Marketing Theses and Dissertations

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AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE IMPACT OF SEX ROLE IDENTITY ON THE EFFECTIVE PERFORMANCE OF SALESWOMEN
(1988) Bowers Comer, Lucette; Jolson, Marvin A.; Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
Because of an increasing shortage of qualified salespersonnel, recruiters for sales positions are very receptive to female applicants. Despite this, sex-discrimination is still detectable in the market place. Some sales managers resist bringing women into male-oriented areas of selling, criticizing them for alleged weaknesses. Their criticisms stem from the belief that saleswomen will behave according to gender stereotypes on the job and that this behavior will impact negatively on selling performance. Sales managers need assurance that the saleswomen they hire will perform well on the job. This research investigated the usefulness of the concept of "sex role identity" as a basis for segmenting the pool of female applicants by their potential for effective performance. A survey was conducted of sales managers in three traditionally male areas of selling, who described saleswomen under their supervision. The relationships between sales managers' perceptions of gender stereotypic behavior, selling effectiveness, and sex role identity were examined. Saleswomen' s gender stereotypic behavior was defined as perceived weaknesses in three areas: "selling ability," "human relations," and "motivation." Selling effectiveness was measured as perceived proficiency in performance of six functions of selling and non-selling activities. Saleswomen were classified into sex role types on the basis of their sales managers' perceptions of their masculine ("instrumental") and feminine ("expressive") traits in their sex role identities on the Bem Sex Role Inventory. Seven research hypotheses were tested using univariate and multivariate analysis of variance and correlational analyses. The results showed that sales managers perceived some gender stereotypic behavior in the marketplace and that some of this behavior was associated with reduced selling effectiveness. Sex role types of saleswomen related to both perceived gender stereotypic behavior and selling effectiveness. Androgynous and masculine saleswomen were perceived 'as being the least stereotyped and the most effective performers. The findings give partial support for a two-dimensional model of selling effectiveness defined by masculine "instrumentality" and feminine "expressiveness." The results have implications for the selection, training , and supervision of saleswomen.
Marketing of Digital Products
(2005-04-20) Koukova, Nevena Taneva; Ratchford, Brian T.; Kannan, P.K.; Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
My dissertation comprises of three essays that theoretically and empirically investigate the marketing of digital products, which are information products such as newspapers and books sold in both physical and electronic form. In the first essay, we study product form bundling, defined as marketing two or more forms of the same product as a package. We show experimentally that, regarding information products, the usage situations communicated to consumers moderate the effect of the availability of bundle discount on the purchase likelihood for the product form bundle. We also compare the effect of different pricing strategies for information products. When no bundle discount is offered, the likelihood of buying both forms of an information product, holding the sum of their prices constant, can be increased by pricing the electronic form lower than the print form rather then pricing both at the same level. In the second essay we compare two product strategies that can be used in marketing digital products. Under standard mixed bundling companies offer full content in print and electronic form and the bundle of the two, while under content unbundled mixed bundling companies offer full content in print form, unbundled content in electronic form, and the bundle of the two. Which strategy is more attractive for a company to pursue? We model the profits under these two strategies and outline conditions in which one or the other leads to higher profit. We apply our analytical framework to data from a field experiment implemented on the website of a book publisher. The third essay investigates the attractiveness of complete product lines of items such as books and newspapers. We employ a choice experiment in which a sample of consumers is presented with hypothetical product scenarios asked to make a choice. The data is used to develop a profit-maximizing configuration of products and prices. Similar approaches to the product line pricing problem have been employed for conventional products, but not when bundling of different forms of a product is an option, and not when the different products may be complements rather than substitutes.
