Marketing Theses and Dissertations

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Open Access
Depth of Self-Disclosure for Social Media Influencers: Tensions and Tradeoffs
(University of Oregon, 2024-08-07) Kim, Woocheol; Henderson, Conor
Social media influencers wrestle with the decision of how much to disclose about their personal lives. Must attention and financial opportunities come at the cost of privacy? Do risks from being personally vulnerable at least come with rewards? The present research investigates consumers’ responses to influencers’ depth of disclosure on social media. To do so, I adopt a multi-method research approach that incorporates data from controlled experiments, automated text analysis of social media posts, and qualitative theory-in-use interviews. With experiments, I find that greater disclosure is associated with being more relatable, but less aspirational, which combine for offsetting overall effects on influencer endorsement-ability. Consistent with these offsetting effects, text analysis of influencer social media posts reveals a nonlinear, curvilinear effect of depth of disclosure in a social media post on post evaluations (i.e., likes, retweets, comments). Interviews with social media influencers reveal a desire to present themselves as “whole” “well-rounded” people while also protecting their privacy. These influencers note that many brands push them to make posts very personal, but they question whether this is even necessary. My findings suggest these influencers’ intuition is correct, and the brands should not prescribe influencers to be overly personal and risk “over-sharing.” Theoretically, the research contributes to influencer marketing by highlighting the dual importance of relatable and aspirational qualities while showing that the two are balanced against each other, at least in relation to depth of disclosure.
Open Access
Consumer Engagement in the Digital Era
(University of Oregon, 2024-01-10) Tran, Chi; Beck, Joshua
The past few decades have witnessed massive expansion of technology infrastructure and digital devices. As technological advancement continues to upend many existing social and business norms, it fundamentally changes how we as consumers participate in the marketplace: from the way we communicate and interact with each other and with companies to the way we are exposed to different identities while continuously developing and maintaining our own in the digital age. In this dissertation, I investigate how consumers view and react to minority identities and how we strive to protect our own personal information as we become active members of the digital world. Building on foundational theories in sociology, consumer psychology and marketing strategy and utilizing a multi-method approach (econometrics models, text analysis and experiments), this two-essay dissertation strives to provide insights for market stakeholders (consumers, marketers, policymakers) who are navigating a digitally advanced, increasingly diverse and complex demographic and sociopolitical environment.Essay I (“Shifting Frames: How #MeToo Shaped Consumers’ Movie-Going Decisions”; under review at the Journal of Marketing) capitalizes on a rich data set of top 1500 performing movies from 2010 to 2019 and investigates how consumers perceive and respond to marginalized identities in an increasingly diverse and digitally driven world. Specifically, this first essay investigates how major social justice movements that primarily aim to change the narratives around marginalized identities could spill over to affect many other consumer spending decisions. Essay II (“Feeling Violated: How and When Privacy Violations Produce Commensurate Consumer Responses;” in preparation for 3rd round revision at the Journal of Consumer Research) studies how consumers strive to protect their personal identity and information in the pervasive digital environment.
Open Access
A Broad and Multifaceted Examination of Advertising in News on Ad Performance
(University of Oregon, 2024-01-10) Canfield, Jessica; Henderson, Conor
Advertising media planners worry that the negative content in news media creates an inhospitable advertising context. The present research investigates if this concern is well founded. I find that advertisements placed in news media can actually outperform advertisements placed in entertainment media (e.g., dramas, comedies, sports, etc.) because news media attracts audiences in a mental state that is more receptive to advertisements’ informational content. This advantage is fragile, however. Upsetting news can spoil the audiences’ information appetite, their eagerness to consume and readiness to digest information. Analysis of Nielsen television viewership data for the weeks surrounding the 2016 United States Presidential Election merged with Google Trends search activity data for advertised brands reveals effects of brand advertisement viewership on brand search that are consistent with these propositions. Advertising viewership effect sizes are the smallest for ads on entertainment media, especially around the election, presumably because entertainment viewers sought to escape, rather than consume, information. The relatively more positive advertising effects on news disappeared around the election for liberal news channels, presumably because shocking election results ruined Democrats’ information appetite. Two preregistered controlled studies bolster confidence in these interpretations and inform the advertising and news industries’ partnership. A series of theory-in-use based interviews affirms the opportunities news provides as an advertising context and highlights the potential negative consequences of news avoidance strategies. These findings support of the importance of understanding news as advertising context with implications for advertisers, news publishers and providers, and consumers.
