Business Commons^™

A Comparative Study Of American And French Fashion Conspicuous Consumption Habits On Instagram, Hannah J. Corson

Honors Theses

As social media has become an integral part of every day communications, consumers have begun to conspicuously consume through the Internet. One social media platform, Instagram, puts a central focus on media sharing and allows its users to post photos and videos to their profiles. This makes Instagram an ideal place for Internet users to put their belongings on display. However, a user's nationality and cultural upbringing could influence how one utilizes this platform to conspicuously consume. To determine if this were true, Instagram photos from American and French users were analyzed to find any potential discrepancies. Fashion items were …

The Effect Of Social Media Addiction On Consumer Behavior: A Cultural Comparison Of Spain And The United States, Margaret Chambers

Honors Theses

This paper will look at the new issue of social media addiction, how it has affected consumers' behaviors and their interactions with companies, and whether cultural components play a role in this. It will specifically look at the differences between the Spanish and American cultures. I conducted literature searches from the databases in the University of Mississippi library. I researched social interaction theories, social media, The Addiction Theory, and compared the two cultures. The second source of research I used was primary observational research conducted while I lived in Barcelona for five weeks. The observations were made at different points …

Marketing Strategies Of International Pharmaceutical Companies In The Middle East And North Africa Region, Ali Abou Abbas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The declines in oil and gas prices in 2014 by 50% or more led governments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to decrease healthcare budgets correspondingly by more than 30%. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the marketing strategies that managers of international pharmaceutical companies have successfully implemented in the MENA region to ensure profitability after the 2014 decreases in the healthcare budgets, which followed the decline in oil and gas prices. The study involved data collection through semistructured interviews of 6 middle and executive managers working in 2 international pharmaceutical companies located …

Music Artists' Strategies To Generate Revenue Through Technology, Kalilu Kamara Ii

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Music streaming services are increasing, compact discs (CDs) and digital download sales are declining, and many music artists are becoming affected by this positive shift in music technology. Music streaming revenue does not compensate for the decrease in revenue from CDs and paid downloads. Based on organizational configuration theory (OCT), the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the technology and marketing strategies that small business music artists used to generate sales revenue from the Internet. Six small business music artists who were 18 years or older with different music revenue streams participated in semistructured interviews. These small …

Marketing Strategies To Increase Sales In Small Family-Style Restaurant Businesses, Tammira Lucas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small business owners understand the advantages of using social media as a marketing tool; however, some of these owners do not leverage social media marketing strategies to increase sales. Small business owners who fail to implement social media marketing strategies minimizes the potential to gain new customers; thus, negatively impacting sales. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore social media marketing strategies used by five small family-style restaurants in Maryland. Berry's relationship marketing theory was the conceptual framework for this study. Data collection included semistructured interviews, documents pertaining to social media marketing strategies, and social media …

Media Marketing Strategies University Leaders Use To Increase Alumni Financial Support, Wesley Carter

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Colleges and universities in the United States could end operations in record numbers largely from financial shortfalls. The Urban Institute reported that nonprofit organizations lost $3.4 billion in reneged pledges from 2013 to 2014 from donor dissatisfaction, creating a problem because financial losses can occur from a lack of understanding on how media marketing efforts affect fundraising. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to identify traditional and social media marketing strategies that some nonprofit college and university leaders use to increase alumni financial support. Interviews took place with 7 college or university leaders at 3 private, nonprofit …

Online Doctoral Students At A Faith-Based University: Concerns Of Online Education, Kelly Price-Rhea, Julia Price, Deborah Hayes

ETSU Faculty Works

Online doctoral education enrollment continues to rise, and the number of academic institutions who offer the degrees are increasing proportionately. Various types of institutions are involved in this growth, including those that are faith-based. Due to the competitive nature of all online doctoral degrees, including faith-based and secular programs, it is imperative to understand the needs and concerns of the students who enroll in such programs. Students enrolled in a faith-based university online doctoral program were surveyed regarding their concerns about online doctoral education. The results revealed three main themes of concerns/non-concerns, and these results could be beneficial to faith-based …

Great Score! But What About Her Hair? – When Performance Isn’T Enough, Kelly Price-Rhea

ETSU Faculty Works

Dr. Kelly Price analyzes key research confirming that elite female athletes including pro tour golfers are still judged on their physical attractiveness and social behaviors.

