Digital Commons Network^™

From Vinyl To Viral: Evaluating The Mere Exposure Effect Through Music And Technological Advancements, Ariana R. Deboo

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The Mere Exposure Effect (MEE) refers to a psychological pattern in which a person develops preference for a stimulus that has been repeatedly presented to them. The present study examined environmental influences of preference through repeated exposure to music. Social media platforms such as TikTok, Reels, and Shorts influence where people listen to music. The fast-paced consumption algorithm for new media is provided by quick, entertaining videos that allow users to scroll past content that does not keep their attention. A total of 406 participants (n=406) were involved in this study. The purpose for this study was to identify how …

Personalized Persuasion In The Digital Age: A Data-Driven Approach To Effective Communication, Annye Braca

Doctoral

This thesis investigates the potential of Machine Learning (ML) to personalize persuasive marketing messages. It explores the identification of individuals receptive to specific persuasion techniques based on their psychometric profiles. By developing ML models that incorporate these profiles, the thesis aims to predict the impact of tailored messages and improve the effectiveness of marketing communication.

Money: A Functional Analysis, Steven L. Schwarcz

Faculty Scholarship

Most people currently think of money as government-issued paper certificates or coins that specify units of currency, such as dollars or euros. The advent of digital currencies, which appear abstract because of their intangibility, is therefore confounding almost everyone.

This Article argues that money should also be viewed functionally—as a “right” that serves one or more of the generally accepted functions of money. The Article focuses on two of money’s most generally accepted functions: to serve as a medium of exchange to facilitate the sale of goods and services, and to serve as a store of value. To perform these …

The Credit Markets Go Dark, Jared A. Ellias, Elisabeth De Fontenay

Faculty Scholarship

Over the past generation, conflicting trends have reshaped the ownership of corporate equity on the one hand and corporate debt on the other. In equity, the two great trends have been the shift from public markets to private ownership and the consolidation of American companies’ stock in the hands of powerful investment funds. In debt, by contrast, the great trends have been a shift from private loans to quasi-public markets and dispersed ownership.

In this Article, we chronicle the recent and dramatic reversal of these trends in the debt markets. Private investment funds executing a “private credit” strategy have become …

Leadership Perceptions Of Employee Identity: How Leaders Facilitate An Inclusive Environment, Arian Sullivan

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Workers spend one-third of their lives at work. Therefore, they deserve to work for organizations that focus on equity and inclusion. Despite laws that aim to protect employees, workers still experience discrimination. This thesis explores how leaders perceive their role in fostering an inclusive culture that encourages employees to bring forward workplace concerns. Through qualitative interviews with locally recognized leaders, this study examines how inclusion is understood and enacted in leadership practices. While participants largely demonstrated inclusive leadership values such as shared perspectives, worker empowerment, and collaboration, I found that participants spoke of their employees in terms of personality traits …

An Agent-Based Computational Finance Simulation Model To Study Market Efficiency, Wei Feng, Keng Siau, Wee-Yeap Lau, Lim-Thye Goh, Haonan Chen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The advancement of computational modeling, data systems, and digital infrastructure has enabled the rise of agent-based computational finance (ACF). This study models interactions among heterogeneous investors. By embedding behavioral logics such as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) preferences and volatility thresholds, the model captures microstructural dynamics under different trading rules. Using ACF, the authors compare transaction plus 0 day (T+0) to transaction plus 1 day (T+1). Results show that T+0 improves price discovery, deepens liquidity, and reduces transaction costs. From a computational perspective, this research contributes to ACF by showing how policy logic and investor heterogeneity can be encoded and …

Examining The Industrial Impact Of Fintech Lending In The Post-Next Normal Era, Nur 'Asyiqin Ramdhan, Imbarine Bujang, Amirul Afif Muhamat, Purwatiningsih Lisdiono

The Indonesian Capital Market Review

The financial sector has undergone a substantial paradigm shift as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic prompting industries actively innovate their financing method. Utilizing ARDL, our analysis reveals intriguing insights into the interaction of financing determinants interruptions caused by the epidemic, and the P2P lending success. The long-term effects of economic conditions alluding to the significant influence of investment size across various industrial sectors. The industrial differences suggest interesting connections between the size of investments, and loan tenure to the P2P lending in different industries. The wholesale and retail trade sector demonstrates intricate reactions to changes in investment size, while …

