Sabotaging Your Company’s

Accountability? Ten Bottom-Line-Busting Behaviors

to Watch Out For Authors Julie Miller and Brian

Bedford share 10 employee “types” whose attitudes

and actions are sabotaging your company’s

accountability, costing you money, and sending

customers running for the hills. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

13 of the Biggest Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make

(That May Not …

Rebranding The Wku Office Of Sustainability, Mary Boothe

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Since its inception in 2008, the WKU Office of Sustainability has struggled with general program and initiative awareness as well as student engagement in university sponsored sustainability activities. Attempts to target and capture an audience have been inconsistent due to lack of budget and staff, resulting in varying levels of success. The purpose of this project is to identify, through a population survey, a student market that is interested but unaware of the information, services, and initiatives provided by the WKU Office of Sustainability. Once identified, the market was assessed using statistical data and focus groups to determine the most …

White Space: An Overlooked Element Of Design, Samantha Coates

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

There are many different elements used to enhance visual appeal in Advertising and Graphic design. While all elements of design are important, arranging all of these components effectively, affects the overall visual appeal to viewers. The use of space may be thought of as the single, most important element of design. How things are arranged contributes to how effective an advertisement is to its audience. While space is important, it is also vastly taken for granted, specifically in the form of “white space.” Whitespace is important to visual appeal in many ways. This includes readability, viewer perception of brand image, …

Visual Tension In Graphic Design, Raven Heinstein

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

My thesis explores the use of visual tension in various graphic design areas and works. It delves into the purposes of creating visual tension and in which instances it can be most effective, as well as most ineffective. It discusses the use and creation of visual tension with design hierarchy, rhythm and dynamics, symmetry and asymmetry, negative and positive space, color relationships, and typographical design. I will define visual tension, discuss its relevance and significance, and show informative examples. I'm using mainly secondary research in the form of textbooks and examples by other designers, but I have also included a …

May 2014, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

News and Features

Is Employee Cynicism Killing Your Culture?

Strategic Ways to Re-Configure It Around Trust

Rich Karlgaard says employee cynicism is a red flag

signaling a serious dearth of trust—and explains

what you can do to fix it. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

3 Lessons on Retirement Planning From 2 Classic

Cars An old story from car aficionado David

Rosell holds valuable lessons on retirement planning. . 26

Exit Planning: The Necessary Beast—

Due Diligence No experienced buyer purchases

a company …

Making The Magic: How Public Relations Is Handled At The Disney Parks, Elizabeth Demeo

Senior Honors Theses

The Walt Disney Company has always been an organization that has prided itself on its corporate image. One of their biggest successes has been their 11 theme parks across the globe. Ever since its creation in 1955, Disneyland has been known as "the happiest place on earth." However, many wonder how this reputation came to be and how it is being maintained today. To find this answer, one must look to the creative minds behind Disney's public relations. By examining the Disney parks and their public relations history, tactics, crisis management and current and future campaigns, companies can find out …

Creating Consumuments: The Use Of Artistic Interpretation Of Text As An Insight Mining Device In Advertising Courses, Tracy Tuten

Atlantic Marketing Journal

The goal of any approach used to gain a foundation of knowledge about a consumer segment is to ensure one can make decisions that are sound strategically and effectively serve the segment. This paper describes a new technique for profiling a consumer segment: creating a consumument. A consumument is an artistic interpretation of text which reflects insight into a consumer segment. The exercise, based on Tom Phillips’ (2005) A Humument, seeks to encourage students to mine for meaning, reflect on consumer perceptions, emotions, and aspirations, and ultimately express their understanding of a consumer group artistically.

How And When Advertising Can Influence Memory For Consumer Experience, Kathryn A. Braun-Latour, Michael S. Latour, Jacqueline E. Pickrell, Elizabeth F. Loftus

Kathryn A. LaTour

Recent "paradigm shifting" research in consumer behavior dealing with reconstructive memory processes suggests that advertising can exert a powerful retroactive effect on how consumers remember their past experiences with a product. Building on this stream of research, we have executed three studies that incorporate the use of false cues with the aim of shedding new light on how post-experience advertising exerts influence on recollection. Our first experiment investigates an important but yet unexplored issue to advertisers who are perhaps reticent about embracing this paradigm: Does the false cue fundamentally change how consumers process information? After finding that when the false …