Open Access
Buyer-Seller relationship Quality and Brand Equity in the Thoroughbred Consignment Industry
(University of Oregon, 2007-09) Marquardt, Adam Jefferson
In the relationship marketing literature, our knowledge of business-to-business buyer-seller relationship quality and its role in influencing seller brand equity remains incomplete. This study develops a theory-grounded conceptual framework regarding the mediating role of buyer-seller relationship quality between buyer attitudes toward the seller's corporate and product brands, and seller brand equity in a business-to-business context. A mail survey was administered to buyers of Thoroughbred horses regarding the past purchase of a racing prospect (product brand) from a Thoroughbred consignor (seller brand), generating 249 buyer responses. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. Results reveal that buyer-seller relationship quality fully mediates the positive direct path between buyer attitude toward the seller and seller brand equity, and partially mediates the negative direct path between buyer attitude toward the product and seller brand equity. The finding that buyer attitude toward the product is inversely predictive of seller brand equity in this context is particularly interesting, because it imphes that in spite of the expense and uncertainty attached to the purchase of a Thoroughbred racing prospect (product brand), the value the buyer ascribes to the consignor (seller) is marginalized when the buyer has a more favorable attitude toward the horse. The finding that buyer-seller relationship quality partially mediates this path is also very interesting, because it implies that as the buyer exhibits a less favorable attitude toward the racing prospect (product brand), the value attributed to the consignor (seller) increases. The results of this study have significant implications for sellers within speculative and competitive business climates.
Open Access
Stakeholder Implications of Corporate Sociopolitical Activism
(University of Oregon, 2022-10-26) Edelblum, Andrew; Beck, Joshua
Today’s dynamic market landscape affects and is affected by a variety of significant cultural shifts and touchstones, from global warming and racial injustice, to voter disenfranchisement and the Covid-19 pandemic. In the current dissertation, I examine how firms have expanded their institutional role to address these issues and communicate a sense of moral engagement linked to their brands. I associate these behaviors with a centralized phenomenon—corporate sociopolitical activism (CSA)—which reflects firms’ public speech or actions focused on polarizing issues of societal concern. Such shifts in business behavior coincide with fieldwide conversations among practitioners and scholars about the implied responsibility for broadened social engagement. However, despite the increasing prominence of CSA in the marketplace, the practice has only recently received scholarly attention. In turn, the current dissertation seeks to examine and conceptualize the theoretical, practical, and strategic implications of firms’ activist efforts using a multi-methodological approach. First, Essay I (“‘Focus on Our Cause: How Brand Activism Helps and Hurts Activist Organizations”; under third-round review at the Journal of Consumer Research) utilizes randomized controlled experiments with consequential outcomes to chart the impact of brand activism on consumers’ charitable giving to activist organizations. Next, Essay II (“An Institutional View of Investor Response to Corporate Sociopolitical Activism”; manuscript in progress; targeting the Journal of Marketing) is an event study that examines the moderating effects of issue legitimacy on stock market response to market leaders’ activist efforts.
Open Access
Consumer Practices: Recovering and Repairing Daily Community Life
(University of Oregon, 2022-10-04) Grove, Kivalina; Price, Linda
Consumers engage in a multitude of daily practices which contribute to their individual and community wellbeing. I take a multi-method approach to investigating three consequential and interrelated consumer practices with important implications for wellbeing at an individual and community level. In the second chapter, I uncover a new multi-stage theoretical process, practice recovery, in my investigation of how consumers recover or return to practices they have previously abandoned. I examine this process and the potential difficulties inherent in it, in the context of young adults recovering the practice of bicycling for transportation on a college campus, a practice which promotes individual, community, and environmental wellbeing. In the third chapter, I examine and test the model I uncovered in Chapter II in the context of an individually held consumer practice which was interrupted at a community level, namely consumers’ gym exercise practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. Working with community stakeholders, I problematize the model of practice recovery and examine this consumers’ actual and anticipated recovery of these consequential health practices. In the fourth chapter, I examine how individual consumer practices contribute to community wellbeing through examination of user-maintainer repair practices of a bicycle sharing platform. I uncover emergent commons-based peer production at a community level, carried out through individual practices of stewardship which contribute to the repair of the bicycle sharing platform, which is perceived as an inalienable community wealth, despite its underlying market motivations. In closing, I reflect and provide recommendations on the challenges and opportunities of conducting community-focused research.
