This study investigated situational biases in a marketing context, specifically those that affect consumers' abilities to report purchase behavior. The bulk of previous research in this area was expanded by combining retrospective self-reports of a previous purchase with actual point-of-purchase concurrent self-reports. / Self-reports given retrospectively 24 hours after an observed purchase were hypothesized to be significantly different from and less accurate than those reported concurrent with the purchase. Also, consumers would be significantly more likely to attribute factors affecting their purchase decision to their true source: person, object, or situation. However, when reporting retrospectively, consumers would have a greater tendency to attribute factors affecting their purchase decision to the object. / One hundred subjects were observed purchasing a popular candy product. The subjects were randomly sampled and systematically divided into concurrent and retrospective groups. The concurrent group was interviewed at the point-of-purchase via a structured questionnaire. The retrospective group was given an appointment to return 24 hours later. An experimental manipulation, in the form of a special price offering, was in effect at the point-of-purchase for one-half of the subjects in each group. / The results of the experiment strongly indicate that situational biases can significantly affect the collection of valid self-reports concerning reasons for purchase. It was shown that concurrent self-report causal attributions are not only significantly different, but also more accurate than the same type of data gathered 24 hours later. The experiment also provided strong evidence that subjects at the point-of-purchase are more likely to attribute factors affecting their purchase to their true sources, but when reporting retrospectively, the subjects were more inclined to rationalize their purchase by attributing factors to the product. / Implications of the study were detailed in the areas of applied marketing, consumer behavior, and marketing theory. Additionally, the study identified several related areas that are potentially attractive for future research. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-09, Section: A, page: 2751. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1985.

Brand partnerships are increasingly common as the cost of developing new products and brands is expensive in terms of both monetary outcomes and potential negative spillover effects to existing brand and products in a firm's portfolio. This dissertation explores how the risk associated with such brand partnerships can be reduced. In the following three essays brand partnerships in the form of brand acquisitions and co-brand arrangements are explored. Essay 1 focuses on brands joining together through brand acquisitions and the impact on firm value in terms of cumulative abnormal stock returns is used as the outcome variable of interest. In both Essay 2 and 3 co-brand arrangements are explored and the impact on consumer recall and evaluation is the outcome of interest. In all cases, managerial insights are provided to help improve the decision making process of forming such a partnership.

In my dissertation research I define and distinguish between two ways in which extrinsic signals about a consumption experience (e.g., product price, critic or customer ratings, source information such as country-of-origin) may distort that experience and the utility derived by the consumer. First, they can provide informational cues about the quality or nature of the experience, thereby setting expectations that influence subsequent processing of the experience. But I also propose that they can induce motivations regarding whether one "wants to like" (or dislike) the experience, leading to an active process of motivated distortion of the experience and the utility derived from it to align with the desired end. / I provide evidence that these two types of extrinsic cues---informational signals setting expected utility and motivational signals setting a desired utility---operate by fundamentally different routes to distort experiences. Building on this difference, I explore specific personal and contextual factors divergently affecting these processes---for instance, by amplifying the effects of informational signals but attenuating the effects of motivational signals. I also demonstrate that experience distortion need not be a simple either/or between informational and motivational processes. Rather, a single extrinsic cue can embody both types of signals, which moreover may be in conflict (e.g., high desired utility but low expected utility). / I outline important implications of my proposed deconstruction for revealing insights and informing predictions regarding consumer satisfaction and decision making, and where and when marketers might optimally highlight or reframe informational and/or motivational signals (e.g., ads salient at the time of purchase, product packaging salient during consumption). Thus, I show important managerial implications stemming from my proposed theoretical advances.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Kelly School of Business, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-03, Section: A, page: 1014. Advisers: Franklin Acito; Rebecca Slotegraaf. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed March 16, 2007)."

<p>Combining prior theory about really-new products with temporal construal theory, I examine how psychological differences in how consumers think about really new products (RNPs) and incrementally new products (INPs) affect consumers' formation of long-term product-purchase intentions and follow through on those intentions. In three field studies, I find that consumers form fewer long-term purchase intentions for RNPs than for INPs. They follow through on those intentions less often for RNPs than INPs and this difference in follow-through grows stronger over time after the measurement of purchase intentions. Consumers declaring intention to purchase INPs are more likely to form implementation intentions than those intending to purchase RNPs. Compared to those intending to acquire INPs, those intending to acquire RNPs are exposed to less new information and their attitude accessibility dissipates more rapidly over time. I discuss the implications of these findings for the launch of really new products and for market research on really new products.</p><p>In all of these findings, psychological newness is generally a bad thing for the product marketer. I conclude by identifying future research directions for examining the effect of product psychological newness on earlier stages of the product adoption process (Rogers 2003), where newness might be an advantage under some conditions. Psychological newness can affect consumers' initial efforts to learn about new products, and there are conditions under which newness might facilitate learning and awareness. A framework for product psychological newness' influence on elaboration of new product messages is proposed.</p> / Dissertation

