Matching Items (26)
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- All Subjects: Marketing
- Creators: Mandel, Naomi
- Creators: Park, Sungho
- Creators: Kumar, Ajith
- Member of: ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Description
This research examines the effects of using similar vs. dissimilar models in health messages on message compliance. I find that level of self-awareness moderates the effect of model similarity on message compliance. Across three studies, I demonstrate that when self-awareness is high, a health message that contains a similar model leads to higher compliance than the same message containing a dissimilar model. On the other hand, when self-awareness is low, a health message that contains a similar model leads to lower message compliance than the same message containing a dissimilar model. Additionally, I demonstrate that the increased compliance observed when self-awareness is high and a similar model is used is associated with self-enhancing behavior and increased engagement with the ad, while the decreased compliance observed when self-awareness is low and a similar model is used is associated with disregarding the ad.
ContributorsLoveland, Katherine (Author) / Mandel, Naomi (Thesis advisor) / Miller, Elizabeth G. (Committee member) / Morales, Andrea C. (Committee member) / Smeesters, Dirk (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The marketing and development of solutions has become an increasingly important concept in both marketing practice and theory. Recent conceptual work has defined solutions as sets of products and services that allow customers to achieve customized outcomes. Although the definition of a solution is becoming clearer, the process through which solution value is generated is still opaque. The purpose of this study was to add clarity to both marketing theory and practice by examining the solution value co-creation process in depth. Service-dominant logic, the relational view, service value co-creation, and theories of organizational learning and knowledge were the basis for this examination. Social capital was also examined to determine how these important relational concepts are involved in solution development. The study was conducted in four separate phases using a multi-method approach of quantitative surveys, qualitative surveys, and depth interviews. A large, multinational educational firm provided the context for the study which included access to their solution sales force and customer base. Quantitative data was collected from 97 key informants across 182 different customer opportunities for both new and existing solution engagements. Qualitative data was also collected from 71 respondents to provide a mixed-method triangulation of how solution value is created. Overall, the study provided strong support to the idea that knowledge sharing between solution providers and their customers plays a pivotal role in the co-creation of solution value.
ContributorsSellman, Collin (Author) / Hutt, Michael (Thesis advisor) / Kumar, Ajith (Committee member) / Walker, Beth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
We apply a Bayesian network-based approach for determining the structure of consumers' brand concept maps, and we further extend this approach in order to provide a precise delineation of the set of cognitive variations of that brand concept map structure which can simultaneously coexist within the data. This methodology can operate with nonlinear as well as linear relationships between the variables, and utilizes simple Likert-style marketing survey data as input. In addition, the method can operate without any a priori hypothesized structures or relations among the brand associations in the model. The resulting brand concept map structures delineate directional (as opposed to simply correlational) relations among the brand associations, and differentiates between the predictive and the diagnostic directions within each link. Further, we determine a Bayesian network-based link strength measure, and apply it to a comparison of the strengths of the connections between different semantic categories of brand association descriptors, as well as between different strategically important drivers of brand differentiation. Finally, we apply a precise form of information propagation through the predictive and diagnostic links within the network in order to evaluate the effect of introducing new information to the brand concept network. This overall methodology operates via a factorization of the joint distribution of the brand association variables via conditional independence properties and an application of the causal Markov condition, and as such, it represents an alternative approach to correlation-based structural determination methods. By using conditional independence as a core structural construct, the methods utilized here are especially well- suited for determining and analyzing asymmetric or directional beliefs about brand or product attributes. This methodology builds on the pioneering Brand Concept Mapping approach of Roedder John et al. (2006). Similar to that approach, the Bayesian network-based method derives the specific link-by-link structure among a brand's associations, and also allows for a precise quantitative determination of the likely effects that manipulation of specific brand associations will have upon other strategically important associations within that brand image. In addition, the method's precise informational semantics and specific structural measures allow for a greater understanding of the structure of these brand associations.
ContributorsBrownstein, Steven Alan (Author) / Reingen, Peter (Thesis advisor) / Kumar, Ajith (Committee member) / Mokwa, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Identifying factors associated with service infusion success has become an important issue in theory and practice, as manufacturers turn to services to advance performance. The goals of this dissertation are to identify the key factors associated with service infusion success and develop an integrative framework and associated research propositions to isolate the underlying determinants of successful hybrid solution strategies for business customers. This dissertation is comprised of two phases. The first phase taps into the experience and learning gained by executives from Fortune-100 manufacturing firms who are managing the transition from goods to hybrid offerings for their customers. A discovery-oriented, theory-in-use approach is adopted to glean insights concerning the factors that facilitate and hinder those service transition strategies. Twenty-eight interviews were conducted with key executives, transcripts were analyzed and key themes were identified with special attention directed to the particular capabilities that managers consider crucial for successful service-growth strategies. One such capability centers on the ability of a firm to successfully transfer newly-developed hybrid solutions from one customer engagement to another. Building on this foundation, phase two involves a case study that provides an in-depth examination of the hybrid offering replication process in a business-to-business firm attempting to replicate four strategic hybrid offerings. Emergent themes, based on 13 manager interviews, reveal factors that promote or impede successful hybrid offering transfer. Among the factors that underlie successful hybrid offering transfers across customer engagements are close customer relationships, a clear value proposition embraced by organizational numbers, an accurate forecast of market potential, and collaborative working relationships across units. The findings from the field studies provided a catalyst for a deeper examination of existing literature and formed the building blocks for the conceptual model and several key research propositions related to the successful transfer of hybrid offerings. The model isolates five sets of factors that influence the hybrid offering transfer process, including the characteristics of (1) the source project team, (2) the seeking project team, (3) the hybrid offering, (4) the relationship exchange, and (5) the customer. The conceptualization isolates the critical role that the customer assumes in service infusion strategy implementation.