Open Access
An investigation of changes in direct labor requirements resulting from changes in airframe production rate
(University of Oregon, 1976) Smith, Larry Lacross
Open Access
The Tricky Etiquette of Digital Tipping: How Tip Sequence, Payment Visibility, and Default Tip Options Affect Consumers and Service Providers
(University of Oregon, 2021-09-13) Warren, Nathan; Yuan, Hong
Digital payment platforms have disrupted tipping norms and shifted the relationship between customers and employees. In traditional restaurants, customers provide a tip by writing an amount of their choosing on a paper bill, which is delivered in a discreet billfold at the end of the meal. Digital payment platforms have led to the proliferation of tip requests that 1) occur at the start, rather than the end, of a service encounter, 2) may be visible to employees and other patrons, and 3) include default tip options. Inconsistent practices indicate that managers are unsure when they should request tips, how much privacy they should afford customers who are selecting tips, and how different default tip options might affect customers. This dissertation investigates how tipping sequence, observation, and default options affect tip amounts and non-tip customer responses (e.g., online ratings, re-patronage). Essay 1 introduces the dissertation. This paper reviews past tipping scholarship, emphasizing the importance of norms and interpersonal dynamics in tipped services. This paper also identifies gaps in knowledge about tip sequence, observation, and defaults. Essay 2 examines the effects of tip sequence, revealing that post-service (vs. pre-service) tip requests increase tip amounts and customer responses. Consumer’s perceptions of fairness help to explain these effects. Essay 3 examines the effects of employees and other patrons observing customers as they are selecting tip amounts. Essay 3 finds that employee observation is detrimental to customer responses, and is generally detrimental to tip amounts, unless another patron is also observing. Consumer’s perceived control and generosity signaling beliefs help explain these effects. Essay 4 examines the effects of default tip options (e.g., 5% vs. 25%). Past scholarship has shown a positive relationship between higher (versus lower) default tip levels (e.g., [5%, 10%, 15%] vs. [15%, 20%, 25%]) and tip amounts, such that higher default levels result in higher tip amounts. Essay 4 reveals a negative relationship between default level and non-tip customer responses, such that higher default levels result in lower customer responses. Consumer’s perceived control and affect help to explain these effects.
Open Access
Buyer-Seller Relationship Quality and Brand Equity in the Thoroughbred Consignment Industry
(University of Oregon, 2007-08) Marquardt, Adam Jefferson
The purpose of this thesis is to determine in as far as is possible, the types of baskets produced by the Indians of Oregon, their distribution and their affinities to those in adjacent areas. The problem is complicated by two main factors; one, the few ethnographic studies available for most of the Or egon tribes, and two, the undocumented time range between the historic and archeological horizons involved. The ethnographic studies are best for those tribes which border the California groups. This lack of information is understandable since by the time any systematic work was undertaken many of the Northwestern Oregon tribes had been depleted or wiped out by the many epidemics which had swept the lower Columbia region in the early eighteen hundreds. The time range may be divided into two main divisions, that of pre-history, where the information is archeological in nature, and that of historic times where the information is to be found in the early historic accounts and modern ethnographic studies of native groups. The time period between the archeological horizon and historic times is one which is undocumented. Since the earlist evidence, to-date, of the occupation of the American continent is found in the Intermountaine flateau, it seems likely that Oregon would hold many clues as to the nature of these early peoples as it was in the pa~h of subsequent migrations into adjacent territory. Substantuating this hypothesis, recent archeological researches have revealed a culture a considerable antiquity in Oregon. Therefore, a study of the basketry techniques used by these early peoples should help in filling in one of the gaps in our knowledge of the affinities of the early cultures of Oregon to those of adjacent areas.