Postexperience Advertising Effects On Consumer Memory, Kathryn A. Braun

Kathryn A. LaTour

Past research suggests that marketing communications create expectations that influence the way consumers subsequently learn from their product experiences. Since postexperience information can also be important and is widespread for established goods and services, it is appropriate to ask about the cognitive effects of these efforts. The postexperience advertising situation is conceptualized here as an instant source-forgetting problem where the language and imagery from the recently presented advertising become confused with consumers’ own experiential memories. It is suggested that, through a reconstructive memory process, this advertising information affects how and what consumers remember. Consumers may come to believe that their …

April 2014, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

News and Features

Protecting Your “A” Factor: 16 Accountability

Killers to Avoid Most of us are guilty of small

behaviors that crack our accountability façade and

hurt us, both personally and professionally, far more

than we realize. Julie Miller and Brian Bedford

examines what can happen when businesses, teams,

families, and individuals shirk accountability. . . . . . . . 3

Five Ways to Use Your Brain to Build a Better

Business Michael Vaughan shows us why business

owners and managers should use their brains to

understand what employees need psychologically

in order to excel and perform, and gives …

Assessing The User Experience When Using Mobile Augmented Reality In Advertising, Shanshan Li

Open Access Theses

Facing huge profits brought by applying augmented reality (AR) to advertising on mobile devices, this study investigated the user experience from four dimensions as emotional, instrumental, motivational and social experience when using AR as an advertising tool. It aims to help designers understand that how the user experience emerges during the use of AR advertising tool. In addition, providing some design suggestions to AR designer. Eighteen participants were recruited and the data were collected through observation and interviews. According to the results, users evaluated their emotional experience higher than the other three dimensions. The AR's value in building brand awareness …

Software Architecture And Development For Controlling A Hubo Humanoid Robot, Anne Giulia Pellicciotti

Open Access Theses

This study considers the level of involvement of participants viewing bilingual and English language TV commercials. It analyzes results from 295 non-Hispanic participants studying at a Midwestern university. In the study, participants were asked to view four commercials. Using Zaichkowsky's (1994) 10-item Personal Involvement Inventory (PII), participants scaled the advertisements on a 7-level scale. The scale evaluated participants' emotional and cognitive involvement with the ad. This between-subjects design required that participants be randomly separated into viewing all-English or all-bilingual advertisements. Findings showed no significant difference in involvement levels between bilingual or English commercials within this demographic group. Those with higher …

Selling Life To Abortion-Seekers: A Content Analysis Of Passive And Active Persuasion In Crisis Pregnancy Center Marketing, Alexander Kocman

Masters Theses

For supporters of the pro-life cause, crisis pregnancy centers (or CPC's) have become the "darlings of the movement," according to the New York Times (Belluck, 2013), offering women with unplanned pregnancies free advice, information, classes, childcare, and needed supplies. For abortion advocates, such establishments are intended to seduce vulnerable abortion-seekers into a situation where they will be counseled out of an abortion and possibly even proselytized. Yet for as much controversy as exists in the news media, medical community, and legal realm about CPC's, there is an unsettling lack of understanding of how--and why--CPC's market themselves the way they do. …

March 2014, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

News and Features

The Way You Do Anything Is the Way You Do

Everything (and Nine More “Tough Love” Truths

for Business Owners) Suzanne Evans says that you,

and you alone, are the source of your success or failure.

She gives us 10 inconvenient but ironclad truths that

all business owners should take to heart. . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Will Your Social Security Check Be in the Mail

Come 2015? Economist Allen W. Smith says there is

no trust fund, and a number of elected officials,

including former President George W. Bush, …

Consumer Attitude Towards The Spirit Airline Online Advertising, Tamilla Curtis, Blaise Waguespack, Anke Arnaud

Dr. Tamilla Curtis

How Coviewing Reduces The Effectiveness Of Tv Advertising, Steven Bellman, John R. Rossiter, Anika Schweda, Duane Varan