Marketing Plan For Columbus State University, Kaylyn Cockrell

Theses and Dissertations

Marketing is an important tool for capturing customers and sales in business, and it’s equally as important to an institution like Columbus State University (CSU) aiming to capture student customers. The development of a marketing plan through extensive research and planning will contribute to the success of all involved marketing efforts. This marketing plan will include all the standard essential elements: business mission statement, situation (SWOT) analysis, objectives, marketing strategy, implementation, and evaluation control. For the mission statement, the current statement from the 2018-2023 Strategic Plan will be used. The situation analysis will include looking at the current strengths, weakness, …

Blogging As Marketing: From Writing To Revenue, Matthew Headland

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This research paper explores the evolution of writing from a form of self-expression into a tactic to build community and to earn revenue in the form of web logs, or blogs. A history tracing blogging back to personal diaries and journals operates to set the context for the methods by which current day blogs create persona, community, and revenue. Through research conducted utilizing industry reports, academic texts, and professional blog articles, a thorough examination of 3 types of blogs outlines the methods of creating a successful blog and how each type of blog is monetized. Current trends in personal blogging, …

Examining The Potential Of Design Thinking For Marketing Students In The Context Of Workplace Learning And Performance Challenges, Christina Pinkaow

Masters

Design thinking, which initially emerged in the 1980s, has notably been recently receiving increased attention, particularly in business communities, as a process that enables rapid, innovative, and user-centric problem solving (Lockwood, 2010). As the forthcoming generations of marketing graduates enter this ‘Consumer Age’, they will be forced to think innovatively and empathetically in order to adjust to constant and rapid changes in our environment (Hanttu, 2013). Design thinking equips modern marketers with the opportunity to become consumercentric and effectively generate innovative solutions on a constant basis to complex challenges that exists (Mohr, 2015).

While the concept is gaining increasing hold …

Planning And Implementing A Graduate Online Team Taught Marketing Course, Rajasree K. Rajamma, Michael Sciandra

AMTP Proceedings 2018

Online courses have become an important educational delivery tool for institutions of higher learning throughout the world. While popular among students and administrators, many faculty members have expressed concerns with online courses. Therefore, this paper highlights online team teaching as a potential solution to concerns harbored by faculty members. In particular, we discuss the planning, coordination, and implementation of a graduate online team taught marketing course and offer an instructional example to alleviate some of the issues with online teaching. Importantly, this paper explores online team teaching from the perspective of marketing faculty and outlines positive educator outcomes associated with …

Metrics-Driven Climate And Metrics-Based Activities As An Organizational Processes To Complement Mpm System In The Firm, Yuko Yamashita, Wataru Uehara, Gen Fukutomi, Hiroyuki Fukuchi

AMTP Proceedings 2018

We have learned that the marketing performance measurement (hereinafter MPM) does matter from the growing accumulation of the recent research. Marketing needs an appropriate set of metrics to plan, check and correct their marketing actions. How can then the use of MPM can be radicated in the organization? Although marketing research stream have developed marketing metrics and linked metric use to firm performance, there is little understanding of what promotes the use of marketing metrics in an organization. We observe many cases where the metrics cannot be well rooted in the organization because of the cultural resistance, irrelevance to the …

Internal Services Brand Orientation: Comparing The Perspectives Of Managers, Employees, And Customers, Ceren Ekebas-Turedi, Musa Pinar, Paul Trapp, Tulay Girard

AMTP Proceedings 2018

Brand orientation plays an important role in creating competitive advantage. The success of a brand depends on the extent of the harmony between managerially advocated brand orientation, effective implementation of the brand orientation by staff, and appreciation of the brand orientation by customers. This requires brand orientation to be implemented during each touch point of the service delivery process, as the delivery of the brand is experienced by consumers in a process of co-creation with the service provider.

To have a successful brand orientation, it is necessary to examine the perceptions of management, contact personnel, and consumers to discover if …

Materialism And Consumer Purchases An Exploratory Study: Are There Segments Of Materialistic Consumers?, Rick Mathisen, David Burns, Jennifer Hutchins

AMTP Proceedings 2018

Research on materialism has focused on the Richins Materialism constructs. The study focused on the relationship between materialism constructs, the positive and negative affect toward rivals and consumer purchase strategies when a rival purchased a product. Three segments of materialistic consumers were identified. Each segment model had different significant paths from the three short-form Richins Materialism constructs to the affect constructs and purchase constructs. PLSSEM and FIMIX analysis was used to develop the path models and segments by identifying unobserved heterogeneity in the data. The results indicate that not all consumers may exhibit the same materialism profiles as they are …

"No Triclosan Ever!": Effects Of Absence Framing Of Novel Product Ingredients On Consumer Evaluations., Tim Ozcan, Ahmet Hattat, Michael Hair

AMTP Proceedings 2018

We investigated effectiveness of promoting novel ingredients either with presence or absence positioning – both are common in marketplace (e.g. Secret® deodorant visibly claims “aluminum chlorohydrate” while Crystal® promotes “no aluminum chlorohydrate”). Initial study results show that consumers have more positive evaluations and purchase intentions for absence framing than presence framing and this effect is mediated by protection-related goals. After reviewing the literature in green/sustainable product attributes and regulatory focus, we show that absence-framed ingredients have better consumer evaluations when consumers are in the prevention mindset. Conversely, we show that, when customers are in promotion mindset and looking for a …