Corruption Perception, Institutional Quality And Stock Prices: Evidence From The Egyptian Capital Market, Rasha Elbolok, Gina Eltabei, Dina Hassouna

Business Administration

This study examines the impact of institutional quality and corruption perception on stock prices in the Egyptian capital market, with a focus on the post-revolution period from to . Using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) methodology, this study provides empirical evidence on the significant role of macro-political factors and firm-specific variables in shaping stock market dynamics. The findings reveal that institutional quality, characterized by governance efficiency, regulatory frameworks, and the rule of law, positively correlates with stock prices. Similarly, enhanced corruption perception control significantly boosts investor confidence, leading to increased market valuations. Firm-level factors such as Tobin’s Q and …

Timing Is Everything: Congruence, Controllability, And Performance Measure Weighting, Hayden T. Gunnell, Gary Hecht, William B. Tayler, Kristy L. Towry

Faculty Publications

We investigate whether the weights managers place on performance measures for performancebased compensation depend on whether weights are determined at the beginning or end of the performance period. We propose that managers frame the weighting decision differently depending on timing. Specifically, prior to employee effort, managers frame the decision as intended to align employee effort to firm objectives, whereas after employees have exerted effort, managers frame the weighting decision as intended to evaluate employee effort. Thus, we expect, and find, that managers weight measures that are more congruent with firm objectives more heavily when weightings are determined ex ante (before …

The Development Of A Rag-Based Artificial Intelligence Research Assistant (Aira), Hamid Vakilzadeh, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Customer Service Operations: A Gatekeeper Framework, Maqbool Dada, Brett A. Hathaway, Evgeny Kagan

Faculty Publications

Customer service has evolved beyond in-person visits and phone calls to include live chat, AI chatbots and social media, among other contact options. Service providers typically refer to these contact modalities as “channels”. Within each channel, customer service agents are tasked with managing and resolving a stream of inbound service requests. Each request involves milestones where the agent must decide whether to keep assisting the customer or to transfer them to a more skilled – and often costlier – provider. To understand how this request resolution process should be managed, we develop a model in which each channel is represented …

Disclosure Benchmarking By Lawyers: Evidence Fromthe Ipo Setting, Michael S. Drake, Jeff Mcmullin, Kenneth Merkley, Chase Potter, John Treu

Faculty Publications

Lawyers play an important advisory role in drafting financial reports, yet empirical evidence documenting the influence of external legal counsel on this process remains sparse. This study focuses on a specific aspect of lawyers’ drafting process: the practice of reviewing disclosures previously filed by other issuers—a practice termed “disclosure benchmarking.” Using initial public offering (IPO) disclosures as the setting, we find that disclosure benchmarking is associated with amore efficient Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) review process. We further find that it is associated with several measures of disclosure quality, including disclosures that are less likely to be revised in subsequent …

The Signaling Value Of Input Information: Performance Effects Of Task Difficulty And Effort Sensitivity, Steven D. Smith, William B. Tayler, Tyler F. Thomas, Todd A. Thornock

Faculty Publications

We investigate how the reporting of input information to managers affects employee performance, and how the signaling value of inputs for impression management moderates this effect. We develop theory to predict that the information content of input information (incremental to output measures), and thus its potential for impression management, will depend separately on both the difficulty of the task and the sensitivity of performance to effort. Across three experiments, we predict and find the reporting of input information significantly increases employee effort and performance in difficult relative to easy tasks and in low relative to high effort sensitivity tasks. Our …

Foreign Tax Holiday Participation And U.S. Job And Investment Loss, Zackery D. Fox, Linda Krull, Scott G. Rane

Faculty Publications

We investigate whether foreign tax holiday participation among U.S. multinational companies is associated with offshoring U.S. jobs and other domestic investment activities. We find that foreign tax holiday participation is associated with (1) an increase in offshoring U.S. jobs and (2) a decrease in domestic investment, as proxied by changes in the number of employees, capital expenditures, and R&D activity. Furthermore, we find evidence suggesting that the association between targeted, temporary tax incentives provided by foreign tax holidays and firms’ domestic activities is stronger among firms with a smaller foreign presence and is distinct from the impact of foreign statutory …