Open Access
The Influence of Visual Cues on Consumer Donations
(University of Oregon, 2020-09-24) Paik, Sung-Hee; Zhang, Jiao
This dissertation explores how visual cues, such as a victim’s image or the color used in a donation appeal, can influence consumers’ donation intention. The first main chapter, “Less is More: The Benefit of Using Blurry Versus High-Resolution Victim Images in Donation Appeals,” discusses the unusual and unexpected backfire effect of using high-resolution victim images in appeals. More specifically, using a higher quality image can bring about less desirable outcomes compared with those of a moderately blurred image. A further analysis of this effect revealed that donors’ perception of dissimilarities between themselves and victims moderates the image blurriness effect. In addition, donors’ perceived dissimilarities between donors and victims create longer image processing time and enhance donors’ cause involvement. The results further show that the stronger involvement created by a moderate image blurriness serves as a mediator and leads to more willingness to donate. The second main chapter, “Red Versus Blue: How Color Can Make Consumers More Sensitive to Mass Suffering,” examines the use of color (i.e., red vs. blue) to present numeric information about victims in donation appeals. The color can potentially influence consumers’ sensitivity to victim statistics and thus affect donation intention. In particular, evidence was found that, when a congruence exists between message framing (i.e., prevention focused vs. promotion focused) and color (i.e., red vs. blue), individuals become more sensitive to the number of victims when making donation decisions.
Open Access
Healthy Competition
(University of Oregon, 2020-09-24) Setten, Eric; Cornwell, T. Bettina
My dissertation looks at how consumers view food and beverages either as a means to enjoy themselves as sports fans or as a means to improve physical performance as athletes. The first essay, “Eat to Win, Not to Lose,” focuses on reframing health appeals targeting men. Eating a healthy diet should be framed as a way to win in athletic competition, which is consistent with masculine identity, rather than as a way to lose weight, which is perceived as a feminine goal. The experimental studies show how framing consumption decisions in terms of being an athlete rather than being a sports fan can lead men to making healthier decisions. Eye tracking data shows how framing healthy eating in terms of improving athletic performance causes men to restrict their consideration of beverages and snacks to healthier options. The second essay, “Tempting Sponsors” focuses on the implications of a mismatch between consumers’ perception of brand healthiness and participatory sporting events which are viewed as a way to encourage a healthy, active lifestyle. Eye tracking data suggests that when consumers have a goal to compete at a participatory sporting event, they avoid looking at unhealthy food to protect their goal to compete. We also show that perceived healthiness is an important factor when consumers consider brands as sponsors for participatory sporting events, with healthier brands seen as having a better fit for these types of events.
Open Access
Brand Latitude
(University of Oregon, 2019-09-18) Charlton, Aaron; Cornwell, T. Bettina
This dissertation addresses the topic of brand latitude, defined herein as a public entity’s capacity to deviate from category norms or to transcend the normal function of a brand without incurring adverse responses from the public. The study of brand latitude is important because modern managers use brands to achieve much more than greater market share relative to similar competitors. Established brands are often leveraged to facilitate entry into new product categories, gain attention for social causes, and attract talent, among other uses. While managers hope every branding effort to be successful, these non-standard uses of brands may be received positively, negatively, or indifferently. This dissertation explores both the brand attributes and styles of approach that can lead to increased brand latitude. The first essay integrates various streams of literature to develop the concept of brand latitude, including predicted antecedents and outcomes. Additionally, potential moderators of these main effects are considered, including choice of narrative voice (first-person vs. third), a characteristic of the message. Essay 2 is an empirical investigation of both brand attributes (good character, innovativeness, altruism) and characteristics of the controversial message (use of first-person vs third-person narrative voice) as antecedents of brand latitude.
