Revenue management has been applied to the restaurant industry, but restaurant operators have been disinclined to apply various types of RM approaches, due to apprehension for customer's possible expressions of dissatisfaction. To relieve this reluctance, restaurant operators may need to understand how their customers perceive capacity limitations. While customers are more familiar with RM practices in traditional RM industries (e.g., airlines or hotels) with fixed capacities, perceptions of capacity limitations in restaurants (relatively flexible capacity) may influence customers' perceptions of RM practices. In addition, the price difference between high-demand periods and low-demand periods may have differential impacts on customers' perceptions of value of the restaurant's expected offering and the fairness of RM practices. Based on commodity theory and equity theory, this study hypothesizes that two main effects, perceived scarcity of space in a restaurant and price differences between high-demand and low-demand periods, influence perceived value of a restaurant's offering and fairness perceptions of a restaurant's RM practice. As hypothesized, the negative effects of price difference on fairness perceptions are supported by the results, but the effect on perceived value has support only from the results of structural equation modeling. Unexpectedly, the main effect of perceived scarcity of space does not influence either perceived value of a restaurant's expected offering or fairness perceptions for a restaurant's RM practice. Interesting results arose found from supplementary analyses and suggest future research directions. / Tourism and Sport

This dissertation investigates causal factors that lead to implementing a top-down approach to platform product design as well as performance outcomes from such a design. A top-down approach to platform product design requires intentional planning of a new platform-based product design during the new product development process, incorporating a level of modularity into the new design, and planning derivative products based on common subsystems and interfaces. A thorough review of literature was used to build a theory of platform product design founded on risks and benefits. Benefits are that platform design can drive revenue, introduce cost and time efficiencies, lead to more reliable products and offer managerial benefits in the form of adjacencies. Risks include increased costs and time to market for the first product, reduced revenue due to commonality, sub-optimal product design, and increased management complexity during the NPD process. A conceptual model was then developed encompassing antecedents, contributing factors, and market performance measures to implementing a top-down approach to new platform product design. The model was empirically tested in the context of U.S. manufacturing firms using data collected from 249 manufacturing product design managers. Respondents included managers from B2B firms and B2C firms as well as small and large firms. In order to test the model, a new continuous multidimensional measurement scale of top-down platform product design was developed. Results showed that market turbulence, technological turbulence, a product that is new to the market and competitive strategies of differentiation and design for supportability are positively related to platform design. Firm type - B2B versus B2C - and firm size - large firms versus small firms - was found to moderate this relationship. Regarding firm type, products that are new to the market are positively related to platform design for B2C firms, not B2B firms, while a competitive strategy of design for supportability is positively related to platform design for B2B firms, not B2C firms. Regarding firm size, a competitive strategy of design for supportability is positively related to platform design for large firms, not small firms. These findings suggest that an important predictor of top-down platform design is risk or uncertainty. Results also showed that top-down platform product design is positively related to both short term and long term market performance although this relationship is significantly greater for long term market performance. In the short-term, performance as measured by sales and market share was greater than performance as measured by profits. In the long-term, performance measured by sales and profits was greater than performance measured by market share. Organizational support in the form of management buy-in and cross-functional integration partially mediates the relationship between platform design and long term market performance. Finally, strategic flexibility was found to have an inverse relationship with top-down platform down. Firms lacking strategic flexibility were more likely to pursue a top-down platform design. This is in line with findings that suggest top-down platform design is undertaken when uncertainty is high and strategic flexibility is an advantage These findings contradict conventional wisdom in new product development literature and offer a better understanding of why platform design is important in a way that has not been previously defined. / Business Administration/Marketing

