Researchers have traditionally focused on the dimensions of valence and arousal when studying how affect, mood and emotions influence consumer decision-making processes. As a result, it was concluded that negative emotions were associated with more systematic processing and positive emotions were related to more heuristic processing (Tiedens and Linton, 2001). However, recent studies of the effects of emotions on consumer decision-making have shown that emotions with the same valence and arousal level can lead to different response behaviours (Lerner and Keltner, 2000; Ragunathan and Pham, 1999; Tiedens and Linton, 2001; Yi and Baumgartner, 2004). Cognitive appraisals have been offered as an avenue for explaining these differences (Bagozzi, Gopinath and Nyer, 1999; Ruth, Brunel and Otnes, 2002; Tiedens and Linton, 2001); however, a comprehensive theory of their effects on decision-making has yet to emerge. This three study research program tests whether the cognitive appraisals of outcome desirability and agency combine to offer a more comprehensive explanation of emotion’s effect on consumer decision-making processes than has been offered to date. Outcome desirability and agency are proposed to influence decision-making processes both directly and through the mediating influence of emotions. Results show that emotions mediate relationships between outcome desirability and agency appraisals and consumer decision-making processes. There is some evidence to suggest that agency driven emotions differentially influence consumer decision-making processes and outcomes. Further study is needed to confirm how these complex interactions work together to drive decision-making behaviours.

This paper examines the effects of the recent proliferation of Regional Trade Agreements. Some fear they will cause protectionism in the international system, while others argue they are an inevitable and beneficial part of the system. This paper analyzes the political factors behind such agreements and finds the multilateral trading system is not showing signs of becoming protectionist.

Consumers often face conflict between what "makes sense" and what "feels right" - between logical analysis and intuition. This dissertation focuses on the means by which such conflict is resolved. Extending dual-process models of judgment, we suggest that consumers often select a processing output based on their assessment regarding the appropriateness of experiential (system-1) and analytical (system-2) responses. Specifically, we propose distinct mechanisms that affect the weighting of experiential versus analytical outputs by influencing the perceived suitability of each processing mode, and we test these mechanisms in a series of experimental studies. In order to demonstrate the broad applicability of our framework, these studies investigate numerous domains in which the 'head' and 'gut' produce opposing responses, employ diverse manipulations of perceived suitability, and utilize multiple judgment and evaluation measures.The dissertation is organized in three chapters. Chapter One provides an overview of dual-systems theories and introduces the notion of simultaneous conflicting preferences. In addition, the chapter describes our conceptualization of perceived suitability as a metacognitive construct and lays out a model by which this construct influences the resolution of conflicting preferences. Chapter Two presents six empirical studies spanning a number of paradigms relevant to consumer behavior and social cognition. As an initial demonstration, Studies 1-2 utilized a semantic priming task to manipulate representations of experiential and analytical processing, and then tested the effects of this manipulation in a game of chance pitting a logically superior option against one that was perceptually appealing. Studies 3-6 expanded our model to situations involving conflict between implicit and explicit brand attitudes. Three of these studies (3, 5, and 6) tested the proposition that prior-formed, 'implicit' attitudes will affect even overt preferences to the extent that experiential processing is deemed suitable to the evaluation task. The other (Study 4) identified various decision characteristics that may affect the perceived suitability of each processing mode in real-world decisions. Chapter Three concludes the dissertation by reviewing the evidence for our conceptual model and discussing both theoretical and practical contributions of the question "How should I think about it?" in situations pitting instincts against reason. / Dissertation

