Marketing Commons^™

Marketing Research Is Power In Negotiations To Sell A Small Business, Michael Latta

AMTP Proceedings 2013

Small firms are at a disadvantage in negotiations with larger firms and need to have something on their side of the table to give them power in the process. Primary marketing research can provide proprietary information for the smaller firm that may be used to support a forecasting model to be used in evaluating offers during negotiations. This paper describes such a negotiation supported by a proprietary forecasting simulator that created an advantage for the smaller firm over the larger firm. As a result, the smaller firm had a go-it-alone baseline revenue forecast to determine the incremental value of a …

Cognitive Dissonance And Online World Of Mouth, Kungpo Tao, Yan Jin

AMTP Proceedings 2013

A growing number of customers use online consumer review as a means to express their opinions about the purchasing experience or the products through online feedback forums. The online forum not only provides customers with a powerful communicative tool but also impacts potential customers’ intention to patronize a brand or its association by publishing compliments or complaints. It seems to be appropriate to explain the motivation of word of mouth (WOM) when customers tend to reduce post-purchase dissonance by engaging in selective exposure, attitude change, and spreading WOM. Online word of mouth (eWOM) is basically WOM communication through the Internet; …

Influence Of Atypical Choices By Dissociative And Aspirational Reference Groups On Preferences Of Consumers Varying On Social Comparison Proneness, Magdoleen Ierlan

AMTP Proceedings 2013

Using Festinger and Tesser’s work on social comparison as the theoretical framework, this study investigates how consumer spending is influenced by atypical spending in comparative reference groups. Specifically, two experiments examine how and why consumers, who exhibit either high or low tendencies to compare themselves with others, will alter their spending when they observe their aspirational (i.e., more affluent) and dissociative (i.e., less affluent) reference groups spending money in ways that are atypical. To test the strength of the influence of these comparisons, participants are asked to make consumer decisions with regard to public products (those used in front of …

The Face Of Fakes: U.S. Consumers And Counterfeit Fashion Products, Karen Edwards, Jason Carpenter

AMTP Proceedings 2013

Counterfeit products pose a serious threat to fashion product brand owners and to the world economy. While research on the demand side of counterfeiting has grown over the past two decades, few extant studies have been conducted among non-student consumers outside Asia and Europe and few studies have focused on product categories other than consumer electronic-related items. Using a sample of U.S. consumers (N=305), the current research investigates consumer attitudes in the context of fashion products. Findings suggest that gender and education are the two variables most frequently related to purchase intention for counterfeits, beliefs about counterfeit products, and ethicality. …

Identifying Key Factors Influencing Internet Shopping Behavior For E-Satisfaction, Chris A. Meyers

AMTP Proceedings 2013

With Internet shopping gaining more attention and momentum, a better understanding of the online consumer is now in the forefront of most retail strategies. The growth of online retailing or Internet shopping has provided the apparel industry with additional avenues to reach the consumer. Previous research has shown that consumers’ intent to purchase online is highly driven by their satisfaction. Studies have touted the growth of on-line shopping and the growing purchases of those with Internet access (Lin & Sun, 2009). In fact, apparel products have been consistently ranked as one of the most frequently purchased items through the Internet …

The Church Of Mac: An Initial Examination On The Loyalty Of Apple Customers, Caroline Pinson, Deborah J. C. Brosdahl

AMTP Proceedings 2013

The death of Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs left many in the business world wondering if Apple would also face a decline in health. However, the subsequent release and over-whelming demand of the new iPhone and iPad showed the world how much this product brand is loved by consumers. Yet what exactly makes Apple consumers loyal to Apple products with an array of similar, yet less expensive, products on the market? Understanding what makes Apple users loyal is important to all companies striving to replicate the kind of brand loyalty that Apple generates. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to …

Ethnicity’S Effect On Brand Loyalty Among American Consumers, Neelen Leslie, Felipe Korzenny

AMTP Proceedings 2013

The United States has one of the largest multicultural populations in the world. It is home to millions of people from varying countries, ethnicities and cultures. International migration over the years has established a foundation for what is now a cultural mosaic, comprised mainly of several generations of Americans born to people of varied ethnicities and cultures. This diversity presents a challenge for US marketers. The heterogeneity of this nation requires marketers to do more research and to cultivate an understanding of the various cultures at play in order to connect with their target consumers.

