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Social Acceleration In The Marketplace: Three Essays Exploring The Intersection Of Culture And Consumption, Sarah Grace

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Consumer culture is fast. Goods, services, people, ideas, and values – the material and nonmaterial aspects of culture – are moving more quickly throughout the marketing system than ever before. Such acceleration effects diverse stakeholders: people, public, and planet. This dissertation explores the phenomenon of ‘social acceleration’, and specifically, the ‘acceleration of the pace of life’ which examines the feeling that time is going faster in modern societies as a result of “the increase of action episodes per unit of time” (Rosa 2013, 80). This project develops an understanding of how meanings in marketing are socially constructed in relation to …

Personification In Advertising: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Digital Video Ads In The Insurance Industry, Dorm Kpedor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Major companies in the insurance industry—notably Allstate, Progressive, and Farmers—often employ personification as a creative rhetorical tool in digital video advertisements. By leveraging brand characters in various ways, these companies seek to establish trust and engender emotional impact in customers. Allstate ascribes destructive characteristics that are associated with house cats to its Mayhem character; in doing so they evoke the desired emotional responses of humor and fear. Progressive creates and deploys the Motaur character, a visual personification and play on the Centaur; in this case, the company’s rhetorical strategy is to evoke humor and nostalgia that resonate with motorcycle owners. …

Exposing Racism In Fashion: How Black Women Navigate Societal Beauty Standards, Re'nae Dillard '21

Honor Scholar Theses

Throughout American history, Black women have been treated as the most inferior group. Social status is dependent on race, gender, and economic status. These factors contribute to overall social hierarchies. Whiter skin tones are more desired than darker tones. The fashion industry perpetuates white desirability while also displaying Black women as undesirable and inferior. The fashion industry is dominated by white males, and white women are the representations within fashion. Fashion, therefore, is a reflection of the white male’s ideal world: desirable white women, submissive Black women, and very few Black men. Black women however are changing the narrative within …

Relationship Between Organizational Trust, Communication, And Team Performance Within Virtual Teams, Cornelius Thomas Session

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Virtual teams have become a cost-saving strategy for global collaboration and training, but trust and communication failures decrease overall performance. Business leaders who fail to understand the relationship between organizational trust, communication, and team performance undermine global virtual teams’ full potential. Grounded in the life cycle of virtual teams’ theory, the purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the relationship between organizational trust, communication, and team performance within virtual teams in the information technology (IT) industry. Data were collected from survey responses of 48 virtual IT business leaders who work in the Washington, D.C. metro area. The results …

An In-Depth Analysis Of The Data Analytics Job Market, Dagny Elaine Wilkins

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

6g Enabled Smart Infrastructure For Sustainable Society: Opportunities, Challenges, And Research Roadmap, Abotinam Lucky Imoize, Oluwadara Adedeji, Nistha Tandiya, Sachin Shetty

VMASC Publications

The 5G wireless communication network is currently faced with the challenge of limited data speed exacerbated by the proliferation of billions of data-intensive applications. To address this problem, researchers are developing cutting-edge technologies for the envisioned 6G wireless communication standards to satisfy the escalating wireless services demands. Though some of the candidate technologies in the 5G standards will apply to 6G wireless networks, key disruptive technologies that will guarantee the desired quality of physical experience to achieve ubiquitous wireless connectivity are expected in 6G. This article first provides a foundational background on the evolution of different wireless communication standards to …

Social Media Marketing Strategies For Increasing Small Businesses’ Revenues, Damaris Ramos

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many small business leaders lack social media marketing strategies, which can negatively affect sales revenue. Small business leaders who fail to increase revenues are at a higher risk of failure. Grounded in the resource-based view, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore social media marketing strategies small business leaders use to increase revenue. The participants were 13 small business leaders in central Florida who successfully managed social media marketing strategies to increase revenues. Data were collected from semistructured interviews, reviewing businesses’ social media, financial reports, and interview notes. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. …

Strategies For Improving Performance Management In Small And Medium Enterprises, Joseph Winingar

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Ineffective performance management in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can inhibit organizational growth. SME leaders understand that a lack of organizational growth can lead to business failure. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study, guided by the leader-member exchange theory, was to explore strategies SME leaders used to support performance management to promote organizational growth. The participants included 7 leaders of SMEs with at least 3 years of leadership experience of successfully using performance management strategies to promote SME organizational growth in Washington, DC. These leaders participated in semi structured individual interviews that were conducted virtually. Qualitative thematic analysis …