<p>Central to the explosive growth of the Internet has been the desire</p><p>of dispersed buyers and sellers to interact readily and in a manner</p><p>hitherto impossible. Underpinning these interactions, auction</p><p>pricing mechanisms have enabled Internet transactions in novel ways.</p><p>Despite this massive growth and new medium, empirical work in</p><p>marketing and economics on auction use in Internet contexts remains</p><p>relatively nascent. Accordingly, this dissertation investigates the</p><p>role of online auctions; it is composed of three essays.</p><p>The first essay, ``Online Auction Demand,'' investigates seller and</p><p>buyer interactions via online auction websites, such as eBay. Such</p><p>auction sites are among the earliest prominent transaction sites on</p><p>the Internet (eBay started in 1995, the same year Internet Explorer</p><p>was released) and helped pave the way for e-commerce. Hence, online</p><p>auction demand is the first topic considered in my dissertation. The</p><p>second essay, ``A Dynamic Model of Sponsored Search Advertising,''</p><p>investigates sponsored search advertising auctions, a novel approach</p><p>that allocates premium advertising space to advertisers at popular</p><p>websites, such as search engines. Because sponsored search</p><p>advertising targets buyers in active purchase states, such</p><p>advertising venues have grown very rapidly in recent years and have</p><p>become a highly topical research domain. These two essays form the</p><p>foundation of the empirical research in this dissertation. The third</p><p>essay, ``Sponsored Search Auctions: Research Opportunities in</p><p>Marketing,'' outlines areas of future inquiry that I intend to</p><p>pursue in my research.</p><p>Of note, the problems underpinning the two empirical essays exhibits</p><p>a common form, that of a two-sided network wherein two parties</p><p>interact on a common platform (Rochet and Tirole, 2006). Although</p><p>theoretical research on two-sided markets is abundant, this</p><p>dissertation focuses on their use in e-commerce and adopts an</p><p>empirical orientation. I assume an empirical orientation because I</p><p>seek to guide firm behavior with concrete policy recommendations and</p><p>offer new insights into the actual behavior of the agents who</p><p>interact in these contexts. Although the two empirical essays share</p><p>this common feature, they also exhibit notable differences,</p><p>including the nature of the auction mechanism itself, the</p><p>interactions between the agents, and the dynamic frame of the</p><p>problem, thus making the problems distinct. The following abstracts</p><p>for these two essays as well as the chapter that describes my future</p><p>research serve to summarize these contributions, commonalities and</p><p>differences.</p><p>Online Auction Demand</p><p>With $40B in annual gross merchandise volume, electronic auctions</p><p>comprise a substantial and growing sector of the retail economy. For</p><p>example, eBay alone generated a gross merchandise volume of $14.4B</p><p>during the fourth quarter of 2006. Concurrent with this growth has</p><p>been an attendant increase in empirical research on Internet</p><p>auctions. However, this literature focuses primarily on the bidder;</p><p>I extend this research to consider both seller and bidder behavior</p><p>in an integrated system within a two-sided network of the two</p><p>parties. This extension of the existing literature enables an</p><p>exploration of the implications of the auction house's marketing on</p><p>its revenues as well as the nature of bidder and seller interactions</p><p>on this platform. In the first essay, I use a unique data set of</p><p>Celtic coins online auctions. These data were obtained from an</p><p>anonymous firm and include complete bidding and listing histories.</p><p>In contrast, most existing research relies only on the observed</p><p>website bids. The complete bidding and listing histories provided by</p><p>the data afford additional information that illuminates the insights</p><p>into bidder and seller behavior such as bidder valuations and seller</p><p>costs.</p><p>Using these data from the ancient coins category, I estimate a</p><p>structural model that integrates both bidder and seller behavior.</p><p>Bidders choose coins and sellers list them to maximize their</p><p>respective profits. I then develop a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC)</p><p>estimation approach that enables me, via data augmentation, to infer</p><p>unobserved bidder and seller characteristics and to account for</p><p>heterogeneity in these characteristics. My findings indicate that:</p><p>i) bidder valuations are affected by item characteristics (e.g., the</p><p>attributes of the coin), seller (e.g. reputation), and auction</p><p>characteristics (e.g., the characteristics of the listing); ii)</p><p>bidder costs are affected by bidding behavior, such as the recency</p><p>of the last purchase and the number of concurrent auctions; and iii)</p><p>seller costs are affected by item characteristics and the number of</p><p>concurrent listings from the seller (because acquisition costs</p><p>evidence increasing marginal values).</p><p>Of special interest, the model enables me to compute fee</p><p>elasticities, even though no variation in historical fees exists in</p><p>these data. I compute fee elasticities by inferring the role of</p><p>seller costs in their historical listing decision and then imputing</p><p>how an increase in these costs (which arises from more fees) would</p><p>affect the seller's subsequent listing behavior. I find that these</p><p>implied commission elasticities exceed per-item fee elasticities</p><p>because commissions target high value sellers, and hence, commission</p><p>reductions enhance their listing likelihood. By targeting commission</p><p>reductions to high value sellers, auction house revenues can be</p><p>increased by 3.9%. Computing customer value, I find that attrition</p><p>of the largest seller would decrease fees paid to the auction house</p><p>by $97. Given that the seller paid $127 in fees, competition</p><p>offsets only 24% of the fees paid by the seller. In contrast,</p><p>competition largely in the form of other bidders offsets 81% of the</p><p>$26 loss from buyer attrition. In both events, the auction house</p><p>would overvalue its customers by neglecting the effects of</p><p>competition.