Marketing Commons^™

Developing And Modernizing Small Businesses In Dangriga, Belize, Abby Teague

Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis evaluates the effectiveness of the Small Business Development project located in Dangriga, Belize, and includes research on the challenges of entrepreneurship in developing countries. The project consisted of research and the implementation of marketing workshops to teach businesses how to manage their online and social media presence through the Belize Tourism Industry Association (BTIA) Dangriga. The impact of the project was significantly important because many Belizeans struggle to survive and succeed within their businesses. Belize contains multiple microenterprises that cannot meet their potential because of a lack of knowledge and communication. Overall, the project aims to give BTIA …

Forya.Ai Business Plan, Landen Usher

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis presents a comprehensive business plan for Forya.AI, an innovative artificial intelligence-powered platform designed to streamline social media content creation for churches. The platform distinguishes itself by automating the generation of engaging content, leveraging church-provided images to produce visually appealing posts accompanied by contextually relevant captions. By integrating advanced AI algorithms, Forya.AI analyzes uploaded images, identifies thematic elements, and crafts captions that resonate with the spiritual and community values of the church. This process not only enhances the digital presence of religious organizations but also significantly reduces the time and financial resources traditionally required for content development. The business …

2024 May, Morehead State University. Office Of Communications & Marketing.

Morehead State Press Release Archive, 1961 to the Present

Press releases for May of 2024.

Honesty In Marketing Communications: The Role Of Humor, Can Trinh

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Amid the crisis of trust in the marketplace, there have been increasing calls for advertisers to show more honesty in marketing communications. However, firms are still hesitant to follow suit out of concerns that more honesty may mean more losses than gains. Against such background, there is still scant empirical evidence about the effect of honest marketing communications on marketing outcomes to help provide practical guidance for marketers. The present research helps fill this crucial gap by examining the role of humor in honest marketing communications. Three studies in this research reveal novel insights that an interrelationship exists between humor …

The Impact Of “Humorous” Ads Featuring Social Media Influencers On Perceptions Of The Influencer, Brand, And Purchase Intention, Jason L. Snyder, Robert Forbus

Atlantic Marketing Journal

The present study explored the use of humor in social media ads that featured both a product being advertised and a social media influencer (SMI). Using extant literature and the theory of planned behavior as guides, the goal of the study was to explore the role of perceived humorousness on consumer perceptions of the SMI, the ad, the brand, and consumer purchase intentions. The experiment (N = 292) exposed self-identified males living in the U.S. between the ages of 18 and 40 to one of two versions of an ad for a men’s grooming product. The ads were run …

Exploring Entrepreneurial Intention And Subjective Beliefs: A Comparative Analysis Of General Education Schools And Commercial Schools, Julia Riess, Bettina Fuhrmann, Gerhard Geissler

International Journal for Business Education

This study examines the entrepreneurial intentions of Austrian secondary school students, specifically comparing students from commercial schools with those from general education schools. We analyzed 2,329 data sets and found that subjective beliefs, primarily behavioral and control beliefs, significantly influence entrepreneurial intentions. In addition, demographic factors such as gender, language, acquaintance with entrepreneurs, and school type play a significant role in explaining the variance in entrepreneurial intentions.

Our detailed analysis shows that students from commercial schools have stronger entrepreneurial intentions and subjective beliefs. Particularly notable are the differences in behavioral beliefs, where students from commercial schools find all aspects of …

Exploring The Effect Of Logos With Animals, Can Trinh

AMTP Proceedings 2024

Even though the use of logos that feature animals is prevalent (e.g., Porsche, Lamborghini, Hollister), there is a scant number of empirical works that examine the effect of such logos on marketing outcomes. This research represents a pioneering attempt to address this critical theoretical gap. We propose that logos that feature animals (i.e., animal logos) can influence product perceptions. Empirical evidence from two studies supports our propositions. The findings provide meaningful implications for both theory and practice.

2024 April, Morehead State University. Office Of Communications & Marketing.

Morehead State Press Release Archive, 1961 to the Present

Press releases for April of 2024.