Essays on New Product Development
(2005-05-17) Luo, Lan; Ratchford, Brian T.; Kannan, Pallassana K.; Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
My dissertation comprises three essays that theoretically and empirically investigate three managerial relevant issues in new product development. In the first essay, our focus is to develop a methodology that allows manufacturers to account for the impact of channel acceptance in new product development. We have developed a model to incorporate the retailer's acceptance criteria, retailer's product assortment, and competing manufacturers' potential reactions directly in the design of the new product, thereby maximizing the product's success probabilities. Our model merges a game-theoretical model with micro-level data on individual consumer preferences. Therefore, this method provides a rigorous, yet practical, solution to the problems that manufacturers face regarding channel acceptance. In the second essay, we examine the impact of subjective characteristics (such as aesthetics and ergonomics) on consumer's preferences for products. Existing studies of consumer preferences such as conjoint models are limited in incorporating the influence of these subjective characteristics into product design. We have developed a model to determine whether the subjective characteristics (such as comfort) are connected with the objective product attributes (such as switch type), and whether both the objective product attributes and the subjective characteristics jointly affect consumer's evaluations towards products. We show that our model outperforms the conjoint model in understanding and designing appealing products for consumers. In the third essay, our goal is to account for variations in product performance across different usage situations and conditions and to design robust new products. Consumer durables such as appliances and power tools tend to be used in various usage situations and conditions, in which their performance can vary depending on the operating conditions. We apply a Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm (MOGA) to incorporate multi-function criteria in the generation and comparison of product design alternatives. Our approach will be particularly useful for product development teams that want to obtain customers' buy-in as well as internal buy-in early on in the product development cycle. We illustrate the approaches described above in the context of a new power tool development project undertaken by a US manufacturer.
Influencing Consumers' Preferences: The Effects of Mental Construal and Mode of Information Processing
(2006-03-27) Thompson, Debora Viana; Rust, Roland T.; Hamilton, Rebecca W.; Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This dissertation comprises a series of three essays that investigate the influence of consumers' mental construal and information processing on product evaluations. In the first essay, we examine shifts in consumers' preferences for products before and after a direct product use experience. This essay investigates how consumers balance their desire for product capability and product usability when they evaluate products with different numbers of features, before and after use. Three studies show that consumers understand that there are usability costs and capability benefits when features are added to products. However, consumers tend to give more weight to capability and less weight to usability in their product evaluations before use relative to after use, which results in choices that do not maximize satisfaction after use - an effect we refer to as "feature fatigue." In the second essay, we investigate a theoretical explanation for this discrepancy between product evaluations before and after use. Based on construal level theory, we predict that changes in product preferences before and after can be explained by changes in consumers' level of mental representation before and after a direct product experience. Results indicate that when consumers evaluate products before use, they tend to adopt a higher-level, more abstract mental representation of the product, which favors desirability aspects (such as capability) over feasibility aspects (such as usability). However, after product use, consumers tend to adopt a lower-level, more concrete mental representation of the product and are more influenced by feasibility aspects than desirability aspects. In the third essay, we investigate the influence of two modes of information processing, analytical and imagery processing, on consumers' evaluations of products that are advertised through comparative and noncomparative ads. We propose that matching ad format and consumers' mode of information processing improves ad effectiveness by enhancing information processability. Results show that when consumers are exposed to comparative ads, evaluations of the sponsor product are enhanced when consumers use analytical processing as opposed to imagery processing. In contrast, when consumers are exposed to noncomparative ads, evaluations of the sponsor product are more favorable when they use imagery processing rather than analytical processing.
Advances in Mathematical Models in Marketing
(2007-04-18) Aravindakshan, Ashwin; Rust, Roland T; Business and Management: Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This dissertation comprises a series of three essays that relate advances made to both theoretical and empirical issues in marketing. The first essay discusses the issue of endogeneity of market share and price in logit models and provides a theoretical procedure to solve this problem. The inseparability of demand and price make the possibility of drawing definite conclusions about either almost impossible. We employ a recently rediscovered mathematical function called the 'LambertW' to solve this problem of endogeneity and in turn yield logit models more conducive to theoretical study. We also employ this methodology to the problem studied by Basuroy and Nguyen (1998). The second essay deals with the issue of pricing implicit bundling. Implicit bundles are products that are sold separately but provide an enhanced level of satisfaction if purchased together. We develop a model that would account for the possible relationships of the products across the different product lines. We show that accounting for these relationships would decrease the amount of price competition in the market and also allow the Firm to enjoy higher profits. We also account for the endogeneity of price and market share when deriving the optimal solutions. We show that optimal prices first increase as the relationship between the firm's two products become stronger and then decrease as the two products become more exclusive to each other. Finally, we also find that a firm's prices increase as the competitor's contingent valuations increase. The third essay helps improve the efficacy of CRM interventions by analyzing the latent psychological loyalty states of the customer. We use state space models to predict these latent loyalty states using observed data. We then use the predicted values of loyalty to derive the probability of repurchase of the customer. We also identify the types of CRM interventions that play a role in improving the loyalty of the customer to the firm and those interventions that have no effect. We compare our model's predictions to those derived from two other estimation methods. We find that our predictions are better than those computed from the other methods discussed.
