Business Commons^™

Innovation And Competitiveness Of The Wood Furniture Industry In Kenya, Gilbert Osoro Ototo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The wood furniture industry in Kenya has been growing rapidly despite a decline in domestic timber supply. Although most furniture is made locally, a larger share is increasingly being imported from other countries, creating competition for domestic manufacturers. The government aims at shifting most of the demand to domestic producers to protect the sector and create jobs. However, lack of innovation has been cited as the main cause of diminishing competitiveness of the sector. Studies have shown that innovation plays a key role in creating new products, improving production processes, and establishing better business systems.

Innovation in the furniture sector …

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 …

Multiformat Communication Strategies: A Conceptual Framework And Empirical Investigation Of Video Formats, Jordan Worth Moffett

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Essay One was conducted to build a more complete view of bilateral, multiformat customer–firm communication. A review of communication theory builds a foundation for effective multiformat strategies across different exchange contexts (e.g., message complexity) and timing factors (e.g., relationship duration), while accounting for both positive and negative aspects of communication richness. Four perspectives on multiformat communication during exchange events suggest pertinent propositions and produce three parsimonious tenets. First, the authors propose a communication theory foundation for relationship marketing; second, they compile and synthesize extant research. Third, they identify six fundamental communication characteristics associated with different formats. Finally, they integrate insights …

Customer Perspectives On Sales Strategies: A Relational Approach, Juliana Catherine White

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Relationship marketing strategies have long been known to affect salespeople and the customers they serve. However, there is still much to learn about the mechanisms that drive such buyer-seller relationships. This research examines how a salesperson’s behavior, relational orientation, and individual disposition dynamically interact to influence customers in the business to business marketing environment. Data collected from the customers’ point of view reveal several unique salesperson competencies and strategies that affect the buyer-seller relationship. The final dataset (n = 206) included customers’ observations about their salesperson and perceptions of relationship quality. The key findings suggest that the perceived quality of …

Rescuing Relationships: Toward An Understanding Of Exchange Relationship Disruption And Recovery, Matthew Mark Lastner

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Research investigating business-to-business (B2B) exchange supports the position that cultivating strong exchange relationships is vital to the long-term success of both parties involved in an exchange. However, while much is known about how exchange relationships are developed and organized to yield maximum benefits for buyers and sellers, very little research has been advanced to understand how B2B exchanges experience disruptive events and what impact disruptions have on the long-term health of these relationships. Across three essays, this dissertation utilizes a multi-method approach to examine the nature and impact of disruptive events on inter-firm exchange relationships to address this shortcoming in …

Wom Or Ewom, Is There A Difference?: An Extension Of The Social Communication Theory To Consumer Purchase Related Attitudes, Mcdowell Porter

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

While traditional word of mouth (WOM) and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) have both been shown to highly impact consumer behavior, there is a deficit in our knowledge of how they compare to one another. My dissertation research addresses the lack of empirical studies that compare WOM promotion in the form of face-to-face interaction to eWOM promotion in the form of computer-mediated communication, especially using Web 2.0 technologies. This research tests the assumption that WOM is superior to eWOM and, if so, how to extend eWOM to improve its performance against WOM. Essay One introduces a proposed conceptual framework to …

The Role Of Motives And Decision Rules In Restaurant Tipping, Jacob Lee Hiler

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The goal of this research is to address critical deficiencies in our understanding on how bill size, service quality, motives, and decision rules affect tipping behavior. This research uses social norm and equity theories to define the role of motives and decision rules used in determining tipping behavior. Additionally, it provides further evidence of other operant motives and decision rules through qualitative analysis. A conceptual framework and operational model are developed and empirically tested.

Three Essays On Digital Marketing, Xia Liu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is primarily interested in finding out how marketing can play a more strategic role in helping firms to improve performance in the Digital Age. It contains three essays on digital marketing. The unifying theme is figuring out how the marketing department can benefit from the informational value of (big) data and advanced analytics and thus improve customer and business performance. The first essay develops a scale for measuring marketing information capability. The scale has passed rigorous tests standards. The second essay empirically examines the antecedents, moderators and consequences of marketing information capability. The antecedents include cross-functional coopetition between …

The Hidden Layer Of Buyer-Seller Relationships, Stephanie Marie Mangus

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Using social capital theory (SCT), this research conceptualizes trusted advisor relationships (TAR) and empirically tests the implications of such intense relationships on important performance outcomes. Essay 1 was conducted to offer an in-depth analysis of the conceptualization of trusted advisor relationships. A hermeneutical phenomenological approach was used to interpret the data derived from fourteen in-depth interviews with professional salespeople and their business-to-business (B2B) clients. These data supported the development of a conceptual model and definition of TARs. Essay 2 was conducted to explore the measurable components of trusted advisor relationships and solidify an operationalization of the construct for used in …