John Rossiter

In the present study – a naturalistic laboratory experiment – coviewing of TV commercials reduced their effectiveness (delayed proven ad recall) from 63%, obtained by single viewers, to 43%, for both coviewers. During coviewing, the ‘mere presence of another’ apparently distracts each coviewer’s attention from the screen. The reduction in TV ads’ effectiveness due to coviewing is equivalent to the loss from channel-change zapping, which reduces ad recall to 45%. More deleterious but less prevalent modes of digital video recorder-enabled ad avoidance are skip-button zapping, which reduces recall to 35%, and moderately fast zipping (X 8 fast forward), …

How The Roles Of Advertising Merely Appear To Have Changed, John R. Rossiter, Larry Percy

John Rossiter

This article is a commentary on the theme of the 2012 ICORIA Conference held in Stockholm, which was about 'the changing role of advertising'. We propose that the role of advertising has not changed. the role of advertising has always been, and will continue to be, to sell more of the branded product or service or to achieve a higher price that consumers are willing to pay than would obtain in the absence of advertising. What has changed in recent years is the notable worsening of the academic-practitioner divide, which has seen academic advertising researchers pursuing increasingly unrealistic laboratory studies, …

Visual Creativity In Advertising: A Functional Typology, John R. Rossiter, Tobias Langner, Lawrence Ang

John Rossiter

There are many ways in which the visuals of an advertisement can be made "creative." In this article, we propose a new typology of visual creative ideas. The typology is functlonal in that the first type, literal product or user visuals, which are "noncreative" in the usual sense gain selective attention, by a product category-involved audience. The other three types, in contrast, are "creative" and can force reflexive attention among low-involved audiences. These are called pure attention getters, including the innate erotic, baby, and direct-gaze schemas, and the learned shock, celebrity, and culture-icon and subculture-icon schemas; distortional attention getters, including …

Indigenous Identity In The Nation Brand: Tension And Inconsistency In A Nation's Tourism Advertising Campaigns, Alan Pomering

Alan Pomering

The purpose of this paper is to discuss one nation's attempts at tourism branding in which elements of Indigenous identity featured as a key element of the brand, arguably impairing persuasion results. The methodology follows a qualitative and interpretivist approach. A recent tourism advertising campaign for Australia is described; observations are made regarding Indigenous Australian identity in relation to the broader national identity; recent international tourist arrival trends are discussed; and connections between this triad are proposed. The campaign under study is also compared with proximate campaigns. The study raises questions about tapping a contested national identity for tourism branding …

Advertising Corporate Social Responsibility: Results From An Experimental Manipulation Of Key Message Variables, Alan Pomering, Lester W. Johnson, Gary Noble

Alan Pomering

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how social topic information (STI) and corporate social responsibility commitment (CSRC) substantiate the firm's CSR claims and promote message persuasion. Design/methodology/approach: A 2x2 between-subjects experimental design was used to examine the impact of STI and CSRC on output variables using an online sample of 176 participants in Australia. Findings: The study found that manipulation of STI had a statistically significant impact on outcome variables, but that CSRC did not. Research limitations/implications: The study was limited to Australia and used a fictitious brand in the experiment. Practical implications: For marketing communications and …

Advertising Corporate Social Responsibility: Results From An Experimental Manipulation Of Key Message Variables, Alan Pomering, Lester W. Johnson, Gary Noble

Gary Noble

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how social topic information (STI) and corporate social responsibility commitment (CSRC) substantiate the firm's CSR claims and promote message persuasion. Design/methodology/approach: A 2x2 between-subjects experimental design was used to examine the impact of STI and CSRC on output variables using an online sample of 176 participants in Australia. Findings: The study found that manipulation of STI had a statistically significant impact on outcome variables, but that CSRC did not. Research limitations/implications: The study was limited to Australia and used a fictitious brand in the experiment. Practical implications: For marketing communications and …

Comparing Portrayals Of Beauty In Outdoor Advertisements Across Six Cultures: Bulgaria, Hong Kong, Japan, Poland, South Korea, And Turkey, Pamela Morris

Pamela K. Morris

This research expands scholarship on cross-cultural investigations by examining ideas of beauty through the lens of outdoor advertisements. Using a content analysis method, 293 images of women in outdoor advertisements from six different cultures, including Bulgaria, Hong Kong, Japan, Poland, South Korea, and Turkey, were reviewed through a framework of advertising and consumer culture, globalization, and theories of beauty. The findings revealed that differences across cultures exist and that beauty ideals are culture dependent.