<p> This thesis, presented in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Business Administration/Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Management, analyzes the origins and limitations of the traditional subscription model used by performing arts organizations. As subscription sales continue a nationwide, decade-long decline, some companies are exploring nontraditional models, while in other industries new media is facilitating innovative alternative methods of monetization. These new models are successful when they customize offerings and increase value provided to patrons, who increasingly desire flexibility and dialogue. Based on a SWOT analysis and Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix, these alternative patronage models are evaluated with respect to their viability for implementation by California Repertory Company (Cal Rep).</p>

<p> <b>Background:</b> The smoking rate among young Alaska Native adults (ages 19-29) in Southeast Alaska is 70% as compared to the statewide adult smoking rate of 21%, the Alaska Native adult rate of 41%, and the overall young adult rate of 32%. Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC), the non-profit tribal health consortium serving Southeast Alaska, commissioned this research to inform development of a young adult-specific, social marketing-based smoking cessation intervention. </p><p> <b>Methods:</b> Using purposive sampling, 23 individuals were recruited for five focus groups and four individual interviews in Juneau, Alaska. Following a social marketing framework, the research assessed participant beliefs about the benefits and negative impacts of smoking, barriers to quitting, and preferred quit support methods, as well as participant reactions to particular anti-smoking advertisements and quit support methods. </p><p> <b>Results:</b> Almost all participants reported an interest in quitting smoking. Stress relief, boredom relief, relaxation, and oral satisfaction were the main benefits of smoking. Downsides to smoking included negative short-term health impacts, negative impacts on children in the extended family, and negative cosmetic impacts. Barriers to quitting included loss of listed benefits, addiction and habit, fatalism, and the high prevalence of smoking among family and friends. The preferred method of quitting was cold turkey (unassisted quitting), with very few participants reporting use of counseling or pharmacotherapy. Participants preferred high emotional level anti-smoking advertisements with either strongly negative emotional valence (e.g., fear and disgust) or strongly positive emotional valence (e.g., joy, happiness). Reaction to quit support methods was most favorable to texting support and a smart phone app, and most negative toward a smart phone video game. Reaction to counseling was strongly supportive among those who had tried it and largely but not totally negative among those who had not. </p><p> <b>Conclusion</b>: Young Alaska Native adults in Juneau who smoke are interested in quitting but prefer cold turkey to counseling and pharmacotherapy. They are more concerned about short-term than long-term health impacts, and they are sensitive to the impact of smoking on their appearance and on children in their extended family. Findings formed a foundation for a proposed social-marketing based intervention.</p>

<p> The advances in information technologies and the Internet significantly promote the prosperous growth of electronic commerce in recent years. Simply surfing the Internet allows consumers to conveniently explore endless product choices and a flood of related product information. As one of the most important sources of product information, Word-of-Mouth (WOM) helps consumers assess product quality, reduces decision risk without physical trials, and thus facilitates locating their best matches. WOM volume on the Internet has been rising fast while the Internet also unprecedentedly enhances the reach of WOM. As a result, online WOM could significantly influence consumer decision-making. More and more firms are embracing and applying online WOM marketing as a complementary strategy for advertising to increase sales. Even so, not much has been known regarding the mechanism underlying the WOM effect on online consumer behavior. A deeper understanding of the economic impact of online WOM is needed to provide practitioners insightful guidance on information systems design and the allocation of firm resources to more effectively develop online WOM marketing strategies. </p><p> This dissertation seeks to shed light on online WOM effect from three angles using a three-essay structure. The first essay of this dissertation investigates how a demand side factor (online user-generated WOM) interplays with a supply side factor (product variety) to affect a product's popularity in the online market where product choices are abundant and consumers can easily access product information. Extant research primarily looks into either demand side or supply side justifications for the heterogeneity of consumption pattern. Alternatively, this study highlights that consumers' reliance on online user reviews to choose products is significantly influenced by the quantity of products available. </p><p> In addition, this dissertation also explores the differential impact of online WOM created by different types of reviewers on online user choices. While consumers are widely exposed to both online user reviews and professional reviews, those two sources of WOM information are generally believed to influence user choices independently. However, an in-depth mediation analysis conducted in the Bayesian framework shows that professional reviews influence online user choices not only directly but also indirectly through the volume of online user reviews. This study also proposes a more robust hierarchical structure to model the interaction effect between online user reviews and product variety, refining the first essay. </p><p> Following this line of inquiry, this dissertation further studies the impact of the distribution of online WOM across retailing and third-party websites on consumers' purchasing decisions. In parallel with the flocking WOM available on the Internet, nowadays consumers are able to reach almost every piece of online WOM information relevant to their interested products. The distribution of WOM information across the Internet may accordingly influence consumers' search costs for product information and affect their final decisions. This research has found empirical evidence that both the dispersion of WOM volume and variation of WOM valence across the Internet significantly influence online retail sales.</p>

