Business Commons^™

Essays On Mental Accounting And Consumers' Decision Making, Ali Besharat

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is structured in the form of two empirical essays, each investigating one type of irrational decision caused by mental accounting. The first essay, titled "Managing the Cost of Multiple Debt Accounts: A Behavioral Perspective", explores why many people pay off credit cards' with the lowest rate first when rationally speaking they should repay the debt with the highest rate most quickly. This essay suggests that irrationality emerges when people seek to close `mental accounts' associated with their credit cards and reduce the total number of outstanding loans rather than decrease the amount of total debt among all credit …

Being Critical In Marketing Studies: The Imperative Of Macro Perspectives, Nikhilesh Dholakia

College of Business Faculty Publications

In this article, I argue that an elevated macro-level perspective is imperative for conducting critical studies in the fields of marketing and consumer research. There are epistemic barriers to operating in this manner, and I offer several suggestions for overcoming these barriers. Finally, I review the research spaces for critical studies of marketing in various global settings and conclude that United Kingdom and Nordic Europe have the best epistemic climate, and this region needs to take leadership in promoting greater range of macro and critical studies of marketing in the rest of the world.

2012-May-23-Americas Best Award - 2012, University School, East Tennessee State University, University Marketing And Communications, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

No abstract provided.

The Story Of Taste: Using Eegs And Self-Reports To Understand Consumer Choice, Charnetta Brown, Adriane B. Randolph, Janée N. Burkhalter

The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research

The authors investigate consumers’ willingness to switch from a preferred manufacturer brand to an unfamiliar private-label brand if taste is perceived as identical. Consumer decisions are examined through recordings of electrical brain activity in the form of electroencephalograms (EEGs) and self-reported data captured in surveys. Results reveal a willingness of consumers to switch to a less-expensive brand when the quality is perceived to be the same as the more expensive counterpart. Cost saving options for consumers and advertising considerations for managers are discussed.

The Impact Of Nationality, Gender, And Education On Students’ Buying Attitudes Towards Ethical And Socially Responsible Products, Christina Blundin, Suphamas Chatvisedphan, Siraprapa Dusadeewanich, Elena Perova, Xuebo Wang

MBA Student Scholarship

In today’s corporate climate, a company’s ethical and social responsible (ESR) involvement raises concern amongst consumers. Companies seek methods to demonstrate their high level of ESR in order to win customers’ loyalty. Prior research has been performed examining different variables with regards to the purchase of ESR products. This study utilizes empirical evidence from a private university in Rhode Island, Johnson & Wales University to investigate the significance of demographic variables such as nationality, gender and educational level with regards to students' ESR buying attitude. Additionally considered and analyzed external factors are product price, advertisement and industry concern. Results indicate …

Keynote: The Identity Of Fashion Brands, Klaus Heine

International Conference on Marketing

Interest has been growing in the brand identity concept, because it offers a systematic approach for developing symbolic benefits, which are becoming more and more essential for brand differentiation. Although they are a distinctive feature of luxury brands and often even exceed their functional benefits, there still exists no comprehensive identity concept designed specifically for luxury brands.

Dependent on human identity, brands are also ascribed as having an identity. The brand identity comprises all brand associations that are intended by the company and corresponds with the intra-company self-perception of a brand, which determines precisely how the brand should appear to …

Mobile Marketing At Telenor: A Mad Strategy?, Yasmin Malik

International Conference on Marketing

In early 2010, Telenor Pakistan became the first local mobile network operator to implement a comprehensive mobile marketing strategy in a market where the true potential for mobile marketing was still nascent and misunderstood by both consumers and brands alike. This case study is the first documented study on how Operator-driven mobile marketing via opt-in based consumer profiling can enable and drive the development of a mobile marketing eco-system in Pakistan - in addition the case study also examines the positioning of the Operator in the mobile marketing value chain.

Keynote: The Role Of Marketing In Economic Development And Business: Trends And Challenges For Pakistan, Mushtaq Luqmani

International Conference on Marketing

This paper examines the role of marketing in economic development and business for developing countries and the marketing challenges for Pakistan within the context of some key emerging global trends.