Essays on Making Interdependent Decisions and Their Evaluations
(2007-04-30) Oza, Shweta S; Srivastava, Joydeep; Business and Management: Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This dissertation comprises of two essays that investigate factors influencing interdependent decision-making and the evaluations of such decision outcomes. In the first essay, we examine the influence of time taken by a bargaining opponent to respond to an offer on bargainers' perceptions of their own bargaining outcomes. Extending previous research in several important ways, we propose and test a conceptualization where inferences of opponent's reservation price lie at the core of the underlying explanation. Second, we provide additional insight into the underlying process by showing that delay influences perceptions of bargaining outcomes only when it is related to the bargaining. Third, unlike previous work that examined the effect of delay when an offer was accepted, we extend the inquiry to situations where an offer is rejected. Fourth, we identify and test two factors - knowledge of opponent's best alternative to negotiated agreement and persuasion knowledge - that moderate the influence of response time on perceptions of bargaining outcomes. Results of five studies provide insight into the underlying process by identifying and testing boundary conditions for the effect of delay. In the second essay, we focus on generic campaigns that are funded voluntarily (rather than mandatory contributions), and examine the influence of situational factors (e.g., market trends) and solicitation appeals on voluntary contributions to a generic campaign. Viewing generic advertising campaigns as a public goods problem, a conceptual framework based on goal systems theory is developed to suggest that situational factors such as market trends induce different goals, which in turn, influence voluntary contributions. The conceptual framework also suggests that a solicitation appeal that is more congruent with the induced goal is likely to be more effective in increasing voluntary contributions relative to incongruent appeals. Consistent with the framework, three studies show that voluntary contributions to generic campaigns are higher when the market trend is declining versus increasing. Further, solicitations that make the induced goal and the means to achieve that goal salient are more effective in increasing contributions. The implications of the findings are discussed along with directions for future research.
My Mobile Music: An Adaptive Personalization System For Digital Audio Players
(2007-07-30) Chung, Tuck Siong; Rust, Roland T.; Wedel, Michel; Business and Management: Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This paper develops a music recommendation system that automates the downloading of songs into a mobile digital audio device. The system tailors the composition of the songs to the preferences of individuals based on past behaviors. By assuming that an individual will listen longer to a song that provides a higher utility, we describe and predict individual listening behavior using a lognormal hazard function. Our recommendation system is the first to accomplish this and there is no viable alternative. Yet, our proposed approach provides an improvement over naïve methods that could be used for product recommendations. Our system has a number of distinct features. First, we use of a Sequential Monte Carlo algorithm that enables the system to deal with massive historic datasets on listening behavior of individuals. Second, we apply a variable selection procedure that helps to reduce the dimensionality of the problem, because in many applications the collection of songs need to be described by a very large number of explanatory variables (in particular music genres variables). Third, our system recommends a batch of products rather than a single product, taking into account the predicted utility and the uncertainty in the parameter estimates, and applying experimental design methods. The simulation section of this paper demonstrated that our model does achieve it objectives in handling massive data and improving predictions through model averaging. By using simulated data in the simulation, and thus knowing the true parameters, the Sequential Monte Carlo and variable selection procedures were shown to provide good estimates of an individual's preferences. Experimental results show that variable selection does simplify estimation and prediction as different individuals differ in the number of variables need to definite their listening behaviors. The results also show that for some individuals, model averaging does in fact help to improve predictions. The results of the experiment show that our model provides 23 - 35% improvement in recommendations. This improvement is achieved in a single wave and in a natural experimental setting in which the subjects have a choice or when, where and how they want to listen to the songs.
Effects of Performance Schedules on Event Ticket Sales
(2009) Tseng, Peggy Hui-Hsing; Moe, Wendy W.; Business and Management: Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Event scheduling is one of many important decisions facing event marketers in the entertainment industry (i.e., how should multiple performances be scheduled across markets, across venues, and over time?). While there is ample research examining the issues of costs and constraints associated with such a decision, virtually no research exists to examine the impact of these decisions on consumer demand. Hence, the objective of this dissertation is to examine how consumers respond to event marketers' scheduling decisions. First, a scheduling effect may arise from performances within a market. When performances are scheduled closely in distance or time, their similarity in venue locations or performance dates may result in a stronger relationship and influence ticket sales. This relationship may have a positive effect on ticket sales because the similarity could signal the quality of an event and suggest the desirability of these performances. Thus, these performances attract more consumers and sell more tickets. However, the relationship could be negative. When performances are close in distance or time, they become direct substitutes and compete for consumer patronage. Another effect arises from an event distribution across markets. When an event travels from one market to another and each market has a different performance schedule, the word of mouth of this event may accumulate and carry over to later markets. If so, market sales may be a good proxy of word of mouth. How well (or poorly) an event sells in preceding markets may affect ticket sales in following markets. This dissertation consists of three essays to examine the abovementioned scheduling effects. We contact a national ticket seller to acquire a dataset containing ticket sales of a family event traveling across 42 markets. The first essay analyzes a performance schedule in one metropolitan market and investigates the scheduling effect on ticket sales. The second essay employs all performance schedules in 42 markets to study heterogeneous market responses and propose explanatory factors. Finally, the third essay incorporates the distribution sequence of this event and examines whether ticket sales in preceding markets have a carryover effect to influence ticket sales in later markets.