</p><p>A Dynamic Model of Sponsored Search Advertising</p><p>Sponsored search advertising is ascendant. Jupiter Research reports</p><p>that expenditures rose 28% in 2007 to $8.9B and will continue to</p><p>rise at a 26% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR), approaching half</p><p>the level of television advertising and making sponsored search</p><p>advertising one of the major advertising trends affecting the</p><p>marketing landscape. Although empirical studies of sponsored search</p><p>advertising are ascending, little research exists that explores how</p><p>the interactions of various agents (searchers,</p><p>advertisers, and the search engine) in keyword</p><p>markets affect searcher and advertiser behavior, welfare and search</p><p>engine profits. As in the first essay, sponsored search constitutes</p><p>a two-sided network. In this case, bidders (advertisers) and</p><p>searchers interact on a common platform, the search engine. The</p><p>bidder seeks to maximize profits, and the searcher seeks to maximize</p><p>utility.</p><p>The structural model I propose serves as a foundation to explore</p><p>these outcomes and, to my knowledge, is the first structural model</p><p>for keyword search. Not only does the model integrate the behavior</p><p>of advertisers and searchers, it also accounts for advertisers</p><p>competition in a dynamic setting. Prior theoretical research has</p><p>assumed a static orientation to the problem whereas prior empirical</p><p>research, although dynamic, has focused solely on estimating the</p><p>dynamic sales response to a single firm's keyword advertising</p><p>expenditures.</p><p>To estimate the proposed model, I have developed a two-step Bayesian</p><p>estimator for dynamic games. This approach does not rely on</p><p>asymptotics and also facilitates a more flexible model</p><p>specification.</p><p>I fit this model to a proprietary data set provided by an anonymous</p><p>search engine. These data include a complete history of consumer</p><p>search behavior from the site's web log files and a complete history</p><p>of advertiser bidding behavior across all advertisers. In addition,</p><p>the data include search engine information, such as keyword pricing</p><p>and website design.</p><p>With respect to advertisers, I find evidence of dynamic</p><p>bidding behavior. Advertiser valuation for clicks on their sponsored</p><p>links averages about $0.27. Given the typical $22 retail price of</p><p>the software products advertised on the considered search engine,</p><p>this figure implies a conversion rate (sales per click) of about</p><p>1.2%, well within common estimates of 1-2% (gamedaily.com). With</p><p>respect to consumers, I find that frequent clickers place a</p><p>greater emphasis on the position of the sponsored advertising link.</p><p>I further find that 10% of consumers perform 90% of the clicks.</p><p>I then conduct several policy simulations to illustrate the effects</p><p>of change in search engine policy. First, I find that the</p><p>search engine obtains revenue gains of nearly 1.4% by sharing</p><p>individual level information with advertisers and enabling them to</p><p>vary their bids by consumer segment. This strategy also improves</p><p>advertiser profits by 11% and consumer welfare by 2.9%. Second, I</p><p>find that a switch from a first to second price auction results in</p><p>truth telling (advertiser bids rise to advertiser valuations), which</p><p>is consistent with economic theory. However, the second price</p><p>auction has little impact on search engine profits. Third, consumer</p><p>search tools lead to a platform revenue increase of 3.7% and an</p><p>increase of consumer welfare of 5.6%. However, these tools, by</p><p>reducing advertising exposure, lower advertiser profits by 4.1%.</p><p>Sponsored Search Auctions: Research Opportunities in Marketing</p><p>In the final chapter, I systematically review the literature on</p><p>keyword search and propose several promising research directions.</p><p>The chapter is organized according to each agent in the search</p><p>process, i.e., searchers, advertisers and the search engine, and</p><p>reviews the key research issues for each. For each group, I outline</p><p>the decision process involved in keyword search. For searchers, this</p><p>process involves what to search, where to search, which results to</p><p>click, and when to exit the search. For advertisers, this process</p><p>involves where to bid, which word or words to bid on, how much to</p><p>bid, and how searchers and auction mechanisms moderate these</p><p>behaviors. The search engine faces choices on mechanism design,</p><p>website design, and how much information to share with its</p><p>advertisers and searchers. These choices have implications for</p><p>customer lifetime value and the nature of competition among</p><p>advertisers. Overall, I provide a number of potential areas of</p><p>future research that arise from the decision processes of these</p><p>various agents.