Open Access
Unexpected Blame: Beliefs, Judgments, and Inferences
(University of Oregon, 2019-01-11) Reich, Brandon; Madrigal, Robert
Applications of theories of interpersonal blame to consumer behavior have largely focused on understanding when consumers blame companies for their misbehavior. The current research moves beyond past work by shedding new light on the processes underlying consumer blame. In Essay 1, a pilot study and five experiments—in contexts of both fictitious and actual high-profile product failures—show that blame may be incorrectly directed toward the victim. The findings show that (1) consumers exaggerate blame for a victim possessing negative (especially immoral) dispositional traits because (2) that individual is seen as deserving of suffering in general and, as a result, (3) consumers are less likely to take punitive action against the company. The experiments support a “moral dominance” effect whereby victim blame is driven more heavily by perceived differences in the victim’s morality than sociability (or competence), because only morality leads consumers to judge the victim as deserving of suffering in general. In Essay 2, a new line of inquiry is proposed pertaining to consumer inferences of company blame and attitudes when the company engages in cause marketing. By engaging in socially responsible behavior, consumers may infer that the company is signaling a (1) negative attitude, (2) moral judgement, and (3) blame judgement toward the perpetrator of that harm. Each predicts the amount of praise the company receives—depending on consumers’ own attitudes, judgments, and blame toward the perpetrator—but blame inferences predict praise most strongly. This is because blame provides a unique signal about the company’s stance on an issue. Two studies support these blame inference predictions.
Open Access
Brand Mind Perception and Moral Judgments of Brand Behavior: How Perceived Leadership Influences Consumer Attitudinal Responses to a Brand's Wrongdoing
(University of Oregon, 2017-09-06) Xie, Hu; Cornwell, T. Bettina
How we communicate about brands and companies has changed. CEOs have come into the spotlight of brand communications but little marketing research offers holistic knowledge about CEOs as brand endorsers. This research investigates how CEO endorsers influence consumer attitudes toward a brand differently from conventional endorsers (e.g., celebrities and athletes). Further, this research examines underlying mechanisms that determine consumer responses to CEOs as brand endorsers and especially consumer moral judgments of a brand’s wrongdoing. Building on research on brand endorsers and brand equity, as well as drawing theoretical support from research on leadership, anthropomorphism and mind perception, this dissertation proposes a moderated mediation model of CEO endorser effects on consumer moral judgments. Brand endorsers for decades have been viewed as essentially communicating via three characteristics: attractiveness, expertise and trustworthiness. This dissertation identifies perceived leadership as an additional endorser dimension elicited from a CEO-brand endorser. Further, this dissertation introduces brand mind perception into marketing research and finds that perceived leadership positively influences consumers’ perception of brand mind, which in turn determines consumers’ moral judgments. Boundary conditions are explored and include endorser-brand relationship and crisis controllability. Two sets of studies provide empirical support. The first set defines and develops the scale of perceived leadership including item generation (Study 1), item purification (Study 2), and scale confirmation (Study 3). The second set tests the hypotheses in the conceptual model. Two exploratory studies first find preliminary evidence of that perceived leadership differs from existing endorser dimensions by its effects on moral judgments (Study 4), and that mind perception is possible for a brand and can be enhanced by CEO association (Study 5). Study 6 shows positive effects of CEO endorsers on consumer attitudes by communicating perceived brand leadership. Study 7 investigates a brand-wrongdoing scenario and shows that perceived brand leadership yields negative results for a brand by increasing blame and reducing forgiveness; Study 8 demonstrates these relationships are mediated by brand mind perception. Study 9 shows that the inspiring aspects of perceived leadership can enhance perceptions of brand mind (to feel and experience), thus reducing consumers’ blame. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
Open Access
Consumer Sense of Power and Message Assertiveness in Food Advertising
(University of Oregon, 2017-09-06) Wang, Xin; Zhang, Jiao
Scant research on food advertising and purchase decisions has examined the moderating role of social constructs such as power. In this research, I investigate how consumers’ sense of power influences the persuasiveness of message assertiveness in food advertising. The agentic–communal framework of sense of power and findings suggests that high-power individuals are more likely to adopt and be receptive to strong, competent information and communication strategies than low-power individuals in interpersonal communication. In this research, I propose a new theoretical framework that predicts how message recipients’ sense of power enables or weakens the persuasiveness of the assertive message such as, “You must buy [the name of the advertised food].” More specifically, I looked at the likelihood of purchasing ‘vice’ versus ‘virtue' foods after viewing the ad. I argue that for high-power individuals, an assertive tone in the food ads would increase the purchase of a vice food and decrease the purchase intent of a virtue food. However, for low-power individuals, an assertive tone in the food ads would decrease the purchase of a vice food but increase the purchase intent of a virtue food. Low power is less congruent with assertive messages but more congruent with non-assertive messages. Across three studies, I provide empirical support for the predictions and the congruence mechanism. The results show that high-power consumers process assertive messages more fluently than non-assertive messages. Low-power consumers process assertive messages less fluently than non-assertive messages. Processing fluency increases the relative focus on tastiness in food evaluation, but process dis-fluency increases the relative focus on healthiness in food evaluation. The findings of this research have important implications for developing effective marketing communications and promoting healthy eating.