The Uphill Battles For Non-Profit Organizations, Dave Mcmahon, Samuel Seamon, Michael Mccall

AMTP Proceedings 2018

As all nonprofit managers can attest, reaching out to potential customers using traditional marketing tools can often be frustrating at best and ineffective at worst. To better understand the challenges faced by nonprofit organizations this paper reviews several specific issues confronting nonprofit organizations: the adoption rate of websites, and the website types chosen by these nonprofits. These issues are explored through the lens of 3117 nonprofit organizations. The types of websites to consider by size of the organization and focus of the organization are discussed. The managerial implications address possible ways to optimize the use of resources for small and …

Impact Of Acculturation And Internal And External Influences On Food Consumption Behavior Among Asian American Ethnic Groups, Ryan W. Kota, Sindy Chapa

AMTP Proceedings 2018

Retail food sales in the United States surpassed $5 trillion annually in 2015 and this number is on the rise. As a growing industry, it is important to understand what factors influence consumption. In this paper, the authors report on data collected from an ethnic segment that is growing in terms of overall population and spending power in the U. S.; Asian Americans. Through analyses of internal and external influences, and measurement of acculturation across 1,284 respondents, the authors are able to suggest that more acculturated individuals are more prone to be influenced by external factors (i.e., other foods and …

An Evaluation Of South African Vehicle Prices And Domestic Market Size, Keith Plekker, Perry Haan

AMTP Proceedings 2018

This study set out to identify what relationship exists between vehicle pricing and market size in a South African context. The research project’s design revolves around a quantitative method, consisting of a non-experimental strategy, with a longitudinal retrospective time horizon. The Box-Jenkins Method was used with auto regression and autocorrelation and partial autocorrelation functions for testing stationarity. The test involved the Rand’s changes against major currencies being related to increases in the advertised new vehicle price. The results of these tests showed weak correlations for the period 2008 to 2016. The conclusion was that no significant correlation exists between the …

Beyond Supplier Relationship Management, Vishal Kashyap, Mee-Shew Cheung, Marla A. Phillips

AMTP Proceedings 2018

In an effort to determine the sources of dysfunction that affect the integrity of supply in the pharmaceutical and medical device industry, a research collaboration was created by the academia, business practitioners and regulators. The research used a multi-stage effort that relied on the DMADV (define, measure, analyze, develop, and verify) approach to identify and propose solutions for key issues influencing the reliability of supply chains in an effort to improve existing processes of the participating firms. The data was collected over 3 years and involved 41 executives from 25 participating firms that had either Fortune 500 or Fortune 100 …

Generosity As An Individual Difference Variable: Preliminary Steps Towards A New Measurement Scale, Leisa Reinecke Flynn, Jami Steen, Ronald E. Goldsmith

AMTP Proceedings 2018

Generosity is giving more real value to another entity than the giver expects in return. It is seen as the height of humanity by philosophers, and as non-rational by economists, and is not only encouraged but also mandated by religious institutions. Altruism, the motivator of generosity is called the main problem in sociobiology (Ridley & Dawkins 1981). Interest has been shown in generosity and altruism for centuries. Marketers are primarily interested in generosity as it drives support of non-profit causes, but it also has potential value in understanding complaint behavior, service failures, and tipping of service workers.

This paper represents …

What Happens After You Are Shocked? An Investigation Of Emotional Response, Brand Attitude, Attitude Toward Ad And Purchase Intention Of Shock Advertising In Chinese Consumers, Shuo Yan, Sindy Chapa

AMTP Proceedings 2018

The goal of this paper is to validate the emotion toward the ad scale among Chinese consumers as well as test several well-accepted hypotheses in advertising literature in shock advertising setting. The results of our study suggested that emotion was correlated with attitude toward ad (Aad), the casual relationship between Aad and Attitude toward brand (Ab), and the correlation between Ab and purchase intention (PI). A validated emotion scale was also proposed to measure emotions after viewing ads in Chinese consumers. A 17-item feelings toward ads (emotion) scale was finalized by using EFA. Suggestions for future research were discussed.

