Marketing Commons^™

Online Survey Respondents’ Reactions To Required Questions, Jeffrey S. Gutenberg, Seongbae Lim

AMTP Proceedings 2017

One of the most common errors committed by “amateur” online survey questionnaire designers is the improper use of “required” questions, where the survey respondent is not allowed to continue in the survey unless the question is answered. The problem with this design feature is that if a valid choice is not offered, the survey respondent must either give an incorrect answer to proceed, or terminate the survey. In order to get an empirical sense of how survey-takers respond to such situations, two studies were conducted, both employing 600+ members of a commercial online panel. Respondents were asked their opinion of …

Consuming Digital Technologies And Enacting Identities: Mothers In Mundane Daily Life, Meera Venkatraman

AMTP Proceedings 2017

This manuscript examines mothers’ consumption of digital technologies to enact their individual, relational, and familial identities. Using phemenological interviews it finds mothers purposefully consume digital technologies to negotiate, construct, and enact identities. Specifically, mothers use a repertoire of four appropriation strategies: mastering, partnering, domesticating, and avoiding. Mastery is a multi-year project in which mothers enroll in digital educational programs, qualify, and create new professional identities. In domestication, mothers assert themselves on technology managing their inclusion/exclusion in the time and spaces of family life, thereby enacting parental identities. In contrast, partnering is collaborative; mothers consume those functionalities of technologies that help …

An Exploratory Investigation Of Green Behaviors And Attitudes Towards Green Marketing Initiatives, Sam Fullerton, Tammy Mccullough, Lewis Hershey

AMTP Proceedings 2017

A sample of 205 university students provided input regarding an array of 32 issues germane to both green marketing and green consumption. A diverse array of behaviors and opinions were articulated. Respondents reported a high propensity to engage in recycling, donating used goods, and purchasing products with a longer life expectancy. They favored environmentally-friendly actions such as focusing on cleaner and more efficient energy alternatives. There was a strong belief that individuals can make a difference. A comparison of business and nonbusiness students documented significant differences on two of the 32 issues under investigation with nonbusiness students expressing greater concern …

Employee Retention In A Call Center, Angelica Pigman, Perry Haan

AMTP Proceedings 2017

One of the most important aspects of many businesses providing customer services are their call centers. These organizations employ millions of workers who are required to address customer queries and provide solutions to both existing and prospective clients. Customer service is looked at as key factor to keeping current customers. Worldwide, call centers comprise an ever-evolving and dynamic industry, yet researchers find that there is a high turnover rate among call center agents (Pierre & Tremblay, 2011). Facing customers and answering complicated queries are daunting tasks, this is made even more complicated by the fact that call center technology is …

Small Business Issue: “How Do We Avoid The Speed Trap And Not Get Hit By The Speeders?”, Dave Mcmahon, Stephen M. Rapier, Michael Mccall

AMTP Proceedings 2017

The authors examine the use of online panels, the assumptions that are being made, and the dangers of those assumptions for small business. Specifically, the authors investigate the existence and possible effects of speeders. They conclude with a discussion of the implications and how to avoid falling into the traps that this problem may create.

Internationalizing U.S. Master’S Universities: Emerging Opportunities For Marketing Faculty, Lynn W. Mcgee, Inga Poetzl

AMTP Proceedings 2017

One of the faster growing sectors of higher education in the US over the past three decades has been the master’s university. Another fundamental trend over this period has been the consistent increase in expectations of students, parents and business employers that international experiences and competencies become part of the curriculum at the undergraduate level.

Opportunities for marketing faculty from master’s universities to add international perspectives to marketing courses have expanded over the past decade. The growth and re-shaping of faculty grant programs such as the Rockefeller, Rotary and Fulbright grants reflect this opportunity. In particular, the U.S. Fulbright Commission …

A Collaborative Logo Design Project For A Startup Therapeutic Medicine Company, Tulay Girard, Luke Hallman

AMTP Proceedings 2017

A logo design project was initiated in collaboration to serve the research, teaching, and service needs of the faculty, learning experience needs of the student, and the brand recognition need of a startup company. The company for which logo was developed and tested specializes in producing an herbal supplement for Type II diabetics that is naturally derived from plants and taken orally with a well-known Type II diabetes medication.