How Does Convergence Influence Cluster-Based Economic Growth In Regions?, Jamie Meehan

Doctoral

This thesis is a novel study examining the influence of convergenceon cluster-based economicgrowth in regions. The goal of which isto provide exploratory insights frombothnational and international perspectives. This research study examines the relevant literature in thefieldsof convergence,clusters,and regions. It thenadoptsideologies from the most salient studies,to create a conceptual framework. There is limitedextantliterature currently available on the connection between convergence, cluster-based economicgrowth,and regions. AnOECD (2011) report identified the importance of regions as they are themost effective place to make economic decisions. The convergence approachof moving towards equality, bottom-up growth,and co-opetition can be regarded as being imperative to the successful augmentation of …

Dialogue Marketing: Ecological Sustainability Of Letter And E-Mail In Comparison In Germany, Atilla Wohllebe

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

With the spread of the Internet, e-mail has also steadily gained in relevance over the past years and decades. Especially in the form of newsletters, e-mail marketing is probably the most important channel of digital dialogue marketing today. This paper examines the carbon dioxide emissions of advertising e-mails in Germany on the basis of existing sources and compares them with the emissions caused by sending letters by post. Despite significantly lower CO2 emissions per piece compared to a letter, e-mails seem to be a much greater burden on the environment due to their practically unlimited scalability in terms of cost. …

Design Thinking As A Common Language Between Higher Education And Employers, Johnna Denning-Smith

Dissertations

This qualitative study explores student skill preparedness for the work force through semi-structured interviews and focus groups with current college students, faculty members, and employers. Responses from study participants were transcribed, coded, and thematically organized into the following four categories of skills that employers seek in recent college graduates: critical thinking skills, resiliency, workplace skills, and discipline specific skills. The findings include participant perceptions of the importance of these skills and whether higher education effectively prepares recent graduates for the workforce. As part of this discussion, design thinking is presented as a bridge between these groups and as a solution …

How To Enhance Tourist Perceptions Of Environmental Issues Through Nature Images: An Importance-Performance Analysis, Hye Jeong Park, Eunkyoung Park

Journal of Global Business Insights

Environmental problems have been discussed as a serious issue across the world. To conserve nature, many environmental organizations have tried to facilitate tourists’ environmental perceptions by using nature images on their websites. However, few guidelines have been introduced regarding how to select appropriate nature images. Given this gap, this study conducted an importance-performance analysis (IPA) which provides the specific guideline for the use of appropriate nature images through nature-related websites. A total of 526 participants were recruited through an online survey. The results revealed that 14 nature images were categorized as Useful, Healthy, and Spontaneous nature images and identified different …

The Value Of Visual Marketing As A Tool To Gain Consumer Interest, Shivani Venkatraman '21

2020 Intern Reports

This year, I interned for the company SWAMR HR, their parent company being ThoughtWave Software and Solutions. SWARM HR is a company in the IT Industry, and I worked in the Marketing and Sales Department as an Inside Sales Intern. SWARM HR’s product, SWARM HR, is a workforce automation software. It helps businesses migrate to managing their employees full-time electronically, with modules for HR, ATS, and Accounting/Payroll. The business area I researched for my project was Visual Marketing. This area was one I got to explore in my internship, as I helped come up with newsletter content, infographics, and types …

Design Thinking Intervention In Healthcare, Mohammed Ali Alshehri

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The healthcare industry is currently experiencing numerous challenges. Lack of skilled and innovative practitioners in healthcare organizations disrupts operational functions, administration, and service delivery. Dentistry is full of complex problems. There is currently a significant gap between the desired solutions dental providers offer to solve these problems and the actual outcomes. So, dental providers must rethink their approach to solving healthcare problems. One of the desirable approaches is design thinking.

Application of design thinking in business and healthcare has demonstrated improved results. In this research, the objective was to investigate the application of design thinking in dentistry and its effects …

The Reflection Of Effective Interactive Graphic Design, George Nader Naguib Morcos

BAU Journal - Creative Sustainable Development

Graphic design has a rich history as a creative practice, which connects different design elements to build effective message. It combines typography and visual elements like Illustrations or photos to create a visual message, graphic design is considered as an important branch in the modern communication technology. Graphic design nowadays has becoming more advanced and moves from the static phase to the dynamic phase which includes unlimited technologies like virtual reality, 3D motion and interactivity, which becomes one of the important factors that affects the successes of the visual communication or the message that has to be sent via the …

Branding On A Budget: Marketing In The Nonprofit Sector, Nicholas Biere

Honors Projects

“Branding on a Budget: Marketing in the Nonprofit Sector” This service learning project combines academic research with experiential service learning. The purpose of this project was to create a strong brand for BeInstrumental, a nonprofit music education organization from Toledo, Ohio through the creation of a graphic branding plan. Principles of visual communication technology, graphic design, marketing strategies, branding, and graphic design are all implemented in this project.