THE INFLUENCE OF CONSUMER MOTIVATIONS ON CONSUMPTION INTENTIONS AND BEHAVIOR
(2009) Espinoza, Francine; Hamilton, Rebecca W; Srivastava, Joydeep; Business and Management: Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This Dissertation comprises two essays that investigate how consumers' different motivations affect their cognitive responses and consumption behavior. Essay 1 shows that consumers' motivation to rely on their own opinion and correct their judgments for the influence of a product recommendation moderates source credibility effects on judgment certainty and behavioral intentions. Building upon earlier research showing that correction may decrease judgment certainty, we propose that, contrary to this unidirectional effect, correction has an asymmetric effect on judgment certainty and behavioral intentions, depending on the initial recommendation credibility. In a series of three studies, we provide support for the asymmetric effect of correction and show that when consumers correct for the influence of a high credibility recommendation, their judgment certainty and behavioral intentions decrease, but when they correct for the influence of a low credibility recommendation, their judgment certainty and behavioral intentions increase. Essay 2 examines the influence of consumers' motivations on product valuation and proposes that while buyers are intrinsically motivated to minimize what they are giving up, sellers are intrinsically motivated to maximize what they are getting. These differential goals lead to a discrepancy in product valuation of buyers relative to sellers. In a series of five studies, we provide support for the motivated valuation explanation for the disparity between buying and selling prices and show that when the goal pursuit of buyers and sellers is altered, buyers may be willing to buy for a higher price and sellers may be willing to buy for a lower price.
Using Online Search Data to Forecast New Product Sales
(2010) Kulkarni, Gauri M.; Kannan, P.K.; Moe, Wendy W; Business and Management: Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This dissertation focuses on online search as a measure of consumer interest. Internet use is at an all-time high in the United States, and according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 91% of Internet users use search engines to find information. Consumers' choices of search terms are not well understood. However, we argue that people will focus their searches on terms that are of interest to them. As such, data on the search terms used can provide valuable measures and indicators of consumer interest in a market. This can be particularly valuable to managers in search of tools to gauge potential product interest in a new product launch. In this research, we develop a model of pre-launch search activity. We find search term usage to follow rather predictable patterns in the pre-launch and post-launch periods. As such, we extend our pre-launch search model to link pre-release search behavior to release-week sales - providing a very valuable forecasting tool. We illustrate this approach in the context of motion pictures. Our modeling framework links search activity to sales and incorporates product characteristics. Our results indicate consistent patterns of search over time and systematic relationships between search volume, sales, and product attributes. We extend our model by studying the role of advertising. This allows us to better understand the relationship between advertising and online search activity and also allows us to compare the forecasting performances of each of the two approaches. We find that search data offers significant forecasting power in opening-weekend box-office revenues. We further find that advertising, combined with search data, offers improved forecasting ability.