In this research, we attempted …

Relationship Of Demographic Traits And Situational Factor Determinants With The Tech Readiness Of Self-Service Consumers, Jon M. Martin

AMTP Proceedings 2013

Over the past 20 years, self-service technology (SST) has become prevalent as a service delivery option. To ensure that SST options reach full potential, firms need to understand what customer traits and situational factors are related to the propensity to use SSTs. From a subset of data and independent determinants from an original dissertation model on SST adoption, this study uses linear regression to examine: H1) the relationship between: H1) consumers’ tech readiness (TR) and the consumer demographics of age (AG), gender (GN), income (IN), education (ED), and ethnicity (ET) (H1), and H2) the relationship between consumer’s tech readiness and …

Digital Word-Of-Mouth And The Gender Implications, Deborah H. Lester, Andrew M. Forman, Dolly D. Loyd, Tyra A. Burton

AMTP Proceedings 2013

Consumers can now easily access data and exchange sentiments regarding products and services on an unprecedented scale, and often in real time, through digital connections. The Internet and mobile technologies have made sharing of information and opinions among consumers easier than ever. The capacity of online participants to inspire and transform perspectives has been touted to surpass the radical potency of television when it entered the consumer’s province during the 50’s. Men and women use social media sites to learn about new products, to become smarter shoppers and to feel good about a purchase they might have already made. College …

Putting On A Happy Face: How Emotional Labor Impacts Frontline Service Employees, Anita H. Whiting

AMTP Proceedings 2013

This study investigates emotional labor and its impact on frontline service employees (FSE). Emotional labor is defined as the stress of regulating one’s emotional displays in response to display rules (Diefendorff and Gosserand 2003). FSE experience emotional labor as they regulate their inner or felt emotions in order to display the appropriate emotions to the customer. Displaying appropriate emotions to customers is very important to service organizations because it affects customer affect and evaluation of service quality (Pugh 2001). Unlike previous research which focuses mostly on the customer’s experience during a service encounter, this paper focuses on FSE and their …

Attitude Versus Involvement: Predicting Ethically And Socially Responsible Consumption Behavior, Sacha Joseph-Mathews, Nicole Bieak-Kreidler

AMTP Proceedings 2013

Critics argue that the value gap (difference between what consumers say they care about and what they actually choose to purchase) suggests that ethical consumption is not as important as consumers imply. There is much talk about the ethical consumer “myth’ as consumers often claim to be interested in purchasing ethically and socially responsible products yet sales figures for green products often do not exceed 5% total product sales in any one category with organic fruits and vegetables being the one exception. Traditional models use consumer attitudes to the environment as a predictor of ethically and socially responsible consumption behavior …

Attributes, Ethical Attitudes And Behaviors Of Tax Evaders In A Permissive Collection Society, Yusuf M. Sidani, Abdul Jalil Ghanem, Mohammed Y. A. Rawwas

AMTP Proceedings 2013

Tax evasion remains a fascinating research topic, as it is more often committed by individuals considered by society to be “ethical.” The purpose of this study is to explore the various attitudes of tax evaders and examine them in relation to their personal moral philosophies. The results of the current study found that tax evaders possessed several attributes, and their personal moral philosophy attitudes (idealism or relativism) influenced their ethical behavior. Idealism was found to be negatively associated with self-interest tax evasion behavior while relativism had the opposite effect. Idealism was also found to be positively related to tax evasion …

Gerald Sandusky And Penn State Child Sex-Abuse Scandal: A Case Of Administrative Non-Action Leading To A Severe Crisis., Ania Izabela Rynarzewska

AMTP Proceedings 2013

Penn State/Sandusky scandal was one of the most controversial and publicized cases of 2011 and 2012. A high profile university football coach sexually abused 10 boys over period of 16 years. A problematic part of this case is that the university administration knew about coach’s behavior but did nothing to stop it. Sandusky was sexually abusing minors predominantly on the premises of The Penn State University over a period of 16 years. On June 22, 2012 Sandusky was found guilty of 45 of 48 counts of sex abuse of 10 boys while on October 9 he was sentenced to 30-60 …

An Examination Of British Charity Shop Shoppers, Robert Montgomery, Ariana Murray

