Marketing Commons^™

Interdependent Consumer Choice And The Oval Of Cassini, Aharon Hibshoosh

Faculty Publications

This paper follows a theory of Nicosia and Hibshoosh regarding the choice by social consumer unit who is facing conflicting institutional norms. The paper presents a duo-centric consumer residential choice model with special disutility function. The properties of the Oval of Cassini play a key role in the parstmonious modeling of this phenomenon and in the analysis. Specifically, we develop a residential consumer choice model where the consumer utility is affected by conflicted demands for activities of work and non-work institutions. The consumer unit is simultaneously attracted to two predetermined centers of work and non-work, while making its residence choice. …

Writing Across Curriculum: Evaluating A Faculty-Centered Approach, Marilyn K. Easter, Rolanda P. Farrington Pollard

Faculty Publications

This paper discusses research on a pilot study for implementing a Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) program in the College of Business (CoB) at a California Public University. Data analysis focused on faculty and writing assistant satisfaction using interviews, and on student learning as measured by evaluation of progressive writing assignments. Discussion includes: 1) assumptions on which the pilot was based and its goals, 2) overview of how the program was structured and implemented, 3) outcomes of the pilot program, and 4) recommendations for future programs. Results suggest both faculty and student participants were satisfied with the pilot program implementation …

Aligning Employees Through "Line Of Sight", Wendy R. Boswell, John B. Bingham, Alexander J.S. Colvin

Faculty Publications

Aligning employees with the firm’s larger strategic goals is critical if organizations hope to manage their human capital effectively and ultimately attain strategic success. An important component of attaining and sustaining this alignment is for employees to have a bline of sightQ (LOS) with their organization’s strategic objectives. In this article, we illustrate how the translation of calculated firm goals into tangible results requires that employees not only understand the organization’s strategy, but also accurately appreciate what actions are aligned with realizing that strategy. Using recent empirical evidence, theoretical insights, and tangible examples of exemplary firm practices, we provide thought-leaders …

Paradox And The Consumption Of Authenticity Through Reality Television, Randall L. Rose, Stacy L. Wood

Faculty Publications

We position reality television within the broader category of consumer practices of authenticity seeking in a postmodern cultural context. The study draws on relevant perspectives from consumer research, literary criticism, sociology, and anthropology to argue that viewers of reality television encounter three elements of paradox in the process of constructing authenticity. The negotiation of each paradox exceeds the process of coping with or resolving their inherent contradictions to encompass the creation of new values. We argue that consumers blend fantastic elements of programming with indexical elements connected to their lived experiences to create a form of self-referential hyperauthenticity.

Credit Cards As Lifestyle Facilitators, Matthew J. Bernthal, David Crockett, Randall L. Rose

Faculty Publications

Credit cards are an increasingly essential technology, but they carry with them the paradoxical capacity to propel consumers along lifestyle trajectories of marketplace freedom or constraint. We analyze accounts provided by consumers, credit counselors, and participants in a credit counseling seminar in order to develop a differentiated theory of lifestyle facilitation through credit card practice. The skills and tastes expressed by credit card practice help distinguish between the lifestyles of those with higher cultural capital relative to those with lower cultural capital. Differences in lifestyle regulation practice are posited to originate in cultural discourses related to entitlement and frugality.

Job Demands And Job Search Among High-Level Managers In The United States And Europe, John B. Bingham, Wendy R. Boswell, John W. Boudreau

Faculty Publications

High-level managers are often faced with challenging demands at work, and much of the managerial development literature has researched the responses to these challenges. The authors propose an extension to this research by investigating the influence of challenge-related and obstacle- related job demands on job search among a sample of U.S. managers and a sample of international managers. Specifically, the authors propose divergent relationships among job search and the type of job demands managers experience, and we also explore the mediating effect of job satisfaction. The authors’ study provides further insight into the complexities of managerial responsibilities and their behavioral …

The Role Of Normative Political Ideology In Consumer Behavior, David Crockett, Melanie Wallendorf

Faculty Publications

This study of African-American consumers living in a large racially segregated midwestern city adds to extant theory on ideology in consumer behavior by considering the role of normative political ideology in provisioning. The specific roles of traditional black liberal and black nationalist political ideologies are discussed. We conclude that normative political ideology is central to understanding shopping as an expression of social and political relations between households confronting attenuated access to goods and services, ranging from housing to food, in a setting stratified by gender, race, and class. Beyond the specifics of this demographic group and setting, we suggest contemporary …

