Marketing Commons^™

Whose Responsibility Is It: Corporate Ethics And Supply Chain Accountability In The Uyghur Crisis, Katelyn Evans

2026 Research Poster Competition

Global supply chains have become increasingly complex, making it difficult to identify and prevent unethical labor practices embedded within everyday consumer goods. In recent years, attention has been directed toward the use of Uyghur forced labor in China, particularly within the fashion and automotive industries. While governments and corporations have faced growing scrutiny, less is known about how consumers perceive responsibility for unethical sourcing and how unethical practices influence their purchasing behavior. This research seeks to examine the question: Whose responsibility is it to address unethical practices in global supply chains? Specifically, the study evaluates perceptions of responsibility across three …

Documenting Sustainable Social Media Workflows: Supporting Student Professionalization In Faculty-Student Teams, Jenny Rissen

Master's Projects

This capstone project, Documenting Sustainable Social Media Workflows: Supporting Student Professionalization in Faculty-Student Teams, examines how departmental social media teams serve as informal training grounds where students build professional identities through collaborative, often undocumented communication work (Buck; Leon & Pigg). Addressing writing studies concerns about experiential learning gaps (McNabb; Carr et al.), the project creates a handbook offering practical guidance for onboarding, workflow continuity, accessibility, and ethical social media practices. It shows how mentorship and structured documentation turn everyday digital work into meaningful professional development. Situated in technical communication and rhetoric, the project demonstrates how social media teams help …

Design Thinking For Corporate Social Responsibility Program Proposal Creation, Michelle "Mindy" D. Danovaro

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study used action research to explore how the use of design thinking engaged employees in the creation of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) program proposal in a small- to medium-enterprises (SME) in the Sacramento region of California. The purpose of the study was to assess whether employee participation in a design thinking exercise could improve employee perception of engagement, inclusion, and reciprocity during the CSR program proposal creation. The study was grounded in social exchange theory, stakeholder theory, and design thinking methodologies. The iterative research process followed action research cycles (i.e., plan, act, observe, and reflect) integrated with …

Rewards That Resonate- How Incentivized Online Reviews Shape Customer Loyalty And Review Outcomes, Sameeha Khizindar

Marketing Dissertations

In today’s competitive marketplace, online reviews have become a central feature of consumer decision-making and business strategy. Research consistently documents that online reviews have a positive impact on outcomes such as review volume and product sales, underscoring their critical role in shaping firm performance. However, the majority of consumers do not voluntarily write reviews, posing a challenge for companies that rely on user-generated content. To address this issue, companies often offer incentives to motivate customers to write reviews. Despite their widespread use, research on their impact remains limited. This dissertation is comprised of two essays that examine the impact of …

Greed, Guilt, And Generative Ai: Emotional Dynamics In Digital Consumer Interactions, Danielle Lynn Hass

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

ABSTRACT

GREED, GUILT, AND GENERATIVE AI: EMOTIONAL DYNAMICS IN DIGITAL CONSUMER INTERACTIONS

Danielle Hass

Digital consumer interactions are increasingly shaped by complex emotional dynamics. As digital platforms and Generative AI (GenAI) technologies proliferate in our everyday lives, it is critical to understand the emotional undercurrents and how they impact consumer behavior. This dissertation investigates these dynamics through three essays that explore how emotions impact consumer experiences in digital spaces, with an overall goal to offer theoretical and practical insights into the interaction of human psychology and technological advancement in the consumer behavior field.

Essay One examines the paradox of pleasure …

Borrowed But Mine: Time-Based Asymmetries In Psychological Ownership, Elizabeth Ann Brauer

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

People often borrow everyday items, such as a friend’s jacket or pair of sunglasses, and after a period of use, may begin to feel as if the item is their own. Psychological ownership captures this felt sense of “mine,” even in the absence of legal ownership, and reflects the extent to which a target becomes incorporated into the self (Pierce et al., 2003). Despite decades of work on psychological ownership, little is known about how psychological ownership develops and changes within interpersonal lending and borrowing contexts. This dissertation examines how possession duration influences psychological ownership in interpersonal borrowing relationships and …

The Impact Of Ai Service Workers On Opportunistic Complaint Behavior, Chelsi J. Baker

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Consumer complaint behavior research has traditionally focused on interactions between customers and human employees, leaving open questions about how these behaviors may change when the service agent is artificial intelligence. This research looks at whether customers are more likely to engage in opportunistic complaint behavior when interacting with AI service agents and explores what might explain that behavior. The results show that customers are more likely to behave opportunistically when interacting with AI service agents than with human employees. Perceived morality helps explain this relationship, as more human-like service agents increase the extent to which exaggerating a complaint is seen …

