Muthen (1978) developed a method for the factor analysis of dichotomous variables. Using information from the first and second order proportions of the data, the method fits a multiple factor model. Even though the model has been successfully applied in psychology, Monte Carlo simulations were never conducted to test the model. The Muthen (1978) method can be used to fit panel data and for modeling choice. The purpose of this dissertation is to conduct a Monte Carlo experiment for testing the appropriate sample sizes, the number of variables to number of factor ratios, model consistency and distributional assumptions, and to apply the model to panel data in a marketing context. The Muthen (1978) method will be used to propose a model for consumer choice. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: A, page: 2654. / Major Professor: Charles F. Hofacker. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

The credibility of a communicator is an important consideration for marketers when determining promotional strategies for a company, product, brand, or service. Past research indicates that in most circumstances credible sources are more persuasive than non-credible sources. Consequently, source credibility has been the topic of much research in the consumer behavior and promotions area. Very little research, however, has been undertaken concerning the related topic of corporate credibility. It is hypothesized that consumers' perceptions of a corporation's credibility is an important consideration in the development of attitudes toward advertisements, attitudes toward brands, and purchase intentions. / In this study, past research in the areas of source credibility and corporate credibility is discussed. Based upon this past literature, a model is developed that focuses on conceptualizing corporate credibility and its relationship to attitude toward the ad and to other ad-related constructs. An exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic study to determine the underlying dimensions of corporate credibility and to form the basis for a reliable and valid measurement scale of corporate credibility is conducted. Finally, structural equation analysis using LISREL7 is utilized to test the hypothesized relationships between the constructs and to test the overall fit of the proposed model. The results of the study indicate that corporate credibility plays a significant role in consumers' assessments of advertisements. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: A, page: 2654. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

The study investigates the effect of three competing influences on international outsourcing decisions; (a) the characteristics of the sourced components, (b) the transactions costs associated with the supply contracts, and (c) the competitive advantage of the product in the finished goods market. The data is collected from purchasing agents and tested using regression analysis. / The findings indicate that (a) the characteristics of the components have little effect on the contractual arrangements, (b) asset specificity has a weak influence on the negotiation process of contracts, (c) uncertainty has a weak influence on the period of the contract, (d) the quality of the finished product has the strongest effect (of all the variables included in the study) on the contractual arrangements, and (e) the outcome variables of Cooperation, Trust, and Satisfaction are closely correlated. / The implications of these findings are twofold. First, it seems that purchasing managers should be less concerned with protecting transaction-specific assets than with protecting the position of the firm's output in the finished goods market. Second, in order to achieve the above suggestion, purchasing agents should coordinate purchasing decisions with not only the production/manufacturing departments, but with sales and marketing too, in order to ensure that the final market positioning strategy is supported by components procured from external suppliers. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: A, page: 2655. / Major Professor: J. Joseph Cronin. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

Manufacturers spend more than $60 billion per year on consumer sales promotions, or \$3 billion more than is spent on advertising. Conventional wisdom dictates that, for optimal efficiency, sales promotions should be developed to appeal to the heavy users of the product category. There is little research, however, to substantiate the implied assumption that heavy users are more responsive to promotions. / This study utilized scanner data to investigate the relationship between households' level of product use and response to promotions in two product categories (ice cream and candy). Four types of sales promotion were studied: coupons, price discounts, retail feature advertising and special displays. / The results indicate that the relationship between level of product use and response to sales promotions varies according to the type of promotion, the product category, and the way that product use is measured. For example, households that were medium ice cream users were more responsive to price discounts, while households that were heavy ice cream users were more responsive to feature advertisements. On the other hand, households that were light candy users were more responsive to special displays than either heavy or medium user households. For both product categories, there were more significant differences between heavy, medium and light user households when product usage was measured by the number of ounces that were purchased, rather than the number of units. / Overall, this research illustrates the importance of distinguishing between different types of promotions and different definitions of product use. Further, this research suggests that light product users, for some product categories, represent an important and often overlooked consumer segment. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-03, Section: A, page: 0650. / Major Professor: Richard W. Mizerski. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

This study sought to test the appropriateness of applying Lacey's intake-rejection hypothesis of heart rate response to advertising copy-testing. Lacey has suggested that heart rate should decrease when subjects intake and/or process information, and increase when they block incoming information. From a copy-testing perspective, this experiment was undertaken to determine if individuals who recalled a superimposed portion of a television commercial exhibited the hypothesized response. / One hundred nineteen undergraduate business students were randomly assigned to one of three groups (two treatment and one control). In a laboratory setting, each was asked to view, individually, a series of commercials on a 19-inch color monitor. Of the series of advertisements, one commercial, 60-seconds in length, comprised the experimental treatment. Within the treatment commercials, were two superimposed messages. Each message was displayed at the bottom of the television screen in 16-point type. Each message remained on the screen approximately four seconds. The messages appeared in the advertisements at points approximately 15 and 37 seconds into the advertisement, respectively. The control group commercial was identical to the "treatment" version, but contained no superimposed messages. / Each subject's heart rate was monitored during the viewing session by means of a finger cuff and recorded in cardiac time. Analysis of variance was performed on second-by-second difference scores using stimulus onset (superimposed message) as the baseline. / Results of the first superimposed message were encouraging. Subjects who recalled the message (significantly) displayed the expected response. They were different from both te control group and the groups not recalling the message. Results on the second message were less supportive, however, in that no significant differences were found. / A number of suggestions are offered for the results. In cluded in these are: nature of the stimulus material; the possible existence of an intake-rejection cycle; the medium; and attention factors. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-09, Section: A, page: 2933. / Thesis (D.B.A.)--The Florida State University, 1984.