Most literature has focused on how to design effective logos but only a few studies have focused on the methods to develop and test the associations that logos represent. Therefore, the …

Selling Fear Across Ethnic Consumers: Modeling Emotional Arousal And Validating The Impact Of Galvanic Skin Responses In Advertising, Sindy Chapa, Olivia Bravo

AMTP Proceedings 2017

The purpose of this study is to explore how fear-appeal advertising impacts young adults in a multi-ethnic society. This study combines self-reported measures and a skin-galvanic psychological test to measure the impact that fear-appeal advertising has among ethnic groups. Using a one-ad experimental design, results shows significant differences among ethnic groups indicating that the levels of arousal evoked by a “fear-appeal” advertisement were highest across Asian Americans followed by Hispanic American, African-Americans, and then Non-Hispanic Whites. Overall, a proposed model reveals emotions outweigh attitudes toward the ad on the manipulation of fear-appeal advertising.

Consumer Attitudes Toward Travel Risks By Regulatory Focus Orientation And Gender, Michael Musante, David Bojanic

AMTP Proceedings 2017

The leisure travel industry continues to thrive as consumer expenditures on travel have steadily increased. While travel has always carried with it some level of inherit risk, ever-increasing news of safety threats in tourism areas has been a troubling reality. This study sought to examine the importance of risk-related factors in leisure travel planning. A main objective of the study was to explore the role that an individual’s regulatory focus or gender may play in how one assesses various types of travel risk. Study participants, segmented based on regulatory focus and gender, evaluated a series of prospective travel risks. The …

Compromise And Attraction Effects Under Interdependent And Independent Self-Construal, Ramin Bagherzadeh, Monika Rawal, Jose Luis Saavedra

AMTP Proceedings 2017

When a new alternative introduces to a choice set, the preferences for the original alternatives will be effected (Mourali, Böckenholt and Laroche 2007). Consumers often feel uncertainty about the true values of options when they want to purchase products (Simonson 1989). Huber, Payne, and Puto (1982) defined the attraction effect as “when adding an alternative that is inferior to another alternative in the choice set increases the share of the relatively superior alternative.” Compromise effect is defined as “when adding an extreme option to the choice set shifts the choice preferences in favor of the compromise option” (Simonson 1989). The …

The Role Of Social Identity In Viewer Attitudes And Intentions, Rachel Kavena Secharan, Hillary Greenberg, Juancarlo Villatoro, Princess Brown, Jaejin Lee

AMTP Proceedings 2017

The research project aims to identify a relationship between self-identification based on the social identity theory and feelings towards a particular show. Focusing the research on four fictitious shows with similar plot lines, but different casts of the same ethnic group, the research team has created a questionnaire that asked questions relating to the shows and participant social identity. The survey sample consists of 241 individuals between the ages of 18 and 28. The results show that there is a positive predictive relationship between feeling that your social group is represented in a show and attitudes towards that show, as …

For One Or Many? Recommendation Targeting And Consumer Advice Integration, Michael Sciandra

AMTP Proceedings 2017

As consumers, many of our most important decisions are not made in isolation. Rather, it is common for individuals to pursue, evaluate, and rely on advice from other individuals. While research on advice usage from multiple or individual advisors has been investigated, no research has looked at advice integration when the advice is offered to an individual or group. This is an important consideration of advice as online review sites (e.g. Yelp, Expedia, and Foursquare) and social media platforms (e.g. Twitter and Facebook) now make it easy for consumers to make general recommendations targeted at a large number of individuals. …

Chinese Mba Student Attitudes And Perceptions As They Relate To Personal Selling, Charles E. Pettijohn, Melissa S. Burnett, Linda S. Pettijohn