ESSAYS ON MARKETING MODEL APPLICATIONS FOR ONLINE AND OFFLINE COMMUNITIES
(2011) Gao, Jing; Kannan, P.K.; Zhang, Jie; Business and Management: Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Social interactions in a community influence perceptions and values of members of the community. Recently Web 2.0 technologies have stimulated rapid growth of online communities, where communications between participants are made much easier. It is important to study how participants' behaviors and preferences are affected by their communities. In my dissertation, I develop quantitative marketing models to empirically study perceptions and attitudes of participants in online and offline communities. Essay 1 examines an offline community, distributor community in multi-level marketing organizations. We propose a spatial model to understand the determinants of distributor satisfaction and simultaneously account for biases in measures in the context of cross-country marketing operations. We define an attribute-space using measures such as sales momentum and effort expended on business by distributors. The relationship between distributor satisfaction and its drivers varies within this attribute-space and across markets. Based on survey data from a large multi-national multilevel marketing firm, we empirically illustrate how marketing control variables impact distributor satisfaction scores across countries after controlling for biases. We also discuss the resource allocation implications based on the study. Essay 2 studies an online community, online bargain hunting forum. We investigate whether and how online discussions posted by active participants affect the interest and preference of the silent majority. We collect data from a major bargain hunting forum. Our analysis of the online discussions goes beyond measures of volume and valence, and delves into the specific contents of discussions posted in the forum. We classify the contents into a range of specific categories, and develop a Bayesian Poisson-Binomial model to examine how silent viewers' interest in and preference for a featured deal are influenced by the discussions, while controlling for many other factors. Our results show that the content of discussions posted by active participants indeed affects the silent viewers' interest in and preference for a featured deal, and that the effects are different across the specific categories of content. Our findings demonstrate that marketers can benefit from monitoring activities in online bargaining hunting forums, and suggest ways for them to participating in these forums.
DYNAMIC CONSUMER DECISION MAKING PROCESS IN E-COMMERCE
(2011) Shi, Wei; Wedel, Michel; Business and Management: Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This dissertation studies the dynamic decision making process in E-commerce. In the first essay, we use eye tracking to investigate how consumers make information acquisition decisions on attribute-by-product matrices in online choice environment such as comparison websites. Hierarchical Hidden Markov Model is used to describe this process. The model consists of three connected hierarchical layers: a lower layer that describes the eye movements, a middle layer that identifies product- and attribute-based information acquisition modes, and an upper layer that flexibly captures switching between these modes over time. Findings of a controlled experiment show that low-level properties of the eye and the visual brain play an important role in dynamic information acquisition. Consumer switch frequently between two acquisition modes, and higher switching frequency increases decision time and reduces easiness of decision making. These results have implications for web design and online retailing, and may open new directions for research and theories of online choice. The second essay investigates how usage experience with different types of decision aids contributes to the evolution of online shopping behavior over time. In the context of online grocery stores, we categorize four types of decision aids that are commonly available, namely, those 1) for nutritional needs, 2) for brand preference, 3) for economic needs, and 4) personalized shopping lists. We construct a Non-homogeneous Hidden Markov Model of category purchase incidence and purchase quantity, in which parameters are allowed to vary over time across hidden states as driven by usage experience with different decision aids. The dataset was collected during the period when the retailer first launched its web business, which makes it particularly suited to study the evolution of online purchase behavior. We estimate the model for the spaghetti sauce and liquid detergent categories. Results indicate that four types of decisions influence evolution of purchase behavior differently. Findings from this study enrich the understanding of how purchase behavior may evolve over time in online stores, and provide valuable insights for online retailers to improvement the design of their store environments.
Marketing Applications of Social Tagging Networks
(2012) Nam, Hyoryung; Kannan, P.K.; Joshi, Yogesh; Business and Management: Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This dissertation focuses on marketing applications of social tagging networks. Social tagging is a new way to share and categorize content, allowing users to express their perceptions and feelings with respect to concepts such as brands and firms with their own keywords, “tags.” The associative information in social tagging networks provides marketers with a rich source of information reflecting consumers’ mental representations of a brand/firm/product. The first essay presents a methodology to create “social tag maps,” brand associative networks derived from social tags. The proposed approach reflects a significant improvement towards understanding brand associations compared to conventional techniques (e.g., brand concept maps and recent text mining techniques), and helps marketers to track real-time updates in a brand’s associative network and dynamically visualize the relative competitive position of their brand. The second essay investigates how information contained in social tags acts as proxy measures of brand assets that track and predict the financial valuation of firms using the data collected from a social bookmarking website, del.icio.us, for 61 firms across 16 industries. The results suggest that brand asset metrics based on social tags explain stock return. Specifically, an increase in social attention and connectedness to competitors is shown to be positively related to stock return for less prominent brands, while for prominent brands associative uniqueness and evaluation valence is found to be more significantly related to stock return. The findings suggest to marketing practitioners a new way to proactively improve brand assets for impacting a firm’s financial performance. The third essay investigates whether the position of products on social tagging networks can predict sales dynamics. We find that (1) books in long tail can increase sales by being strongly linked to well-known keywords with high degree centrality and (2) top sellers can be better sellers by creating dense content clusters rather than connecting them to well-known keywords with high degree centrality. Our findings suggest that marketing managers better understand a user community’s perception of products and potentially influence product sales by taking into account the positioning of their products within social tagging networks.
