Business Commons^™

Facebook And User Experience: Evaluating Brand Equity Of Purdue University Residences, Jackelyn Perkins

Open Access Theses

This study investigated how brand equity was perceived on the Purdue University Residences’ Facebook page by applying a user experience method. From a review of previous literature, Website Experience Analysis was identified and performed to evaluate brand equity. This study addressed and explored various themes throughout the data. The results showed how page content and user interactions within a Facebook page influence participants’ perceptions of brand equity.

Impact Of Communication Appeals On Recycling Behaviors Among Undergraduate Students, Ning Zhu

Open Access Theses

The present thesis aims to understand factors influencing student recycling behaviors, and to investigate effective communication approaches to increase such behaviors. An online survey was conducted to examine the relationships between student recycling frequency in different contexts, students’ attitudes toward the environment, barriers to their recycling, students’ perceptions of communication messages, and communication media they think to be effective. Descriptive statistics, ANOVAs, t-test, simple linear regressions, categorical multinomial logistic regression, and a chi-square test were conducted, and the data was collected from a large land-grant university in the Midwestern United States. A total of 537 questionnaires were answered.

The …

Why We Follow: Exploring How Culture Shapes Users’ Motivation For Following Sport Organizations On Twitter And Weibo, Bo Li

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore how culture shapes Social media users’ usage as they follow sport organizations on two similar microblogging services - Twitter and Weibo. In particular, the study attempted to measure whether Social media users exhibited different usage pattern, points of attachment, and usage motivations within two different cultural environments known as individualism and collectivism.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ Social media followers were selected and invited to participant in this study. There were 839 the Lakers’ Weibo followers and 334 Twitter followers who completed an online survey facilitated on Qualtrics. The results of Multivariate analysis …

A Social Marketing Plan For The Lester C. Howick Animal Shelter, Joseph Michael Spiegelhoff

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Lester C. Howick Animal Shelter (Howick) is a non-profit organization serving Washington County, Arkansas and the Northwest Arkansas community. This thesis offers Howick a comprehensive Social marketing plan. The goal of the animal shelter is to increase the total number of cats and dogs adopted, increase the total amount of donations, and increase the number of volunteers helping at the facility and various events. In order to accomplish these goals for 2016, a Social marketing plan was developed through research on other non-profit organizations, other animal shelters, communication with the shelter employees, crafting a public service announcement (PSA), and …

Leveling The Playing Field? A Content Analysis Of Espn.Com And Espnw.Com’S Online Coverage, Rachael Caldwell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this exploratory study was to compare sports coverage provided by the male-centric website ESPN.com and its affiliated female-centric website ESPNW.com. The amount and type of coverage provided for female athletes was the primary focus of this study. Results suggest that ESPNW.com provides an outlet for increased coverage of women’s sports, but the type of coverage provided to female athletes is not equivalent to that of their male counterparts. These results supported findings in previous studies on mass media coverage of women’s sports, specifically coverage on the emerging field of Internet coverage.

It's All About Me: How Self-Brand Connection And Social Media Interactivity Influence Purchase Intent, Shannon Taylor Mccarthy

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Social media is ubiquitous and allows consumers to display identity by through possessions through posts, images, and interactions. The self is all the individual calls their own and is expressed outwardly through everything visible, including possessions, relationships, and interactions. They tell their story through the display of envy-inducing artifacts, and create a perfect, photoshopped life. Consumers seek a connection to positively viewed brands they feel are self-representative through interaction. This dissertation seeks to better understand consumer rationale for and gratification from online brand engagement and how that, in turn, impacts the brand. Three studies examined the effects of self-brand connection, …

Understanding How The Southeastern Conference Football Teams Use Twitter Through A Content Analysis, Kristin Elise Pearson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The influence of Social media on intercollegiate athletic departments has been prominent in the past few years. With tight budgets, the departments are forced to find different means of marketing and promoting their brand – through embracing Social media platforms. Research on Social media and intercollegiate athletics is limited; therefore, it is necessary to research how the departments are utilizing Social media. With the agenda setting theory as a foundation, this study explores how the 14 SEC football teams are utilizing Twitter. A total of 3,176 tweets were collected from two constructed weeks. Overall, the findings show that the information …

Innovation As Everyday Action: A Case Study Of Organizational Discourse And The Local Meaning Of Innovation, Jennifer C. Batra

Open Access Theses

This study describes and explicates the nuanced nature of commonly adopted buzzwords such as innovation by analyzing how innovation is defined and embedded structurally within a single organization. Working to uncover how the individual construction of a local definition of innovation within the global context of a quasi-academic organization changes as organizational priorities and practices evolve over time, I present the varied framings of innovation at the micro, meso, and macro levels, through two research phases (a) the definition phase and (b) the practice phase over the course of one year.