The Impact Of Gender And Agentic-Communal Orientations On Consumer Skepticism About Corporate Social Responsibility, Kevin P. Newman, Rebecca K. Trump

AMTP Proceedings 2018

Companies are increasingly emphasizing corporate social responsibility (CSR). However, consumers are often skeptical of the sincerity of companies’ CSR claims, particularly when the claim comes directly from the company. This research examines how the gender and genderrelated characteristics of a company’s spokesperson can alleviate CSR skepticism. Study 1 finds that consumers are less skeptical of a company’s CSR claim when it is made by a female (vs. male) spokesperson. Study 2 expands on this by finding that female consumers are less skeptical of a company’s CSR efforts when they are promoted by a communal spokesperson. In contrast, male consumers are …

Spies!, Sam Fullerton, Roger Brooksbank

AMTP Proceedings 2018

This article comprises two distinct components. First is the delineation of a typology that encompasses the various approaches by which marketers can track the behavior of an individual in the marketplace. A total of 17 broad approaches were identified. Associated with each technique is the issue of whether personal information is being extracted via the tracking process, whether consumers’ involvement is voluntary, and – if voluntary – what action was required on the part of the consumer. The 17 approaches are far from reflecting a homogeneous approach to the data gathering process. The second part of the study focused on …

Experiential Or Instrumental? The Role Of Shared Responsibility In Academic Success, Joanne T. Cao, Jamye Foster, Gallayanee Yaoyuneyong, Alice Townsend

AMTP Proceedings 2018

This paper explores the notion of shared responsibility in an educational environment. Specifically, this study assesses the relationship between shared responsibility and service outcomes, such as value, satisfaction, and positive word-of-mouth, in a university housing context. Using general linear model, we find that students’ sense of shared responsibility affects hedonic and utilitarian value. In addition, students with a higher sense of shared responsibility were more satisfied and willing to recommend on-campus housing to others. Results of the study suggest a positive experience with student housing may increase student retention and offer recommendations for university residential managers.

Money, Marketing, And Missions: Ethics And The Structure Of Not-For-Profits, Karen Barbee, Stephen Lemay

AMTP Proceedings 2018

This article explores the relationship between the structure of not-for-profit organizations and the ethical issues, moral hazards, and public perceptions they are likely to face. It offers a preliminary taxonomy of organizations based on their structures and relates key ethical issues to each of those categories. It also ties these issues to the role that marketing plays in both creating and dealing with ethical issues.

The Use Of Epistemology, Transactional Cost Analysis And Herding Behavior Theories To Explain Ethical Leadership, Mohammed Y.A. Rawwas

AMTP Proceedings 2018

This study examines the relationship between ethical leadership and employee creativity with mediating role of trust in leader and moderating role of openness to experience. Data were collected from 205 supervisor–subordinate dyads in cellular mobile operator companies across Pakistan. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the distinctiveness of variables used in our study. The results also confirmed that ethical leadership promotes creativity at workplace, while trust in leader mediates the effect of ethical leadership on creativity. Furthermore, the results also confirmed the moderation of openness to experience on the relationship between trust in leader and employee creativity. As expected, the relationship was …

How Customer Engagement And Customer Participation Translate Across High-Involvement Purchases (Like Higher Education), Wendy T. Gillis, Douglas Johansen, Shiri D. Vivek

AMTP Proceedings 2018

Previous research suggested that customer participation resulted in greater customer satisfaction for the service provider. Specifically, earlier research differentiated Service Customer Engagement (CE) from Service Customer Participation (CP), where the former was ideation and the latter was practical application/execution. In other words, CE was more psychological, where customers think, feel, and trust. Conversely, CP was more behavioral, or physical, where customers act and do.

The point of this research is to translate previous learning to other high-involvement purchases. Research indicates that services high in credence, high contact, as well as high-involvement (Sharma and Patterson 1999) seem to be particularly relevant …

Community Behind “In Return For An Honest Review”, Ania Izabela Rynarzewska

AMTP Proceedings 2018

With prevalence of online shopping, consumer reliance on consumer generated reviews increased tremendously over the last 22 years. It was Amazon.com, an online retailer who started consumer generated review in 1995. It has since been a major success and source of consumer trust. However, over the years, Amazon.com, academics and the news media noticed an increase of fake reviews whose purpose is to motivate consumers into purchasing a product based on those fictitious reviews. Amazon.com has been on a spree to catch numerous fake reviewers and fake review providers while academic research focused on how to recognize fake reviews, distributions …

Travel Motivation Influence Attitudes Toward Cultural Souvenirs And Travel Intentions, Wei Wang, Gallayanee Yaoyuneyong, Pauline Sullivan, Brigitte Burgess

AMTP Proceedings 2018

This study identifies structural relationships between tourists’ travel motivations and attitudes toward cultural souvenirs and travel intentions. An online survey fielded through Amazon Turk yielded a purposeful sample of 893 respondents who were representative of the population of interest. Results reveal respondents prefer to travel during summer rather than during spring, winter, and fall seasons. Additionally, they desire to purchase souvenirs on family trips. Also, data analysis indicates travel motivations positively influence tourists’ attitudes towards cultural souvenir and travel intentions. Physical, relaxation, and pleasure motives influence travel motivations.