Marketing Theses and Dissertations

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Browsing Marketing Theses and Dissertations by Subject "brand activism"

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    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.
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    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.