A Typology Of Consumer Preference Parabolas, Jie Sun

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigates choice scenarios where consumer preference is a non-linear function of determinant product attributes. Chapter One reviews the extant literature, identifies a number of research questions, develops a conceptual framework, and creates a propositional inventory; a central aspect of the conceptual framework is a proposed typology consisting of a two (mechanism: attribute tradeoff or target-attribute matching) by two (attributes: single or multiple) classification scheme. Two empirical essays test the conceptual model in a single attribute context (Chapter Two) and a multi-attribute context (Chapter Three). The purpose of the dissertation is to advance our understanding of the cognitive mechanisms …

What's Love Got To Do With It? The Role Of Brand Love In Brand Community Experience, Phillip M. Hartley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The work presented here explores and conceptually documents the consumer’s experience of brand communities—groups of people brought together by their mutual appreciation of a commercial brand. The relationships between individuals’ motives for joining, their participation, and the social and brand-related outcomes associated with such groups are tested. In addition, the role of Brand Love in the individual’s experience is assessed. The results of the research indicate that Participation may reduce the influence of a person’s original reasons for joining the community on the ultimate outcomes of membership. Further, a person’s degree of love for the underlying brand influences the likelihood …

Paradoxes And Consumer Decision-Making, Carolyn Popp Garity

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Consumers often find themselves faced with conflicting evaluations in which they identify both positive and negative aspects of a purchase or consumption experience. A paradox occurs when the individual is aware of the conflicting evaluations and experiences tension as a result. While there are strong potential implications of paradox, marketing research has been slow to study consumption paradoxes. As a result, many deficiencies exist in the literature, including no consensus as to the definition of consumer paradox, insufficient quantitative measurement, and limited knowledge of the antecedents and consequences of paradox. This dissertation was conducted to address these shortcomings. Essay one …

Online Reviews And Consumers' Willingness To Pay: The Role Of Uncertainty, Yinglu Wu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Empirical studies of online reviews have found that valence (average rating) has a consistently positive impact on consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP), but volume does not. Although two studies tried to explain this phenomenon using different perspectives (Wu and Ayala, 2012; Sun, 2012), neither study can fully accommodate the consumer behaviors observed by the other. This dissertation adopts a theoretical framework that can explain the consumer behaviors observed in both studies as well as the varying influence of review volume at the individual level. Specifically, several studies were conducted to investigate the relationship between bidirectional online seller reviews (e.g., the …

Examining Customer Felt Gratitude And Indebtedness In Exchanges: Their Conceptualizations, Causes And Consequences, Dora Elizabeth Schmit

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Although gratitude has been termed the second most frequently experienced positive emotion (Fredrickson 2009), marketing research has only recently started to explore the role of gratitude in customer relationships. As a result, many deficiencies exist in the literature, including the distinction between this emotion and indebtedness. Further and related to this issue, little is known about gratitude’s conceptualization, antecedents and consequences. This dissertation was conducted to address these deficiencies and extend knowledge concerning customer felt gratitude and indebtedness. Essay one was conducted to offer in-depth insight to the conceptualizations of customer felt gratitude and indebtedness. A hermeneutical interpretive approach was …

The Good, The Bad And The Unintended: The Role Of Negative Self-Conscious Emotions In Marketing, Kathrynn Pounders

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Negative self-conscious (SC) emotions are important to examine in the field of consumer behavior. These emotions have been identified as drivers of social behavior; each day consumers make decisions and form attitudes and thoughts based on the negative self-conscious emotions they experience. Thus, these emotions are a common occurrence in the marketplace, making them particularly relevant to examine in the consumption experience. The purpose of this dissertation is to build a framework to identify how each one of these emotions function in the consumption experience. Specifically, five objectives are addressed: 1) Introduce and identify why negative SC emotions are important …

Conceptualizing The Consumer-Brand Relationship As A Truly Dyadic Process, Jamye Foster

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The consumer-brand relationship (CBR) has gained interest in recent years, but as currently conceptualized, it is limited to a parasocial relationship where the role of the brand is not acknowledged. In order to better understand the CBR, we have to ask several key questions: (1) What is the CBR? (2) What are consumer-brand interactions (CBIs)? And (3) How can we measure CBIs? The objective in Essay 1 is to develop a better understanding of the conceptual foundation of the CBR. This was accomplished through extensive review of relevant literature, which highlighted the need to consider the CBR as a truly …

