Business Commons^™

Hormonal Influence On Female Consumption Of Revealing And Sexy Fashion Products, Ngoc B. Pham

Theses and Dissertations

This doctoral dissertation addresses the biological and psychological components of consumers’ decision-making processes. Particularly, it investigates the impact of female sex hormones on women’s consumption behaviors regarding fashion products. These hormones reach peak level when women are near ovulation, and this research examines how these hormones, when at peak level, influence women’s attitudes and purchase intention towards sexy and revealing fashion products.

The research is based on two theoretical frameworks: ovulatory shift hypothesis (OSH) and theory of reasoned action (TRA). Specifically, the OSH, based on the female ovulatory cycle postulates that women change their sexual preferences for men with perceived …

Consumer Evaluation Of Corporate Social Responsibility: New Insights From The Expectancy Confirmation/Disconfirmation Paradigm, Roberto Saldivar

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Consumer-centric corporate social responsibility studies have focused on consumer evaluation of CSR perceptions (Stanaland, Lwin, and Murphy 2011) without addressing the consumer’s CSR expectations (e.g. Russell and Russell 2010, Schuhwerk and Lefkoff-Hagius 1995, Sen and Bhattacharya 2001). This discovery motivates this study that utilizes the expectancy confirmation/disconfirmation paradigm (Erevelles and Leavitt 1992; Oliver 1985; Tse and Wilton 1988) to offer novel insights of consumers’ evaluations of CSR information and subsequent consequences in terms of customer satisfaction, referral, purchase intention and willingness to pay premium. Two studies, each with a unique design and sample, were developed to test 13 hypotheses. In …

Toward Understanding The Subcultural Mosaic: Fragmentation Of The Culture And The Symbiotic Interplay Of The Market And Subcultures, Emre Ulusoy

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study brought to light the need for a more nuanced analysis and approach for understanding the observed tendency toward eclectic, fragmented, and paradoxical subcultures in contemporary society. It was critical to explore the impact of market hegemony and the response of subcultures to this hegemony leading to the development of contemporary subcultural sensibilities. The central purpose of this research was to develop a theory of subculture that accounted for the fragmentation observed in contemporary culture, and how this fragmentation influences subcultures leading to fragmentation within subcultures. To this end, using in-depth interviewing, netnography, and participant observation, I investigated the …

Perceived Creative Partnership: A Consequence Of Music's Social Use, Paul Gennaro Barretta

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

As contemporary consumers interact with one another and the market in a more symbolic manner, the ways music and other products are used are changing. Scholarly research has investigated the use of music in a social manner, mostly in terms of self-identity, and practitioners have explored the sharing of music, particularly with regard to the use of technology. The present research takes a closer look at the social use of music and proposes a consequence that is termed Perceived Creative Partnership; people use music in a social manner in order to achieve a state of being where they feel as …

Market Orientation And Order Of Entry Strategies: An Empirical Analysis, Anshu Saran

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

While the relationship between market orientation and business performance has been extensively investigated, the mechanisms by which market orientation contributes to performance are still not well understood. To fill this gap in knowledge of how order of entry would affect the relationship between market orientation and performance, this research provides a conceptual framework to link two disparate concepts, or research streams in the marketing/business strategy literature, market orientation and order of entry.

Timing of entry has generated great attention (Green, Barclay, and Ryans 1995). Pioneering new markets is expensive and risky, but also potentially very rewarding. If pioneers have advantages …

The Impact Of Cultural And Religious Values On Television And Newspaper Advertising Content And Appeal: A Cross-Cultural Study Of The United States And The Arab World, Morris A. Kalliny

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Standardization versus adaptation of advertising has been a subject of great controversy that has been debated for more than 50 years. Scholars have pointed out the increasing demand for more cross-cultural research on advertising content that can contribute to the standardization versus adaptation debate. Scholars have also pointed out that although the Arab world offers great opportunities for multinational corporations, the Arab world has been severely neglected in academic research. To comply with this demand, this study investigates the similarities and differences of the manifestation of cultural and religious values in the U.S. and the Arab world (Egypt, Lebanon, Kuwait, …