Co-creation is an emerging phenomenon that occurs when two or more parties work together to create value. Co-creation, which is a key component to service dominant logic, is present in business to business, business to consumer, and consumer to consumer processes. This dissertation will focus on the business to consumer (and consumer to business) co-creation relationship. Much of the current business to consumer co-creation literature is qualitative in nature, with quantitative work just now beginning to emerge. As such, there is still much about the phenomenon of co-creation that is not understood. When looking at co-creation in the context of brand management, even less is known. In today's age of digital interaction where consumers are gaining more power on a daily basis, practitioners and academics should understand the motivations for consumers to engage brands in co-creation and what the outcomes of these co-creation partnerships are. Because of this, the dissertation contains three essays with the purpose of (1) identifying the motivations for co-creation from consumer and brand perspectives, (2) exploring each of these motivators on their individual relationship to the outcome of co-creation, and (3) understanding how the perceived ability to influence a brand impacts the outcomes of co-creation. Essay 1, titled "Co-creation of brand identities: consumer and industry influence and motivations," aims to develop an understanding of the phenomena of co-creation and how the practice is used in shaping brand identities. Two studies are undertaken to provide insight into co-creation. First, a qualitative study is used to gain insight from key decision makers with responsibility for a brand. Second, a study of millennial consumers is used to develop the antecedents of consumer motivations of co-creation of brand identities. This essay then presents a comprehensive framework that encompasses two models (industry and consumer) of brand identity co-creation. Much of the current literature on co-creation is conceptual or qualitative, and these results provide the analytical support for the building blocks of co-creation theory development. Essay 2, titled "An examination of the factors leading to consumer co-creation of brand," further explores the consumer model of co-creation proposed in Essay 1. Through a series of five studies, the factors of social, fun, brand compatibility, brand commitment, and communication appeal are analyzed individually to determine how each factor impacts the consumers' willingness to engage in co-creation. The results of this study expand the academic knowledge of co-creation, by providing information about why consumers engage with brands in co-creation. Additionally, practitioners will benefit from the descriptive results which provide insight into which motivations a brand should manipulate if it wishes to engage consumers in co-creation. Essay 3, titled "When perceived ability to influence plays a role: brand co-creation in web 2.0," examines how co-creation is impacted by consumers' attributions about a brand's ability to be influenced. Through two studies, focusing on millennial consumers, this essay seeks to understand the attributions that consumers make about brands, what kind of attributions are made, and what the outcome of these attributions are – in terms of co-creation and perceived influence. This essay enhances the current knowledge on the co-creation phenomena and provides insight into the importance of a brand being perceived as being able to be influenced, which will lead to co-creation and increased purchase intentions. In sum, the three essays contained in this dissertation specify a framework for the antecedents of co-creation, an in-depth analysis of those antecedents, and an examination of how perceived influence impacts co-creation. The resulting body of work provides academics and practitioners with a base to better understand the process of co-creation.

Surprisingly little research has explored the role of grit in consumer psychology. My dissertation addresses this gap by examining how grit influences consumer psychology, particularly focusing on uncovering the underlying mechanism between grit and consumer behaviors and exploring beliefs and attitudes on grit. Toward this goal, Essay 1 identifies the links between grit, a promotion regulatory focus, and variety seeking, while Essay 2 explores the role of consumers' political ideology on each facet of grit and moral consumer choices. In Essay 1, I propose that grit influences variety seeking, partially explained through a promotion regulatory focus. Three pilot studies, a main effects field study, and four experiments are used to empirically support links from grit to increased variety seeking, mediated by a promotion focus, and moderated by goal relevance. Essay 2 focuses on the influence of political ideology on grittiness. Multiple studies are used to test the proposed framework using various designs (surveys and experiments) and analysis techniques (e.g., SEM, ANOVA, and PROCESS), finding that unique types of grit, relative to consumers' political ideology, can significantly enhance or diminish intentions to make moral consumer choices. Together, this dissertation examines the important construct of grit in marketing and extends the current understanding of grit (e.g., dimensionality; promotion-focus). The essays offer robust evidence through field studies, consequential decisions, and various samples.