Essays On Three Price Judgments: Price Fairness, Price Magnitude, And Price Expectation, Sandeep Bhowmick

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation addresses three important price judgments: price fairness, price magnitude, and price expectation. Developed over three chapters, the main objective of this research is to determine underlying differences in these three price judgments. These differences are based on conceptualizing price fairness as a combination of affective and cognitive components, whereas price magnitude and price expectation reflect different cognitive aspects of price judgment. Chapter 1 provides a literature review and identifies several research questions related to these three price judgments; Chapters 2 and 3 provide testable hypotheses and conduct three pretests and two experiments to test the hypotheses. Using structural …

The Effect Of Supraliminal Goal Primes On Brand Preference: The Mediating Roles Of Implicit And Explicit Attitudes, Nobuyuki Fukawa

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The dissertation investigates how supraliminal goal primes affect brand preference through explicit attitude and implicit attitude and whether the effect of supraliminal goal primes and/or mood on brand preference is mediated by cognitive load. Chapter 1 develops a conceptual framework and provides a theoretical background. Chapter 2 investigates how supraliminal goal primes and/or mood affect preference (Study 1), implicit attitude (Study 2) and explicit attitude (Study 3) in the context of luxury vs. frugal brand consumption. Chapter 2 also investigates whether the effect of goal primes and/or mood on preference is mediated by cognitive load. Chapter 3 considers whether, under …

Temporal Reframing Of Prices: A Conceptual Framework, Mazen Jaber

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Research on consumer’s response to pricing tactics has been plentiful and is still ongoing. One strategy that research has sought to explain and endorse is pennies-a-day (Gourville, 1998), where the cost of a product is expressed as a small ongoing expense. This dissertation tests two competing theories that may explain the effect of PAD on consumer participation intentions. The first theory, marketing exchange (Bagozzi, 1975) predicts different effects across exchange type; in particular, generalized exchange (charity) and restricted exchange (consumer products and services). The second theory, mental budgeting (Heath and Soll, 1996) predicts different effects across expense type; this study …

The Definition, Creation, And Evolution Of Buyer-Seller Relationships, Anna Maria Walz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The theoretical and practical importance of relational exchange is well known. However, customers are often annoyed at companies’ relationship building attempts. In addition, the literature has three core problems: (1) the relational concept is not well defined; (2) little research has accounted for relationship dynamics; and (3) relational constructs’ conceptualizations have become ambiguous. The purpose of this dissertation is to build an integrative and comparative framework that not only delineates relationship stages, but also identifies the unique roles of all relational forms (e.g., firm-firm). Specifically, three research questions are addressed: (1) How is a relationship defined? (2) How is a …

Brand Portfolio Management And The Role Of Brand Acquisitions, Yana Kuzmina

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is the first study to propose and empirically test a framework outlining factors that influence the choice of brand acquisitions versus brand creations in a brand portfolio expansion strategy. Drawing on research on make-or-buy decisions, a multilevel interdisciplinary conceptual model was developed, identifying three potential levels of influence: the market, the firm, and the brand portfolio. Twenty-two firms were selected from the ACSI sample of firms, and secondary data sources were utilized to collect data for the variables in the analysis. The model was tested using logistic regression. The results revealed that factors at the market and firm …

"Why Do I Have Fifty Pairs Of Shoes?": Characterizing And Explaining Acquisitive Buying Behavior, Mousumi Bose Godbole

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Why do some of us have the fourteenth black shoe? Fifty pens? Thirty fishing rods? While some motivations relate to compulsive, impulsive or excessive buying, others relate to collecting, hoarding, fixated buying and stockpiling. However, there is a set of consumers who purchase recurrently, have an inventory far greater than that of a typical consumer and yet do not share the negative characteristics of the extreme buyers mentioned earlier. This set of consumers is termed ‘acquisitive buyers’ and little research exist to understand them. This dissertation establishes the significance of acquisitive buying as a new buying type in terms of …

The Effect Of Consistency Of Price Promotion Cues On Retailer Credibility, Product Quality, Value Of A Deal And Purchase Intentions, Igor Makienko

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Research on price promotions suggests that higher discounts often result in more favorable deal evaluations. However, consumers’ reactions do not always follow a consistently linear path when evaluating the deal. Price promotions offering “too high” or “too low” value may result in adverse deal evaluations. In this dissertation we investigate consumers’ reactions and possible evaluations of price promotions when they are provided information on the two primary price promotion attributes - discount and time restrictions. If the price promotion attributes, acting as cues, are consistent with consumers’ expectations (e.g., a high discount with a short time period, or vice versa), …