The Marginal Value Of Public Pension Wealth: Evidence From Border House Prices, Darren Aiello, Asaf Bernstein, Mahyar Kargar, Ryan Lewis, Michael Schwert

Faculty Publications

We study how state pension windfalls affect property prices near state borders, where theory suggests real estate reflects the value of additional public resources. Windfalls, representing a source of state revenue about half the size of total taxes, provide economically significant and plausibly exogenous variation in fiscal conditions. We find that each dollar of pension asset returns increases border house prices by approximately two dollars, suggesting that governments allocate additional funds towards high-value projects or tax abatement rather than wasting incremental resources. Evidence of larger effects in financially constrained municipalities highlights how fiscal resources amplify welfare effects of economic shocks.

การบริหารจัดการงานบำรุงรักษาอัจฉริยะสำหรับโรงงานอุตสาหกรรมระบบอัตโนมัติโดยใช้กระบวนการการค้นหาในปริภูมิสถานะ (กรณีศึกษา โรงงานผลิตสายไฟ), ณัฐวรรณ ทองแต้ม

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

การศึกษานี้มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อพัฒนาต้นแบบระบบการบริหารจัดการงานบำรุงรักษาอัจฉริยะ (Intelligent Maintenance System:IMS) สำหรับโรงงานอุตสาหกรรมระบบอัตโนมัติ โดยประยุกต์กระบวนการค้นหาในปริภูมิสถานะ (State Space Search) เพื่อเพิ่มประสิทธิภาพการวางแผนบำรุงรักษา งานวิจัยใช้กรณีศึกษาจากโรงงานผลิตสายไฟฟ้าในประเทศไทย ซึ่งมีเครื่องจักรอัตโนมัติมากกว่า 20 เครื่องและอะไหล่มากกว่า 3,000 รายการต่อเครื่องจักร ระเบียบวิธีวิจัยใช้แนวทางแบบผสมผสาน (Mixed-method) ด้วยการสัมภาษณ์เชิงลึกและการสำรวจเชิงปริมาณเพื่อศึกษาปัจจัยที่มีผลต่อการยอมรับระบบการบริหารจัดการงานบำรุงรักษาอัจฉริยะตามกรอบแนวคิดแบบจำลองการยอมรับเทคโนโลยี (Technology Acceptance Model: TAM) และการประเมินความเป็นไปได้ทางธุรกิจด้วยกรอบ (Business Model Canvas:BMC) พร้อมทั้งพัฒนาโปรแกรมต้นแบบด้วยภาษา Python เพื่อจำลองการวางแผนการบำรุงรักษาอัจฉริยะด้วยการทดสอบทั้งอัลกอริทึมการค้นหาแบบไม่รู้ข้อมูล (Uninformed Search) และแบบรู้ข้อมูล (Informed Search) เพื่อเปรียบเทียบประสิทธิภาพในการค้นหา ผลการวิจัยพบว่าการประยุกต์ใช้การค้นหาในปริภูมิสถานะสามารถระบุช่วงเวลาบำรุงรักษาที่เหมาะสม โดยพิจารณาจากต้นทุนการบำรุงรักษา อายุคงเหลือของอะไหล่ และค่าความเสี่ยง อีกทั้งระบบยังสามารถจำลองสถานการณ์บำรุงรักษาในเดือนที่กำหนด งบประมาณต่อเดือน ปรับเปลียนอายุการใช้งานคงเหลือของอะไหล่ รวมถึงจำลองการชำรุดของอะไหล่เพื่อให้การวางแผนบำรุงรักษามีประสิทธิภาพสูงกว่าวิธีการบำรุงรักษาตามรอบแบบเดิม ข้อเสนอจากการวิจัยชี้ให้เห็นถึงศักยภาพในการพัฒนาระบบการบริหารจัดการงานบำรุงรักษาอัจฉริยะเพื่อใช้งานเชิงพาณิชย์ และต่อยอดสู่กลุ่มอุตสาหกรรมอื่น ตลอดจนการพัฒนาอัลกอริทึมขั้นสูงเพิ่มเติมเพื่อเพิ่มความฉลาดของระบบให้สอดคล้องกับการเปลี่ยนแปลงของเทคโนโลยีและอุตสาหกรรมในอนาคต