<p> This study examines the relationship between political branding and political participation in the 2012 U.S. presidential election and argues for a consumer-oriented polity to reinvigorate what it means to participate in elections and democracy in the United States in the 21^st century. Political branding is positioned at the nexus of political marketing, political consumerism, and political participation. A theoretical framework was developed employing political branding to research its effects on the election. A national survey of 1,398 American adults was conducted to measure political brand recognition, modes of participation, and attitudes toward candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Findings show young people ages 18-34 participated at higher rates across new and social media modes than people age 35 and older. There is a statistically significant relationship of moderate strength between political brand recognition and political participation, suggesting that strong political branding may encourage participation. Findings also show the Obama brand was stronger than the Romney brand, exhibiting greater social, cultural, and emotional connotations reflected in material and immaterial brand markers and built through time that manifest as political brand equity. The study concludes political branding is a democratizing principle, making the political process more accessible and relevant to average citizens, especially young people. </p>

<p> Online reviews have become a popular method for consumers to express personal evaluation about products. Ecommerce firms have invested heavily into review systems because of the impact of product reviews on product sales and shopping behavior. However, the usage of product reviews is undermined by the increasing appearance of shill or fake reviews. As initial steps to deter and detect shill reviews, this study attempts to understand characteristics of shill reviews and influences of shill reviews on product quality and shopping behavior. To reveal the linguistic characteristics of shill reviews, this study compares shill reviews and normal reviews on informativeness, readability and subjectivity level. The results show that these features can be used as reliable indicators to separate shill reviews from normal reviews. An experiment was conducted to measure the impact of shill reviews on perceived product quality. The results showed that positive shill reviews significantly increased quality perceptions of consumers for thinly reviewed products. This finding provides strong evidence about the risks of shill reviews and emphasizes the need to develop effective detection and prevention methods.</p>

<p> Problem: Servant leadership scholars have claimed that servant-led business organizations are more financially viable, but these claims are based on anecdotal evidence. This quantitative study examines the relationship of servant leadership to revenue generation in business organizations by analyzing the predictability of servant leadership attributes on sales performance. This was accomplished by studying salespersons in the healthcare industry. </p><p> Method: One hundred ninety-four study participants completed questionnaires providing quantitative measurements of the seven factors of servant leadership: (a) developing and empowering others, (b) humility, (c) authentic leadership, (d) open participatory leadership, (e) inspiring leadership, (f) visionary leadership, and (g) courageous leadership, utilizing the Servant Leadership Profile&mdash;Revised (SLPR). Sales performance was measured by sales ranking within each respective salesperson's company, and broken down into three categories; (a) Top 20%, (b) 21%&ndash;40% and (c) 41% and below. </p><p> Results: Discriminant function analysis generated two discriminant functions that were significant. The first discriminant function was labeled <i> Voice</i> and had the strongest relationship with the following factors of servant leadership: developing and empowering others, authentic leadership, and visionary leadership. The first discriminant function was a good predictor of sales performance. The second discriminant function was labeled <i> Human Resource Management</i> and had the strongest relationship with the following factors of servant leadership: open participatory leadership, courageous leadership, and inspiring leadership. The second discriminant function predicted membership in the 21%&ndash;40% sales-ranking group, mediocre sales performance. One factor of servant leadership, humility, was eliminated as a predictor of sales performance. </p><p> Conclusions: Developing and empowering others, authentic leadership, and visionary leadership are good predictors of sales performance. Open participatory leadership, courageous leadership, and inspiring leadership predict mediocre sales performance. Humility was eliminated as a predictor of sales performance. Business leaders with high mean scores for developing and empowering others, authentic leadership, and visionary leadership are likely to have a positive impact on the financial viability of a business organization.</p>

<p> The problem addressed in this study is that the recency of the social media phenomena created a research gap in terms of understanding how companies exploit various social media platforms for marketing purposes and measure the effectiveness of their social media marketing campaigns. Thus, there is a need for increased understanding of the effectiveness of social media marketing techniques. <i>Social media marketing</i> is defined as the blending of sociology and technology as a means to change marketing efforts from a monologue to a dialogue. The purpose of this study was to determine, based on research participants' perceptions, the reasons that select organizations use social media marketing, the different social media marketing strategies that companies utilized, and the perceived effect of social media marketing on revenue generation. In particular, the research questions concerned whether social media marketing had its own specific social metrics, and the study investigated the evolution of social media marketing and the benefits that social media brings to traditional marketing approaches. The overall research design employed semi-structured, in-depth, individual interviews with seven executives in regard to their use of social media marketing and its role as part of an integrated marketing approach. Commonalities in the interview data were color coded and analyzed, and field notes, verbatim transcriptions, and member checks were used to triangulate the data. The results of the study generated three specific categories: engagement with customers, the essence of social media presence, and communication by choice. Knowledge in each of these categories provides companies with a deeper understanding of the social consumer and enhances the value of social media marketing in terms of competitiveness. Specifically, based on such knowledge, companies have a greater ability to target qualified leads as well as to improve the conversion rate of those leads. Finally, they have a means to determine how their social media marketing efforts contributed to the overall revenue generated. </p>