"To Integrate Or To Differentiate?" - Towards Resolving A Multi-Channel Dilemma Investigation Of The Effects Of Channel Integration Strategies On Consumers' Evaluations Of Multi-Channel Utility And Their Adoption Of Multi-Channel Shopping, Elena Kiryanova Bernard

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Multi-channel retailers have been adopting different multi-channel formats that range from complete channel separation (e.g., Victoria's Secret) to close integration (e.g., Bed, Bath and Beyond). The purpose of this dissertation is to determine which multi-channel strategy offers the most value to multi-channel shoppers. The success of a multi-channel retailing strategy is believed to depend on the degree of channel complementarity as perceived by the retailer's customers. Channel complementarity is defined as the degree to which multiple retail channels work synergistically to create value. Complementary channels give customers integrated solutions that create more value than the sum of the parts. It …

The Impact Of Masking Of Persuasive Intent On Persuasive Message Effectiveness, Christina Simmers Rodrigue

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The decreased dependency of marketing managers on traditional message forms (i.e., commercials) has increased the use of nontraditional message forms (i.e., product placement) in marketing communication. These newer message forms are unique because their persuasive intent is concealed by the presentation method and, therefore, may be processed differently than the traditional message forms. Consequently, this paper examines three major issues that arise out of the integration of nontraditional message forms into marketing communication, including (1) incorporating nontraditional message forms into the traditional persuasion literature, (2) introducing a new persuasion element (termed masking of persuasive intent) and its role in the …

Consumer Expectation Formation In Health Care Services: A Psycho-Social Model, Kenneth Randall Russ

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A psycho-social model of consumer expectation formation in a health care services context was developed and tested. A field study involving obstetrical patients (n=171) at a large women’s specialty hospital in the southeast was conducted. Initial support for the structural model which posits that consumer expectations in health care services are multidimensional involving role, process, outcome, and service quality was found. Furthermore, the research identified that the uncertainty of a health service encounter may cause certain consumer segments to choose coping strategies and expectation processes based on their locus of control orientation from along a continuum ranging from “approach-active” to …

Regret From Consumer Action Versus Inaction: The Effects Of Post-Decision Information, Decisional Responsibility And Perceived Source Expertise, Neel Das

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation proposes to examine regret arising from action versus inaction in consumer decision-making contexts. Although there has been extensive research in the area of regret, no extant literature in marketing has been found that has investigated the nature of regret arising from inaction, specifically in stockout conditions. The first study defines the concept of decisional action and inaction as the key sources of the regret emotion. Specifically, regret arising from inaction (and action) is investigated under sub-optimal and optimal conditions. Subsequently, circumstances are identified when inaction-driven levels of regret are likely to be higher than levels of action-driven regret …

Service Recovery And The Elusive Paradox: An Examination Of The Effects Of Magnitude Of Service Failure, Service Failure Responsiveness, Service Guarantee And Additional Recovery Effort On Service Recovery Comes, Anthony Hugh Kerr

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Service failure and recovery remain critical issues for both academicians and marketing practitioners. Defined as a service provider’s response to a failed service, service recovery can mean the difference between a firm’s success and failure, for increasing customer retention and limiting customer defection are integral components of organizational growth and profitability. The purpose of this dissertation was two-fold: (1) to test the effects of magnitude of service failure, service failure responsiveness, and the presence of a service guarantee on customer satisfaction levels and other service recovery outcomes (Study 1); and (2) to test the effects of additional recovery effort and …

Postpurchase Implications Of Low Price Guarantees And Consequences Of Low Price Guarantee Default, Sujay Dutta

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Past research on consumer perceptions related to Low Price Guarantees (LPG) have primarily investigated effects of LPG on consumer search intentions, their perception of offer value and their purchase intentions. The present research had two major objectives: (i) to study the probable effect of LPG on consumers' intentions to search after the purchase and the boundary conditions of such effects; (ii) to study probable consequences of default of an LPG, that is, postpurchase discovery of lower prices in the marketplace despite promise to the contrary. It was shown that while LPG is likely to discourage prepurchase search it might encourage …

Partitioned Pricing: Can We Always Divide And Prosper?, Bidisha Burman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Research on partitioned pricing suggests that separating the surcharges from the base price of the advertised product may lead to a more favorable effect on consumers' evaluation of the offer compared to a combined presentation of the base price and the surcharge. In this dissertation we propose that partitioned price presentation may not always result in positive outcomes vis-à-vis combined presentation of prices. We propose that consumers' need for cognition and the perceived reasonableness of the surcharge are likely to influence their evaluation of partitioned versus combined prices. Based on cue diagnosticity, Persuasion Knowledge Model, and Characterization-Correction Model we develop …