Do You Walk On By? The Effects Of Donor Fatigue On Willingness To Donate, Shawn Michael Henry

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Donation solicitation literature validates the successful usage of various solicitation tactics that lead to achieving set donation goals for their associated cause. Yet, while the financial success of “checkout charity” is well-documented, a significant gap remains regarding the impact of high-frequency solicitations on long-term consumer-brand relationship. This research addresses this gap. Over the span of three surveys, this study finds that donation request frequency overall erodes donation likelihood through donor fatigue when donation frequency changes (occasional vs. always). However, this relationship is moderated by the perceived consumer base, with a larger perceived consumer base exacerbating the “diffusion of responsibility.” Further, …

The Effect Of Innovative Value Proposition On Buyer Reactions: The Moderating Roles Of Price Orientation And Perceived Risk, Chad Stuttz

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Value propositions are essential to the success of personal selling in the Business-to-Business (B2B) context. While earlier studies have offered valuable insights into the roles of value propositions in driving B2B sales, they have often regarded value propositions as uniform. In this dissertation, I argue that value propositions vary in their levels of innovativeness. The dissertation introduces the concept of innovative value proposition (IVP) and proposes that IVP indicates greater future growth potential to buyers, leading to more favorable reactions such as responsiveness and willingness to engage than less innovative ones. Additionally, the dissertation explores the moderating effects of buyer …

2026 January, Morehead State University. Office Of Communications & Marketing.

Morehead State Press Release Archive, 1961 to the Present

Press releases for January of 2026.

Measuring Value-In-Use Management From The Supplier's Perspective, Amit Mahimkar, John Hadjimarcou, Edward Ramirez

Faculty Publications – Marketing

Business-to-business (B2B) marketing is increasingly shifting from transactional exchanges to the long-term management of customer relationships. As suppliers offer complex, integrated solutions, the focus has shifted from product attributes to the value realized during usage. To manage this experienced value-in-use (VIU), suppliers are establishing organizational structures and processes dedicated to VIU management (VIUM). Despite its growing theoretical and managerial significance, no validated instrument currently exists to assess VIUM implementation from the supplier's perspective. This study develops and validates a second-order formative supplier-side index comprising seven VIUM subprocesses. Nomological evidence (based on survey data from B2B supplier managers, N = 284) …

Extending Social Penetration Theory To Online Brand Communities: The Impact Of Perceived Identifiability On Relational Development And Perceived Enjoyment, Stephanie Meek, Claire Lambert, Laureane Du Plessis

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Online brand communities (OBCs) rely on members forming relationships, yet many platforms normalise anonymity. Drawing on Social Penetration Theory (SPT), this study examines whether feeling recognisable to other members (perceived identifiability) shapes relational outcomes and enjoyment in consumer-initiated OBCs. Survey data from 307 members were analysed using structural equation modelling and multi-group analysis. Perceived identifiability significantly increased members’ network ties and sense of belonging but did not directly enhance perceived enjoyment. Instead, belonging mediated the link from identifiability to enjoyment, and network ties strengthened belonging, yielding a serial indirect pathway from identifiability to enjoyment. Comparing lurkers and posters showed that …

Understanding The Journey To Higher Education: Decision-Making Insights From Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Students, Melissa Fong-Emmerson, Claire Lambert, Braden Hill, Maria M. Ryan

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This study investigates the decision-making process of Indigenous Australian students in pursuing higher education, addressing a gap in understanding their educational choices. It identifies the key factors influencing university enrolment decisions and how these shape students’ educational pathways. Using a narrative-inquiry approach, the study explored the lived experiences of Indigenous students from two Western Australian universities. Through written autobiographies, yarning sessions and one-on-one interviews, participants shared rich, nuanced insights into their journeys to higher education. Findings reveal the pivotal role of ‘sparks’ in normalising higher education as a viable option. Students relied minimally on formal information search, depending heavily on …

Leveraging Consumer Socialisation Agents To Increase Indigenous Student Participation In Higher Education, Melissa Fong-Emmerson, Braden Hill, Claire Lambert, Maria M. Ryan, Rebekah Dougan