การศึกษาผลกระทบของมาตรการขององค์การทางทะเลโลก ในการควบคุมการปล่อยก๊าซเรือนกระจกที่มีต่อกิจการเดินเรือระหว่างประเทศของไทย, เพ็ญศักดิ์ วิมลนิตย์

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

การขนส่งสินค้าทางทะเลมีบทบาทสำคัญต่อเศรษฐกิจโลก โดยคิดเป็นสัดส่วนร้อยละ 80 ของการขนส่งสินค้าระหว่างประเทศ เนื่องจากมีต้นทุนต่ำและสามารถรองรับสินค้าปริมาณมาก อย่างไรก็ตาม อุตสาหกรรมนี้กำลังเผชิญความท้าทายจากมาตรการลดการปล่อยก๊าซเรือนกระจกที่องค์การทางทะเลระหว่างประเทศ (IMO) กำหนดใช้ตั้งแต่ปี 2023 เพื่อบรรลุเป้าหมายการปล่อยคาร์บอนสุทธิเป็นศูนย์ภายในปี 2050 มาตรการดังกล่าวส่งผลต่อสายการเดินเรือทั่วโลก รวมถึงประเทศไทย ทั้งในด้านต้นทุนการดำเนินงาน การลงทุนในเทคโนโลยี และการปรับเปลี่ยนเชื้อเพลิงทางเลือกที่มีราคาสูงกว่าเชื้อเพลิงฟอสซิลหลายเท่างานวิจัยนี้มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อ (1) ศึกษาปัจจัยที่ส่งผลกระทบต่อการดำเนินงานของสายการเดินเรือในประเทศไทยจากข้อกำหนดลดการปล่อยก๊าซเรือนกระจก (2) วิเคราะห์แนวทางการปรับตัวเพื่อให้สอดคล้องกับมาตรฐานสากล และ (3) นำเสนอแนวทางการบริหารจัดการที่เหมาะสมในช่วงการเปลี่ยนผ่าน ขอบเขตการศึกษาเน้นบริษัทเดินเรือระหว่างประเทศที่มีฐานปฏิบัติการในประเทศไทย จำนวน 5 บริษัท และบริษัทตรวจสอบมาตรฐานอีก 2 บริษัท โดยเก็บข้อมูลจากผู้บริหารและบุคลากรที่เกี่ยวข้องผลการศึกษาคาดว่าจะช่วยให้ผู้ประกอบการเดินเรือสามารถปรับกลยุทธ์เพื่อลดผลกระทบจากมาตรการใหม่ สนับสนุนการพัฒนาอย่างยั่งยืน และเป็นข้อมูลสำคัญสำหรับการกำหนดนโยบายภาครัฐที่เกี่ยวข้องกับการลดการปล่อยก๊าซเรือนกระจกในอุตสาหกรรมขนส่งทางทะเลของไทย

The Determinants Of Short-Term And Long-Term Performance Of Initial Public Offering: Evidence From The Stock Exchange Of Thailand (Set) And Market For Alternative Investment (Mai), Chittakrij Peungsugk

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study examines the determinants of short and long-term IPO performance in the SET and mai market. Using samples of SET and mai IPOs from 2014-2021, the research investigates how underwriter reputation, institutional investor ownership, and big-4 auditor influence cumulative abnormal returns across time horizons. From information asymmetry, certification, and signaling theories, the study uses multiple linear regression with OLS to analyze IPO performance. Results are different between the two markets. In SET, underwriter reputation shows no certification effect across all time horizons for all reputation measures. Institutional investor ownership demonstrates no short-term impact but exhibits negative impacts with long-term …

Disaggregating Foreign Investor Influence: Direct Holdings, Nvdrs, And Stock Price Crash Risk In The Thai Equity Market, Ploypailin Rattanaphongchirakun