Leading Horses To Water During A Pandemic: Assuring Communication Learning For "Quants", Thomas Hall

International Journal for Business Education

Students who are attracted to quantitative disciplines of study can be reluctant to devote much attention to the important task of communicating, and previous research (Hostager, 2018) has identified statistically significant differences in learning approaches by major among undergraduate business students. This paper presents results of learning assurance for writing skills (direct measures) even when the content of the course relates to the highly quantitative topics of data analytics and finance. The approach combines various pedagogical methods in an undergraduate, writing-intensive setting: traditional testing but in an iterative framework, “flipped classroom” intensive work using spreadsheet software, repeated submission of brief …

Can Recyclable Packaging Enhance Consumers’ Willingness To Buy? The Mediating Role Of Corporate Social Responsibility Perception, Haifeng Shi

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The usage of recyclable packaging is a manifestation of corporate social responsibility and conforms to the trend of green and sustainable development. In recent years, with the rapid growth of the environmental awareness, consumers tend to choose more environmentally friendly and recyclable packaged products. Therefore, in order to better promote the usage of recyclable packaging, it is necessary to conduct in-depth research on why consumers choose recyclable packaging. Aiming to explore the impact of recyclable packaging on consumer behavior and its underlying mechanism, this study receives 314 questionnaire surveys all over the country, and adopts ANOVA and process model analyses …

2024 March, Morehead State University. Office Of Communications & Marketing.

Morehead State Press Release Archive, 1961 to the Present

Press releases for March of 2024.

An Analysis Of Online Perceptions In Response To Microsoft’S And Google’S Scandals., Roxana Maiorescu

Emerson Authors, Researchers, & Creators

This study contributes to the literature on corporate diversity and crisis management by analyzing stakeholder perceptions in the aftermath of Google’s and Microsoft’s sexual harassment scandals. The results reveal that both scandals were construed from the perspective of activism, an inherent feature of social media communication. While users made demands for additional corrective action from both companies, Google’s scandal was predominantly defined from the frames of controllability and perceived injustice, possibly eroding corporate reputation. By contrast, the frame of severity prevailed in the online discourse around Microsoft and showed a delineation between perceptions of senior leadership and HR. The findings …

2024 February, Morehead State University. Office Of Communications & Marketing.

Morehead State Press Release Archive, 1961 to the Present

Press releases for February of 2024.

Tweeting For Change: Social Media Narratives For Sustainable Service, Maria Petrescu, Anjala S. Krishen, Jesse L. Barnes, Shaheena Janjuha-Jivraj

Publications

Purpose–This interdisciplinary study aims to analyze how service organizations communicate sustainable beliefs in their social media narratives and use them to generate brand awareness, customer recognition and ongoing demand for sustainable service.

Design/methodology/approach– A two-phase exploratory analysis of 10,342 tweets from 2019–2020 was conducted by sustainable global corporations to identify best practices for their social media teams operating within a service-based business model. First, the significant themes were identified using an unguided machine learning approach of three types of firms: services, goods and mixed. Next, the full set of tweets with linguistic sentiment analysis was analyzed followed by a deeper …

Identifying Youth Appeals In Alcohol Alternative Social Media Content Through Framing, Melina Oneal

West Chester University Master’s Theses

Proposed regulations for alcohol advertising prevent beverage companies from targeting people under the legal drinking age. However, similar regulations for alcohol alternative beverages are less explored, which could allow alcohol alternative products to create awareness for alcoholic beverages among youth. Alcohol alternatives beverages, including no-alcohol and low-alcohol products, are increasing in popularity and can function as compliments to alcoholic products to decrease the total alcohol volume consumed or as substitutes for alcoholic products. Framing theory can be operationalized through the Content Appealing to Youth Index, an index of content elements found in research literature to be appealing to youth, to …

Investing In Love: The Finances Of Getting Married, Allison Frances Ivers

Honors Theses and Capstones

In attempts to examine the influence vendors have on consumers within the wedding industry, this study investigates the emotional and financial extremes brides will achieve to attain their definition of a “perfect” day. Additionally, the research shows the relationship between consumer behaviors related to wedding spending. The findings highlight the economic impacts associated with the bridal industry and the trends that define it. Couples value their wants and needs with their desire to be married. Although vendors can dictate their margin of the market, the couples getting married hold the purchasing power. During the search for secondary research, there was …