‘How Has Art Refocused Consumers’ Attention Within A Visual World Through The Exploration Of Package Design?’, Frances Hackney

Honors Theses

The art of design has refocused the attention of consumers as they have entered into a visually demanding world. While this concept is complex and perplexing, stemming from endless influencing factors, the elements of design can be broken down into areas of focus to dissect the visual world of marketing. A simple way to communicate the influence of design on the consumers is to unveil the answers through the study of art.

In this thesis, the study will turn to the world of art to learn more about consumerism. The goal is to understand how visual images and the ongoing …

Establishing & Applying Brand Guidelines For The Wood County Humane Society, Paige Isovitsch

Honors Projects

The purpose of this combined VCT Synthesis and Honors Project was to create consistent branding for the Wood County Humane Society (WCHS). The objectives were to create brand guidelines for the non-profit, and then implement the guidelines to create new marketing materials. This project is interdisciplinary in nature and includes visual design, marketing, and communications.

Many non-profits struggle with revolving staff, and some, such as WCHS, do not have a staff member with expertise in marketing and design. In the case of WCHS, this resulted in inconsistent branding that appeared unprofessional and confusing to the community. With this project, I …

Creating An Awareness And Understanding Of Business And Cultural Environments Through The Integration Of Classic Literature And Film Into Traditional Course Work, Bob Kimball

Southern Business Review (Archived)

Bob Kimball, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Marketing, University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL 32514.

Impact Of Bim On Building Design Quality, Khaled Sadek, Ibtihal El-Bastawissi, Rokia Raslan, Samer Sayary

BAU Journal - Creative Sustainable Development

During last decades, the aim of new technologies was to develop new information systems to automate manual processes. Large-scale projects in the field of construction industry need a different approach to organize and analyze data creating a database without any duplication or redundancy. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a teamwork process using advanced technologies to generate data modeling. Based on a literature review, the present research proposes a set of hypotheses that links BIM implementation with the enhancement of information sharing capability (ISC) and collaborative decision capability (CDC) in the construction sector of the building industry. Consequently, it relates the …

“Design For Enterprises”: Developing European Smes Capabilities For Design-Driven Innovation, Marinella Ferrara, Chiara Lecce

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

This article aims to present Design for Enterprises (DfE) tender project, founded by the European Commission, designed and provided by the Consortium composed by D’Appolonia, MIP/Politecnico di Milano and ADI. DfE has been settled as a training program on design-driven innovation customized in order to prepare intermediary business development organizations to support SMEs managers and entrepreneurs. After a short introduction of the topic and a general presentation of the project, the article proposes a follow-up on the ADI contribution to support design thinking processes during the entire set-up of the training course. The article reports also the critical points that …

A Socioeconomic Analysis Of Francophone And Anglophone West Africa, Jackson Gagne

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project seeks to examine and analyze the socioeconomic performances of four West-African countries; two from Francophone (French-speaking) West Africa and two from Anglophone (English-speaking) West Africa. It will tackle questions such as:

• What is the current socioeconomic condition of countries in this region?
• Which country is most suitable for investment?
• Is there a marked difference between the Francophone and Anglophone countries of West Africa?

And many more.

Uses And Gratifications Of Generation Z Within Social Networks: A Dialectical Investigation Into The Facebook Domain, Ryan O'Carroll, Tara Rooney

Articles

To date, little research has considered how various types of gratifications operate within SNSs such as Facebook (LaRose et al. 2001; Quan-Haase and Young, 2010; Wang, 2015). To address this gap, we explore Generation Z’s motivational behaviour through the lens of Uses and Gratifications Theory. Additionally, we investigate the types of gratification obtained by Generation Z through Facebook. The research adopted an interpretivist philosophy and employed a qualitative approach. The data collection method used semi-structured interviews, in conjunction with qualitative digital diary research. Research participants were requested to record emotions, behaviours and opinions in their digital diaries over a consecutive …