Open Access
Valence Conversion and the Hedonic Equation: A New Framework for Understanding the Consumption of Aversive Experiences
(University of Oregon, 2017-09-06) Wardley, Marcus; Kahle, Lynn
I propose two new theories to explain the consumption of aversive experiences: valence conversion and the hedonic equation. The principle of valence conversion asserts that discrete emotions that share a similar set of cognitive appraisals and level of arousal, but are of opposite valence, can be quickly converted from one to the other contingent on internal cognitions, goals and cues from the environment. I propose that fear and excitement meet these conditions; thus, an aversive stimulus that is not too extreme as to prevent the activation of goals related to positive affect can also be interpreted as exciting. The hedonic equation postulates that across four time points (anticipatorily, in the moment, residually, and remembered), if the sum of excitement is greater than the sum of fear, an individual will choose to re-consume an aversive stimuli while controlling for other non-emotive motivations. These two theories together explain why some individuals willingly consume aversive experiences, even if at some points they are unpleasant.
Open Access
Knowing Your Role: The Impact of Reputation Signals on Participation in an Online Community
(University of Oregon, 2016-10-27) Hanson, Sara; Yuan, Hong
Generating and maintaining participation in online communities is critical to their success. In this research, I investigate how the design of the reputation system can influence user participation. Specifically, I explore differences in individuals’ perceptions of the two most common reputation signals: points and labels. Using theory from sociology and social psychology, I argue that reputation signals vary in role clarity and signals with greater role clarity foster a community atmosphere, leading to greater user connectedness and participation behaviors. By observing a natural experiment on the T-Mobile support community, which changed its reputation signal from points to labels, Study 1 demonstrates that labels drive greater user participation (more discussions and comments) than points. To test role clarity as the underlying construct, Study 2 compares points and labels differing in role clarity, and shows that high role clarity is critical to generating the positive effects. Study 3 shows that providing additional role information can strengthen the impact of low role clarity labels on participation intentions. The final four studies address situations in which role information is more or less critical to the user experience. Study 4 surveys members of a newly-built online community, and finds that users’ community tenure moderates the preference for labels, such that new users’ participation is influenced by the reputation signal, but not long-term users. Study 5 shows that low status users are more willing to participate when labels are used, but high status users are driven to participate when the community uses either reputation signal type. Study 6 finds that when community membership turnover is greater, points and labels have a similar effect on participation intentions, while labels drive participation when there is little community membership turnover. Finally, Study 7 confirms that face-to-face interaction mitigates the positive advantage of labels. These findings have important implications for the use of reputation signals as a strategic tool when managing online communities.
Open Access
Accounting for the Social Element in Access-Based Consumption
(University of Oregon, 2014-10-17) Koppenhafer, Leslie; Cornwell, T. Bettina
This dissertation examines how the inclusion of the social element in access-based consumption can influence affective and behavioral responses. The first essay builds upon the dimensions proposed by Bardhi and Eckhardt, who found that market mediation, anonymity, temporality, consumer involvement, type of accessed object and political consumerism are key dimensions on which to study access-based consumption. A reconceptualization of these dimensions is proposed in the current work to incorporate the social element. Foremost, a separation of renting and sharing based on the presence or absence of economic exchange is proposed. The implications for the remaining dimensions of anonymity, temporality, consumer participation, type of accessed object, political consumerism and governance are then discussed. Finally, key outcome variables of community, cooperation, loneliness and contagion are reviewed. In Essay 2, the guiding theory of social distance is used to empirically test the impact of the social element on evaluations of a rental service on the outcomes of satisfaction, attitude, disgust and community. In the rental context examined, users are interpersonally anonymous indicating that there is no relationship between the current user and other users. In addition, users must engage in extra-role behaviors because no intermediaries are present. In three experiments, it is shown that encounters with other users can lead to increased feelings of disgust and decreased satisfaction and attitude towards the rental service. Having information about other users, provided in the form of avatar images, can enhance feelings of community, as can certain types of communication between users. Given the benefits that emerge from feelings of community, Essay 3 explores factors that can enhance or detract from sense of community. Factors such as apathetic participation and similarity are considered. In addition, positive outcomes that emerge from feelings of community, such as sign-up likelihood and care behaviors, are measured.
