Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

H. Keith Hunt On Consumer Behavior: Understanding His Contribution, Laura Egan, David Aron

Librarian Publications

This study uses an ego-centric bibliometric analysis of H. Keith Hunt to elucidate his connection to researchers in the consumer behavior field and his impact on the field. We identified publications written or edited by Hunt using Web of Science, Google Scholar, and the Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior; analyzed Hunt’s co-authors and citations in those works; and tabulated Hunt’s co-cited authors for top consumer behavior journals in Web of Science. Based on the analysis and quotes from his works and others about Hunt, we also identify and discuss dimensions related to Hunt’s impact on the …

The Coronavirus Pandemic And Participation In The Influencer Economy, Emma Grace Richbourg

Honors Theses

The 2019 coronavirus pandemic, also referred to as the COVID-19 pandemic, altered day-to-day life and has effected the economy quite notably. The aim of this paper is to determine to what extent the COVID-19 pandemic altered consumer behavior and whether these alterations encouraged participation in the influencer economy, which represents social media influencers who create and monetize online content. In order to do so, I administered a survey to 250 respondents to evaluate the reach of influencers during the pandemic and whether social media users felt the presence of influencers was an effective marketing technique. I also conducted an analysis …

Essays On Labor Economics And Consumer Behavior :, Nayoung Kim

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The first two chapters in this dissertation discuss the effect of the minimum wage on the intensive margin. While the effect of the minimum wage on the extensive margin of employment has been long debated, the literature about its effects on the intensive margin remains sparse. Given the fact that more than one-third of minimum wage workers in the U.S. are part-time employees, the studies on the intensive margin of the minimum wage are as important as the one about extensive margin. The first chapter analyzes the effects of the minimum wage on the dispersion of work hours among low-educated …

The Meghan Markle Effect: An Analysis Of A 21st Century Celebrity Through A Veblenian Perspective, Lucy Jensen

University Honors Theses

Following her engagement and subsequent marriage to Prince Harry, Meghan Markle has emerged as a global figure and fashion icon. Her ability to influence fashion trends has been labelled the "Meghan effect" by the news media. This thesis research applies the theories of Thorstein Veblen, an economist and author of the extremely influential Theory of the Leisure Class (1899). The thesis has the aim of clarifying how Veblen’s thinking can be applied to Markle or comparable high-profile women. What this inquiry ultimately finds is that Veblen was indeed correct in his assumption that high-profile, wealthy people such as Markle can …

Identifying Consumer Preferences From User-Generated Content On Amazon.Com By Leveraging Machine Learning, Jikhan Jeong

Economics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Inexperienced consumers may have high uncertainty about experience goods that require technical knowledge and skills to operate effectively; therefore, experienced consumers' prior reviews can be useful for inexperienced consumers. However, one-sided review systems (e.g., Amazon) only provide the opportunity for consumers to write a review as a buyer and contain no feedback from the seller's side, so the information displayed about individual buyers is limited. Therefore, this study analyzes consumers' digital footprints (DFs) for programmable thermostats to identify and predict unobserved consumer preferences, using a dataset of 141 million Amazon reviews. This paper proposes novel approaches (1) to identify unobserved …

Can The Circular Economy Concretize Sustainability? A Construal Level Approach To Encourage Sustainable Consumption., Jolie Gutentag

Theses and Dissertations

Despite a growing awareness and understanding of the impact our lifestyles have on the environment, most people have not adequately changed their consumption patterns. One possibility for the disconnect is the perceived abstractness of sustainability. Drawing on construal level theory, this research proposes that framing environmental sustainability as circularity, using the principles of the circular economy, reduces the perceived abstractness of sustainability. Four studies investigate the effects of circular framing on sustainable consumption behavior, including the moderating role of consumers’ chronic level of construal, an innate mindset reflecting a tendency to view information more concretely or abstractly. Findings provide initial …

Race, Dignity, And Commerce, Lu-In Wang

Articles

This Essay was written at the invitation of the Journal of Law and Commerce to contribute a piece on racism and commerce—an invitation that was welcome and well timed. It arrived as renewed attention was focused on racialized policing following the killing of George Floyd and in the midst of the worsening pandemic that highlighted unrelenting racial, social, and economic inequities in our society.

The connections between racism and commerce are potentially numerous, but the relationship between discriminatory policing and commerce might not be apparent. This Essay links them through the concept of dignity. Legal scholar John Felipe Acevedo has …

Economic Analysis Of Green Marketing: The Correlation Between Consumers And Firms Through Environmental Incentives, Naomi Joyce

University Honors Theses

This thesis will seek to explore and analyze incentives in the market with relation to consumers and firms interacting in the current economic and environmental situation of the United States. These incentives are crucial to understanding the relationship between green consumerism and firm positions in the market. By analyzing the characteristics of green consumers and their reactions of firms, a better understanding of the economic relationship of firms and consumers for the future will become more apparent. The green consumer exhibits personal patterns in their purchasing habits which firms can utilize to attract the green consumer while increasing profits. When …

Iq And Gambling Consumption: An Analysis Of Horse Race Betting Participation And Expenditure Using Individual-Level Data, Niko Suhonen, Tuomo Kainulainen, Jani Saastamoinen, David Forrest Prof.