LEARNING MECHANSIMS AND HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(2012) Kothari, Anupama Kunal; Agarwal, Ritu; Viswanathan, Siva; Business and Management: Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Health information technology (HIT) is gaining momentum and widespread use globally in healthcare institutions through the implementation and use of HIT such as telemedicine and electronic medical records. Literature has discussed various aspects of health information technology such as increasing the accessibility of healthcare, improving the efficacy and reducing associated errors. However, the potential of HIT as a medium of learning has largely been ignored by extant literature. This dissertation seeks to understand the mechanisms of learning in the context of health information technologies, specifically- telemedicine and electronic medical records. The two essays investigate the characteristics of learning under telemedicine and under electronic records. The first essay uses a quantitative mode of investigation, while the second essay utilizes a qualitative mode of research. The first essay deals with telemedicine, a healthcare information technology that provides healthcare across geographic boundaries. The essay investigates how the telemedicine process facilitates synchronous learning in terms of a facilitator-learner theoretical model. It explores the impact of facilitator characteristics and learner characteristics on synchronous learning. Additionally, the essay also examines the impact of organizational variables such as technology on the relationship between learning and facilitator-learner mechanics. Data for this essay is drawn from surveys administered over several hospitals that use telemedicine in India. The second essay studies the role of electronic medical records in information dissemination and learning. In this essay, the role of electronic medical records in providing healthcare personnel with asynchronous learning opportunities is investigated. It explores the impact of individual and organizational factors on discovery learning through electronic medical records. The essay identifies factors such as case complexity, status, familiarity with technology and clinical specialty that influence learning through electronic medical records. The second essay draws on interviews of members of a healthcare team in a multiple specialty hospital that uses electronic medical records. Together, the essays explore various aspects of learning through health information technology, including synchronous learning, asynschronous learning, learning mechanics and motivations for learning.
Consumption and the Dynamics of Consumer Choice
(2012) Arens, Zachary Glenn; Hamilton, Rebecca; Rust, Roland; Business and Management: Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This dissertation includes three essays that investigate how aspects of the choice process influence consumption, attitudes and motivation. The first essay explores how the stage of consumption of the chosen alternative influences the attractiveness of a forgone alternative. Dozens of studies over the past fifty years have consistently shown that after making a choice between two attractive alternatives the forgone alternative decreases in attractiveness. However previous research has only compared the value of the forgone alternative before and after making a choice. This essay demonstrates that this devaluation effect only lasts until the chosen alternative has been consumed, at which point it rebounds in attractiveness. We show that this devaluation provides a way to avoid distraction while pursing the chosen alternative, supporting recent views on cognitive dissonance theory. The second essay demonstrates the importance of measuring the dual processes by which consumers make consumption decisions. Although most firms measure customer satisfaction, this metric only reflects an explicit decision-making process. The implicit process can be captured by measuring the impulsiveness with which consumers make decisions. Impulsiveness metrics are just as strongly related to firm value and customer behavior as satisfaction metrics, and in combination they provide a more comprehensive prediction. The third essay explores substitution effectiveness. Consumers often consume replacement products as substitutes for an unattained product. This research investigates how the similarity between the products influences how effectively products substitute for each other. Consumers tend to believe that replacement products become more effective substitutes for an unattained product as they increase in similarity. However in contrast to this belief, this research shows that moderately similar replacements are more effective than highly similar products at satisfying the desire for the unattained product. This relationship reverses at low levels of similarity where moderate similarity replacements are more effective substitutes than low similarity replacements.
