Business Commons^™

Negative Forces In Consumption: Their Unpleasant But Undeniable Influence On Consumers, Yumei Mu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

An unfortunate reality of consumer behavior is that it has a negative side: Consumers can experience negative emotions (Harrison-Walker, 2019); firm-consumer relationships can grow sour (Do, 2019); and so on. Already quite prevalent, negative forces in consumption have only increased lately because of the COVID-19 pandemic (Gaydos, 2020). Given the pervasiveness of negative forces in consumer behavior, it is very important for consumer psychologists to study them. To that end, the three essays in this dissertation explore wide-ranging facets of negative forces in consumer behavior and, collectively, greatly augment the field’s understanding of the behaviors, processes, and outcomes comprising the …

Businesses Supposedly Held The Key To The Ada, But They Dropped The Ball: Can Marketing Be The Shot In The Arm America Needs To Bring The Spirit Of The Ada Back To Life?, Elizabeth T. Gratz

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This research investigates the historical and current focus of the field of marketing on the disability community and considers whether marketers can positively impact attitudes toward the group through their firm media content. My first essay uses the Rocky Road to Policy Pavers model to discuss the importance of this large and underserved consumer group, and highlights several opportunities for the marketing community to reduce existing barriers to disabled consumers in the marketplace. One way that marketers can reduce stigma and improve attitudes toward the disability community is by strategically portraying individuals with disabilities in their firm media content. My …

The Role Of Firm-Level Pdo In Asymmetrically Dependent Marketing Channel Relationships, Yuerong Liu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This dissertation introduces power distance orientation (PDO) at firm level to extend the traditional view of power/dependence asymmetry. The traditional view suggests that the powerful firm will exploit its power for its own interest, and the dependent firm will engage in a preemptive strike (e.g., engage in self-interested, guileful behaviors before the powerful partner exploits them) due to its fear of being exploited. As a result, power/dependence asymmetry leads to deleterious relationship outcomes. Yet, power dependence theory does not consider the role of power dependence orientation, which is a firm’s acceptance of unequally distributed power. This dissertation consists of three …

Getting Connected: Exploring The Role Of Sustainability Labels In Tourism Marketing Communications, Elvira Kizilova

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

While sustainability has become an important brand differentiator in many industries, current research suggests that tourism businesses rarely use sustainability labels in their communications, e.g., on their websites or other types of advertisements.

This dissertation examines the role of sustainability labels in increasing consumer preferences for sustainable travel destinations. Drawing on social exchange theory and anthropomorphism framework, we propose that sustainability labels increase consumer visit intentions, willingness to recommend a destination to someone else, and willingness to pay price premium for the sustainable offer. These effects are mediated by perception of goal congruence and connectedness with a destination. We further …

Three Essays On The Impact Of Cuteness On Consumer Behavior, Alexis Taeeun Yim

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Over the last decade, the world has seen a rise in the popularity of cute stimuli. Adorable baby pictures, fluffy puppy videos, and whimsical emojis seem ever-present in social media news feeds and friends’ posts. In addition, products marketed toward adults that feature cute characters drive sales worth billions of dollars. The growing presence of cute stimuli in our daily lives is accompanied by emerging research on their social and behavioral impacts. Correspondingly, the current dissertation consists of three essays that contribute to the literature on cuteness by empirically testing the impacts of cuteness in the marketplace. To extend the …

Fostering Music Performers In The 21st Century: A Contemporary Professional Perspective Toward A New Curricular Agenda For Graduate Study In Music, Andre Januario

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

What if the core curriculum for graduate students in music performance were designed to prepare students to succeed in the world of the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

This dissertation offers a hypothetical answer: a structured and systematic academic curricular framework for music graduate students of performance of concert music (especially those in terminal degrees, such as doctoral students), along with music instructors, professional music performers, school administrators, and college professors, seeking to prepare such students for achieving and maintaining a music career more in keeping with the current work environment, especially those skills demanded by the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the …

A Podcasting Series On Employing Podcasts As An Effective Marketing Method For Small Businesses, Sevohn Alexis Bree Hunter

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This time has been called the "Golden Age" of podcasting. The number of people listening to podcasts continues to grow year after year as the medium itself continues to evolve. The ability to target specific, or niche, audiences is one reason why podcasting is so attractive to consumers. This also makes podcasts useful for small businesses. Like podcasts, small businesses can target niche audiences and cater to specific needs. The purpose of this project was to investigate the benefits of podcast marketing as it pertains to the uncertainty reduction theory and to create a podcast that can serve as a …

Managing Paradoxes Of Ambidexterity: The Impact Of Exploration And Exploitation On Firm Performance, Lixun Su

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This dissertation examines the impacts of exploration, exploitation, and ambidexterity on firm performance in three essays. Since exploration and exploitation have their own advantages and disadvantages, there are many debates over their impacts on firm performance. To synthesize the conflicting empirical results, the first essay conducted a meta-analytic study and demonstrates that ambidexterity in the product domain increases firm performance while ambidexterity in the market domain does not significantly influence firm performance. In addition, the results show that it is not necessary for all firms (e.g., resource-constrained firms) to pursue ambidexterity. Thus, the second and third essays examine how to …

Hard Work Beats Talent, Unless Talent Works Hard: Exploring The Relationship Between Self-Efficacy And Sales Performance, Mohammad Sakif Amin

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Current research in sales suggests that salesperson self-efficacy, which is a person’s belief about his/her ability to achieve a desired level of performance in a given task, affects sales performance positively. The logic behind this positive effect is that people who exhibit a high level of self-efficacy have increased motivation and thus exert increased efforts towards completing a task. Research in psychology, however, suggests that there can be a downside to self-efficacy. Drawing on perceptual control and ego depletion theories, this dissertation explores two possible dark side effects of self-efficacy in a sales context: (1) decreased salesperson effort engendered by …

Three Essays On The Effect Of Pain-Of-Payment On Consumers' Financial Decisions, Farnoush Reshadi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

In the past few years, we have witnessed a growing level of consumer debt. Although being in debt increases consumers’ stress and reduces their financial well-being, many consumers still take on high levels of debt and hold on to it even when they have financial resources to pay off the debt. Thus, it is of utmost importance to study factors that may influence consumers’ debt repayment. In this dissertation, I study consumers’ debt repayment behavior through the lens of the double-entry mental accounting theory (Prelec and Loewenstein 1998). This theory argues that consumers’ debt repayment behaviors are driven by pain-of-payment--negative …

Evaluation Of A Marketing Strategy Based On The Concept Of Virtual Energy Audit, Goutham Kumar Reddy Challa

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

With the growing world population and efforts to bring better energy access to the people, energy needs of the world are expected to grow in the coming years. Given the limited availability of non-renewable resources, there has been a mounting consensus among the users and the stakeholders to utilize the available energy in the most efficient way by implementing various methods like use of advanced technologies, source reduction, behavioral changes, etc. Energy efficiency in general is considered as a win-win scenario for all the users and/or stakeholders involved as it not only lowers the base load for power generating companies, …

Shame And Guilt: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, Raika Sadeghein

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

In the past few decades, we have witnessed a growing body of literature on emotions in the consumer behavior domain. Emotions are defined as “mental states of readiness that arise from appraisals of events or one’s own thoughts” (Bagozzi, Gopinath, & Nyer, 1999, p. 184). Marketers have examined the role of emotions as stimuli, mediators, moderators, and responses to the environment. The broad topic of emotions includes subtopics such as impact of emotions on consumption, attitudes, and behavioral intentions, emotional responses to market stimuli, and the impact of emotions on cognition. However, although the study of emotions is pivotal to …