AMTP Proceedings 2013

An increasing number of nonprofit organizations are developing charity shops to raise resources to support their charitable efforts. The United Kingdom currently has 9000 charity shops that take in annual revenues of 300 million British Pounds. Such stores seek donated merchandise . . . sell it . . . and use the proceeds to support philanthropic endeavors. As such, achieving a better understanding of charity shop shoppers can enhance performance of the charity shop which will, in turn, provide greater resources for helping others. The purpose of this study is to examine the processes by which charity shop shoppers: (1) …

Transforming The Simple Moving Average Forecasting Technique Into A Judgmental Bootstrapping Approach, Usama A. Saleh, Gamal Haikal

AMTP Proceedings 2013

The simple moving average forecasting technique (SMAFT) uses a naïve arithmetic measurement for smoothing time-series data for various situations purposes, such as sales prediction. This paper attempts to rectify the contextual procedure of SMAFT by transforming the method into a judgmental bootstrapping approach, combining the statistical techniques of the X - chart (x-bar) and the Hurwicz's Criterion. The proposed modeling approach generates a dual forecasting value, presented by the grand mean, x , of the x-bar chart and the expected weighted payoff of the Hurwicz's Criterion, which is used to improve the accuracy of the final forecast. This model will …

Delivering Quality Customer Service: The Interactive Effects Of Employee Job Resourcefulness And Organizational Support, Shawn F. Clouse, Simona Stan, Nader H. Shooshtari

AMTP Proceedings 2013

While front line customer service employees’ motivation and ability to provide high quality customer service is paramount for firm performance, it is unclear how employees’ internal resources may interact with organizational support. This paper advances a theoretical model for the possible interactive effects between customer service employees’ job resourcefulness and the external resource support provided by the organization, in the form of formal training, informal coaching, and rewarding mechanism, in determining the employees’ levels of commitment to customer service quality and the development of customer service skill proficiency. An exploratory study conducted on a sample of 98 student employees at …

Is Fantasy Football’S Popularity Decreasing Fan Attendance? : A Social Identity Perspective, Stefan Sleep

AMTP Proceedings 2013

When most people think of football they think of specific teams and the fans associated with the team. Fans close identification with their team has made the National Football League (NFL), the most popular sports league in the United States. However, the NFL faces an interesting dilemma as fans are becoming more involved with league oriented activities, such as fantasy football, versus team specific activities which causes a dichotomy in league growth. Growth is increasingly being driven by league level activities, such as television and fantasy sports, while the core component of team revenues, game attendance, decreased from 2007 to …

An Examination Of The Segmentation Typologies Articulated In The Spectator And Participation Sports Marketing Literature, Sam Fullerton, Tammy Mccullough, Carol L. Bruneau

AMTP Proceedings 2013

With the emergence of sports marketing as an important business discipline, a number of segmentation studies have focused on either the spectator sports market or the participation sports market. Regarding spectator sports, most of the previous studies have focused on individual sports entities such as a team, a league, a sport, or an event. The majority of the segmentation studies on participation sports have also assumed a narrow perspective by developing typologies for a specific activity such as golf. The current research assesses the efforts designed to segment the aggregate spectator sports market irrespective of the sport being watched and …

Using Exploratory Factor Analysis To Identify Star Players’ Effects On The Branding Process Of Professional Sports Teams, N. David Pifer, Jennifer Y. Mak, Won-Yul Bae, Jarrod Schenewark

AMTP Proceedings 2013

Given the extremely competitive nature of professional sports and the high levels of risk associated with exorbitant player salaries, it is important for management to examine the specific effects that star players can have on a sport franchise’s brand. Gladden and Milne (1999) provided an early framework for examining the relationship between marquee athletes and a team’s brand by developing a model to assess brand equity in professional sport. This model, based largely on previous work by Aaker (1991), listed the star player as a product-related antecedent capable of generating brand equity that could bring about national media exposure, merchandise …

Innovation And Entrepreneurial Ventures In Sport: Branding Athletes Through Use Of New Media And Technology, Khalid Ballouli, John Grady, Brandon Brown

AMTP Proceedings 2013

Due to the growing capacity of modern technology to build brands through digital integration and social media networking, athletes have begun to create their own digital presence in efforts to reach a wider target audience. As such, entrepreneurs who develop integrated networks of traditional marketing and social media strategies—designed to increase brand influence in the digital space—are beginning to develop ways in which to capitalize on the monetization of the digital athlete brand. Digital athlete branding involves creating a digital presence for the professional athlete through the development of personal websites, social networks, and new media to provide unique fan …