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This thesis investigates the relationship between foreign ownership and stock price crash risk in the Stock Exchange of Thailand during the period 2005 to 2024. It focuses on differentiating between direct foreign investors who hold voting shares and Non-Voting Depository Receipts (NVDRs), which provide economic benefits similar to regular shares but do not confer voting rights at shareholder meetings. Additionally, this study examines whether information asymmetry and stock liquidity moderate the relationship between foreign ownership and stock price crash risk. The analysis utilizes panel data from the top 100 companies by market capitalization listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. …

The Effect Of Trading Volume From Different Investor Types On Trading Friction Anomaly Returns In Thailand: Evidence From Market Microstructure Data Of The Stock Exchange Of Thailand, Suparkit Assavanig

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study introduces a novel approach to understanding how trading volumes from individual, institutional, and foreign investors influence anomaly returns in Thailand's stock market. I integrate comprehensive analysis of seven trading friction anomalies with unique market microstructure data from the Stock Exchange of Thailand's database. This approach enables construction of long-short portfolio strategies, while accounting for the distinct trading behaviors of different investor groups during the period from 2011 to 2021.Remarkably, I discovered asymmetric effects where retail trading amplifies certain anomalies while reducing others, contradicting traditional noise trader theories. Furthermore, the integration of investor-type volume indicators with long-short anomaly strategies …

Llms Enhance Emotional Expression While Maintaining Analytical Depth In News Writing, Samuel Mazzone, Jonah Harlan, Larry Zhiming Xu, Terence T. Ow

Management Faculty Research and Publications

As the impact of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) becomes increasingly evident in automated journalism, leveraging its potential while mitigating the risks becomes a priority in research. To address this need, our study evaluated the performance of large language models (LLMs) in news writing. We tested 11 LLMs by having them rewrite headlines and content from articles published by Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service (NNS) between 2011 and 2023. The analysis and comparison of 3,623 human-written and 39,853 AI-adapted news pieces showed that different LLMs consistently enhanced emotional expression in headlines (Cohen’s d = .33) and in news content (Cohen’s d = …

Next In Line: Exploring Owner, Business, And Family Characteristics And Farm Succession Planning, Tucker Lane Bittick

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The growing average age of the American farmer raises concerns about who will be involved in the future agricultural economy. Efficient succession in family farms keeps farm values high, and farms that plan for succession have an incentive to invest more resources into the farm. Knowing what factors on family farms are common when succession occurs could help encourage earlier succession planning. The research questions were: “Are family, business, and owner characteristics significantly related to the presence of a farm succession plan on farms in the Midwest?” and “Are family, business, and owner characteristics significantly related to principal operators’ preference …

Governance Rating Disagreement And Earnings Management In Asean Listed Firms, Pawat Dumrongkiate

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study investigates the relationship between corporate governance ratings and earnings management among publicly listed firms across six ASEAN countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam—during the period 2015–2023. It examines whether the coverage, level, and disagreement of governance ratings influence the degree of discretionary accruals, which are used as a proxy for earnings management. The Modified Jones Model and Kothari’s performance-matched approach were employed to estimate discretionary accruals, with firm, country, industry, and year fixed effects applied to control for unobserved heterogeneity. The results reveal that governance rating coverage and overall rating levels do not significantly affect earnings …

The Moderating Role Of Investor Sentiment Regimes On The Impact Of Flow Types On Capital Structure Decisions (Evidence From Thailand), Shiva Sachaphimukh

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study analyzes how foreign and domestic capital flows influence the leverage of SET100 Thai non-financial firms, considering investor sentiment regimes and firm cyclicality (2013–2023). It contrasts fundamental foreign portfolio flows with speculative domestic trading turnover. Sentiment regimes powerfully amplify flow effects. Bullish domestic sentiment and high domestic turnover significantly increase leverage (sentiment-exploitation). Conversely, deteriorating sentiment and foreign outflows intensify debt reliance (stress-compensation). Domestic flows have stronger, more immediate leverage effects than foreign flows, revealing a behavioral asymmetry. Cyclical firms respond aggressively to domestic factors and sentiment, while non-cyclical firms prioritize foreign capital stability.The findings highlight the critical role of …