Narrative Transportation: A Systematic Literature Review And Future Research Agenda, Veronica L. Thomas, Jaime L. Grigsby

Marketing Faculty Publications

Consumers are inundated with opportunities to become engaged with marketing-generated stories, from watching an influencer detail her adventures abroad or a commercial about a military service member who makes it home just in time for the holidays. When consumers become so engaged with a story that they begin to connect with the story characters and imagine what will happen next, they experience a process known as narrative transportation, which has significant positive outcomes for marketers. Given the value that narrative transportation provides to marketers, we conduct a systematic literature review to both synthesize and provide direction on the literature of …

Honors Project Hartville Potato Chips (Final) - College Of Business - Team 5 (Marketing Partnerchip), Isabela Schroeter, Justin Kriess, Trent Thomas, Devin Maddox, Irina Hacck, Jake Lubic

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

TO EXPAND THE HARTVILLE POTATO CHIP COMPANY BRAND IN A WAY THAT WILL CREATE A UNIQUE POSITION IN THE MIND OF THE CONSUMER.

The Body Positivity Movement: Improving Female College Students Mental Health And Body Appreciation, Emilie Conners, Lucy Matthews, Diane R. Edmondson

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Body image concerns among college-aged women continue to be an immense issue across many college campuses. As technology advances, it has become more common for young girls and women to edit their social media photos and focus more on their flaws. Body image has a significant impact on mental and physical health; therefore, it is vital that these concerns are addressed and fought. One movement recently used as a possible way to combat this concern is the body positivity movement. However, more research is needed to understand the impact of this movement on young women. Survey data was collected via …

Trust Relationships: Tales From The Web, Magdoleen Ierlan

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Trust is an important component of any purchasing situation. In an online setting, trust becomes even more important as buyer and seller are not able to directly interact with one another. Compounding the situation is the fact that the consumer cannot directly experience the product under consideration. Organizations have attempted to address this shortcoming by allowing third parties to offer reviews of the product in question. This paper addresses how consumers process these product reviews.

By rooting this paper in trust and uncertainty reduction theory, a testable model was developed. The model was tested, and in general, more helpful reviews, …

The Impact Of Demographics And Cause Related Marketing Participation In The Black Lives Matter Movement On Company Image, Jerome Christia, Joseph Njuki

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Cause Related Marketing is an impactful marketing strategy for companies concerned about improving or maintaining their company image. This study examines the effect of cause related marketing participation Black Lives Matter movement and demographics of supporters on company image. Questionnaires from 106 respondents were collected, analyzed, and results presented. The paper reviews cause related marketing, the Black Lives Matter movement, and company image. In addition, demographic characteristics are investigated for respondent perspectives on company image. Our research indicates that there is a positive and significant relationship between cause related marketing participation in the Black Lives Matter movement on company image. …

The Black Lives Matter Movement: A Systemic Crisis That Expands Crisis Response Theory, Pam Richardson-Greenfield, Alyssa Reynolds, Ryan Cruz, Monique Bell

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Relevance to Marketing Educators, Researchers, and/or Practitioners – In response to George Floyd’s death, a variety of organizations posted messages against racism and some began to openly support Black Lives Matter, often by name, in their corporate communication initiatives. With promises of financial commitments to uplift Black communities, calls for action, and initiatives to support internal change—large and small companies, non-profits and universities—could be perceived as courageous for establishing new protocols to support such a warranted change. However, in the era of “woke washing,” or inauthentic social justice messaging, the need to assess the authenticity of corporate statements of support …

Healthcare Marketing Communication: Media Usage And Psychographic Profiles For Baby Boomer, Gen X, And Millennial Consumers, Terry Damron, Joe Cangelosi, David Kim, Ed Ranelli

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Abstract

Purpose Preventive health care information (PHCI), which functions as a cost-effective or cost-saving means of reducing mortality and improving life quality, also fuels consumer demand for otherwise underutilized preventive medical services, thereby improving profitability for service providers. This study provides healthcare marketing professionals with media usage insights and psychographic profiles useful for developing effective PHCI communication strategies.