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose – Socialisation agents, including family, peers, Elders, teachers, mass media and community networks, significantly influence students’ decisions to pursue higher education (HE). This paper aims to further explore how these agents, within the framework of consumer socialisation theory, act as influential forces at the early stages of the decision-making process, shaping perceptions and providing motivation for Indigenous students’ educational choices. Design/methodology/approach – A three-phase narrative inquiry method was used, including autobiographical accounts from students, yarning sessions with peers and one-on-one interviews. This participatory approach centred Indigenous knowledges to inform culturally responsive social marketing strategies. Findings – The study identified …

Brand Transcendence Through Brand Value Co-Creation Exchanges Within Social Media Craft Beverage Brand Communities, Violetta Wilk, Gilstrap, Darren How

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This study explores brand transcendence through brand value co-creation within social media craft beverage brand communities across Instagram and Twitter (now X). Lexical analysis explored a total of 192,330 posts and found brand transcendence evident in the interplay between user-generated content (UGC) and brand-generated content (BGC) across social media platforms, which co-created brand value through the processes of sharing virtual cues within social media craft beverage communities. This brand transcendence was enhanced through the sharing of personal experiences and unique brand moments. BGC across both platforms showcased themes of brand affinity, the importance of time in brand experiences, gratitude, and …

Challenging The Monopoly Giant: Market Challenger Premium As Competitive Advantages, Cheuk Hang Au, Chih Yuan Chou

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Market challengers frequently disrupt established incumbents with innovative ideas or novel business models. Yet, they frequently face high entry barriers and the entrenched power of incumbents. Even when challengers provide products or services better aligned with the market, competing effectively can remain difficult, particularly in monopoly-dominated sectors. This paper presents a case study of ViuTV entering Hong Kong’s monopoly-led free-to-air TV market. We identify IFH (innovation, freshness, hope) strategies for challengers to gain competitive advantage, leading to the emergence of a “market challenger premium” as a unique competitive edge. We also examine the role of customer cognitive biases and the …

Customer Participation In Service Recovery: Accounting For The Role Of Customers’ Perceived Control And Empowerment In Hotel Services, Aron O'Cass, Shahin Sharifi, Vida Siahtiri, Atefeh Saniee

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Customer participation in service recovery is common, yet little is known about how different participation roles shape recovery evaluations. This gap is especially salient in hotels, where recovery often unfolds under time pressure and heightened emotions. We conceptualize participatory service recovery as involving two distinct customer roles: solution identification and solution implementation. Across three studies, we examine how these roles shape recovery satisfaction and whether perceived control and psychological empowerment help shape these effects. Study 1 uses the critical incident technique to identify role-specific participation behaviours and customers' interpretations of their recovery involvement. Studies 2 and 3 use scenario-based experiments …

Service Failures Under The Influence Of Ideological Polarization, Cheuk Hang Au

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In an era of heightened ideological polarization, characterized by intense divisions in political and social beliefs, both political and business environments face unprecedented challenges. Socio-political risks, historically explored in strategic management, have gained renewed significance as polarization amplifies their impact on business operations and consumer behavior. This paper examines Cathay Pacific as a case study to investigate how ideological polarization influences consumer reactions to service failures and controversies. Using the Belief-Action-Outcomes (BAO) framework, we analyze the interplay between polarization-driven beliefs and anti-brand actions during periods of heightened political tension in Hong Kong. Our findings offer critical insights into the role …

Persistence Of Contested Value Cocreation Practices, Kim Feddema, Kaisa Koskela-Huotari, Paul Harrigan

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The climate crisis and other global challenges make it clear that not only are new value cocreation practices (VCPs) needed, but some current VCPs must be discontinued. Prior service literature assumes that VCPs can be disrupted by reforming the institutions that govern them. However, empirical observations show that VCPs may persist even when targeted by institutional work, and recent organizational research points to contested practices that continue to be enacted even when challenged or criticized. To understand this phenomenon in value cocreation, we conducted an embedded case study of exotic pet-keeping—a set of VCPs that continue despite intervention efforts. Our …

Sales Prediction In Omnichannel Distribution Systems Based On Consumer Behavior Using Process Mining And Arimax, Ferra Arik Tridalestari, Mustafid Mustafid, Ferry Jie, Hanung Nindito Prasetyo

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Omnichannel distribution integrates multiple sales channels into a single management platform to enhance customer experience. However, the complexity of consumer behavior data across channels often prevents business owners from effectively analyzing and predicting sales. This study proposes a sales prediction model in omnichannel distribution systems based on consumer behavior using a collaborative approach that integrates process mining and autoregressive integrated moving average with exogenous variables (ARIMAX). Event log data from an omnichannel service provider were used to extract consumer activity patterns, which were then analyzed through process discovery algorithms to identify dominant behavioral processes. The resulting behavioral indicators served as …