Top Management Team Heterogeneity And Sme Export Performance: Investigating The Role Of Environmental Uncertainty, Franz T. Lohrke, Geralyn Mcclure Franklin, Vinay Kothari

Faculty Publications

Research has generally found that firms competing in high uncertainty environments gain advantages from having diverse (heterogeneous) management teams (TMTs). Employing a national survey of 70 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the present study examined whether TM T heterogeneity in functional background, international work experience, and foreign language proficiency had a stronger relationship with export performance for firms competing in high than those competing in low uncertainty environments. Results were generally weak when market and industry factors contributing to uncertainty were examined separately; however, additional analysis showed that the hypothesized relationship did exist when uncertainty was measured employing both factors …

An Empirical Model Of Price And Quality Effects Of E-Commerce, Scott E. Sampson, Kendall Hulet

Faculty Publications

During the e-Commerce boom of the late 1990s it was predicted that the Internet would have a significant impact on prices of various goods and services. Whether the net impact would he positive or negative was harder to forecast, there being opposing effects. We develop a model that describes some of those effects, including information asymmetry, search costs, price dispersion, trust premiums, and convenience premiums. The model is discussed, and a major portion is statistically tested with empirical data. As an exploratory gesture, the model is extended to consider product quality effects of online shopping. The final section concludes with …

Furniture Manufacturing And Marketing: Eight Strategic Issues For The 21st Century, Steven H. Bullard, C. D. West

Faculty Publications

“Take change by the hand, or it will take you by the throat.” Attributed to Winston Churchill, this brief sentence emphasizes the need to understand and embrace change in general. What important “changes” will impact furniture production and marketing in the 21st century? And what can furniture manufacturers and marketers do to “take change by the hand” today and in the future?

Consumer Self-Confidence: Refinements In Conceptualization And Measurement, William O. Bearden, David M. Hardesty, Randall L. Rose

Faculty Publications

The development and validation of measures to assess multiple dimensions of consumer self-confidence are described in this article. Scale-development procedures resulted in a six-factor correlated model made up of the following dimensions: information acquisition, consideration-set formation, personal outcomes, social outcomes, persuasion knowledge, and marketplace interfaces. A series of studies demonstrate the psychometric properties of the measures, their discriminant validity with respect to related constructs, their construct validity, and their ability to moderate relationships among other important consumer behavior variables.

Top Management International Orientation And Small Business Exporting Performance: The Moderating Roles Of Export Market & Industry Factors, Franz T. Lohrke, Geralyn Mcclure Franklin, Vinay Kothari

Faculty Publications

This study examined the relationship between top management team international orientation and small business export performance. Results generally supported the hypotheses that market and industry factors moderate this relationship. Employing a sample of U.S. small business exporters, the study found that top management team international orientation had a greater positive relationship with export performance for firms exporting to countries culturally different and geographically distant from their home country than those exporting to countries culturally similar and geographically proximate to their home countries. In addition, international orientation had a greater positive relationship with export performance for firms competing in multidomestic industries …

Formation Of Risk Beliefs, Joint Production And Willingness To Pay To Avoid Skin Cancer, Mark Dickie, Shelby Gerking

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Sbi Program And Student Outcomes: A Study Of Business Policy Classes, Larry R. Watts, William T. Jackson

Faculty Publications

This study represents a preliminary inquiry ID to determine the value of combining SBI and Policy into a singular curriculum. A comparison of this combined formal was made wi1h the traditional Policy course. A slightly modified Job Diagnostic Survey (Hackman & Oldham, 1975) and a skills/usefulness scale (Hoffman, Fon1eno1 & Viswanathan, 1990) was administered to assess the difference between the two groups. Results suggested that the combined format met or exceeded the ou1comes of the traditional Policy course.

Small Business Transformation: The Meds Approach, Ravi S. Behara, David E. Gundersen

Faculty Publications

In today's rapidly changing business environment, small businesses must gain a deeper understanding of the future to develop strategies that will provide them with sustainable competitive advantage. The traditional approaches to strategy formulation are inadequate in an environment that is complex and dynamic. This paper investigates a "new" approach that helps small businesses "see the future." It discusses an application of the multi­ equilibrium dissipative structures (MEDS) approach to strategy formulation within the context of a small business involved in medical management software development. The dissipative systems approach can be used to evaluate the critical discontinuities that a small business …

Management Buyouts And Small Business Performance: An Exploratory Examination And Research Agenda, Garry D. Bruton, J. Kay Keels, Elton Scifres

Faculty Publications

Management buyout activity is increasingly shifting from large firms to small firms. However, to date, little is known about how such activities impact the performance of small firms. This research has identified a sample of small firms that have undergone a management buyout and found that, relative to other firms in their respective industries, these small buyout firms experienced performance gains similar to those experienced in buyouts of larger firms. Suggestions for extending this area of research are made.