Design This research is based on questionnaire responses (n = 813). Analysis of the variance (ANOVA) was used to assess and compare the importance consumers assigned to online PHCI sources. Factor analysis was used to determine whether attitude patterns tended to …

Effective Communication Strategy During Crisis: A Case Of The 2010 Toyota Recall Crisis, Masud Mensah

Masters Theses

Crisis communication is an integral part of public relations and organizational management at large involving the timely and strategic sharing of information during a crisis or emergency. Its primary purpose is to ensure that organizations effectively manage and minimize the negative impact of the crisis on their operations and stakeholders, which invariably helps to maintain trust, credibility and restore their reputation. Based on an interpretivist standpoint, the study utilizes qualitative approaches and takes the form of a case study. It offers a comprehensive account of the crisis, including key occurrences, media representation, and public responses, showcasing its international impact via …

2024 January, Morehead State University. Office Of Communications & Marketing.

Morehead State Press Release Archive, 1961 to the Present

Press releases for January of 2024.

Identifying Accessibility Improvement Opportunities For Global Environmental Communication Websites, Alicia Mason, Josh Compton, Sakshi Bhati

Faculty Submissions

Digital environmental information presented with low web accessibility reduces parti-cipation in environmental advocacy and information seeking behaviors for many people with disabilities, creating a consequential digital divide. We use WEB AIM computer automated analysis of web accessibility to assess the general accessibility of online environmental communication messages. Results show 95.3% of the popular websites in our sample had indicators of potentially critical accessibility errors. Our findings highlight the importance of addressing digital environmental information accessibility shortcomings so that educational, informational and persuasive environ-mental messages can increase environmental literacy of vulnerable populations and help to bridge the digital divide.

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Cheating In Online Classes And Technostress: Perceptions Of Business Faculty, Stacy Boyer-Davis, Kevin Berry, Amy Cooper

International Journal for Business Education

This research study investigated the relationship between technostress creators (techno-complexity, techno-insecurity, techno-invasion, techno-overload, and techno-uncertainty) and faculty perceptions of student cheating in online classes. Data were collected from faculty members of the Management and Organizational Behavior Teaching Society (MOBTS), a member of the AACSB Business Education Alliance, the American Society of Business and Behavioral Sciences (ASBBS), an interdisciplinary professional organization comprised of faculty teaching in accounting, finance, management, marketing, organizational behavior, and computer information systems, and other research panels during 2021 (N = 94). Findings from regression analysis indicated that the techno-complexity subconstruct is positively related to a faculty’s perception …

Brand Activism And Democratic Legitimacy: Exploring Pitfalls Through A Habermasian Analysis, Roxan Degeyter

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

Brand activism has emerged as a prominent practice among corporations, as they publicly take a stand on contentious socio-political issues such as gender inequality, climate change, or discrimination, often through advertising. While extensive research has been conducted on the impact of brand activism as a marketing tool, examining its effects on sales, brand image, consumer attitudes, and authenticity, only a limited number of studies have studied its influence on public debate and processes of democratic legitimation. The latter have portrayed brand activism as an empowering force for the supported social movements, the public sphere, and democratic legitimacy, largely ignoring the …

2023 December, Morehead State University. Office Of Communications & Marketing.

Morehead State Press Release Archive, 1961 to the Present

Press releases for December of 2023.

The Persuasive Effect Of Ai-Synthesized Voices, Hannah H. Chang, Anirban Mukherjee

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology seeks to emulate humans. One aspect is AI-synthesized voices, used in voice assistants (such as Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, and Google Assistant) to assistive technologies (such as voiceover narration in product videos). For example, there are currently more than 3.25 billion voice assistants; a number that is expected to touch about 8 billion by next year (i.e., 2023) (Statista 2022). With the extensive availability and enhanced accuracy of AI-synthesized voices, consumer research is starting to examine the impact of AI-synthesized voices on consumer information processing and decision making. The extant literature, however, is relatively limited because …