</p><p>Foremost among these potential areas of future research are i) the</p><p>role of alternative consumer search strategies for information</p><p>acquisition and clicking behavior, ii) the effect of advertiser</p><p>placement alternatives on long-term profits, and iii) the measure of</p><p>customer lifetime value for search engines. Regarding the first</p><p>area, a consumer's search strategy (i.e., sequential search and</p><p>non-sequential search) affects which sponsored links are more likely</p><p>to be clicked. The search pattern of a consumer is likely to be</p><p>affected by the nature of the product (experience product vs. search</p><p>product), the design of the website, the dynamic orientation of the</p><p>consumer (e.g., myopic or forward-looking), and so on. This search</p><p>pattern will, in turn, affect advertisers payments, online traffic,</p><p>sales, as well as the search engine's revenue. With respect to the</p><p>second area, advertisers must ascertain the economic value of</p><p>advertising, conditioned on the slot in which it appears, before</p><p>making decisions such as which keywords to bid on and how much to</p><p>bid. This area of possible research suggests opportunities to</p><p>examine how advertising click-through and the number of impressions</p><p>differentially affect the value of appearing in a particular</p><p>sponsored slot on a webpage, and how this value is moderated by an</p><p>appearance in a non-sponsored slot (i.e., a slot in the organic</p><p>search results section). With respect to the third area of future</p><p>research, customer value is central to the profitability and</p><p>long-term growth of a search engine and affects how the firm should</p><p>allocate resources for customer acquisition and retention.</p><p>Organization</p><p>This dissertation is organized as follows. After this brief</p><p>introduction, the essay, ``Online Auction Demand,'' serves as a</p><p>basis that introduces some concepts of auctions as two-sided</p><p>markets. Next, the second essay, ``A Dynamic Model of Sponsored</p><p>Search Advertising,'' extends the first essay by considering a</p><p>richer context of bidder competition and consumer choice behavior.</p><p>Finally, the concluding chapter, which outlines my future research</p><p>interests, considers potential extensions that pertain especially to</p><p>sponsored search advertising.</p> / Dissertation

<p>Consumers frequently share stories about consumption experiences with others through word of mouth (WOM). Past research has focused on how hearing WOM influences the listener; I examine how sharing WOM influences the speaker. My proposed model outlines variables that determine storytelling language, predicts how specific language influences speakers' evaluations of experiences, and identifies the process through which language influences speakers. I test this model in five experimental studies and in a field study using Amazon.com data. I find that stories containing relatively more explaining language influence speakers through a process of sense-making. Sense-making helps consumers understand and recover from experiences by allowing them to figure out why experiences occurred and why they liked or disliked them. Making sense of experiences through explaining language has several consequences for consumers. Explaining language can cause paradoxical effects of WOM in terms of consumers' evaluations of experiences and their intentions to repeat and recommend experiences. Explaining positive experiences can decrease speakers' evaluations of experiences, making experiences less positive and decreasing consumers' willingness to repeat and recommend these experiences. Conversely, explaining negative experiences can increase speakers' evaluations of experiences, making experiences less negative and increasing consumers' willingness to repeat and recommend these experiences. In addition, making sense of and explaining experiences decreases consumers' intentions to spread future word of mouth about their experiences.</p> / Dissertation

<p>The ability to digitize information goods such as music and movies and the growing accessibility of the Internet has led to online piracy and the emergence of a new class of retailers that specialize in digital downloads. Both online piracy and digital retailers have changed the dynamics of the information goods distribution channel. In my dissertation I focus on issues related to this change.</p><p>In the first chapter, "Digital music set free: the flip side of DRM," I study the effect of Digital Rights Management (DRM) mechanisms on the competition between traditional and digital retailers and on online piracy. DRM refers to technologies designed to control how end users may access, copy, or convert digital media. In the context of music downloads, DRM makes piracy of digital music more difficult, and until recently, most legal outlets for downloadable music only sold songs with DRM protection. Recently download retailers have convinced record companies to allow them to sell DRM-free music. The introduction of DRM-free music raises several important questions: Will music piracy increase as the opponents of DRM-free music predict? Will the music industry profits go up or down? How will CD retailers be affected? Will all labels start selling the unprotected (DRM-free) content? </p><p>I address these and related questions by developing a model of a music distribution channel that allows a record label to sell through both traditional CD retailers and iTunes-like download services at different wholesale prices. Among the interesting results, the analysis indicates that the level of piracy may decline when DRM protection is removed and that the traditional retailers much prefer to compete with distributors of pirated digital music rather than with legal music download services.