AMTP Proceedings 2017

In the United States entry-level sales positions are often filled by graduates from universities and colleges. However, a challenge faced by recruiters seeking these college graduates to fill sales positions has been that many college graduates have a negative perception of the role of the salesperson in today’s economy. Thus, many businesses discover that they have to overcome the biases and stereotypes held by students as they attempt to recruit exceptional individuals into sales positions. Given the growth and size of the Chinese economy, it seems that determining how Chinese students perceive the role of sales and their attitudes toward …

Segmentation Of The Aruban Tourism Market: Classification Of Visitors’ On-Island Activities, Deborah J.C. Brosdahl, Roasalind C. Paige

AMTP Proceedings 2017

Travel and tourism offices in destinations throughout the world are keenly aware of the importance of attracting visitors to their locale. This is especially true in places where tourism is an important component of the local economy. Nowhere is tourism more important than for the island nations of the Caribbean, an area that has been called one of the most tourism dependent regions in the world. With approximately 1.22 million people visiting each year, the Caribbean island of Aruba “The World Tourism Council (WTTC) reports Aruba’s GDP is more reliant on travel and tourism than any other nation, relative to …

The Role Of Consumption In The Communication Of Family Identity In Multiracial Adoptive Families, Elise Johansen Harvey

AMTP Proceedings 2017

In the past four decades, family structure has shifted away from the traditional family of a same race family complete with a married mother and father and biological. Some disciplines have incorporated these changes into their research, but the marketing discipline has consistently assumed a relatively stable, traditional family structure. Family structures associated with social stigma have seen a rise in prevalence including those characterized by racial diversity, sexual orintation, and adoption. Families facing a stigmatized status in society are the population of interest this paper; specifically we examine the experiences of transracial adoptive families. There are over 2 million …

Utilitarian And Hedonic Shopping Behavior In The Face Of Natural Disaster, Lindsay R.L. Larson, Hyunju Shin

AMTP Proceedings 2017

Terror management theory suggests that events which make one’s mortality salient also lead to compensatory processes and behaviors meant to alleviate existential anxiety. Applications within the field of consumer behavior have led to the proposal that any such event may also impact materialism and consumption decisions as a protectant from such anxiety. With this in mind, the current study sets out to investigate the personal experiences and subsequent shopping behavior of those impacted by Hurricane Matthew in the coastal southeastern region of the United States. While Hurricane Matthew had nowhere near the destructive impact of Katrina within the continental United …

Assessment Of Oral Presentations In An Undergraduate Accounting Program: An Application Of Videotapes, Role Plays And Student Involvement, Leslie B. Fletcher, Linda G. Mullen, Gloria J. Stuart

AMTP Proceedings 2017

The subject School of Accountancy assesses oral presentations at the undergraduate (Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting) level to accomplish program improvement and accreditation maintenance. Historically, accounting students were assessed on their oral presentation skills by giving a 3-4 minute presentation of a completed research paper and used presentation software. Accounting faculty members assessed the presentation using a six-factor four-level rubric.

This work was motivated by feedback received from the School’s Accounting Advisory Board; the members were dissatisfied with new accounting staff hires’ inability to communicate with their clients face-to-face. While they appreciated the favorable results achieved in the oral …

A Cit Investigation Of Patient Deception Using Self-Discrepancy Theory, Gary Daniel Futrell

AMTP Proceedings 2017

It is widely accepted that patients knowingly lie, mislead, and deceive health care professionals working in their favor. While physicians do their best to provide patients with quality care, patient deception can not only affect service quality and patient satisfaction, but also physician effectiveness and medical outcomes. The current research consists of a qualitative investigation of this phenomenon and seeks to lay the foundation for a self-discrepancy theory perspective of patient deception.