Salience, Trading Volume And 52-Week High Effects On Stock Returns: Evidence From Thai Stock Market, Tonnsaai Anantrechai

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study examines the interaction between salience effects and the 52-week high phenomenon in the Thai stock market, with particular attention to the mediating role of trading volume. Using data from SET100 constituents spanning May 2005 to December 2024, we employ the salience measure developed by Bordalo et al. (2012) and Cosemans and Frehen (2021) to investigate whether stocks with salient payoffs exhibit different return patterns when approaching their 52-week highs. Following Lin (2024), we test whether abnormal trading volume amplifies these behavioral effects. Our findings reveal a notable discrepancy: while historical portfolio sorts show extreme return differentials between salience …

An Empirical Study Of Immersive Technology Using Desktop Augmented Reality Software For Primary School In Thailand, Orakarn Laoharutanun

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This research investigates learner engagement and reuse intention in immersive learning environments through the development and evaluation of a Desktop Augmented Reality (Desktop AR) application designed for primary school students in Thailand. Grounded in the 5E instructional model and the immersive engagement framework, the study identifies four key experiential factors—presence, embodiment, enjoyment, and novelty—that influence engagement and reuse intention in immersive learning. A multi-phase mixed-method design was employed. Phase I developed and tested a theoretical model using structural equation modelling with primary students aged 11 (Pratom6). Phase II involved designing a Desktop AR learning application, followed by expert validation of …

Women Leaders' Lived Experiences Of Bravery In Leadership, Michelle E. Bartlett

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

Purpose

The research aims to understand the stories of women leaders who have demonstrated bravery in leadership. By analyzing their lived experiences through storytelling and narratives, it seeks to shed light on the challenges and motivations behind their brave actions, contributing to a deeper understanding of bravery in leadership within gender and organizational contexts.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopts a qualitative multiple case study approach, focusing on the autobiographical accounts of three women leaders to explore their experiences of bravery in leadership. Utilizing narrative analysis (NA), it is grounded in ethical leadership theory and narrative identity theory. The research method involves …

Psychosocial Workplace Hazards And Industrial Relations: An Introduction, Alexis Vassiley, Tom Barratt, Kantha Dayaram, John Burgess

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This article introduces the special issue, bringing together research on psychosocial workplace hazards (PSWH) which engages industrial relations (IR) perspectives. This is important as PSWH are increasingly studied and regulated, with new regulatory frameworks creating opportunity and necessity for IR perspectives to engage with PSWH. These hazards are intimately related to power relations between employers, workers and the broader society within which they interact, a topic of longstanding investigation within IR. To date, PSWH research has largely occurred in the work, health and safety (WHS) field, reflecting a broader historical separation between WHS and IR in scholarship and practice. While …

Individualized Deals For Overqualified Employees: An Investigation Of Supervisor Perceptions Of Employee Overqualification, Farid Jahantab, Berrin Erdogan, Prajya R. Vidyarthi, Smriti Anand

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this study, we extend overqualification research by examining the indirect relationship between supervisor perceptions of employee overqualification and performance outcomes via task i-deals. We predict that employees are more likely to be granted task i-deals to the degree to which they are perceived as overqualified by their supervisors, which in turn indirectly and positively affects their task performance and citizenship behaviors. Further, we expect the relationship between supervisor-rated overqualification and task i-deals to be stronger when supervisor perceived peer overqualification and workgroup team orientation are lower. Analyses of multi-wave multi-source data from 682 employees nested in 115 workgroups in …

Covid-19'S Impact On Grocery Expenditure Amid The Rise Of Social Media's Unattainable Wellness Culture Within Beverage Products, Ava Hinz

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper explores post-pandemic consumption through two different lens: economics and media studies. First, I will focus on COVID-19’s impact on the expenditure of grocery goods. Then I will explore how today’s wellness culture is made unattainable through social media by examining an organic grocery store and two beverage products. By examining these two areas of consumption, it provides critical information on an individual’s consumption during the unique shocks of the pandemic and the cultural context behind those actions.