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Abstract

Recent literature suggests that intelligence is positively associated with economic outcomes involving risky decisions such as investment portfolio returns (Grinblatt et al. 2012). Gambling is a form of entertainment in which consumers buy risky products with negative expected values. However, the relationship between intelligence and gambling consumption is not understood yet. We use a unique individual-level data set from Finland to investigate how intelligence predicts gambling participation and expenditure. Our data consists of betting data from a monopoly horse race betting operator (betting participation and expenditure on betting), background information on the Finnish adult population from Statistics Finland (e.g. …

Consumer Perceptions And Demand For Locally-Grown Vegetables In South Dakota, Richard Mulder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An increasingly popular topic in the food labeling field over the last 15 years has been the increasing body of research for food that is locally produced. Consumers’ definition of, attitudes toward, and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for local food have been areas of interest for researchers. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that contributes to the current body of local foods’ research for vegetables by providing information on these areas of interest for the state of South Dakota. This study acquires data through a consumer-intercept survey conducted in grocery stores throughout South Dakota with a sample …

Recession Effect On Consumer Spend Allocation And Integrated Resorts' Profits, Toni Repetti, Ashok Singh

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Consumers have many decisions to make when it comes to travel. The first decision is choosing to travel at all, followed by how much to spend. Next based on the consumer’s motivations and preferences, they determine how to allocate their travel spend across a variety of categories. This study evaluates how revenue generation in integrated resorts changed during recessions. This allocation change in revenue also affects profits and profit margins as each department has a different cost structure. This study will also evaluate how profit and profit margins in each department were affected due to the change in revenue allocation …

Attribute Abstraction, Feature-Dimensionality, And The Scaling Of Product Similarities, Michael D. Johnson, Donald R. Lehmann, Claes Fornell, David A. Horne

Michael D. Johnson

This paper examines the attributes that consumers use when making product similarity judgments and their effect on similarity scaling. Previous research suggests that concrete brands are judged using dichotomous features while more abstract product categories are judged using continuous dimensions. This, in turn, suggests that the appropriateness of spatial scaling increases relative to tree scaling as one moves from brands to product categories. The results of two studies support an increase in the fit of spaces relative to trees from brands to categories. However, the abstractness of the judgments appears to be driving the effect, not the use of features …

Expenditure, Confidence, And Uncertainty: Identifying Shocks To Consumer Confidence Using Daily Data, Marta Lachowska

Marta Lachowska

The importance of consumer confidence in stimulating economic activity is a disputed issue in macroeconomics. Do changes in confidence represent autonomous fluctuations in optimism, independent of information on economic fundamentals, or are they a reflection of economic news? I study this question by using high-frequency microdata on spending and consumer confidence, and I find that consumer confidence contains information relevant to predicting spending, independent from other indicators. The exogenous movements in consumer confidence lead to very short fluctuations in consumer spending, consistent with the hypothesis that more consumer confidence reflects less uncertainty about the future.

Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty And Repurchase: Some Evidence From Apparel Consumers, Tamilla Curtis, Russell Abratt, Paul Dion, Dawna L. Rhoades

Dr. Tamilla Curtis

While customer satisfaction, loyalty and repurchase intent are some of the most researched areas in marketing and consumer behavior, there is little certainty on the direction and strength of these relationships. After completing a literature review, this study develops a model of loyalty dimensions, satisfaction and repurchase intent. A sample of 499 respondents who had purchased jeans was interviewed in the Southeastern United States. Results were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. The results of nine hypothesized relationships are discussed. A significant positive relationship exists between commitment and repurchase/repurchase intent. Some surprising findings also emerged as the model was modified. It …

Park Aid Systems: Factors That Affect Consumer Purchase Decisions, Nadeesha Kushlanie Surasinha Thewarapperuma

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Backover crashes in the United States result in at least 300 fatalities and 17,000 injuries every year. Backover crashes occur when a non-occupant of a vehicle is struck by a vehicle moving in reverse. Children are particularly vulnerable. Of the 300 fatalities, at least 100 deaths are children under the age of five. Limited visibility is one factor behind these deaths. The deaths are especially tragic, since the availability of a simple park aid device can expand a driver’s field of vision during a reversal maneuver. Park aid devices include a rearview camera or a sensory system.

This project is …

Expenditure, Confidence, And Uncertainty: Identifying Shocks To Consumer Confidence Using Daily Data, Marta Lachowska

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The importance of consumer confidence in stimulating economic activity is a disputed issue in macroeconomics. Do changes in confidence represent autonomous fluctuations in optimism, independent of information on economic fundamentals, or are they a reflection of economic news? I study this question by using high-frequency microdata on spending and consumer confidence, and I find that consumer confidence contains information relevant to predicting spending, independent from other indicators. The exogenous movements in consumer confidence lead to very short fluctuations in consumer spending, consistent with the hypothesis that more consumer confidence reflects less uncertainty about the future.