Student Colloquium: Purchase Of Counterfeit Products, Muhammad Ahmed Anjum

International Conference on Marketing

According to Merriam Webster dictionary word “counterfeit” is defined as “made in imitation of something else with intent to deceive”. So the term counterfeit product refers to a product which is made in imitation of some famous or renowned brand. Therefore a counterfeit product can be great threat to the reputation of original brand as well as for the free market economy. This whole exercise gives rise to unfair market competition and unethical practices to follow. In Relation to that the purpose of this whole study is to investigate the respondent’s perceptions, ethical and personal traits and their understanding about …

Student Colloquium: Self-Brand Connection For Levis Jeans Vs. Counterfeit Levis Jeans, Bilal Shah Khan

International Conference on Marketing

This paper delves into the concept of self brand connection and the impact that brands have on the consumers self image. From this concept we explore the level of brand association that exists among the consumers for the counterfeit products and explains the effects of self branding like self enhancement and impression management that vary with the use of original and fake products.

Student Colloquium: Correlation Between Celebrity Endorser's Equity And The Brand Personification Of Pantene And Its Influence On The Purchase Intention Of The Consumers, Sana Hasan

International Conference on Marketing

This research is focused on the brand Pantene, and its celebrity endorsers Katrina Kaif and Shilpa Shetty. Celebrity endorsement through advertisement is a popular method of marketing communications. The customers make a direct link between the endorser and the brand he/she endorses. For this reason, choosing an endorser should involve assessing the compatibility of the image or characteristics of the endorser and those of the brand, and considering whether or not the equity of the brand and that of the endorser complement each other.

Student Colloquium: Motivation To Buy Formal Luxury Apparel Brands In The Male Youth Segment, Syed Sayem Mustafa, Sarah Zubair, Sultan Waleed Khan, Ashar Kamil

International Conference on Marketing

The research was conducted in the commercial hub, Karachi, of Pakistan. The main purpose of the research was to help the marketers of the branded formal clothes like Armani, Gucci etc in terms of deciding the product target market, its segmentation and positioning as well. It will help these brands in making the advertisement for their product because this study will help them in identifying the important factors which motivates people to buy branded formal clothes. So they should advertise their product on these factors and gets the audience attention. This research classifies the buyers of branded formal clothing into …

An Investigation In Culinary Life And Professional Identity In Practice During Internship, Frank Cullen

Articles

The primary objective of this research was to investigate the selection process used by consumers when choosing a restaurant to dine. This study examined literature on consumer behavior, restaurant selection, and decision-making, underpinning the contention that service quality is linked to the consumer’s selection of a restaurant. It supports the utility theories that consumers buy bundles of attributes that simultaneously combined represent a certain level of service quality at a certain price. The findings of the research displayed a preference by Dublin consumers for Italian and Chinese styled restaurants and identified quality of the food, type of food, cleanliness of …

Analysis Of The Upscale/Fine Dining Sector In The Restaurant Industry, Volha Ban

MBA Student Scholarship

Upscale segment of the restaurant industry makes up approximately 10% of total U.S. restaurant sales (Trends in Fine Dining, 2011a). Severe impact of the economic downturn on the fine-dining segment demonstrated the 13% decline in customer visits in 2009 what triggered steep decline in sales.

In 2011 industry experienced positive tendency and renewed interest to high-profile steakhouse chains and upscale seafood restaurants. As National Restaurant News stated “…fine-dining restaurants will remain popular as long as they continue to offer individuality, food quality and more casual setting …”(Trends in Fine Dining, 2011a). Trend of casualization in fine dining led to the …

Perceived Firm Transparency: Scale And Model Development, Jennifer Dapko

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the last few years alone, calls for transparency by consumers have grown louder. No longer are consumers willing to sit back and allow firms to make `closed door' decisions that benefit the company (and its executives) at the expense of consumers and society. This dissertation begins to answer the call for a greater understanding of transparency from both practitioner and academic perspectives. In particular, this dissertation focuses on systematically developing a succinct definition of perceived firm transparency, developing a valid measure of transparency, and empirically testing antecedents and consequences of transparency.