</p><p>The competition between online and traditional retailers has led to interesting pricing policies on which I focus in the second chapter, "Digital movies at one simple price: the effect on competition." Online retailers tend to prefer uniform pricing (e.g. iTunes Store) where all "products" carry a single price, while traditional retailers do not have a policy of uniform prices. It is important to understand why one retailer should choose a single, uniform price and what impact it has on the competing retailer who chooses multiple prices. I focus specifically on the impact that single price policy adopted by digital retailer has on the traditional retailer. I also analyze the choice of uniform vs. differentiated pricing by modeling the competition between online and traditional retailers for vertically differentiated information goods. Importantly, I demonstrate how the asymmetric equilibrium we observe in the market today can change systematically with the nature of competition between the retailers.</p> / Dissertation

<p>Consumers often lack objective information about product acquisition costs. In such cases, consumers must rely on estimates of acquisition costs in making their choices. The current work examines the influence of mental simulations of product acquisition on estimates of acquisition costs. We suggest that simulations of product acquisition lead estimates to reflect the influence of consumers' current physical states on the experience of a particular cost. Specifically, carrying a heavy burden leads consumers to estimate higher distances to targets when they engage in simulation of walking to targets, but not when they do not engage in such simulation.</p><p>Simulation can be either deliberate or spontaneous. Deliberate simulation is engaged when consumers intentionally simulate an action. Spontaneous simulation requires particular conditions for its occurrence, but does not require conscious intent. The specific conditions for the occurrence of spontaneous simulation are the availability of situational inputs and that action be possible in the given situation. We support these ideas in a series of studies.</p><p>Study 1 demonstrates preference shifts that occur as a consequence of participants carrying heavy burdens. Participants in this study shifted their preference from an option located a visible but undefined distance away towards one that was available at their current location. Study 2 supports the theory that this shift occurs as a consequence of alterations in estimates of acquisition costs by showing that burdened participants estimate distances as greater than do unburdened participants. </p><p>Study 3 provides evidence for the role of mental simulation in producing such changes in estimated acquisition costs by showing that the distance expansion first demonstrated in study 2 occurs when targets are visible, but not when targets are not visible. This result is consistent with the central contention of this dissertation that visibility is critical for spontaneous simulation. Together, the studies support the role of spontaneous simulation in burden leading to distance expansion. Study 4 provides further support for the role of simulation in producing the effects of physical state on estimated acquisition costs by showing deliberate simulation results in similar distance to that of spontaneous simulation. </p><p>Studies 5 and 6 further demonstrate the dual roles of spontaneous and deliberate simulation on distance expansion. They show that expansion does not occur when targets are not reachable because they are up in the air (study 5). However, deliberate simulation of realistic (climbing - study 5) or unrealistic (flying - study 6) action restores distance expansion in those circumstances, supporting the role of simulation in leading to consideration of physical state in estimated acquisition costs.</p><p>The final study ties together these results by demonstrating the effects of both spontaneous and deliberate simulation in a single setting. Varying both the availability of conditions supporting spontaneous simulation and instructions for deliberate simulation the study allows an examination of the comparative effects of the two types of simulation and of their potential interaction. The study finds that deliberate simulation may produce effects that are larger than those of spontaneous simulation, but spontaneous simulation does not seem to enhance the effects of deliberate simulation.</p> / Dissertation