An Exploration Of High-Risk Leisure Consumption Through Skydiving, Richard L. Celsi, Randall L. Rose, Thomas W. Leigh

Faculty Publications

A sociocultural approach is used to explore voluntary high-risk consumption Specifically, we examine the dynamics of individuals' motives, risk perceptions, and benefit/cost outcomes of participation in increasingly popular high-risk leisure activities such as skydiving, climbing, and BASE jumping (parachuting from fixed objects). An ethnography of a skydiving subculture provides the primary empirical data. We propose an extended dramatic model that explains both macroenvironmental and inter- and intrapersonal influences and motives for high-risk consumption. Key findings indicate (1) an evolution of motives that explains initial and continuing participation in high-risk activities and (2) a coinciding evolution of risk acculturation that leads …

Empirical Implications For Small Business Drug Policies, Donald R. Curtis, Dillard Tinsley, Geralyn Mcclure Franklin

Faculty Publications

The results of empirical studies of small and large businesses parallel each other regarding the characteristics of drug policies. Drug policies affect organizational performance, including improved productivity and reduced accidents. EAPs are an effective approach to drug policies. and outside contractors are common sources of information and services. Pre-employment testing is usually combined with other types of testing, but careful attention is needed to meet legal requirements. Employees with positive tests may cause difficulties, but, overall. employee morale rises. Small businesses without drug policies are increasing their competitive risks.

An Attributional Analysis Of Resistance To Group Pressure Regarding Illicit Drug And Alcohol Consumption, Randall L. Rose, William O. Bearden, Jesse E. Teel

Faculty Publications

This article investigates the role of attributional thinking in generating resistance to pressures toward conformity in the illicit consumption of drugs and alcohol. The results of four studies regarding how conformity influences illicit drug and alcohol consumption among high school and college students are reported. In study 1 more than two-thirds of the respondents reported concern for the implications of their own dissent or compliance regarding the reactions of their peers. Study 2 demonstrated a significant relationship between high school students' attributional thinking concerning a peer group's illicit beer consumption and conformity, expressed as intentions to drink the beer. In …

Sbi Intervention: An Old Problem- A New Perspective, William T. Jackson, George S. Vozikis, Emin Babakus

Faculty Publications

This research effort attempted to determine if SB/ intervention would change the perception of business problems by not only the business owner but also the student consultants. This focus further to encompassed firms that could be classified in either Stage I or Stage II of development. Even though there were no changes in perception by student consultants, and mixed results of whether stage development affected perceptual differences, strong support was given to the proposition that owners, overall, did change their perception of existing problems after SBI intervention.

Age: The Most Important Factor In Upholstered Furniture Buying Plans, Steven H. Bullard

Faculty Publications

Age is highly related to income. lifestyle and other critical factors in consumer behavior. In a recent survey of over 2.000 U.S. households. age proved to be the most important determinant of up· holstered furniture purchasing plans. Consumers less than 45 years old. for example. are more than three times more likely to plan purchases of upholstered household furniture than those 65 and older.

Is Wood Good?, Steven H. Bullard

Faculty Publications

I n U.S. households there is currently a very strong belief that "wood is good" in upholstered furniture. In a recent surve)' of the upholstered furniture buying plans of over 2.000 U.S. households:

• 88.4 percent of the respondents said the material used in frame construction was important, and ...

• 85.4 percent said they preferred wood over metals. Fiberglas or other frame materials.

Attention To Social Comparison Information: An Individual Difference Factor Affecting Consumer Conformity, William O. Bearden, Randall L. Rose

Faculty Publications

Interpersonal influence in consumer behavior is moderated by the extent of consumer sensitivity to social comparison information concerning product purchase and usage behavior (cf. Calder and Burnkrant 1977). Two survey studies indicate that Lennox and Wolfe's (1984) attention-to-social-comparison-information (AT-SCI) scale has adequate convergent and discriminant validity and moderates the relative influence of normative consequences on behavioral intentions, as predicted. A quasi-experiment and an experiment in which control subjects under no social pressure are compared with high and low ATSCI subjects under pressure reveal that high ATSCI subjects are more likely to comply with normative pressures.