The present research investigates the (1) conceptualization and operationalization of Service Value, and (2) the causal ordering of the plethora of constructs identified in the literature believed to influence the formation of Purchase Behaviors in service settings. Data is collected from consumers of services in seven cities throughout the United States. The study also investigates the hypothesized relationships across four service industries. As such, the study represents the first multi-industry comprehensive empirical investigation of Service Value reported in the literature. The results first suggest that Service Value plays a key role in the formation of Purchase Behaviors in service industries. However, the strength of the role fluctuates depending on the industry under investigation. Second, the study identifies a possible nonrecursive relationship between Service Quality and Satisfaction which raises methodological questions concerning many of the results reported in the extant literature. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-10, Section: A, page: 3602. / Major Professor: J. Joseph Cronin, Jr. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

The decisions made within the organization can have a significant impact on the perceptions that consumers have of the organization. Thus, if the decisions made by the organization conflict with the ethical thought processes and value structures of its consumers, the buying behavior of the consumers may be affected. / Marketing has been an area within the organization where ethical behavior has been scrutinized to a large extent. This scrutiny is due in large part to the role of the consumer. The impact of the ethical behavior of marketers within the organization on consumers is the focus of this dissertation. / This dissertation assesses the ethical thought processes of groups of consumers--namely, Blacks and Non-Blacks, income levels, religious affiliations, and gender. Through questionnaires, student consumers evaluated the behavior of marketers in various marketing dilemmas. The evaluations were analyzed to determine if differences existed between the various groups of consumers in their judgments of the situations presented. / Findings indicated that significant differences were found between gender, and limited support was found between race and religious affiliation. No support was found for differences between income levels. In addition, value structures were found to correlate more highly with certain types of ethical thought. Implications for marketers and management are discussed with suggestions for further research. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-09, Section: A, page: 3297. / Major Professor: Melvin T. Stith. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

A study was done to compare the effectiveness of experiential versus non-experiential perception of emotion in response to television commercials. Multiple psychophysiological measures (heart rate, EMG, and R-P Interval) were applied in combination with self-report techniques to measure the subjects' emotional responses to a commercial. The results of these measurements were used to categorize subjects into four emotion experiential groups: (1) no evidence of emotion, (2) psychophysiological evidence only, (3) self-reported emotion only, and (4) both psychophysiological and self-reported emotion. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Logit Analysis were used to compare subjects' recall, recognition, believability, and comprehension of the commercial across the four groups. / The results of the experiment provide important insights into the effects of experiential perception of emotion of cognitive responses to television commercials. It was found that the use of emotion can aid an advertiser by acting as a communication enhancer, by creating an affective response toward the brand, and/or by serving as a benefit from consumption of the product. Emotional cues, slogans, and the package may be remembered better if the viewer experiences an emotion. Whether experiential effects can aid in creating an affective response toward the brand remains unclear. This study indicates that experiencing the appropriate emotion does assist in comprehending and believing the benefit role which emotion may play in consumption. / This study found that self-report and psychophysiological measurements appear to be suited to different measures of advertising effectiveness. Self-reported emotion was better able to detect believability and comprehension differences. Psychophysiological emotion was better able to find differences in recognition. For recall, both types of measures seem necessary. This implies that advertising researchers are not necessarily using the most appropriate techniques for measuring the effectiveness of emotional advertisements. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-07, Section: A, page: 2658. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

The amount of research in the area of consumer satisfaction is impressive. Most of this research, based upon the adaptation-level theory, has examined satisfaction in relation to prior expectations, performance evaluations, and the difference between those two constructs, called disconfirmation. The purpose of this study was to further examine satisfaction in relation to expectations of a personal selling experience in one of three types of retail stores, e.g., discount house, department store, or specialty store. It also investigated the relationship of previous shopping experiences, shopping preferences and demographics to consumer expectations and evaluations. Shopping preferences, expectations, evaluations, and satisfaction were each measured by using Likert-type scales. / One hundred and eleven college underclasswomen participated in the pre-test measurement of expectations, a personal selling experience in an unfamiliar, assigned store, and a post-evaluation of that experience. Factor analysis, ANOVA, stepwise regression, and Pearson Product Moment correlations were used to analyze the data. / Expectations, evaluation, and satisfaction were all somewhat positive. Significant relationships were found among expectations and shopping preferences, store assignments, and demographic variables. Students who had definite preferences tended to have distinct expectations. Expectations varied from store to store, being highest for department stores and lowest for discount stores. Demographic variables such as parent's education level, father's employment status, having teenaged siblings, and family income appear to have affected expectations. / Evaluations were found to relate to expectations, store assignment, and demographics. Evaluations confirmed expectations and were highest for specialty stores and lowest for discount stores. Age, father's employment status and occupation affected evaluations. / When expectations were met, or evaluations were positive, satisfaction occurred. The opposite was also true. Satisfaction was the result of either confirmed expectations, positive evaluations, or in some instances, both. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-01, Section: A, page: 0245. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1985.

An expanded model of the determinants of purchase behavior is proposed and tested in two separate studies. In the first study, a call-ahead mail survey with a lottery incentive is utilized to collect the data. The research variables are operationalized by multi-item, seven-point scales. In the second study, paid and unpaid collectors gathered the data. The research variables are operationalized by paired comparisons between two prominent service providers. Both studies used four service industries and eight individual firms as the research domain. The results indicate that (1) the measures used to operationalize the variables are valid and reliable, and (2) the hypothesized causal model generally represents a good fit to the data in both studies. Significant variability, however, exists across industries. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-10, Section: A, page: 3815. / Major Professor: J. Joseph Cronin, Jr. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.