Business Commons^™

Love At First Touch: How Swiping Vs. Typing Changes Online Dating Decision-Making, Farhana Nusrat, Yaniu Huang, Cait Lamberton

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Online dating is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States. Due to its increasing popularity, various dimensions of online dating have been studied in recent years. However, no research has explored how the type of digital platforms used impacts online dating. In this research, we investigate how the use of different platforms (computers vs. smartphones) can influence customers’ decision-making process in the context of online dating. Through multiple studies, we demonstrate that while using their computers (vs. smartphones) to evaluate dating profiles, customers will prioritize the inner attributes of the person (e.g., personality and compatibility). Moreover, the effect …

Bitcoin: Bringing New Meaning To Purchasing Power & Bridging The Wealth Gap, Fabienne Cadet

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Bitcoin has emerged as a hot topic in our marketplace. Launched in 2009, Bitcoin is considered the first cryptocurrency, which is a virtual currency, devoid of any physical form. This paper takes a strategic approach to investigating Bitcoin usage. Additionally, the paper provides insight on the societal impact of Bitcoin. As its demand increases, it appears that Bitcoin is here to stay, therefore gaining a better understanding of this new form of currency and its impact on the market is crucial. The paper begins with background information on Bitcoin, followed by an overview of current Bitcoin users, which provides insight …

The Patient-Centric Blockchain, Sunil Erevelles, Maanasi Bulusu, Timea Honeycutt, Stephanie Seligman, Padma Bulusu

AMTP Proceedings 2022

A revolution is brewing in the healthcare marketplace. In the early nineties, the World Wide Web initiated a new era for the use of the Internet in the consumption of healthcare services. This eventually led to the Big Data movement (Erevelles et al. 2016), which initiated a non-linear transformation in healthcare analytics and developed into a dominant paradigm in the healthcare marketplace. However, the World Wide Web architecture was never designed to support a marketplace in healthcare or, for that matter, a marketplace of any other kind. It was primarily designed for the sharing of information and was even referred …

The Perceptions And Experiences Of Human Resources Recruiters Regarding Linkedin As An Online Personal Branding Representation Of Recent Business Graduates, Carlos Valdez, Carole Ann Creque, David Penn, James Gallo

AMTP Proceedings 2022

This study aimed to explore the perceptions and experiences of Human Resource Recruiters regarding LinkedIn as an online personal branding representation of recent business program graduates by using a phenomenological approach. The population of interest comprises Human Resource Recruiters that use LinkedIn and hire recent business graduates.The recordings and or transcripts of the interviews were utilized to conduct an interpretative phenomenological analysis to identify broader themes across the data set. The identified themes follow the same order as the questions conducted during the sessions. The five themes that emerged are (1) Social platforms utilized by HR recruiters, (2) HR recruiters' …

Building A Personal Brand Using Impression Management In Social Networks, Carlos Valdez, Jorge Villegas

AMTP Proceedings 2022

As digital social networks become an integral part of career placement, advancement, and professional networks, young professionals are required to find ways to compete for the attention of potential and current employers. One of the theories that have been used across diverse areas from marketing scholars (Zamudio et al., 2013, Close et al., 2011; Noble et al., 2010) to fashion models (Parmentier et al., 2013) to understand self-promotion for professionals is personal branding. Recent articles like Swaminathan et al. (2020) have expressed the need to understand better how consumers are branding themselves in the hyperconnected world and what psychological consequences …

Spending All Your Money On Me: Influencer Marketing’S Impact On Engagement, Rebecca A. Vanmeter, Michael C. Peasley, Parker J. Woodroof

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Influencer marketing has been around for a few years and is rapidly approaching a $15 billion industry by 2022. In its nascency, the research is limited which investigates factors that substantiate the growth and popularity of advertising tools. In this study, we propose and explicate how two different types of influencers, namely mega- and macro-influencers, impact their audience's engagement with sponsored posts. Utilizing secondary data from more than 650 Instagram posts, our results suggest mega-influencers are able to mitigate the negative effect of utilizing various post attributes, including meta-tags and product prominence.