ContributorsSalas, Jim (Author) / Walker, Beth (Thesis advisor) / Hutt, Michael D. (Thesis advisor) / Park, Sungho (Committee member) / Ulaga, Wolfgang (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This study investigates how well prominent behavioral theories from social psychology explain green purchasing behavior (GPB). I assess three prominent theories in terms of their suitability for GPB research, their attractiveness to GPB empiricists, and the strength of their empirical evidence when applied to GPB. First, a qualitative assessment of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), Norm Activation Theory (NAT), and Value-Belief-Norm Theory (VBN) is conducted to evaluate a) how well the phenomenon and concepts in each theory match the characteristics of pro-environmental behavior and b) how well the assumptions made in each theory match common assumptions made in purchasing theory. Second, a quantitative assessment of these three theories is conducted in which r2 values and methodological parameters (e.g., sample size) are collected from a sample of 21 empirical studies on GPB to evaluate the accuracy and generalize-ability of empirical evidence. In the qualitative assessment, the results show each theory has its advantages and disadvantages. The results also provide a theoretically-grounded roadmap for modifying each theory to be more suitable for GPB research. In the quantitative assessment, the TPB outperforms the other two theories in every aspect taken into consideration. It proves to 1) create the most accurate models 2) be supported by the most generalize-able empirical evidence and 3) be the most attractive theory to empiricists. Although the TPB establishes itself as the best foundational theory for an empiricist to start from, it's clear that a more comprehensive model is needed to achieve consistent results and improve our understanding of GPB. NAT and the Theory of Interpersonal Behavior (TIB) offer pathways to extend the TPB. The TIB seems particularly apt for this endeavor, while VBN does not appear to have much to offer. Overall, the TPB has already proven to hold a relatively high predictive value. But with the state of ecosystem services continuing to decline on a global scale, it's important for models of GPB to become more accurate and reliable. Better models have the capacity to help marketing professionals, product developers, and policy makers develop strategies for encouraging consumers to buy green products.
ContributorsRedd, Thomas Christopher (Author) / Dooley, Kevin (Thesis advisor) / Basile, George (Committee member) / Darnall, Nicole (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Understanding the customer experience, which requires a thorough knowledge of all touchpoints that can result from the way that a product is marketed, sold, and used has recently been identified as a research priority by the Marketing Science Institute. Although recent research has examined some aspects of the customer experience, research has yet to examine the way in which the full spectrum of touchpoint experiences may drive particular marketing performance metrics. Significant challenges to this line of research are the complex network of relationships that competing firms have forged with channel partners, the relationships that focal customers have with other customers in social networks and user communities, and the relationships that customers have with the brand and with channel partners. To address these challenges, this paper examined the customer experience and its effects on loyalty and commitment through three research projects conducted in the consumer aviation market. The first and second studies examined these touchpoint experiences using archival data supplied by an avionics manufacturer. Results from these studies showed the importance of the customer experience in accounting for customer loyalty. The final study examined the role of identity in shaping the customer experience among aircraft owners through a series of depth interviews. Results from these interviews illustrated the importance of identity in shaping the customer experience, and provided insights into how individuals attempt to use their consumption experiences to reinforce a sense of identity
ContributorsLoveland, James (Author) / Hutt, Michael (Thesis advisor) / Kumar, Ajith (Committee member) / Walker, Beth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This research explores the influence of brand and shelf display cues on consumer preferences for products that appear to be in scarce supply. In so doing, I develop a theoretical model of how scarcity operates in the retail environment, identifying when it increases purchase intentions, when it decreases purchase intentions, and the underlying mechanisms driving these outcomes. Across a series of five studies, I find that when consumers infer that products are scarce due to popularity, they are more likely to buy these products, but only when the products are unfamiliar nonfood brands. I also find that scarce products are less likely to be purchased when they are familiar food brands. In addition, the price of the product is an important moderator of these effects, as price further influences perceptions about the popularity of the product.