<p>Search advertising refers to the practice where advertisers place their text-based advertisement on the search engine's result page along with the organic search results. With its growing importance, search advertising has seen a recent surge in academic interest. However, the literature has been ignoring some practical yet important problems of advertisers, including the keyword selection problem. In my dissertation, I focus on the keyword selection problem, more specifically, the choice of branded keywords in search advertising.</p> <p>My dissertation begins with an observation on different patterns of branded keyword purchase behavior by the brand owner and its competitor. Under some branded keywords, we observe in the sponsored link, only the brand owner or only the competitor. However, under some other branded keywords, we observe both firms, or neither of them. Upon this phenomenon, I aim to understand what drives this puzzling pattern in a competitive environment. To this purpose, I develop a duopoly model where two firms compete in the product market with both horizontally and vertically differentiated products. Their products are evaluated by consumers whose perception is affected by what they see in search advertising. With this setup, Then I derive a subgame perfect equilibrium of the two stage game.</p> <p>In a pricing equilibrium, I find that any benefit a firm gets from search advertising either due to exposure benefit or due to contrast or assimilation, helps this firm charge higher price while forcing the other firm charge lower price. This result affects the incentive for each firm to buy the branded keyword in the advertising stage. Specifically, firms have an incentive to buy the keyword only when the cost of advertising is justified by the exposure benefit but even in that case, each firm buys only when the detrimental context effect is not present. If the quality difference between the brand owner and the competitor is large and thus there exists a contrast between the two firms, the competitor with low quality product refrains from buying the keyword, because the contrast effect hurts the competitor. On the other hand, if the quality difference is small and thus two brands are assimilated, the brand owner with high quality product refuses to buy the keyword, because it is hurt by the assimilation effect. If the quality difference is in the intermediate range so that neither context effect is harmful to neither firm, both firms buy the keyword at the same time. On probing further the underlying incentives, I find that in some cases, the brand owner may buy its own keyword only to defend itself from the competitor's threat. In contrast, I also identify the case where the brand owner chooses to buy its own keyword and precludes the competitor from buying it. My result also suggests that both firms may be worse off by engaging in advertising, as in the prisoner's dilemma case.</p> <p>On an extension, I provide an analysis on the impact of the insufficient advertising budget. If the budget is limited, both firms may have an incentive to hurt the other firm taking the higher slot, by increasing the bid amount and thus quickly exhausting the competitor's budget. The budget constraint also deprives the advertisers of the incentive to buy the keyword and thus, the budget-constrained advertisers may refuse to match the competitor's purchase of the keyword. Finally, the experimental investigation shows the existence of the exposure effect and the context effects. It also supports the model prediction based on estimated model parameters together with the empirical observation.</p> / Dissertation

The Health Care Finance Administration is challenged with improving enrollment into the alternative managed health care system called Medicare+Choice. The current Medicare cohort is knowledgeable about where to obtain information about Medicare+Choice, but they cannot recall the terminology or comprehend the concepts of the program. This study attempts to improve older adult recall and comprehension of Medicare managed care written text, with the goal of improving their attitude toward Medicare managed care. Older adults (n = 49) from a community located in the Southwest were randomly assigned to one of three study conditions. Analysis of Variance, Tukey HSD, and correlation analysis were conducted on questionnaire responses measuring for recall, comprehension and attitude. An "Elderspeak Process" improved older adult recall of specific terms, words, and phrases about Medicare and Medicare managed care. Medicare managed care organizations can use the process to simplify information about their managed care programs to knowledgeable older adults.

The objective of this thesis is to develop a picture of the communications which constitute the job-seeking process of architecture students and the professionals that hire them. This thesis seeks to improve upon standard job-seeking and hiring paradigms and contribute to current job-seeking information, applied specifically to the architecture profession, so that architecture schools are better equipped to prepare students for employment challenges that lie ahead. Two hundred thirteen University of Arizona architecture alumni and two hundred twelve architecture students were surveyed to determine the criteria that architects use when hiring interns, to assess attitudes architects have toward employment-seeking materials, and to uncover perceptions students have about job-seeking. The research concludes that architects' hiring criteria do not match students' perceptions. There were differences in hiring criteria and perceptions of the job-seeking process between and within professional and student populations.