<p>Though societally-held norms about emotion are an ever-present factor that guide and shape our emotional experiences, little research has examined how these norms might influence our consumption behaviors. In my dissertation, I begin to bridge that gap by examining how emotion norms might encourage individuals to make certain consumption choices in an attempt to achieve or avoid specific emotional states. In particular, I focus specifically on the emotion norm associated with the experience of feeling ashamed to explore how emotion norms can lead us to make some rather unexpected choices. Across a series of studies, I find that the emotion norm associated with shame attenuates consumers' basic hedonic impulses and increases their preference for products that elicit mixed emotions. Importantly, I find that this occurs despite our natural preference for feeling positively and despite the fact that feeling mixed emotions is psychologically uncomfortable and aversive. Taken together, this work extends the existing research on motivated emotion, mixed emotions and emotion norms in (1) suggesting a novel reason for why individuals might seek out one emotional state over another (2) providing an explanation for why mixed emotions-eliciting products might succeed in the marketplace (3) demonstrating that not all negative emotions lead to mood repair behavior and (4) examining how emotion norms as fundamental social structures influence consumption behavior.</p> / Dissertation

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Feb 4, 2010). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-04, Section: A, page: 1356. Adviser: Shanker Krishnan.

<p> Mental accounting, defined as the process whereby consumers code, categorize, and evaluate economic outcomes in the form of mental &ldquo;budgets&rdquo; (Thaler 1980; 1985), has been encouraged as a strategy to aid individuals in the regulation of finances and other resources. However, far less research has examined the pitfalls of mental accounting. Essay 1 investigates how mental accounting can lead to suboptimal decisions for others. We propose a novel hypothesis to understand an effect we term &ldquo;mental stealing,&rdquo; whereby mental accounts focus individuals on budgets so much that they forgo gifts that a gift-recipient would like. Essay 2 investigates how mental accounting for windfalls (i.e., unexpected gains in wealth) can lead to suboptimal spending on the self. We propose that expense categorizations are retroactively malleable, and can lead to overspending of windfalls. In total, the two essays of this dissertation enhance our study of consumer behavior by documenting new effects of mental accounts. And, in the process of documenting these new effects, this dissertation informs the mental accounting literature by identifying when mental accounting leads to suboptimal outcomes for both others and the self.</p>

There are critics who argue that marketing processes when applied to the practice of architecture encourage architects to compromise design excellence by giving into clients desires and discarding architectural values. But there are also supporters who see marketing as a process by which better buildings are generated and clients are subsequently more satisfied with the product, as well as the service. Marketing is a management tool. It was developed to help organizations respond to the forces that affect business operations. Nearly 30 years after the introduction of marketing concept few architecture firms fully understand the benefits marketing can afford the profession. This paper is intended to identify the complexities and uniqueness of marketing architectural services. The goal is to generate an understanding of what marketing is, what it is not, and how it applied to the practice of architecture.

The purpose of this study was to provide a better understanding of the relationships among quality, value, satisfaction, and loyalty when consumers choose to use technology-based retail formats such as online shopping. Three research objectives served to guide the development of an e-shopping loyalty model. The first objective was to investigate the extent to which the direct and indirect relationships among quality, value, satisfaction, and loyalty in technology-based retail environments parallel those that occur in traditional retail and service settings. The second research objective was to examine how the factors that predict quality-value perceptions for shopping online as compared to offline influence evaluations of e-shopping satisfaction and loyalty for an online merchant. The third objective was to investigate how a consumer's receptiveness to e-shopping technology influences evaluations of and loyalty to a merchant's website. There is a paucity of research regarding the interrelationships among these variables in technology-based consumption environments, therefore, the conceptual framework for the e-shopping model was drawn primarily from the relevant research in the retail and services literature. Data for the study was collected using a survey distributed by mail to the online apparel customers of a U.S. based company. The structural model employed to test the e-shopping loyalty model supported nine of the eleven hypothesized relationships. The links found in the causal model were reinterpreted as an Integrated Model of e-Shopping Loyalty. Findings suggest that online customer loyalty is less directly impacted by value-driven cognitions than by satisfactory shopping experiences. More specifically, perceptions of online shopping value impacted e-shopping loyalty only indirectly through the positive and direct effect of e-shopping satisfaction. Although cognitive assessments related to the merchandise offering played an important role in the evaluative process, shoppers' judgments of e-service quality were found to be more influential in affecting e-shopping loyalty. Additionally, shoppers appeared to be as concerned about the time and effort costs involved in online shopping as they were with the merchandise price. Finally, stronger feelings and beliefs about online shopping influenced consumers' evaluations of e-shopping primarily through their impact on perceptions of e-service quality.