ContributorsCastro, Iana Alexandra (Author) / Ketcham, Andrea M (Thesis advisor) / Nowlis, Stephen M. (Committee member) / Ward, James C (Committee member) / Mandel, Naomi (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
Description
Consumers search before making virtually any purchase. The notion that consumers engage in costly search is well-understood to have deep implications for market performance. However to date, no theoretical model allows for the observation that consumers often purchase more than a single product in an individual shopping occasion. Clothing, food, books, and music are but four important examples of goods that are purchased many items at a time. I develop a modeling approach that accounts for multi-purchase occasions in a structural way. My model shows that as preference for variety increases, so does the size of the consideration set. Search models that ignore preference for variety are, therefore, likely to under-predict the number of products searched. It is generally thought that lower search costs increase retail competition which pushes prices and assortments down. However, I show that there is an optimal number of products to offer depending on the intensity of consumer search costs. Consumers with high search costs prefer to shop at a store with a large assortment of goods and purchase multiple products, even if the prices that firm charges is higher than competing firms' prices. On the other hand, consumers with low search costs tend to purchase fewer goods and shop at the stores that have lower prices, as long as the store has a reasonable assortment offering. The implications for market performance are dramatic and pervasive. In particular, the misspecification of demand model in which search is important and/or multiple discreteness is observed will produce biased parameter estimates leading to erroneous managerial conclusions.
ContributorsAllender, William Jacob (Author) / Richards, Timothy J. (Thesis advisor) / Park, Sungho (Committee member) / Hamilton, Stephen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Marketers have extensive data on consumers used to enhance value for consumers. However, the same segmenting, targeting, and positioning practices that provide value for unique, specific consumers, can also create the conditions to discriminate against groups with any given characteristic. In this research I examine this tension by unpacking contexts surrounding (a) who feels discriminated against in response to contrasting marketplace treatment and (b) who is still overlooked, despite all marketers seem to know about consumers. Specifically, in Chapter 1 I examine how men’s and women’s responses to the common practice of gender-based price variation differ. I find that women view higher prices for themselves as signals of gender discrimination that are unfair, which negatively impacts many brand outcomes (i.e., choice, purchase likelihood, competitor patronage). In contrast, men are less attuned to the prices as signals of gender discrimination because they are more likely to endorse free market principles, and so their perceived price unfairness and subsequent brand responses are not as negatively impacted. I find that these effects persist across utilitarian and hedonic items, across products, services, and experiences, across temporary and permanent price differences, and is specific to gender-based price variation, not gendering alone or price differences alone.
In Chapter 2, I examine marketplace stereotypes of people with disabilities, an understudied group despite being the largest global minority. In this research, I reveal the disability preference stereotype, the inference that individuals with disabilities prefer utilitarian, over hedonic items, even though hedonic enjoyment is important to the well-being commonly sought as part of the human experience. These inferred preferences are misaligned with the actual preferences of disabled consumers. This bias occurs even when observers are informed that the product is a gift, when provided substantial information about the target consumer’s hedonic interests, and when the items are completely unrelated to disability (e.g., a documentary versus reality television streaming channel). This suppression of hedonic interests and pursuits can be mitigated if the target’s perceived need for support is attenuated through improvements in environmental accessibility.
ContributorsVan der Sluis, Helen (Author) / Morales, Andrea C (Thesis advisor) / Samper, Adriana (Thesis advisor) / Mandel, Naomi (Committee member) / Lamberton, Cait (Committee member) / Dahl, Darren (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Using a combination of laboratory experiments, field experiments, and secondary data, this dissertation examines how cross-cultural differences (e.g., thinking style and self-construal) influence the way consumers cope with self-discrepancies (essay 1) and willingness to digitally enhance their appearance (essay 2). The first essay investigates when and why consumers cope with a self-discrepancy by purchasing products in domains that are important to their self-worth, but unrelated to the self-discrepancy (i.e., fluid compensation). I identify thinking style as an important factor that influences fluid compensation and demonstrate that people with a temporarily activated or dispositional holistic thinking style are more likely to engage in fluid compensation than people with an analytic thinking style. This phenomenon occurs because, by perceiving parts as more functionally related to a larger whole, holistic (vs. analytic) thinkers are more likely to view fluid compensation as instrumental to enhancing global self-worth. Holistic (vs. analytic) thinkers’ greater propensity to engage in fluid compensation, in turn, better enables them to restore their global self-worth. The second essay examines how cultural differences in self-construal impact consumers’ willingness to engage in digital beauty work (e.g., use photo-editing apps to make oneself look better in an image). Building on prior research that shows interdependents see more overlap between themselves and others, I propose and demonstrate that consumers with an interdependent (vs. independent) self-construal also see greater overlap between their own different selves (beautified and true self). More importantly, this effect only occurs when they see both the actual self and the beautified self, side-by-side (e.g., joint presentation mode), but not when consumers see only the beautified self in isolation (e.g., separate presentation mode). This heightened overlap between the beautified self and the true self, in turn, increases willingness to digitally enhance appearance. Together, this dissertation contributes to the understanding of how cultural values shape consumers’ views of the self and consumption preferences to satisfy their goals and motivations, and it helps marketers and policy-makers design interventions to increase consumer well-being and to achieve more success in global market.
ContributorsWang, Qin (Author) / Mandel, Naomi (Thesis advisor) / Lisjak, Monika (Thesis advisor) / Samper, Adriana (Committee member) / Morales, Andrea C. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022