Human Chefs Cook More Calories: The Impact Of Human (Vs. Robotic) Food Producer On Calorie Estimation, Wenyan Yin, Yanliu Huang, Cait Lamberton

AMTP Proceedings 2022

This research explores how the production mode (human-made vs. robot-made) has an impact on calorie estimation for vice and virtue food. Across 3 studies, we find that healthy food is inferred to have more calories when it is produced by a robot than by a human whereas the effect is reversed for unhealthy food. Unhealthy food produced by a human is estimated to have more calories than the counterpart.

Flipping The Online Classroom – Comparing The Effectiveness Of Two Teaching Modalities For Online Experiential Learning Activities, William J. Zahn Ph.D.

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Marketing educators recognize the importance of imparting theoretical marketing knowledge while also helping students acquire marketable skills through experiential learning. Experiential learning is active, reflective learning that encourages linking abstract lessons with concrete activities. Experiential education is learning by doing (Cowley, 2020; Frontczak, 1998),

Courses have shifted away from in-person lectures and moved online due to the Covid-19 epidemic (Thomason 2020). This shift has left an open question of the best way to include experiential learning in an online learning environment. In short, how can students best prepare for and learn from experiential learning without having face-to-face meetings with their …

Slogans As Persuasive Accelerants Of Electronic Word-Of-Mouth Communication: A Preliminary Conceptual Model, Theo Lynn, Pierangelo Rosati, Charles M. Wood

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Brands have been conceptualized as being made up of three different components: name, logo and slogan (Keller 1993, Dass, Kumar, Kohli, & Thomas, 2014). Slogans are short, memorable phrases that are often used to sign off on advertisements. They characterize a large proportion of brand advertising and are designed to attract consumer attention, crystallize brand positioning, increase advertising memorability, and improve brand affinity (Keller, 1993). Slogans have been part of our world for millennia, and a staple in the advertising world since its inception. Less complex messages – i.e., slogans – have been associated with improved advertising effectiveness (Lowrey 1998). …

How Cultural Factors Affect Chinese Americans’ Attitudes Towards Seeking Mental Health Services, Arlene Q. Chen, Xinji Xiao, Yueting Wu, Xuan Zhang, Sindy Chapa

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Chinese Americans are the largest ethnic group among Asian Americans. However, the treatment rate for mental illness among Chinese Americans is much lower compared to other ethnic groups. Studies have been conducted on cultural barriers that prevent Asian Americans from seeking mental health treatment, but there is a lack of research on specific ethnic groups, such as Chinese Americans or Korean Americans because they are frequently grouped into homogenous clusters. This study will identify the cultural factors that influence Chinese Americans’ attitudes towards seeking mental health treatment and analyze how these factors affect their behaviors in seeking mental health treatment.

An Exploration Of How Having A Materialistic Value Is Related To An Environmentally Sensitive Personality., Sooyeon Choi

AMTP Proceedings 2022

This study aims to examine how having materialistic value is related to an environmentally sensitive personality. The proposed model has been empirically tested using the survey data collected from 150 consumers in the United States. The results showed that different aspects of materialism have a different effect on pro-environmental belief and attitude, indicating the potentially complex implications of materialism on sustainable practices.