Master of Science / Department of Computing and Information Sciences / William H. Hsu / This thesis presents an approach towards summarizing product reviews using comparative sentences by sentiment analysis. Specifically, we consider the problem of extracting and scoring features from natural language text for qualitative reviews in a particular domain. When shopping for a product, customers do not find sufficient time to learn about all products on the market. Similarly, manufacturers do not have proper written sources from which to learn about customer opinions. The only available techniques involve gathering customer opinions, often in text form, from e-commerce and social networking web sites and analyzing them, which is a costly and time-consuming process. In this work I address these issues by applying sentiment analysis, an automated method of finding the opinion stated by an author about some entity in a text document. Here I first gather information about smart phones from many e-commerce web sites. I then present a method to differentiate comparative sentences from normal sentences, form feature sets for each domain, and assign a numerical score to each feature of a product and a weight coefficient obtained by statistical machine learning, to be used as a weight for that feature in ranking various products by linear combinations of their weighted feature scores. In this thesis I also explain what role comparative sentences play in summarizing the product. In order to find the polarity of each feature a statistical algorithm is defined using a small-to-medium sized data set. Then I present my experimental environment and results, and conclude with a review of claims and hypotheses stated at the outset. The approach specified in this thesis is evaluated using manual annotated trained data and also using data from domain experts. I also demonstrate empirically how different algorithms on this summarization can be derived from the technique provided by an annotator. Finally, I review diversified options for customers such as providing alternate products for each feature, top features of a product, and overall rankings for products.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Hospitality Management and Dietetics / Chihyung Ok, Deborah D. Canter / This study sought to apply the concepts of ‘perceived value’ and ‘customer share’ (of visits) to full-service restaurant settings for the first time. Given the strong ‘experiential nature’ of foodservice, the perceived value concept adopted in this study involved an ‘experiential view’ of the dining experience. Further, the customer share concept was expected to have implications for the foodservice context, given the multi-loyalty nature of restaurant customers. With the first conceptual model, this study sought to verify the effect of perceived value on customer share of visits in a full-service restaurant context, using a dimension-level value approach and positing customer satisfaction and brand preference as mediators between them. The conceptual model was tested based on responses from 299 general U.S. full-service restaurant customers, using a confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The test results revealed that among four value dimensions, excellence (in food and service) and customer return on investment had dominant effects on customer satisfaction and brand preference whereas playfulness had a significant moderate effect only on brand preference; aesthetic appeals did not have significant effects on either. Affected by perceived value, customer satisfaction significantly enhanced brand preference and in turn brand preference contributed to customer share of visits and fully mediated the effect of customer satisfaction on customer share of visits. In essence, the findings highlight the significant antecedent role of perceived value in customers’ satisfaction and brand preference formation, and the pivotal role of customer brand preference in customers’ purchase decision process. With the second conceptual model, this study sought to reveal the direct effect and/or moderating effects of contingency variables in relation to customer share of visits in a fullservice restaurant context. The hypotheses included in the conceptual model were tested based on responses from 291 general U.S. full-service restaurant customers, using a confirmatory factor analysis and a series of (moderated hierarchical) regression analyses. The test results indicated that the direct effects of social switching costs, lost benefits costs, procedural costs, and intrinsic inertia were positive whereas that of intrinsic variety-seeking was negative on customer share of visits. In addition, consumer involvement and perceived brand heterogeneity were found to enhance the effect of brand preference on customer share of visits. The effects of the contingency variables appear to work by influencing the number of brands in customers’ consideration sets and/or leading customers to allocate a greater share of visits to a particular brand in a given number of brands in consideration sets.

<p>This research investigates the interplay between self-worth and consumption, and explores the substantive phenomenon of trading up. Laboratory experiments were conducted in which participants were led to fail (or not) on an intelligence test, which threatened their feelings of self-worth (or not). Following the failure, participants made consumer choices. Of key interest was whether threatened self-worth would result in more "trading up" - that is, selecting more expensive products or retail stores. Results revealed that compared to consumers whose self-worth was not threatened, threatened consumers demonstrated more self-expressive consumption: trading up when a product portrayed "me" (high on self-relevance), or not trading up when a product portrayed "not me" (low on self-relevance). Self-relevance was operationalized in terms of choice sets (i.e., the choice between two Duke t-shirts vs. two white t-shirts) and individual differences in the tendency to consider material objects part of the self (this was measured via a questionnaire).</p><p>This research also examined two hypotheses regarding how consumption could, in turn, affect feelings of self-worth. The first hypothesis stated that negative feelings of self-worth can be immediately repaired via consumer decisions (here, the decision to trade up or not). Indeed, results revealed that among consumers whose feelings of self-worth were threatened, self-expressive consumption repaired negative feelings of self-worth. The second hypothesis stated that positive attachments between possessions and consumers' feelings of self-worth enable consumers to rely on possessions to protect self-worth. To test this, participants wrote about a possession that was important for who they are and how they feel about themselves (participants in a control condition wrote about a possession important to other people for this reason). Results showed that writing about a self-relevant possession before failing a test buffered the impact on feelings of self-worth. This finding was particularly robust for possessions important to consumers' social relationships.</p><p>These findings highlight the bright side of the relationship between consumption and self-worth: consumers respond to threats adaptively - sometimes spending more and sometimes spending less - and functionally - by making consumption decisions that repair self-worth and by relying on possessions to protect self-worth.</p> / Dissertation

