Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2003. / Field problem. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-108). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Supervisor: John D. Leckenby. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available from UMI.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--Kutztown State College. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2750. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 36-38).

Past research has shown that concrete ad copies perform better than abstract ad copies in enhancing consumers’ attitudes toward and purchase intentions of the product. These studies have defined the abstractness-concreteness of an ad copy as the extent to which the ad copy activates visual imagery of the product information in consumers’ minds. However, other researchers have proposed another definition of the abstractness-concreteness of an ad copy: generality vs. specificity. That is, the more general (specific), the more (fewer) particular incidents an ad copy includes. Employing the alternative definition, this study re-examined the concreteness effect that has been reported. Specifically, based on regulatory focus theory and past studies on hedonic/utilitarian consumption, this study proposed that the impact of the abstractness-concreteness of an ad copy on consumers’ attitudes toward or purchase intentions of the product would be moderated by their regulatory foci and types of product attributes. Also, several propositions were set forth regarding the underlying process of the moderation effect. However, the online experiment this study conducted failed to support the propositions. Instead, the concreteness effect was observed. Based on the finding, this study discusses several issues that may advance our knowledge about the concreteness effect as well as about regulatory focus theory and consumers’ hedonic/utilitarian consumption. Also, several suggestions are made for future studies in this regard. / text

Failures are common in business and lead to negative repercussions for organizations. However, through the use of explanations, firms can diminish the negative consequences of their failures. Unfortunately, researchers do not have a clear idea about why one type of explanation is better than another. The current study examined organizational explanations (including excuses, justifications, and apologies) to determine which components of these explanations work to make a difference in consumer satisfaction following a service or product failure. Results indicated that explanations that were considered believable, appropriate, considerate, and accepting of responsibility made a difference in the way consumers perceived organizations that failed them. Specifically, organizational communication that included these components were more likely to lead to an increased willingness to conduct business with an organization in the future, increased positive perceptions of company credibility, increased satisfaction with an organizational response, decreased perceptions of negativity about the failure episode, and decreased perceptions of company control over a failure than communication that did not include these components. Additionally, results showed that excuses, justifications, and apologies also functioned independently of believability, appropriateness, consideration, and responsibility to influence consumers' perceptions of their organizations. The presence of excuses led to lower perceptions of company control and higher perceptions of negativity about a failure episode. The presence of justifications led to lower perceptions of negativity and the presence of apologies led to increased perceptions of negativity. These results combined with the results from the hypotheses suggest that the hypothesized components of explanations and the form of explanations used in remedial responses both influence people's perceptions of organizations and organizational responses following complaints about a failure. / text

Service-dominant logic views a customer as a proactive entity who co-creates value through collaboration with other entities in a value creation network. Working from that perspective, the current study investigated antecedents and consequences of customer organizational citizenship behaviors (COCBs), which refers to voluntary and discretionary behaviors that help marketers such as service organizations. Employing social exchange theory and personality concepts, this study set out to explain factors that lead customers to perform COCBs for their service organizations. In addition, this study conceptualized COCB motivation as an antecedent of COCB. Simultaneously, customer co-creation value, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions were proposed as consequences of COCBs in the theoretical model. With an effort to fill the research gap pertaining to lack of scale items that measure COCBs, COCB motivation, and customer co-creation value, the present study employed a mixed methods approach based on both qualitative and quantitative research design. For the COCB and customer co-creation value construct, this study not only confirmed the measurability of the existing scale items but also found additional items, especially focusing on the offline service context. Additionally, scale items that measure COCB motivation, a construct that is newly proposed here, were developed and were categorized into four dimensions that represent COCB motivation - Self-enhancement, Personal principles, Desire to support the service organization, and Perceptions of the service organization's past performance. Data for hypotheses testing were collected via a web-based self-administered survey. Three versions of a questionnaire, based on three types of service organization, were used to elicit consumers' responses from a variety of service types. A total of 692 general U.S. consumers, who had had face-to-face interaction with service organizations in the prior six months, responded to the survey. The proposed hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. In addition, to confirm whether there were differences in the relationships between proposed constructs among three types of service organizations, post-hoc analysis was conducted through multi-group analyses. The results of this study demonstrated the positive relationship between COCB motivation and COCBs. The results also provided support to the view that social exchange-based antecedents have strong positive impact on COCB motivation, and prosocial personality and proactive personality are important personality traits that stimulate customers to voluntarily participate in activities and/or tasks of the service organization. In addition, this study found that even though customers who participate in COCBs can perceive three types of co-creation value - economic co-creation value, individual co-creation value, and social co-creation value, they may be satisfied with service outcome and frontline employees only when they perceive individual co-creation value and social co-creation value. Furthermore, the findings of this study confirmed the spillover effect of transaction-specific satisfaction on overall satisfaction, which positively influences behavioral intentions such as intention to continue the relationship with the service organization and intention to recommend to other customers. Finally, the results of the post-hoc analysis revealed that there are no differences in most parts of the theoretical model across the three types of service organization except for four relationships - the impact of COCBs on social co-creation value, the impact of satisfaction with service outcome on satisfaction with service organization, the impact of satisfaction with frontline employees on satisfaction with service organization, and the impact of satisfaction with service organization on intention to recommend to other customers. Theoretical implications and managerial implications are discussed.

Infancy and toddlerhood is an important time for the development of emotion regulation, with interactions between parents and children critical to these processes. Negative parenting behaviors can have a deleterious impact on this development; however, for infants and toddlers in child care, the classroom environment, including teacher-child interactions, provides an important setting for emotional development and may serve as a protective factor when parenting risk at home is high. The aim of the three papers presented in this dissertation was to explore the potential for child care to act as a protective factor for infants and toddlers experiencing different dimensions of parenting risk that threaten emotion regulation development: minimal sensitivity and support, harsh and intrusive behaviors, and physical abuse and neglect. Results confirmed the negative impact of unsupportive, harsh, and intrusive parenting behaviors on emotion regulation, but child care was either insignificant in mitigating these effects or operated as a buffer for certain children only. Additionally, a review of the extant literature suggested that understanding the optimal caregiving experiences in child care that meet the unique regulatory needs of maltreated infants and toddlers is limited. Collectively, implications of these findings include the need to ensure measurement validity when assessing children’s experiences within child care, the importance of considering the interactive nature of child, parent, and child care factors, and the pressing need for more research regarding child care teachers' roles in facilitating emotional experiences in the classroom that meet the unique regulatory needs infants and toddlers facing risk at home.

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