Investigating Consumer Choice Criteria For Free Services, Samer Elhajjar, Shaheen Borna, Russ Wahlers

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Behavioral sciences recognize the following steps in the consumer purchase decision process: recognition of a problem or a need, search for information, alternative evaluation, purchase decision, and post-purchase evaluation. There is a plethora of research related to the aforementioned consumer decision-making process. The unanswered question in the marketing literature is: what changes, if any, in the consumer's decision process will be observed if they can obtain the product free of charge. Results of our study indicate that when consumers are spending their money on themselves, they are very careful and want to get the most for their money. On the …

You Don't Belong: Exploring Luxury Branding Strategy, Lauren E. Beverly, Jamye Foster

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Luxury branding strategies create impressions of exclusivity which is transmitted into the brand’s products and retail spaces. Exclusivity is a necessary component to create consumer desire despite limitations of accessibility, time, effort, and pricing. A new population of aspirational shoppers, known as Chandlers, highly value exclusive brands as they increase perceptions of social status. This study will examine the impact of loud vs. discrete luxury branding on perceptions of brand status and browsing intentions, and the moderating impact of the Chandler effect.

Nostalgia As A Tactic For Marketers: The Use Of Retro Marketing To Entice Consumer Purchase, Cortnee Y. Bunch

AMTP Proceedings 2022

In marketing, nostalgia involves linking a product, service, or brand to the past to create an emotional connection. While it has existed in marketing positioning for some time, it has become a strategy that marketers can take advantage of through retro marketing. Retro marketing involves relaunching a product or service brand from an earlier period, by using familiar packaging or product designs, to evoke a nostalgic connection among consumers (Brown et al., 2003). Through the effective use of brand attitude, product experience, and brand preference, companies small and large can use retro marketing to create a competitive advantage and entice …

Trends In Global Bridal Industry: Emergence Of Online Bridal Stores And Survival Of Brick-And-Mortar Stores, Libby Jones, Ismet Anitsal, Melek Meral Anitsal

AMTP Proceedings 2022

The growing global bridal industry and the different trends, traditions, and aspects of specific countries’ bridal industries are explored in this paper. It outlines western and eastern practices and how globalization contributes to their spread. A deeper focus is dedicated to the United States’ bridal industry and the issues brick-and-mortar bridal boutiques face as more brides have started shopping at online bridal stores. The relationship between brick-and-mortar and online bridal stores is explored based on various propositions about the bridal industry’s emerging challenges. Each proposition is evaluated according to each retail format’s reaction.

Trust issues in the retail environment, convenience, …

Defining Health Care Marketing, Gary Futrell

AMTP Proceedings 2022

A review of the leading textbooks published for health care marketing courses shows that they do not adequately define the disciple. This paper promotes the use of the two-word form of health care and defines health care marketing as the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, & exchanging any good, service, or idea; performed to restore, maintain, or enhance the well-being of an individual or population. This paper fills a gap in the literature by providing linguistic and practical justification for using the two-word form of health care and connects the modern wellness paradigm of health …

The Effect Of Resource Scarcity On Consumer Ethical Behavior, Todd C. Haderlie Jr, Jaehoon Lee

AMTP Proceedings 2022

We identify a novel relationship between scarcity and ethical behavior. When resource scarcity is made salient, consumers engage in less ethical behavior. Furthermore, the effect of resource scarcity on ethical behavior is stronger for consumers with high (vs. low) levels of the inclusion of others in the self (IOS).

Rainbow-Washing Away Customers: Does The Consumer’S Perception Of Rainbow-Washing Affect Purchasing Behavior?, Ashley N. Johns, Sindy Chapa, Nakima Brooks, Holly Coleman, Maya Dubois

AMTP Proceedings 2022

In this study, researchers will test to see the effects rainbow-washing has on consumers’ intent to purchase. Rainbow-washing is a new marketing technique in which companies implement different initiatives to appeal to the LGBTQ+ community while not genuinely investing in the community itself. To test if rainbow-washing is correlated to a consumer’s desire to purchase, a survey was distributed using nonprobability sampling to 38 participants. Of the sample, less than half identified as members of the target community (LGBTQ+). As a result, it was concluded there is no significance between consumer attitudes towards rainbow-washing and their intention to purchase. However, …

Exploring The Effects Of Linguistic Elements Of Social Media Corporate Apologies On Consumer Responses, Laurel Johnston