<p>Marketers seek to create and consumers seek to cultivate a variety of positive emotional experiences. Despite their importance to consumer behavior, researchers have lacked a clear understanding of the distinct behavioral consequences of specific positive emotions. My dissertation examines how different positive emotions (e.g., hope, love, and pride) can differentially affect consumers' decisions and behaviors. I find that positive emotions can not only be differentiated but also that specific positive emotions lead to distinctly different patterns of consumption behavior, such as considering more options, donating in different ways, engaging in more effortful actions, or performing more socially conscious consumption behaviors benefiting distant others. I find important differences both with momentary emotional experiences and downstream consequences of chronic emotional experiences. </p><p>Positive emotions differ reliably in the degree to which they create a lens of problem-solving, social connection, and perceived control. For example, I find that positive emotions characterized by a social connection lens (e.g., love and gratitude) lead to increases in socially conscious behaviors benefiting distant others. The tendency to perceive one's environment through a problem-solving lens (which characterizes hope and interest but not love and gratitude) leads to larger consideration sets and engagement in more effortful environmental actions. I also examine how positive emotions characterized by different lenses, such as perceived control (e.g., pride) and social connection (e.g., love), produce distinct behaviors within the same consumption context (e.g., giving in different ways in response to a fundraising appeal). Five studies demonstrate that positive emotions can be characterized in ways that allow prediction of distinct forms of broadening and specific consumption behaviors.</p> / Dissertation

Master of Science / Department of Hotel, Restaurant, Institution Management & Dietetics / Ki-Joon Back / The objectives of this research were to address the impacts of positive and negative emotions on customers’ satisfaction and customers’ repeat visit intentions, and to investigate the mediating effect of customer satisfaction on the relationship between emotion and customers’ repeat visit intentions. A theoretical model of the formation of repeat visit intentions was proposed through a comprehensive review of the literature. Richins’ Consumption Emotion Set (1997) was modified to make it suitable for application in the lodging industry. The modifications were based on the participants’ responses to each emotion descriptor in the pilot test. Surveys were completed by graduate students and faculty members, undergraduate students at a Midwestern university, and conference attendees. Of 259 surveys returned, 248 responses were used for data analysis. Data were analyzed using factor analysis and a series of regression analysis. Positive and negative consumption emotions were found to have a significant effect on customer satisfaction and repeat visit intentions. Results also provided evidence of a significant association between customer satisfaction and repeat visit intentions. Customer satisfaction was found to be a full mediator in the relationship between customers’ positive and negative consumption emotions and repeat visit intentions. The loss aversion of the prospect theory was empirically supported in the formation of customers’ repeat visit intentions since results indicate that negative emotion has a greater influence on customer satisfaction and customers’ repeat visit intentions. Results support the importance of considering the impact of customers’ emotions on post-purchasing behaviors when developing better marketing and service strategies to achieve higher occupancy rate and retain customers.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent R. Amanor-Boadu / The Kansas Wheat Commission and the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers offer a number of services to Kansas wheat producers. Kansas wheat producers will be willing to pay more if they perceive they are getting more value from the Kansas wheat organizations. However, Kansas wheat producers are unaware of what the Kansas wheat organizations are doing on their behalf. It is believed that if Kansas wheat producers were more aware of what their organizations were doing on their behalf, they would be willing to contribute more. The overall objective is to improve Kansas wheat producer knowledge of Kansas Wheat activities. A survey of Kansas wheat producers provided data about willingness to pay, importance of services, channel preferences and producer demographics. Funds provided by the Kansas wheat assessment are used for a number of projects and programs. Current programs can be categorized into four areas: research; education, communications, and meetings supporting Kansas wheat growers; domestic market development; and international market development. When asked to rank those four areas from highest to lowest priority, respondents overwhelmingly chose research as the highest priority investment of the Kansas wheat assessment. The survey results indicated that Kansas wheat producers were willing to pay an amount above the current level of 10 mills per bushel for the Kansas wheat assessment. The mean response was 12.42 mills. Members of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers were willing to pay more for the assessment (15.13 mills per bushel) than non-members. In general, radio is the preferred channel of Kansas wheat producers; however, the two most listed publications and radio stations they rely on for information about wheat were High Plains Journal (33%) and Kansas Farmer (30%), both industry publications. Other producer demographics such as location in the state, type of producer, and acreage also affect producers' willingness to pay.