<p> Environmental activists are questioning the management strategies of the invasive Indo-Pacific lionfish (a species complex of <i>Pterois volitans </i> and <i>P. miles</i>) in the western North Atlantic, due to the species' rapidly expanding invasion and steadily growing population. The invasive lionfish species ecological effects are of great concern, as impacts on marine and terrestrial ecosystems trigger population and biodiversity declines. Awareness and research supporting the need for better managerial techniques and response strategies are surfacing among academic groups, forcing critical thought on the best methods of containment and population management.</p><p> In response to the lack of information on the marketability of the lionfish species, I propose a thesis that focuses on the creation of a privately funded non-governmental organization (NGO) that will offer a more promising solution for the control of lionfish through the application of effective marketing and educational outreach strategies. An NGO design and program provides more options and greater flexibility than the federal response to date, which as previously mentioned has not been efficient in the management of the lionfish invasion, as it is incredibly difficult for federal agencies to conduct the public promotion and supply-chain building necessary to properly found this operation. The NGO will work to initiate interest in the lionfish through public education and cooperation and incentivize its capture and consumption, by appealing to the supply and demand ends of the culinary market. The overarching goal is to demonstrate how an NGO can successfully alleviate environmental impacts and increase sustainability through the use of market-based initiatives and inter-party cooperation.</p>

<p> Feature selection is one of the most important decisions made by product managers. This three article study investigates the concepts, tools and techniques for making trade-off decisions of introducing new features in evolving Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software products. The first article investigates the efficacy of various feature selection techniques when the trade-off is between comprehensiveness and time-to-market. The second article investigates the impact of current level of product performance when the trade-off is between providing different types of innovative features to the users. The third article investigates the impact on the ability of the COTS product to attract new users and retain existing users when the trade-off is between providing utilitarian and hedonic value through new product features. </p><p> To meet these research goals an extensive multidisciplinary study of Information Systems (IS) and Product Development literatures was conducted followed by experimental research. The experiments were conducted among youth between 19-24 years who were users of Gmail software and produced some key findings. </p><p> In the first study the Kano survey method was found to be effective in identifying those features which added value to the product and those that did not. This finding will facilitate product managers in using appropriate techniques for identifying the critical product features to be built into the COTS product thereby reducing time-to-market without sacrificing product quality. In the second study, current COTS product performance was found to significantly impact the type of innovation to be introduced into the COTS product. Basic or Core product innovations were found to have value for the users when performance is low but not when the performance is high. On the other hand, Expected or product Performance innovations and Augmented or user Excitement innovations were found to have value when the performance is high but not when the performance is low. In the third study, Hedonic value and Utilitarian value of product features were found to have distinctive impact on users. While Hedonic value impacted Word-of-Mouth, a measure of the products' capacity to attract new customers, Utilitarian value impacted User Loyalty, a measure of the products' capacity to retain existing customers.</p>

<p> Academic quality in for-profit vocational (Gainful Employment) programs is a concern for all stakeholders. However, academic quality is not easily defined. The Department of Education's Gainful Employment Rule defines academic quality With a few easily measured metrics such as student retention and job placement rate, despite the fact that academic quality is widely considered to be complex and multidimensional. Gainful Employment standards alone are not adequate to describe academic quality in for-profit vocational programs. The purpose of this qualitative study was to expand understanding of academic quality in on-ground Gainful Employment programs by gathering the lived experiences of faculty who taught in these programs. The study used a phenomenological approach, in which faculty members of two for-profit vocational colleges in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area were interviewed in person. Faculty were recruited using Linkedln groups and e-mail invitations. Systems theory served as the theoretical foundation for the study. The four common systems elements of inputs, processes, outcomes, and institutional environment formed the basis for the research questions. The systems thinking tool of rich pictures was employed to gain deeper insight into the phenomenon of academic quality. Triangulation was accomplished through the comparison of interview data; visual data from the rich pictures; my memos; and institutional Web content and college catalogs. Analysis of the interviews and rich pictures generated 301 attributes, which were organized first by research question, and then by key stakeholder group (faculty, students, administrators, and institution). Ten discernible themes emerged from faculty perceptions of academic quality, categorized according to systems inputs, processes, outcomes, and institutional environment. The conclusion was that academic quality is a multidimensional construct that includes many more attributes than simply student retention or job placement rate. A dynamic model of academic quality incorporating the systems elements of inputs, processes, outcomes, and system environment was proposed, and a composite rich picture was presented. The scope of the research should be expanded to include the perceptions of other stakeholder groups, for example, administrators, students, employers, and taxpayers. Future research should also include other geographical areas and comparisons between for-profit and nonprofit vocational education.</p>