Since the 1970s, law enforcement officers have worn concealable body armor for protection against ballistic threats. Although current body armor may offer effective ballistic protection, it does not adequately meet other needs of the officers. Many officers fail to wear their vests because they are uncomfortable (Olsen, 1981; Ruthorford-Black & Khan, 1995; Watkins, 1995). When officers do wear their vests, their performance can be affected by their comfort level when wearing vests (Watkins, 1995). Previous research has identified three aspects of comfort: fit, mobility, and thermal acceptability (Huck, Maganga, & Kim, 1997; Huck & Kim, 1997; Tan, Crown, & Capjack, 1998). This study examined comfort related to Level II ballistic vests worn by male law enforcement officers, with emphasis placed on such aspects as fit, mobility, and thermal acceptability. The overall purpose of this study was to evaluate two types of bullet resistant vests for male police officers. The levels of satisfaction for each vest type were compared to help identify ways of improving ballistic vests. Both vest types were the traditional ballistic vest design and used the same carrier. The two Level II ballistic panel inserts were also of similar design but were made of different fabrication: one vest panel was made of traditional ballistic fabric while the prototype panel incorporated layers of an experimental ballistic fabric, ArmorFelt, a needled felt of high performance fiber blends. The research followed DeJonge's Functional Design Process. Ten male law enforcement officers from the Tallahassee Police Department participated in a range of motion test and a movement analysis wearing the two vest types. They also completed a wearer acceptability questionnaire for each vest. For control measurements, each officer also completed the range of motion test and movement analysis without their vest. The results indicated that: 1) there was not a significant difference between the prototype and traditional vest function when officers performed task-related movements; 2) there was no significant difference in the level of fit satisfaction for the wearer between the prototype vest and traditional vest; 3) no significant difference in comfort of the vests occurred when the traditional and the prototype vests were compared; 4) overall satisfaction levels related to vest performance and comfort showed no significant difference when officers compared the traditional and the prototype vests. Although the results showed no significant difference between the two vest treatments, the prototype vest was reported as cooler to wear, more comfortable, easier to move in, and more flexible. The officers also indicated that the prototype vest was more acceptable to wear. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Textiles and Consumer Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester, 2003. / June 27, 2003. / Fit, Ballistic Vests, Mobility, Thermal Acceptability / Includes bibliographical references. / Catherine M. Black, Professor Directing Thesis; Rinn M. Cloud, Committee Member; Emily M. Haymes, Committee Member; Howard L. Thomas, Jr., Committee Member.

The current research is undertaken to demonstrate the efficacy of segmenting consumer markets. In doing so, the current research reveals that the understanding of consumer behavior is greatly improved when service markets are segmented using clustering procedures. The effectiveness of these clustering procedures is tested across three studies and eight industries. In the first study, the prediction of overall service quality is improved by applying a bicriterion cluster wise regression to the data. In the second study, a multicriterion procedure is used to optimize the ability of eighteen customer equity drivers to predict a series of customer outcomes. Finally, in the third study, a bicriterion cluster wise logistic regression application is developed and is used to test the efficacy of the customer equity drivers in predicting actual customer behavior. The results of each study suggest that managers and researchers must acknowledge that consumer markets are heterogeneous and by modeling this heterogeneity prediction in outcome behaviors can be greatly improved. Moreover, the current research develops a new methodological technique for predicting binomial outcomes in a clustering framework. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Marketing in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2006. / April 28, 2006. / Logistic Regression, Customer Equity, Cluster Analysis, Loyalty, Clusterwise Regression, Segmentation, Services / Includes bibliographical references. / J. Joseph Cronin, Jr., Professor Directing Dissertation; William A. Christiansen, Outside Committee Member; Michael K. Brady, Committee Member; Michael J. Brusco, Committee Member; Larry C. Giunipero, Committee Member.

This study explores the roles of salesperson characteristics and influence tactics on converting customer commitments to sales fulfillments. A sample of 258 salesperson-customer interactions revealed that by offering recommendations and exchanging information with customers, salespeople can increase the propensity for customer's purchase commitments to actually be fulfilled. Conversely, it was discovered that by utilizing threats, promises, ingratiation, or inspirational influence tactics, salespeople fail to convert commitments into fulfillments. Additionally, long-term orientation, customer orientation, and adaptive selling behaviors were not found to have an impact on the commitment-fulfillment relationship. These result extent sales influence research in two main ways. First, it is demonstrated that salespeople who are "experts" are most likely to achieve successful sales fulfillments. Second, managers can apply this by teaching salespeople to be experts. In other words, effective salespeople can be taught, they are not merely "born" effective or not effective. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Marketing in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2015. / May 18, 2015. / Commitment, Fulfillment, Influence tactics, Sales / Includes bibliographical references. / Michael D. Hartline, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; William Bolander, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Pamela Perrewe, University Representative; Larry Giunipero, Committee Member.