Self-discrepancy theory (SDT) seeks to explain how emotional discomfort can be caused by conflicting beliefs about one’s self. That is, a discrepancy arises and there is emotional discomfort …

Race Ethnicity And In-Store Mobile-Assisted Shopping In The Us, Kristine Johnson, Manuel C. Pontes

AMTP Proceedings 2017

This research primarily investigates the relationship between race ethnicity and consumer use of mobile phones in-store to facilitate purchase decisions. Data were collected by a telephone survey of a nationally representative sample of US adults between January 5 and January 8, 2012. The data collection was sponsored by the Pew Foundation and made available for this research. The data were analyzed with the software R and its survey package that allow researchers to incorporate the sampling weights to estimate population statistics, standard errors, and confidence intervals.

The independent variables were demographic variables (race ethnicity, gender, and household income) and behavioral …

The Best Practices To Eliminate Distraction Due To Mobile Device Usage In Classrooms Without Creating A Negative And Hostile Classroom Experience, Tulay Girard, Meral Antisal, Ismet Antisal, Stephen Lemay, Dorene Ciletti, Ronald J. Dick

AMTP Proceedings 2017

The Millennials are currently attending college and their seats will be replaced by Centennials (Gen Z) in a few years. As the generation switch occurs, more cell phone usage and texting behaviors have been observed and are expected to increase in classrooms, which may become an annoying distraction for faculty and students. Faculty members may vary in tolerance level for smartphone/tablet/computer usage in classrooms. When students do not seem to care about the warnings from the instructor, the entire classroom experience may quickly turn in to a negative and hostile one. This session aims to find out about the best …

What Are The Expectations And Opportunities For Full Professors Different Than Associate And Assistant Professors?, Tulay Girard, Ismet Anitsal, Meral Anitsal, David Burns, Michael Latta, Michael Mccall

AMTP Proceedings 2017

Most higher education institutions provide assistant and associate professors with clear expectations in teaching, research, and service areas. However, once the faculty members are promoted to the rank of Professor, the expectations do not seem to be clearly known or stated. This session aims to highlight some of the expectations and opportunities that may be available to the faculty promoted to the rank of full professor presented by a panel of experienced full professors from different types of universities.

Fulbright Scholars Program Workshop, Steve Litvin

AMTP Proceedings 2017

In this workshop, College of Charleston Professor and Fulbright Ambassador Steve Litvin will share his Fulbright experiences and discuss how a Fulbright can work for you. Scholars such as Steve return to their campuses with new perspectives on their fields and fresh ideas for further international engagement. Participants will learn about the benefits of Fulbright and the impact it can have personally and professionally. The Fulbright Ambassador Program trains and utilizes a select group of Fulbright Scholar alumni from the full spectrum of U.S. academic disciplines, higher education institutions, and geographic regions to serve as representatives for the Fulbright Scholar …

Evaluating The Influence Of Personal Learning On Salesperson Role Ambiguity And Organizational Commitment, Shalonda Bradford, Brian Rutherford, Scott Friend

AMTP Proceedings 2017

Learning facilitates changes in attitudes and behavior and these changes beseech improved performance and increased sales outcomes. Yet, given the independent nature of most sales positions, with fewer opportunities to engage with supervisors and co-workers, it is reasonable to postulate that many of the benefits of the organizational learning resources may go unrealized causing these employees to feel ill prepared and less committed to performing the duties of their job. The current study offers insight as to how ongoing efforts might produce positive energy toward the application of workplace learning thereby increasing the probability that the benefits will lead to …

Brand Promotions Via Social Media Advocacy: Strategic Implications For Improving Brand Equity, Manisha Mathur

AMTP Proceedings 2017

Social media is all about consumer networks and consumer relations that challenge marketers to leverage social media as a means to develop and improve their connections with consumers. Despite the opportunities available through social media marketing activities, understanding customers and their behavior, and incorporating that information in marketing strategy formulation is critical to successful strategy implementation. This study takes a significant leap forward in this direction. Theoretically grounded in two different fields-the field of sociology in combination with the field of relationship marketing, this study develops a conceptual model of optimizing social media characteristics of customers. The current study uses …

