Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: A, page: 4262. Adviser: Brian Wansink. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-149) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-04, Section: A, page: 1442. Adviser: Shanker H. Krishnan. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed June 19, 2007)."

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, 2006. / "Title from dissertation home page (viewed June 27, 2007)." Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-06, Section: A, page: 2259. Adviser: Michael R. Baye.

Cette étude a pour but d'établir le portrait de la pratique du placement de produits dans le cinéma québécois depuis 1990. Plus particulièrement, elle s'attarde à la fréquence des placements de produits ainsi qu'à leur intégration dans le contenu cinématographique. Une analyse de contenu a été effectuée sur un ensemble des films québécois produits entre 1990 et 2007 et ayant connu un succès au box-office québécois. Le codage, effectué par la chercheuse, a été réalisé selon une grille comprenant douze catégories. Les résultats de l'étude indiquent que, durant les années 90, la pratique misait sur la quantité plutôt que sur la qualité des placements alors que, depuis les années 2000, les placements sont moins nombreux, mais intégrés de manière plus réfléchie et créative. Cette étude est la première à examiner la place de cette stratégie de communication dans le cinéma québécois.

The internet has revolutionized marketing. Firms use the internet to procure advertising content, reach consumers, and offer a convenient channel of purchase. Given the growing importance of the internet, marketers must learn to take advantage of new marketplaces and channels. This research examines how the economic design of electronic marketplaces and online channels affects consumer and firm behavior. The first chapter examines the effects of prize structure and entry limits on participant behavior and idea quality in a freelance marketplace where popular advertisers such as P&G and Unilever organize contests to procure ideas for advertising content. It presents a structural model and uses counterfactual simulations to show that although the number of prizes does not appear to affect contest outcomes, prize amount and submission limits may have a significant impact that depends on participant heterogeneity and information. The second chapter uses a structural model and counterfactual simulations to explore how different expiration and pricing policies in a marketplace that offers deeply discounted but expiring deals for products affects the purchase and redemption behavior of consumers and the pricing decisions of merchants. This chapter sheds light on recent marketing regulation that befell the daily deals industry. The third and final chapter studies the decisions of retailers who operate both an online and a store channel to match their own prices across channels in a variety of competitive settings. It uses an analytical game theory model to show that different self-matching configurations may emerge in equilibrium, and that self-matching pricing policies may increase retailer profits.

Abstract not available.

Abstract not available.

There exist intelligent agents to aid online sellers to dynamically calculate a competitive price for their products in online markets. However, these intelligent agents usually make a number of assumptions for dynamic pricing. Some intelligent agents assume that sellers consist of prior knowledge about the online market parameters. In other words, the agents assume that the sellers are well aware of other competitors' pricing strategies, consumers purchase preferences, consumers' reservation price, profit made by other competing sellers etc. In addition, other agents assume that price is the only attribute that determines consumers' purchase decision. On the contrary, in real life sellers have limited or no prior knowledge about the market parameters. In addition, nowadays along with price other attributes such as after sale service, product quality etc. contribute in determining consumers' purchase decision. In this thesis, we propose an approach where sellers have limited knowledge on market parameters. We also assume that buyers' purchase decisions are based on multiple attributes. We are using a feed-forward neural network approach for calculating a competitive price dynamically to increase the sellers' revenue. Product price, product quality, delivery time, after sales service and seller's reputation are taken into consideration while determining the competitive price of the product by our model. In our experimental evaluation we showed that once the sellers, by considering the five attributes, set an initial price of the product, our model adjusts the price of the product automatically with the help of neural network in order to raise the revenue. In setting the initial price of a product, we assume that sellers use their prior knowledge about the prices of the product offered by other competing sellers. Any other prior knowledge like buyer demand or competitor's price setting behaviors is not used in our evaluation. The experimental results portray the effect of considering the five attributes in earning revenue by the sellers. Before concluding with directions for future works, we discuss the value of our approach in contrast with related work.

Stereotypical representations of women provide a critical concern to scholars in the realm of communication and women's studies, pertaining particularly to the naturalized and perpetual mass media demand for women's slimness. However the question remains as to why women's attainment and maintenance of the thin ideal is continuously necessitated within North American media culture. An ethnographic content analysis of Special K television advertisements from the past ten years reveals the latent cultural values that necessitate all women's perpetual pursuit of the thin ideal. While Special K is marketed as a dieting aid to be used in the pursuit of a healthy lifestyle, the lenses of feminist and objectification theories reveal a stereotypical equating of health with slimness for women within Special K advertisements, emphasizing the aesthetic pleasure that women's bodies provide for others rather than the benefits that women may reap from their own bodies; a sentiment that arguably encourages self-objectifying and self-monitoring behaviours among women. The naturalness of these mass media paradigms, as well as the latent cultural values that necessitate them, is a critical communication and feminist issue for which this study suggests possible constructive remedies.

Much of consumer behavior research focuses on how consumers process and evaluate information to make current decision. In contrast, many consumer choices ares are underpinned by the need to make choices that incorporate the past or future, other places, other people and other situations that are seemingly hypothetical. The imagination provides the chief means by which consumers are able to traverse this psychological distance. Construal Level Theory (CLT) explains how individuals are able to plan for the future, consider the perspective of another individual and even consider situations that are counter to reality. Construal mindsets are enacted when people form mental representations of distant objects, people, or places. In abstract construal mindsets, individuals think generally, in terms of global features of an object, person, or situation. On the other hand, concrete construal mindsets center around the detailed aspects of an object, person, or situation. These two different construal mindsets serve to help people cope with the uncertainty of the future. This is because abstract cosntruals are more likely than concrete construals to remain unchanged as distance from a future object, person, or place reduces. A number of consumer behavior settings require the use of the imagination. Sticking to a weight loss and or fitness plan, planning a vacation trip, saving for retirement and imagining what birthday gift a friend will enjoy all require imagining a psychologically distant state. Marketers generally seek to stimulate consumption by requiring consumers to imagine a consumption setting. This dissertation uses CLT to guide the hypotheses, as CLT explains how individuals deal with psychological distance by adopting a construal mindset. CLT explains differences in information processing associated with adopting a specific construal mindset and suggests how construal mindsets impact consumer information elaboration processes. This study will contribute to CLT by addressing an understudied be related area: the consumer imagination. Furthermore, this dissertation helps uncover the mechanism that demonstrates the role of psychological distance on construal mindsets. The study will employ three experiments that identify the effect of psychologically distant consumption scenarios on elaborative thought processes in consumption settings.