This thesis project is situated within a single Mid-Western …

A Social Marketing Plan For The Arkansas Miracle League, Abby Stuart

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Miracle League is a baseball league specially designed to allow disabled children, teens, and adults have the same opportunity to play baseball as able-bodied individuals on a field specifically designed to accommodate all disabilities. This thesis offers the Miracle League of Arkansas a specified Social marketing plan. In order to assist Miracle League in the acquisition of new players, volunteers, and donors, research was compiled and conducted to implement a successful Social marketing plan for the spring 2016 Miracle League season. This Social marketing plan gives Miracle League recommendations on how to appeal to parents of potential Miracle League players, …

Software Architecture And Development For Controlling A Hubo Humanoid Robot, Anne Giulia Pellicciotti

Open Access Theses

This study considers the level of involvement of participants viewing bilingual and English language TV commercials. It analyzes results from 295 non-Hispanic participants studying at a Midwestern university. In the study, participants were asked to view four commercials. Using Zaichkowsky's (1994) 10-item Personal Involvement Inventory (PII), participants scaled the advertisements on a 7-level scale. The scale evaluated participants' emotional and cognitive involvement with the ad. This between-subjects design required that participants be randomly separated into viewing all-English or all-bilingual advertisements. Findings showed no significant difference in involvement levels between bilingual or English commercials within this demographic group. Those with higher …

The Mechanisms Of Interpersonal Privacy In Social Networking Websites: A Study Of Subconscious Processes, Social Network Analysis, And Fear Of Social Exclusion, Bryan I. Hammer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With increasing usage of Social networking sites like Facebook there is a need to study privacy. Previous research has placed more emphasis on outcome-oriented contexts, such as e-commerce sites. In process-oriented contexts, like Facebook, privacy has become a source of conflict for users. The majority of architectural privacy (e.g. privacy policies, website mechanisms) enables the relationship between a user and business, focusing on the institutional privacy concern and trust; however, architectural privacy mechanisms that enables relationships between and among users is lacking. This leaves users the responsibility to manage privacy for their interpersonal relationships. This research focuses on the following …

Your Media Speak So Loud I Can't Hear A Word You're Saying: Impact Of Media And Media Selection On Performance, Martin Hassell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the proliferation of communication media and technologies available, it is important for teams to understand the influence of these media on the performance of their communications. Additionally, it is important for researchers to understand how teams choose and use media. Literature on communication media impacts and communication performance has been somewhat fragmented, and researchers have used different theories and paradigms to study this problem. Researchers still do not have a full understanding of how media influences communication, whether teams recognize and select appropriate media for their communication needs, and what makes some communication more effective, irrespective of the communication …

Changes In Auditing: A Three Part Investigation, Denise R. Hanes

2013

This dissertation consists of three studies investigating changes in auditing. This abstract summarizes each study, including purpose, methodology, and findings.

The first study synthesizes the extant literature examining geographically distributed work arrangements in other disciplines such as management and social psychology. Focusing on communication and coordination, knowledge sharing, work design, and social identity in geographically distributed teams, I identify opportunities for future research to expand our understanding of how geographically distributing audit work impacts auditors, the audit process, and audit quality.

My second paper explores a key contributor to the success of geographically distributed work highlighted in my literature review: …

The Perception Of Athletes In Local And Neutral Media Markets, Gregory Stine

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the perception of professional athletes in local and neutral media markets. The purpose of the study was to determine how people in Philadelphia and people in Arkansas feel toward the Philadelphia Eagles' Nnamdi Asomugha. It was expected that the study's participants in Philadelphia would feel more positively toward Asomugha and would be more aware of his off-the-field contributions. Additionally, it was expected that there would be a positive relationship between team identification level and both positive feelings toward Asomugha and awareness of his efforts away from the field. Finally, it was anticipated that participants near Philadelphia would …

Too Big Not To Fail: United States Corporate Media And The 2008 Financial Crisis, Justin Lars Bergh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates United States newspaper coverage of the 2008 financial crisis, with a particular focus on the debate that took place in press coverage surrounding the proposed 700 billion dollar Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Specifically, this study aims to understand how, when faced with a crisis that threatened hegemony, the state and economic elites, working in and through media, were able to effectively convince the subordinate classes to consent to state intervention aimed at perpetuating a financial system that has historically profited from the relative financial insecurity of the subordinate classes. In order to understand media's role in …

An Analysis Of The Structure And Evolution Of Networks, Guangying Hua

2011

As network research receives more and more attention from both academic researchers and practitioners, network analysis has become a fast growing field attracting many researchers from diverse fields such as physics, computer science, and sociology. This dissertation provides a review of theory and research on different real data sets from the network perspective. The focus is primarily on the structure and dynamics of social networks.

This dissertation is divided into three essays. The first essay examines a professional online community, and to the best of our knowledge, it is the first paper to address the social network of physicians. The …