AMTP Proceedings 2022

In the current landscape of social media, consumers bring product and service failure complaints directly to brands daily. Whether such complaints are routine or hold potential for great consequence, social media’s viral nature means any brand-to-consumer interaction could become a public crisis if handled incorrectly. Corporate apologies are an effective strategy to mitigate negative audience sentiment and reduce online interactions that damage brand reputation. This study will manipulate previously identified but largely untested linguistic components of corporate apologies on Twitter, including personal greetings and closures and directives, to test their effects on consumers’ perceived apology sincerity, forgiveness, purchase intentions, and …

The Complexity Of Understanding Online Product Evaluation Expressions In The Chinese Cultural Context: How Ratings And Reviews Tell A Different Story, Mousumi Bose, Lei Ye

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Most online retail websites provide consumers the opportunity to elicit feedback about products and services through ratings and reviews. Extant research has suggested that product ratings and reviews may be reflective of consumers’ cultural views. Little research exists that discusses this lack of consistency between ratings and reviews beyond that suggested by Hofstede’s cultural typology. This research shows that although consumers may provide higher ratings, review texts provide a different perspective: consumers use reviews to provide negative feedback, however, with some tempering nuances.

The Effects Of Shape-Taste Congruence On Product Evaluations, Jurui Zhang, Raymond Liu, Yufang Jin, Menglin Li

AMTP Proceedings 2022

The background design of a product presented online is important to attract consumers’ attention and further help them make proper judgments about the product. Although many studies have investigated factors of advertising background design, few focus on the effect of shape feature in the background on product evaluations. The present research investigates the influence of congruency between the shape in the background design and product taste perception on consumer product evaluations by using a pretest and three experiments. The results show that shape-taste congruency intensifies product evaluations with an increase evaluation of sweet-taste products and a decreases evaluation of sour-taste …

Developing Marketing Capabilities To Mitigate Perceived Cybersecurity Risk In Healthcare Organizations, Manisha Mathur

AMTP Proceedings 2022

The effective delivery of health care relies on sharing electronic health records across multiple providers in the healthcare system. On the other hand, cybersecurity efforts mostly rely on centralizing sensitive and valuable data and securing devices, networks, and electronic systems. Hence, cybersecurity in healthcare is complicated due to the contradictory characteristics of healthcare delivery and cybersecurity. The firms’ unsuccessful attempts to prevent massive data breaches in the recent past have heightened cybersecurity risk perceptions of customers and cybersecurity-related marketing challenges and opportunities. Therefore, it is critical for marketers to step up and devise strategies and tactics to avert the negative …

The New Grocery Retail Journey: Stimuli And Mobile Influences On A Consumer’S Unplanned Shopping And Spending Behavior, Dale A. Cake, Vikas Agrawal, Douglas Johansen, Wooyang Kim

AMTP Proceedings 2022

In the new digital age, knowing what new variables may be affecting unplanned shopping and spending in a grocery store environment has had little conclusive study academically, albeit is very important to academic theory, grocery store chain management and manufacturers. Many grocery shoppers are now utilizing mobile phones and other digital stimuli (via an app or website, pricing information, coupons, QR codes, or other information) in addition to traditional stimuli for product or promotional information during their in-store purchase phase. In past research, new in-store digital stimuli or mobile phone technology was shown to increase unplanned shopping and/or spending (Cake …

Destruction And Reconstruction Of Corporate Reputation In The International Business Network Context, Nikolina Koporcic, Maria Ivanova-Gongne, Jan-Åke Törnroos, Olga Dziubaniuk

AMTP Proceedings 2022

The purpose of this study is to illustrate how a firm’s corporate reputation can be destroyed by the actions of business partners and other network actors, and what the company can do to reconstruct its reputation. The study case exemplifies the importance of reputation and close interactions with foreign business partners in developing countries. Secondary data of a Nordic-based MNC, Stora Enso, is collected, interpreted, and analyzed. We observed issues surrounding the reputation change of the MNC, while focusing on the actions of their business partners. The paper provides empirical insights into the process of reputation destruction and …