Observer Interpretation of Signaling in Consumer Decision Making
(2013) Matherly, James Edward; Kirmani, Amna; Rust, Roland T; Business and Management: Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This dissertation includes two essays exploring the effects of observers' interpretation of signaling behavior by others on the inferences and decision making of the observers. The first essay investigates how observers make inferences about other people's brand attachment. We propose that observers use the proximity of branded objects to the physical being of the user and the costs incurred to acquire the object to determine the degree of self-extension of the object - that is, to what extent it represents a part of the person's self-concept. Through two studies, we show that to the extent that an object is seen as self-extensive, the user would be inferred to be engaging in self-expression, attempting to convey aspects of their personality to others by using the object. These beliefs about self-expression then lead observers to infer that the individual is attached to the brand. In the second essay, we consider how a brand's advertising appeals should be affected by its market position. Building on an experimental study, we present a duopoly model of brand advertising copy decisions, where consumer motives are influenced by Quality-based and Image-based advertising appeals. We show that each brand's decision to select one type of advertising appeal over the other is a function of its market position. We find that larger brands will use Quality-based appeals while smaller brand will use Image-based appeals. We empirically test these findings by examining advertising decisions for major brands found in a popular newsmagazine. Consistent with the model, we find that larger market share brands use Quality-based advertising appeals to a greater extent, while smaller brands use more Image-based appeals. Further, we find that brands that deviate from the predictions of the model are less profitable. Our results suggest that marketing managers should consider their position in the market when crafting advertising appeals, with larger brands emphasizing product quality in their appeals and smaller brands emphasizing the fit of their products with consumers' self-image.
From One to Many: Toward an Understanding of Multiple Means and Multiple Goals
(2013) Etkin, Jordan; Ratner, Rebecca K.; Pocheptsova, Anastasiya; Business and Management: Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Consumers often use products, services, and behaviors to help them pursue their multiple goals. They eat fresh produce to be healthy, buy suits to look professional at work, and buy movie tickets to relax and have fun. These goal-related products and services are collectively referred to as "means" to goal attainment. Prior research to-date has primarily focused on the use of a single means to pursue a single goal. This one-to-one relationship between a single means and a single goal, however, is an overly simplistic perspective. Consumers typically utilize multiple means for goal pursuit, and have multiple goals they wish to pursue at the same time. My dissertation adopts this more realistic framework for understanding how consumers use means to pursue their goals. In three essays I explore how the relationships among multiple means and multiple goals, which I define in terms of variety, impact consumer motivation. The first two essays of my dissertation examine how the degree of variety among consumers' multiple means impacts goal-directed motivation. In Essay I, I consider how the motivational impact of having more (vs. less) varied means evolves over the course of goal pursuit, as consumers move from perceiving low to high progress towards goal attainment. Relatedly, in Essay II I consider how adopting a near versus far future time horizon for goal pursuit moderates the impact of variety among means on motivation. Finally, Essay III examines how perceived variety among consumers' multiple goals influences evaluations of means to goal attainment. I identify incidental mood as one factor spontaneously influencing consumers' perceptions of variety between goals. My research has a number of implications for marketers. Highly motivated consumers are more likely to make repeated purchases within goal-related product categories, and also tend to have higher willingness to pay. Thus, from the perspective of marketers, motivated consumers are desirable consumers. These findings suggest how marketers might strategically manage consumer motivation in order to achieve such desirable outcomes. Perceptions of variety, among means and among goals, are malleable. Marketers may thus encourage consumers to perceive their product offerings, or associated goals, as more or less varied depending on consumers' position relative to goal attainment, their adopted time horizon for goal pursuit, and presence use of incidental mood appeals.
Investigations of Factors that Affect Consumers' Online Word Of Mouth Behavior
(2013) Chen, Yu-Jen; Kirmani, Amna; Godes, David; Business and Management: Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This dissertation includes two essays investigating factors that affect consumers' online word of mouth (WOM) behavior. The first essay studies how consumers as online posters make an online forum choice decision when they are motivated to influence other consumers. We propose that consumers have theories about effective word of mouth persuasion, acting as intuitive media planners in making online forum choices. Specifically, consumers possess audience beliefs (i.e. how loyal to the brand) and beliefs about effective persuasion (i.e. surprising and novel things are more impactful). Across three studies, we demonstrate that posters prefer posing positive messages on a brand-neutral forum (e.g., Digital Camera Forum) to a brand-specific (e.g., Nikon Forum) because positive brand information is not surprising to the later audience. However, when posting negative brand information, posters are equally likely to choose either forum since negative brand information is perceived as diagnostic and surprising to all audience. We further offer a boundary condition in which the poster's primary motive is not to persuade and affect others but to affiliate with others. Under affiliation motive, message valence does not affect forum choice since posters are not considering message valence as a way to being impactful. The second essay investigates the role of product rating scale in a product rating task, and how it can drive WOM behavior. We argue that rating scale can affect a rater's likelihood of engaging subsequent WOM behavior. Specifically, conducting three experiments, we show that participants' WOM intention are higher after evaluating their consumption experience on a 5-point rating scale than on a 2-point rating scale. We suggest that rating scales can affect a rater's certainty belief regarding the rating score assigned (i.e., high rating certainty leads to higher WOM intention). We further provide evidence that rating certainty mediates the impact of rating scale on WOM intention.