How Third Party Observers Respond To Overheard Service Failures: Implications For Frontline Service Employees And The Firm, Ismail Karabas, Jeff Joireman, Shinhye Kim

AMTP Proceedings 2017

Frontline service employees and unhappy customers have generally been the main focus of the service failures research. It is established that service failures are difficult to prevent and are costly to a firm. Therefore, effective service recoveries have been proposed such as apology or compensation. The recent research extended the service failures literature by focusing on a broader audience during service failures: third party observers in the servicescape. The current work investigates the degree to which overhearing another customer’s interaction with a service employee following a service failure will impact third party observers’ evaluations of the service employees and the …

“Contemporary Breadlines”: A Field Study Of Fast-Food Drive-Thru Service Delivery, Jon M. Martin

AMTP Proceedings 2017

This study focuses upon US fast-food drive-thru delivery, assesses its cycle times, identifies its common delays and inefficiencies, and proposes solutions for improvement. The author, having become a live-alone bachelor since 2012 admittedly has routinely been a regular fast-food consumer, and as a researcher has over the past 4 years convenience-tallied this field study of fast-food drive-thru delivery. The average drive-thru wait time for these fast-food establishments was .81 minutes with average processing times of 3.6 minutes for a total average of 4.45 minutes with an average standard deviation of 2.1 minutes. This data suggests statistically (assuming a normal distribution) …

Modeling The Relationship Between Destination Perceived Value And Tourist Souvenir Buying Intention, Wei Wang, Gallayanee Yaoyuneyong, Pauline Sullivan

AMTP Proceedings 2017

While there is an increasing academic research focusing on value perception in the hospitality and tourism industry, not much study has explore the relationship between tourist’s perceived destination attributes and shopping intentions. Therefore, this research explores the influence of value perceptions on tourists’ souvenir purchase decisions. Particularly, this study seeks to answer two specific research questions: 1) will value perception have a direct influence on tourist souvenir buying intentions? and 2) which aspect of perceived value has stronger ties with tourist souvenir buying intentions.

A convenience sample of 380 respondents from a southeastern US university filled out survey instruments. The …

Facebook And Branding Of Small To Medium-Sized Enterprises, Angella Banks, Perry Haan

AMTP Proceedings 2017

Small to Medium Size Enterprise (SME) owners face many challenges as they strive to keep their businesses afloat. Although these challenges vary, one of the most prevalent is the inability to market effectively. Over 50% of SMEs close within the first five years (Cronin-Gilmore, 2012). This case study explored the relationship between Facebook and SMEs’ brands, and Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC). Through the examination of these relationships, the study identified barriers that hinder SMEs ability to use Facebook effectively and further strengthen their branding strategies. Facebook can be an inexpensive marketing tool that SME owners has access; however, challenges exist, …

Winning Off The Field: How Social Media Analytics Measure The Sports Industry, Ryan Mcgarvey, Peter Titlesbaum

AMTP Proceedings 2017

Since Facebook became available to the public, social media (SM) has become the most popular online activity. Currently, 91% of adults are active SM users. Of this 91% of adults on SM, more than 20% of their time online is spent on networking sites like Facebook and Twitter (Weiguo and Gordon, 2014). These powerful tools connect people around the world and show no signs of slowing down.

SM has become a popular online activity for individuals, especially for those involved in business. SM is seen as a tool to aid businesses in spreading their own message, at little to no …

Traditional Vs. Online Universities: Who Is Using Social Media Marketing?, Lisa Witzig, Joe Spencer, Katlyn Myers

AMTP Proceedings 2017

The use of online social communities for online universities seems a topic where usage can be taken for granted. This paper provides an analysis of social media usage by traditional and online universities and compares their activity levels. The paper analyzes the social media activities of the top 53 undergraduate and top 53 graduate online programs as compared to their traditional programs. Despite the need to engage through these social media sites, online universities in general and online graduate-level programs in particular are not taking advantage of these sites to build communities and deepen relationships with students and alumni as …