Evolving Paradigms Of Sustainability In Luxury Fashion: Evidence From An Emerging Market, Sandipan Sen, Sphurti Sewak, Swati Singh, Moutusy Maity, Aniruddha Pangarkar

Faculty Publications – Marketing

The global fashion industry is both an economic driver and a major contributor of environmental and social challenges. This research examines how sustainable luxury fashion is constructed and adopted within an emerging market context by integrating perspectives from entrepreneurs, industry managers, and consumers. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach and drawing upon Self-Identity Theory and need for uniqueness, this research explores how identity-based motivations shape sustainable luxury consumption. Study 1 employs in-depth interviews with luxury fashion entrepreneurs and practitioners to uncover how sustainability is embedded within luxury value propositions. Building on these insights, Study 2 quantitatively tests a conceptual model examining the …

Exploring How Young Consumers Construct Identities In Socially Restrictive Societies: Managing Impressions Through Fashion Clothing, Muhammad Abid, Aron O’Cass, Hormoz Ahmadi, Vida Siahtiri

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In many societies, fashion serves as a medium of self-expression and a site of social regulation, where sartorial decisions can expose consumers to social censure and physical risk. Consequently, consumers must navigate the tension between adhering to local norms and participating in global fashion cultures. This study draws on impression management theory to examine how young consumers in a socially restrictive society use fashion as a means of identity expression while mitigating potential social risks. It uses data from in-depth interviews (n = 40) and open-ended surveys (n = 150) with consumers aged 18 to 35 years, analysed using an …

Fluid Agency In Ai Systems: A Case For Functional Equivalence In Copyright, Patent, And Tort, Anirban Mukherjee, Hannah H. Chang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Modern Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems exhibit fluid agency in multi-step workflows: lacking human-like consciousness or culpability, yet they display behavior that is (i) stochastic (probabilistic and path‑dependent), (ii) dynamic (co‑evolving with user interaction), and (iii) adaptive (able to reorient across contexts). These properties generate valuable outputs but collapse attribution, irreducibly entangling human and machine inputs. Doctrines that assume traceable provenance—authorship, inventorship, and liability—fracture under this unmappability, yielding ownership gaps and moral “crumple zones.”This Article argues that only functional equivalence stabilizes doctrine under unmappability: Where provenance is indeterminate, legal frameworks should treat human and AI contributions as equivalent for allocating rights …

The Charity Capacity Curse, Shirley (Lijun) Zhang, Thomas Allard, David Hardisty, Shane Wang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Can displays of charity capacity cues paradoxically harm charities' fundraising efforts? Six pre-registered studies provide evidence of a charity capacity curse whereby donors penalize charities for displaying capacity cues, such as human resources capacity, organizational capacity, and financial capacity cues. This curse occurs because donors perceive higher-capacity charities as needing less help. As donors typically donate based on need, they donate less to charities with superior capacity signals. This effect is attenuated when: (1) higher-capacity charities' needs are made salient, and (2) donors reflect on how their decision impacts end-beneficiaries. This research contributes to the literature on effective altruism and …

Paid Search Marketing Vs. Search Engine Optimization: Analytical Models Of Search Marketing Based On Search Engine Quality, Kai Li, Chunyang Shen, Mei Lin, Zhangxi Lin

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

As search engines are leading revenue growth in online marketing, search marketing has become a popular area of academic research. Although search engine advertising has interested researchers for decades and much has been learned, one thing that puzzles scholars is why search engine optimization companies are tolerated rather than excluded from the market, even though they capture a significant share of the advertising market. In this paper, we shed light on this phenomenon and establish an analytical model based on organic search quality. Through analysis of the model, we were able to draw several intriguing conclusions. First, there is no …

Sensory And Emotional Impacts On Modern Consumer Experiences, Winter E. Bland

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

This dissertation comprises two essays examining how environmental and psychological stimuli shape consumer experience, attitudes, and cognition. The first essay investigates the joint influence of scent temperature (warm versus cool) and scent arousal (stimulating versus relaxing) on experiential attitudes and cognitive performance in digitally mediated consumption environments. Across multiple lab experiments with biometric validation, findings reveal that these two scent dimensions interact to shape downstream outcomes. Warm, low-arousal scents (e.g., vanilla) enhance consumers' experiential evaluations of digital interactions but do not improve task performance, whereas cool, high-arousal scents (e.g., peppermint) boost cognitive efficiency and accuracy but do not elevate experiential …