Two studies were conducted to develop the transparency …

Oscarnomics: Evaluating The Economic Worth Of The Academy Awards

Fordham Business Student Research Journal

This investigation addresses limitations associated with previous research to determine empirically the value of winning or being nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award on an film's weekly box office grosses. in addition, this study delves into yet unstudied territory by measuring how an Academy Award affects the careers of actors and actresses nominated for or awarded the Best Actor and Actress trophies for the first time. Overall, results suggest that both nominations and wins in the Best Picture category increase weekly box office grosses following their respective announcements. Unexpectedly, findings indicate that Academy Award nominations and wins tend not …

Book Review: Steven D. Levitt And Stephen J. Dubner, Superfreakonomics, James W. Gentry

Department of Marketing: Faculty Publications

I listened to Freakonomics on audiotape borrowed from the library and liked it sufficiently to spring for the sequel SuperFreakonomics. The authors place great emphasis on the role of incentives in generating human behaviors. One does not need to read the first book in order to enjoy the second book, as the latter is just an extension of the first that focuses on new issues. I do recommend reading both books as they are thought provoking, which is my highest praise for scholarly communication in any form.

The strength of the book is that the problems facing society are …

Status: In A Relationship How Effective Is Customer Relationship Marketing On Facebook?, Courtney Weiss

Honors Projects in Marketing

Facebook provides an avenue for companies to connect with consumers in new ways. Since so many tools for communication are available on the site, it can be difficult for a company to focus its marketing efforts. This study examines how consumers respond to Facebook Advertisements and company pages on Facebook in order to determine where companies should allocate their resources on the social networking site. Specifically, it explores consumer click-through rates on Facebook Ads, as well as consumer perception of various Facebook promotional tools. The methodology includes traditional research in the form of a literature review, as well as focus …

The Evolution Of The “Southwest Effect”, Daniel Webb

Honors Projects in Finance

The “Southwest effect” - a large decrease in fares paired with an increase in traffic - has been discussed around the airline industry since the term was first coined in a government study in the early 1990s. But the airline industry has drastically changed since then - Southwest has become the largest domestic airline, and many of its competitors have had the chance to restructure through bankruptcy.

This study examines some of Southwest's latest city additions, as well as a few of the airline’s intra-California routes where it is now a dominant player. Using publically-available government data, the change in …

The Growing Use Of Social Media In Political Campaigns: How To Use Facebook, Twitter And Youtube To Create An Effective Social Media Campaign, Kaitlin Vonderschmitt

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

A political campaign is carefully crafted for each candidate, to address their constituency and present the candidate and party in the best possible way. After the creation of the United States suffrage was limited to land owning white men, these men were involved in politics by reading local newspapers and visiting the politicians face to face. However as we fast forward to the 1930’s President Franklin D. Roosevelt used the radio to connect with the American public, and then in 1960’s Nixon and Kennedy’s debate introduced the mass-produced version of face-to-face politics through televisions all over the country we begin …

Digital Imperatives In Marketing: The Integration Of Communications And Technology To Target Consumers While Protecting Privacy, Catherine Dwyer, Randi Priluck

Cornerstone 3 Reports : Interdisciplinary Informatics

No abstract provided.

Social Media: Do Context Limitations Exist?, Richard Fortier

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

Since the inception of popular social networking sites, such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, millions of people around the world are becoming members of their own virtual communities that continue to grow. Communication barriers flattened with the invention of the internet, and now social networking sites are creating an organized infrastructure within the vast cyberspace. Within my research, I plan to further pursue a research gap concerning the importance of the social context in which ads are displayed. Since it is well documented that social media users are sensitive about the amount of advertising and the kind of information marketers …

Is Differentiation Better?: Consumer Memory For Online Advertisement Selection, Keri Wood

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

The proliferation of internet content has generated a significant online marketing increase in recent years. While there exists a relatively broad base of knowledge regarding the impact of traditional advertisement structures and their effects on consumer behavior, less is known about the impact of the interactive world of online advertising, particularly video advertising. Research has been done to address the question of identifying a more suitable model for the online video format than a standard pre-roll advertisement. The Pool Lane One of VivaKi found that the most effective model was the ad-selector, which allowed consumers to choose their preference from …