Diffusing New Media As Know-How Digital Communication In Troubleshoot Maintenance Of Pico Hydro Technology In Bengkulu, Indonesia, Naldo Naldo, Hardika Widi Satria, Dendy Adanta Departement Of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty Of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, Warjito Warjito

Jurnal Administrasi Bisnis Terapan

Communication has an important role for spreading messages and ideas through various mediums. This research explains the important role of new media in community engagement activities and the dissemination of new information, innovations and technologies that have been done in 2017, especially for the graphic design via the internet on Pico Hydro's information technology in Batu Roto village, Bengkulu province, Indonesia. Community involvement itself is based on a special multidisciplinary perspective of communication and engineering. Pico Hydro is commonly used worldwide to generate electricity in rural areas, making it very useful for rural electrification. We conduct research to meet the …

Essays Of The Visual Effects On Online Human Decision-Making And Data Science Applications, Jian-Ren Hou

Information Systems & Operations Management Dissertations - Archive

How human makes decisions online is an important research area in IS, many different techniques and online scenarios are used to probe into the related issues. In the first essay, this study investigates the crowdfunding platform. This study uses a deep neural network to extract the emotion metrics from the project images on the crowdfunding platform. The result shows that emotions in project images such as sadness and contentment can positively affect the performance of crowdfunding projects. This study also provides possible designs to change the emotions in the project images. In the second essay, this study investigates how to …

Sisters Of The Caliphate: Media And The Women Of Isis, Kathleen German, Rosemary Pennington

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

Women have long been viewed as the “weaker sex”–more peace-loving and passive than men. However, clashes in Sri Lanka and Northern Ireland have shown that women are both willing and able to participate in violent conflict (Alison, 2004; Cheldelin & Eliatamby, 2011). We will specifically examine the recruitment to and roles of women in the Islamic State through an examination of the scholarship on female fighters, in order to contextualize the women of ISIS. We conclude with a suggestion that scholars and others interested in the experience of women in conflict move away from overly simplistic framings which suggest women …

Forgetting Fallujah: Covert Silence, Digital Public Memory And The Civilian Consequences Of Operation Phantom Fury In Iraq, Jason L. Jarvis

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

“Forgetting Fallujah” challenges the institutional memory of Fallujah advanced in “US Marines.” For most people, the understanding of war is based entirely on media images (Schwalbe, 2006; Sontag, 2003). This essay, like the work of Jackie Orr (2016) is a salvo in an ideological struggle to re-signify the meaning of Fallujah. The invasion of Fallujah was more severe for civilians than the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, yet Fallujah caused almost no public outcry because it lacked visual evidence and went uncovered by mainstream American media (Entman, 2006). Covert silence in “US Marines” demonstrates that digital memory is easily …

Big-Data Talent Analytics In The Public Sector: A Promotion And Firing Model Of Employees At Federal Agencies, Rabih Neouchi

Operations Research and Engineering Management Theses and Dissertations

Talent analytics is a relatively new area of focus to researchers working in analytics and data science. Talent Analytics has the potential to help companies make many informed critical decisions around talent acquisition, promotion and retention. This work investigates data science to predict “shiny star” employees in the U.S. public sector, defined as top-notch performers over the years of a given time span. Its scope falls within talent analytics, also called people analytics, a relatively new research area.

We clean a data set made available by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and present two models to predict the …

The Impact Of Framing On Acceptance Of Cultured Meat, Christopher Bryant, Courtney Dillard

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Cultured meat can be produced from growing animal cells in-vitro rather than as part of a living animal. This technology has the potential to address several of the major ethical, environmental, and public health concerns associated with conventional meat production. However, research has highlighted some consumer uncertainty regarding the concept. Although several studies have examined the media coverage of this new food technology, research linking different frames to differences in consumer attitudes is lacking. In an experimental study, we expose U.S. adults (n = 480) to one of three different frames on cultured meat: “societal benefits,” “high tech,” and “same …

Measurement Of Visual Cues And Their Effects On Online Users: An Image Mining Approach, Shuya Lu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Textual marketing communication is effective in various contexts such as print advertising, user-generated content, and social media (Diamond 1968; Ludwig et al. 2013; Nam and Kannan 2014). However, visual marketing communication studies are limited in the context of print advertising (e.g., Hagtvedt and Brasel 2017). This dissertation includes two essays to examine the visual communication effectiveness online.

Essay 1 develops a conceptual framework to examine the visual-based brand perception (VBBP) and related concepts on social media. We propose that the VBBP is a co-creational process between a company and its consumers and exhibits three characteristics: i) a two-way communication that …