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This research considers the relationship between possession centrality to self and perceptions of control on the antecedents, events, and consequences of the disposition, separation, giving up, and loss of possessions. The following dispositional behaviors are explored: (1) etic motivations of disposition; (2) methods of disposition; (3) emotional reactions to disposition; (4) etic meanings of disposition; and (5) replacement factors. Structured by a two-by -two, within-subjects research design, survey questionnaires and in-depth interviews are used to elicit retrospective data concerning four dispositional experiences--one from each cell in the research design. These data are then compared between high and low centrality possessions, high and low control dispositions, and their interactions. Although this study is exploratory, it provides suggestive evidence that possession centrality and perceptions of control are key dimensions which affect dispositional experiences. Furthermore, methods of disposition, possession types, and transitional events appear to coincide with these dimensions.

The purposes of this study were to examine the effects of socialization processes and antecedent variables on children's evaluative criteria for clothing purchases and to examine antecedent variables on the socialization process. A total of 500 parents of children from the first through sixth grade were systematically selected from the Directory of Catalina Foothills School District and mailed a questionnaire. Using principal components factor analysis on parental socialization variables and on evaluative criteria items, nine factors were developed. Based on stepwise multiple regression analysis for each hypothesis, it was concluded that antecedent variables have direct influence on socialization process variables which, in turn, impacts the outcome variables. Antecedent variables, however, tended to have limited direct influence on outcome variables but have an indirect effect on outcome variables only through socialization variables.

This study develops a conceptual model for managerial control of environmental scanning behavior in their subordinate organizations. It is developed within a boundary-spanning framework where the boundary of the organization is part of the conceptualization of the environmental scanning process. Aggregate and individual effects specific to the organizational boundary layer are included in the conceptual model. Environmental scanning behavior is stimulated and focussed by managers like a "push-pull" pump. Subordinate perceptions of managerial communication are central to the "pump mechanism." Perceptions of strategically important themes for the organization supply the push to engage in environmental scanning. Perceptions of managerial receptivity to external information on strategic themes supply the pull. In concert these factors draw environmental information across the organizational boundary, then vertically in the organization, making environmental information available to senior management.

<p> Global online retail sales are on the rise and are predicted to experience a double digit growth annually over the next three years. Given little marginal cost involved in adding new products and brands to their catalogues, online retailers tend to increase product and brand offerings to increase sales by selling products that could not have been sold due to space constraints in physical stores. Frank Urbanowski, Director of MIT Press, attributed the 12% increase in sales of backlist titles directly to increased accessibility to these titles through the Internet. For consumers, the ability to buy products that they would not have otherwise bought increases their consumer surplus. </p><p> Despite preferring a large assortment of products in online retail stores due to product variety and diversity in brand choices, this poses a problem to consumers as the number of alternatives and attributes reduces their confidence in the selection of a product to purchase; product comparison and evaluation also becomes a difficult task. Thus, an online retail store that does not facilitate easy product information search, comparison, and evaluation would cause consumers to make poor purchase decisions. In this thesis, I investigate how the design parameters of online stores such as the presentation of product information, product comparisons, consumer reviews, and recommendations influence consumers' information seeking and decision making process. </p><p> Specifically, the objectives of this thesis are to learn the individual and joint effects of such design parameters on the effort that consumers expend in the shopping process, quality of their purchase decisions, and their satisfaction with the shopping experience. A controlled experiment was conducted online using six variants of an online retail store to understand the effects of such design features. While the result was modest, the study found that presentation of information that allows consumers to have a preview of the subsequent page after clicking on a link has moderate effect on consumer's physical and cognitive effort in seeking product information, the purchase decision they made, and their satisfaction with an online store.</p>

A review of the literature is conducted, including the theories of voter choice, political socialization, communication, and market segmentation as well as applied studies of political communication, campaign marketing and advertising, campaign management, survey research methodology, and the press and political campaigns. An additional section of the literature review discusses First Amendment issues and political campaigns in specific respect to Buckley v. Valeo, 1976. / A theory and system of voter and strategic planning system choice for professional application in political campaigns is constructed from the literature review with major components taken from the voter choice work of Bruce Newman and Jagdish Sheth (1987), and the diffusion of innovation work of Everett Rogers (1983). The system contains eleven distinct variables. / The theory and system is constructed in a manner consistent for actual use in a partisan political campaign in the United States to direct survey research and subsequent campaign advertising. The theory and system is tested through a series of three major field surveys, focus groups, tracking surveys, and campaign advertising during a campaign for the United States Senate in Alaska in 1992. / The system components are measured by both objective and subjective tests and actual campaign decisions, strategies and communication plans are designed and executed from the system. Actual scripts and a video of commercials are included. / The theory and the system were held to be valid and utilitarian. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-04, Section: A, page: 1037. / Major Professor: C. Edward Wotring. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

While there is considerable theoretical and empirical research in the marketing ethics literature, a major void exists in the examination and understanding of consumers' perceptions of unethical behavior. / The purpose of this study is to examine consumers' perceptions of unethical market behavior, investigate the perceived relationships among unethical marketing actions, and model the underlying structure of these perceptions. / To develop formal representations of how consumers cognitively structure their views of marketing ethics, a sample of 467 adult consumers responded to a multi-task, multi-method survey approach using three types of consumer response (judgments of similarity, conditional predictions, and ratings on evaluative dimensions) fitted to three types of models (tree structures, taxonomies, and dimensional space). / The results show that dimensional evaluations appear to have the most promise for identifying and understanding consumers' perceptions of unethical marketing actions. Furthermore, tree models and multidimensional scaling provide the best understanding of the underlying dimensions that establish the degree of similarity between pairs of unethical marketing actions. / The key implications from this study are that consumers use dimensional evaluation judgments rather than comparative tasks to evaluate the ethicality of marketing actions and that at least some of the underlying dimensions consumers use to evaluate the ethicality are clearly recognizable. Consumers appear to use several global dimensions, identified in this research as the degree of avoidability by the consumer, honesty, and maliciousness, as well as several lesser dimensions, identified as tangibility of effect and degree of effect. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-02, Section: A, page: 0599. / Major Professor: J. Dennis Cradit. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

In an attempt to understand and explain the channel exchange process, Frazier (1983) presented a conceptual framework which describes interorganizational channel relationships through three processes: initiation, implementation, and review. A review of the channel literature indicated that the majority of the research has concentrated on the implementation process. / This research project attempts to correct the aforementioned problem by conducting an experimental study of the marketing channel review process. Folger's (1983) Referent Cognitions Theory (RCT) is used to examine the review process and to predict outcomes (cognitive emotions and behavioral responses) of the channel members. / To test the RCT framework, a role-playing methodology was used in which owners/brokers/sales managers of national franchise organizations from the State of Florida (162) were assigned randomly to one of eight experimental conditions. / The results confirm the RCT hypothesis that referent outcomes, referent instrumentalities, and likelihood of amelioration interact to determine one's feeling (satisfaction) with the channel relationship which, in turn, influences the channel member's intention to remain in the current channel partnership. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-11, Section: A, page: 4181. / Major Professor: J. Dennis Cradit. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.