ATTRIBUTION MODELING AND MARKETING RESOURCE ALLOCATION IN AN ONLINE ENVIRONMENT
(2014) Li, Hongshuang; Kannan, P.K.; Business and Management: Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This dissertation contains one conceptual framework and two essays on the attribution modeling and marketing resource allocation in digital marketing. Chapter II presents the conceptual framework for attribution modeling and hypotheses related to the carryover effects and spillover effects of the information collected during the customer's prior visits through different marketing channels to a firm's website on subsequent visits and purchases. In Chapter III, I propose a method to measure the incremental value of individual marketing channels in an online multi-channel environment. The method includes a three-level measurement model of customers' consideration of online channels, their visits through these channels and subsequent purchase at the firm's website. Based on the analysis of customers' visits and purchases at a hospitality firm's website, I find significant carryover and spillover effects across different marketing channels. According to the estimation results, the relative contributions of each channel are significantly different as compared to the estimates from the widely-used "last-click" metric. A field study was conducted where the firm turned off paid search for a week to validate the ability of the proposed approach in estimating the incremental impact of a channel on conversions. This method can also be applied in targeting customers with different patterns of touches and identifying cases where e-mail retargeting may actually decrease conversion probabilities. Chapter IV analyzes the impact of attribution metric on the overall effectiveness of keyword investments in search campaigns. Different attribution metrics assign different conversion credits to search keywords clicked through the consumers' purchase journey, and the attribution-based credits affect the advertiser's future bidding and budget allocation for keywords, and in turn affect the overall return-on-investment (ROI) of future search campaigns. Using a six-month panel data of 476 keywords from an online jewelry retailer, I empirically model the relationship among the advertiser's bidding decision, the search engine's ranking decision, and the click-through rate and conversion rate, and analyze the impact of the attribution metric on the overall ROI of search campaigns. The focal advertiser changed the attribution metric from last-click to first-click half-way through the data window. This allows me to estimate the impact of the two attribution metrics on budget allocation, which in turn influences the realized ROI under different attribution regimes. Given the mix of the keywords bid by the advertiser, the results show that first-click leads to lower overall revenues and this impact is stronger for the more specific keywords. The policy simulation shows that the advertiser would be able to improve their overall revenue by more than 5% by appropriately changing the attribution metric for individual keywords to account for their actual contribution.
THE ROLE OF SELF-BRAND CONNECTION IN BRAND PRIMING AND BRAND CO-CREATION CONTEXTS
(2014) Johnson, Heather Macrea; Kirmani, Amna; Business and Management: Marketing; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This dissertation includes two essays that examine how self-brand connection influences brand-related behaviors in different contexts. Essay I investigates conditions under which brand primes can lead to decreased behavioral intentions toward the brand not shown in prior brand priming research (Berger and Fitzsimons 2008; Ferraro, Bettman, and Chartrand 2009). We identify the type of association primed (core vs. non-core) as an important factor in determining whether positive or negative brand priming effects will occur for consumers with low vs. high self-brand connection (SBC; Escalas and Bettman 2003). Studies 1 and 2 find support for the notion that high (vs. low) SBC consumers' brand associative networks have stronger links between core associations and brand and overlap between the self and core associations. Studies 3 and 4 show that when SBC is low, priming core and non-core associations leads to increased behavioral intentions found in prior work (Berger and Fitzsimons 2008). When SBC is high, however, priming a non-core association decreases behavioral intentions, while priming a core association does not affect behavioral intentions. Thus, contrary to prior research (Park et al. 2010), we show that higher SBC may result in lower behavioral intentions under certain conditions. Essay II explores the conditions under which brief brand co-creation activities are effective in enhancing high (vs. low) SBC consumers' subsequent brand engagement in social media, such as liking the brand on Facebook and sharing brand promotions with others. Many brand marketers offer interactive activities that enable consumers to participate in the ongoing development of the brand, such as telling their own stories about the brand or evaluating other consumers' stories. We offer evidence that these co-creation activities vary according to their potential to create brand knowledge. We then examine how consumers' self-brand connection and the co-creation activity's brand knowledge potential interact to affect brand engagement. Across three studies, we demonstrate that high SBC (i.e., loyal) consumers intend to engage more deeply with the brand after participating in high rather than low brand knowledge potential co-creation activities. We show that generation of original, personal brand meaning underlies the effect.