Open Access
Consumer Linguistics: A Markedness Approach to Numerical Perceptions
(University of Oregon, 2014-09-29) Lee, Christopher; Kahle, Lynn
Marketing is about numbers but not necessarily just a number. From a big crowd to a half empty arena, adjectives carry numerical associations. The research within this dissertation builds on that idea while focusing on markedness, a linguistics theory, which has been called the evaluative superstructure of language. For example, asking "How tall is the person?" is not an indication that the person is tall but merely a neutral way to ask about a person's height. Tall, in this case, is considered an unmarked term given its neutral meaning. Asking "How short is the person?" however, implies the person is actually short in addition to asking for their height. Linguistics literature has touched on the power of language in numerical estimations but has not fully explored it, nor has linguistics literature transitioned to the marketing literature. Study 1 begins to explore markedness in a consumer setting by using Google Trends to show that unmarked terms, such as tall, are searched more frequently than marked terms, such as short. Study 2 shows that using an unmarked term results in significantly higher estimates of crowd size than using a marked term but is not significantly different than using a neutral term. Study 3 incorporates numerical anchors, which reduce the markedness effects. Study 4 illustrates how an unmarked term results in a wider range of crowd size estimates than a marked term. Study 5 shows how markedness effects are largely eliminated based on the source of the message (team) and capacity constraint of the arena. Study 6 incorporates time to show that markedness effects are stronger in a judgment framed as per day than per year. Studies 7, 8 and 10 show how a marked term, such as half empty, results in significantly different numerical estimates over time. This effect is eliminated when reference to a point in time, such as "at halftime", is removed (study 9). These findings highlight the role of markedness in consumer judgment and have important implications for a variety of marketing theories.
Open Access
Anchors, Norms and Dual Processes: Exploring Decision Making in Pay-What-You-Want Pricing Contexts
(University of Oregon, 2014-09-29) Armstrong Soule, Catherine; Madrigal, Robert
The dissertation explores factors influencing consumers' payments in anonymous Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) pricing contexts. Consumers often pay more than zero when given the opportunity to self-determine payments. However, most PWYW research has focused on contexts where the possibility of social influence from a salesperson or clerk is present. I suggest that in anonymous exchange contexts where social pressure does not exist, consumers will nevertheless make voluntary payments greater than zero. The present research explores PWYW in anonymous purchase contexts. Results from eight studies indicate that PWYW payment amounts are affected by heuristics and biases. In Essay 1, the influence of reference price on PWYW payments is explored. Firm-provided external reference prices (ERPs) framed as injunctive norms (e.g., suggested price) and descriptive norms (e.g., average payment) caused anchoring effects on voluntary payments such that those with higher ERPs reported higher payments. Further, ERPs framed as descriptive (vs. injunctive) norms were more predictive of payment amounts, but only when the ERP is high. Recalling internal reference price information is more effortful than simply reacting to a firm-provided price. The possibility that decreased cognitive processing results in higher payments, violating the concept of self-interest primacy, is explored in Essay 2. Four studies manipulate processing styles and demonstrate that when consumers use more effortful cognitive processing, they tend to make lower PWYW payments. These results suggest that consumers are likely to rely on a normal price heuristic when using more superficial processing. The dissertation demonstrates the importance of reference price information and cognitive processing styles when voluntary anonymous payments are made anonymously. PWYW decisions are influenced by the exchange context and how the information is cognitively processed. At a theoretical level, the findings demonstrate that consumers make voluntary payments in the absence of social pressure and that those payments can be predictably influenced by features in the exchange setting. Finally, the research suggests that consumers who exert less cognitive effort in PWYW situations make higher payments. It therefore appears that the first instinct is not to act self-interestedly by making little or no payments, but rather payments seem to be guided by heuristic-based decision making.