Bilingual Consumer Memory In The Advergaming Context: A Cross-Script Comparison, Monica D. Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Written language is the core of culture and central to marketing communications. The differences in language processing exhibited by Eastern/Western bilingual consumers are of great concern for global and multinational companies wishing to effectively promote their products through the Internet. Advergaming is a promotional method consisting of the delivery of advertising messages through electronic games. Despite recent scholarly interest, no previous research has compared brand memory across groups of bilinguals of different writing systems or scripts in the advergaming context.

The dissertation investigated differences in brand memory of bilinguals of languages based on different scripts. Specifically, a logographic-based language (Chinese), …

The Effect Of Web Interface Features On Consumer Online Shopping Intentions, Jeffrey Sam Siekpe

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Amid the storm of hype over Internet adoption, it is observed that during the past years, organizations have taken considerable interest in eagerly acquiring computer hardware and software to implement electronic commerce (e-commerce) applications mostly to the detriment of human aspects of the information technology (IT) solutions (Freemantle, 2002; Lockwood & Lamp, 2000). Various Internet technologies, mostly the Web, have been implemented to offer online goods and services. Many credible estimates suggest that Internet buying and selling will account for close to $2 trillion of annual economic activity by 2004 (Citrin et al., 2003; Fry, 2000). While the promise of …

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do: The Dissolution Of Business Relationships In The Global Market Place, Jennifer A. Pope

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Richard Caves (1998) states that “dead business units tell no tales” (p. 8), and by extension one could argue that dead business relationships also tell no tales. However, it is the purpose of this dissertation to tell the tales of multiple dead business relationships in hope that other businesses can learn from their mistakes. Business relationships have been and continue to be a vital part of business. With the globalization of the economy, most, if not all, businesses will have some form of international contact. For businesses with limited resources or no experience often the most efficient means to expand …

An Evaluation Of Lawlike Generalizations In Relationship Marketing: Method And Application, Wolfgang Hinck

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of this dissertation is to evaluate lawlike generalizations in relationship marketing (RM) and their contribution to the scholarly advancement of the marketing discipline. The current lack of such systematic evaluation is of significance not only because the contribution to progress constitutes a general requirement for all research streams in marketing, but also because an evaluation would solve the ongoing discussion about the substance and role of RM.

As a requirement for the evaluation, necessary and collectively sufficient criteria for lawlike generalizations have to be identified and operationalized. Because the marketing discipline lacks both a commonly agreed-upon set of …

Manipulating Ethos And Pathos: Accents, Product Complexity, And Promotional Messages In Chile, Victor Ramon Davila

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This dissertation is motivated by fundamental questions about source effects in persuasive communications: Do receiver attributes influence perceptions about the source and about the object of the message? Do source and object cues influence receiver perceptions about the source? Do source and object cues influence receiver perceptions about the object of the message?

Traditional conceptions of receiver responses to a source have focused on character trait inferences. Of these character trait inferences, the literature on source credibility appears to converge on two categories: source expertise and source trustworthiness. A more recent stream of research has grown around the concept of …

Explicating Sex Differences In Marketing Managers' Egoist Versus Utilitarian Ethical Orientations: The Effects Of The Enactment Of Agentic Versus Communal Social Roles, Jason Blair Macdonald

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study examines the issue of sex differences in ethical orientations and suggests that the enactment of social roles and the associated use of information processing strategies influence the presence of sex differences in managers' ethical orientations. Managers' ethical judgments and intentions to use punishments or rewards to encourage ethical behavior are the two dependent variables in the study.

A 3 (prime: gender-role, work-role, no role) by 4 (ethical condition: positive egoist/positive utilitarian, positive egoist/negative utilitarian, negative egoist/positive utilitarian, and negative egoist/negative utilitarian) experimental design was applied in the efforts to answer the main research question: What is the role …