Exploring The Differences Of The Grocery Experience Between Spain And The United States: Is It More Than Just Potato, Patata, Tomato, Tomate?, Madison Dowell

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

With the increasing globalization of the world economy, companies looking to take part in this trend must pay attention to the differences between aspects of their home country and the country in which they are trying to sell products. Being well informed on criteria that could affect the purchase decision of foreign consumers is essential to avoiding self reference criterion and ethnocentrism, or the unconscious referral to and focus on one’s own culture rather than the targeted culture. “Sociologic differences around the world largely outweigh the similarities. People in the global community are influenced and driven by different things. Lack …

The Observing Public's Perception On Individual's Behavior When Pressured With Unethical Decisions, Amanda Hancock

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study examines how public perception of individuals pressured with unethical decisions can be dependent on perceived personality traits of the individual. An observer's perception is analyzed through two perspective behaviors: normative (desired) and expected. The two personality traits examined are perceived ambition and perceived individual power distance. Data was obtained for this study from a sample of 152 undergraduate students through a survey where respondents were randomly given one of four manipulated scenarios. The survey measured the respondent's beliefs on what an individual in the scenario should (normative) and would (expected) do when faced with an unethical decision. The …

On Shelf Availability: A Literature Review & Conceptual Framework, Kristie Spielmaker

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

On-Shelf Availability (OSA) is a key performance indicator for the retail industry, greatly impacting profit and customer loyalty. Strong competition in the industry causes retailers and suppliers to put heavy emphasis on improving performance in an effort to satisfy consumers and keep them coming back to their store or product. Over 40 years of research has been done on OSA and its complement, out-of stock (OOS), however very little progress has been made in improving performance in these areas, leading to the belief that gaps in extant research exist. In order to solve the OOS problem, the key drivers of …

The Recession Of 2008: For Better Or For Worse, Kelsy Litchenburg

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

With nonstop discussion about the current recession in the government, news, classroom, social media, and any other type of communication outlet, there is seldom a minute that Americans are not impacted by our current economic condition. Constantly, we are faced with pitfalls of the recession, like job loss and a declining house market, but who is to say that the motion of our economy doesn't follow Newton's third law stating that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction? Meaning that for each negative this recession brings, might there also be a positive social effect as well? After …

Drivers Of The Cash Conversion Cycle In Retail: A Test Of Resource Dependency Theory, Katie Mcclellan

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study analyzes the role of resource dependency theory in the supply chain, specifically investigating the supplier-retailer relationship. Resource dependency theory attempts to summarize the power-seeking behavior found in interorganizational relationships, as firms attempt to increase their own independence while increasing other firms’ dependence on them. The interdependent nature of a supply chain provides an ideal environment to analyze this type of relationship. In order to assess a firm’s influence over other members, the cash conversion cycle was used as it considers the interlocking nature of the supply chain, since each action taken to constrict one firm’s cycle affects that …

Business And Cultural Implications For Walmart In Spain, Ariel Spencer

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Technological advances in the modern era have led to the incredible phenomenon of world collaboration, more commonly known as globalization. The whole of the world is behaving increasingly as a single market. Within this massively intertwined economy, companies are facing new challenges of communication, management and adaptation as their reach of business extends across the world. An integral part of conducting business on a global scale is gaining an accurate and well-developed understanding of each area into which the business extends. Therefore, one of the most important factors when entering a new environment is learning to adapt to the cultural …

From Fandom To Tourism: An Examination Of Self-~Expansion Theory, So Jung Lee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In recent years, pop-culture tourism, in which individuals travel to destinations made famous through pop-culture or relative media themes, has come into the spotlight. The new market segment induced by pop-culture has created a specialized but dedicated consumer, called a "fan." This study examined the impact of pop-stars on a destination from the perspective of fans. Specifically, the research investigated whether fans at different degrees of fandom had different travel attitudes and behaviors with regard to motivation, satisfaction, attachment, and loyalty in the destination context by applying self-expansion theory. In particular, Korean pop-star's fans were chosen as the study example …