The Theory Of Planned Behavior And Financial Literacy: A Predictive Model For Credit Card Debt?, Brian P. Kennedy

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The primary purpose of this study was to predict credit card debt among college students by augmenting Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behavior to include the construct of financial literacy. One hundred and forty-three undergraduates completed an online survey measuring attitudes toward credit cards, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and financial literacy. Statistical analyses revealed that attitudes toward credit, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control successfully predicted students’ intention to use credit cards (R²=.32). Financial literacy failed to predict intention to use credit cards. However, a positive correlation was found between attitudes toward credit cards and amount of …

The Long-Term Impact Of A Loyalty Program: An Evaluation From A Las Vegas Casino Hotel, Myongjee Yoo

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Loyalty programs are popular marketing strategies intended to attract, maintain, and enhance customer relationships. Despite the widespread usage of loyalty programs across various businesses, its effectiveness has not been well validated. Few empirical studies attempted to evaluate the value of loyalty programs but the findings have been conflicting with each other. Given the competitive climate of such a highly saturated competitive market of the hospitality industry, it is meaningful for hospitality marketers to evaluate the effectiveness of loyalty programs to increase customer retention and profitability. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a hospitality …

An Analysis Of Consumer Behavior On Black Friday, Linda Simpson, Lisa Taylor, Kathleen O'Rourke, Katherine Shaw

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

The purpose of this study was to observe and analyze the consumer behaviors and commentary of the Black Friday customer. An observational instrument documented consumer in-line behavior while waiting for the stores to open, store entry behavior, and individual behavior. Findings show that the majority of the shoppers demonstrated calmness, courteousness, and happiness during the shopping experience; however, a number of shoppers exhibited negative and potentially dangerous behaviors which pose a safety concern for store personnel and other shoppers. Implications for retailers, researchers, and family and consumer sciences educators are discussed.

An Analysis Of Consumer Behavior On Black Friday, Linda Simpson, Lisa Taylor, Kathleen O'Rourke, Katherine Shaw

Linda Simpson

The purpose of this study was to observe and analyze the consumer behaviors and commentary of the Black Friday customer. An observational instrument documented consumer in-line behavior while waiting for the stores to open, store entry behavior, and individual behavior. Findings show that the majority of the shoppers demonstrated calmness, courteousness, and happiness during the shopping experience; however, a number of shoppers exhibited negative and potentially dangerous behaviors which pose a safety concern for store personnel and other shoppers. Implications for retailers, researchers, and family and consumer sciences educators are discussed.

An Analysis Of Consumer Behavior On Black Friday, Linda Simpson, Lisa Taylor, Kathleen O'Rourke, Katherine Shaw

Faculty Research & Creative Activity until 2018 (FCS)

The purpose of this study was to observe and analyze the consumer behaviors and commentary of the Black Friday customer. An observational instrument documented consumer in-line behavior while waiting for the stores to open, store entry behavior, and individual behavior. Findings show that the majority of the shoppers demonstrated calmness, courteousness, and happiness during the shopping experience; however, a number of shoppers exhibited negative and potentially dangerous behaviors which pose a safety concern for store personnel and other shoppers. Implications for retailers, researchers, and family and consumer sciences educators are discussed.

Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty And Repurchase: Some Evidence From Apparel Consumers, Tamilla Curtis, Russell Abratt, Paul Dion, Dawna L. Rhoades

Management, Marketing and Operations - Daytona Beach

While customer satisfaction, loyalty and repurchase intent are some of the most researched areas in marketing and consumer behavior, there is little certainty on the direction and strength of these relationships. After completing a literature review, this study develops a model of loyalty dimensions, satisfaction and repurchase intent. A sample of 499 respondents who had purchased jeans was interviewed in the Southeastern United States. Results were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. The results of nine hypothesized relationships are discussed. A significant positive relationship exists between commitment and repurchase/repurchase intent. Some surprising findings also emerged as the model was modified. It …

Consumer Behavior And Competition In Retailing (A Short Note), Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin

Drawing on a small but growing literature, this note argues that consumer behavior may be as important as firm behavior for the level of competition in consumer industries such as retailing. We use data on 1.948 retail stores in India and contribute to the literature in three ways. First, we find that the number of non-workers in the household, a proxy for time cost of shopping, has a large effect on competition. Moving from the city with the least to the most number of non-workers increases competition by 84% of its mean level. Second, as suggested in the literature, we …

Public Goods And The Value Of Product Quality Regulations: The Case Of Food Safety, Stephen F. Hamilton, David L. Sunding, David Zilberman

Economics

The paper examines preferences for product quality regulations. Our premise is that preferences for product quality regulations derive from preferences for both private and public goods. The model is used to explain public attitudes toward a referendum measure to eliminate pesticide residues on food. Results from a survey of consumers are consistent with the conceptual model and show that preferences for public goods influence support for the product quality regulation. The results help explain why consumption behavior is a poor predictor of political behavior, and have implications for methods that use voting and market behavior to value public goods.