The Corporate Remedy Strategies For Product-Related And Business Ethical Misdeeds, Lei Huang

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Firms take various approaches to mitigate the negative impacts from the misdeeds and repair the damages of the consequences. The current study examines the moderation role of two types of misdeed, business ethics or product performance related, in the relationship between three major crisis remedy strategies and the purchase intentions for both current and potential consumers. The results from 440 participants suggest that a promptness apology is important for current consumers but not for potential consumers. More importantly, the response plan has less impact on the current consumers when a misdeed is business ethics related than product performance related while …

The Relationships Between Prosocial Consumer Behavior, Consumer Resilience, Consumer Risk Taking Propensity And Consumer Hoarding During Covid-19, Christy M. Cook, Pia A. Albinsson, James E. Stoddard

AMTP Proceedings 2022

The Relationships Between Prosocial Consumer Behavior, Consumer Resilience, Consumer Risk Taking Propensity and Consumer Hoarding During COVID-19

Transaction-Based Cause-Related Marketing: The Role Of Consumer Trust And Self-Congruity On Purchase Intention, Dawn D. Hart, Doug Johansen

AMTP Proceedings 2022

The link between corporations, their socially responsible activities, and business performance has become irrefutable (Marconi, 2002). Companies grapple with how to successfully implement their socially responsible marketing activities (Marconi, 2002). Corporate social responsibility has various initiatives including corporate philanthropy, corporate statesmanship, through-the-firm giving, and profit motivated giving (Varadarajan & Menon, 1988). Cause-related marketing includes a profit motive (Varadarajan & Menon, 1988). Several studies find cause-related marketing efforts have the potential to affect consumers’ purchase intentions (Webb & Mohr, 1998).

Bank Consolidation And Its Effect On Service Quality, Thomas L. Powers, William S. Spears, Seongwon Choi

AMTP Proceedings 2022

The perceived quality of customer service plays a significant role in high involvement products and services. Previous research in the area of bank service quality suggests that as a bank is acquired the quality of service at the new larger bank does not equal what customers received at their old smaller bank. In addition, a newly consolidated bank may eliminate tailored services and create customer dissatisfaction due to higher fees, lower levels of service, and credit availability. Although prior research has focused on specific aspects of bank services, a contribution to the literature can be made by examining this topic …

Gamification Usage And Platform Loyalty In Esports Livestreams: An Analysis Of Unobserved Heterogeneity With Fimix-Pls And Ipma, Yizhou Qian, Jeam Martinez, Robbie Matz

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Although gamification as a marketing strategy has been implemented by various domains, there is still a dearth of research on the use of gamification in social livestreams. In this study, we examined the relationships between technology acceptance model (TAM) variables, gamification usage, and loyalty toward a social livestreaming platform, where gamification was adopted to enhance the viewing of an esports event. Data from 396 viewers were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), finite mixture partial least squares (FIMIX-PLS), and importance performance map analysis (IPMA). To this end, our study underpinned the application and extension of TAM in …

Mothers With Empty Arms: Marketing, Stigma, And Bereaved Mothers, Elizabeth A. Minton, Carissa Anthony, Cindy Xin Wang, Alexa Fox

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Despite over one-quarter of females suffering baby loss, there is virtually no research in marketing examining the devastating impacts of such loss from a consumer standpoint. There are incredible stigmas that overshadow these vulnerable consumers and understanding how marketing helps and hurts consumers post-loss in the marketplace is of critical importance. Through 30 in-depth interviews with bereaved mothers in the U.S. (specifically mothers who lost a baby during pregnancy or within one year after birth), this research builds off stigma theory to shed light on the consumer journey post-loss in an effort to bring these consumers what they desire – …