The overall objective of this dissertation is to enhance understanding of the role of social networks in creative systems and new product development. Two essays examine the effects of local and global social network characteristics on key marketing outcomes. Conventional team configuration strategies encompass descriptive measures, such as demographic and functional variables, to achieve a team configuration comprised of cross-functional diversity. However, systems theory suggests that social networks are an important contextual component of team performance. This research identifies key network characteristics that impact team performance in creative contexts such as new product development. Findings suggest that social networks are an important factor in team configuration, and ultimately in downstream team performance outcomes. As marketers evolve into leaders of new product development teams, creative teams, and sales teams, the insights from this body of work will have important practical implications. The first essay establishes the baseline effects of team social network characteristics on product quality, customer satisfaction, and financial performance. Findings demonstrate that social network characteristics are an important component of team configuration. In the context of creative industries, significant effects were found between team network characteristics and marketing outcomes. Interestingly, results demonstrate that the commonly held belief that cohesive teams increase team performance does not necessarily hold in creative contexts. The work uncovers the ripple effect internal team structures can have on the performance of creative products, even in cases of remote services, where the customer does not directly interact with the team. Thus, the findings contribute to the body of scholarly work on teams and social networks, and they offer insights for practitioners regarding the costs and benefits of highly connected and highly cohesive teams. In the second essay, employing the systems theory of creativity, the examination of the structural mechanisms impacting team performance deepens to include the effect of team leaders. Specifically, it examines the effect of "heavyweight" leaders on team performance as measured by product quality assessments and customer satisfaction. Team leader clout is found to have a significant effect on third-party product quality assessments, impact the availability of financial resources, and offset the negative effect of high cohesion on team performance. Moreover, a curvilinear relationship between cohesion and product quality assessments is identified, suggesting that moderately cohesive teams outperform teams with low or high levels of cohesion and providing clarity to the negative effect identified in essay one. This work, therefore, extends the insights in the first essay and sheds additional light on the impacts of social networks on team performance, including the distinct effect of team leader networks. Taken together, the two essays offer insights for managers of new product development teams, sales teams, and teams engaged in creative processes where novelty, innovation, and originality are valued. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Marketing in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2014. / June 12, 2014. / Creative Systems, Film Industry, New Product Development, Social Capital, Social Networks, Team Performance / Includes bibliographical references. / Michael K. Brady, Professor Directing Dissertation; Gerald R. Ferris, University Representative; Michael Brusco, Committee Member; Charles F. Hofacker, Committee Member.

During hedonic consumption activities such as watching television or seeing a play, consumers can interact with other people consuming the same content in real-time on social media. I define “live WOM engagement” as viewing and/or posting online word-of-mouth messages about an experience in real-time, including passive reading of messages, as well as active conversations with others, and sharing posts. I examine how engaging in live WOM affects how much people enjoy an experience. In a conceptual model, I predict that engaging in live WOM will enhance enjoyment of the hedonic activity through two routes: (i) social connectedness and (ii) pleasure of self-expression. Further, I examine how, when, and why these two mediating processes affect the enjoyment of the overall experience by manipulating social motivations and different types of live WOM engagement (e.g., active versus passive). I test my predictions in the context of a hedonic consumption activity where live WOM is highly prevalent: social television viewing. First, using Nielsen Social’s Twitter TV ratings and IMDb consumer ratings, I show that social TV engagement is positively associated with consumer evaluations of TV programs. Further, I find that this relationship is stronger for the reality genre as compared to comedy and drama genres. Experimental study results show that engaging in live WOM while watching a program (vs. watching a program without engaging in live WOM) increases social connectedness, which enhances enjoyment. Moreover, this effect is stronger when viewers actively engage in a conversation rather than passively reading others’ posts. Additionally, in this context (watching a talent show clip), live WOM engagement does not cause distraction. This research creates a bridge between the word-of-mouth and hedonic consumption literatures by conceptualizing WOM engagement as a driver of virtually shared experiences. By examining the underlying processes that enhance experiences, this research provides strategic approaches for managers in media and entertainment industries. / 2025-06-30T00:00:00Z

The purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to our understanding of non-ownership consumption behavior. A growing number of consumers are choosing to forgo ownership and instead participate in non-ownership consumption through alternative forms of exchange such as renting and market-mediated sharing. Today, the consumer rental market has expanded to include many products traditionally purchased outright including: jewelry, cars, paintings, movies, pets, handbags, vacation homes, books, and toys. A set of three essays examines non-ownership and the impact of alternative forms of exchange on the consumer decision making process. Essay 1 investigates consumer motivations to participate in non-ownership consumption through service providers like Zipcar, Netflix, and Rhapsody. Essay 2 explores differences in the decision-making process for non-ownership consumption choices. Essay 3 explores the impact of non-ownership acquisition choice on post-purchase evaluations. The goal of this dissertation is to develop a better understanding of non-ownership consumption in an effort to contribute to a more comprehensive theory of marketing. The contributions of this research include a greater understanding of a growing market for non-ownership experiences, a more comprehensive overview of the full market of both non-ownership and ownership consumption choices, and meaningful managerial insight into how to best offer both non-ownership and ownership purchase options to consumers. With few exceptions, the existing marketing literature has focused on how consumers become aware of and purchase goods and services while largely ignoring non-ownership as a form of consumption. Ownership has been viewed as a marker of success and provides stability as a source of accumulated wealth and investment. If we are defined by what we own as many past researchers have suggested, why are more and more consumers choosing to rent? / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Marketing in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2011. / June 28, 2011. / Exchange, Services, Renting, Ownership, Non-Ownership / Includes bibliographical references. / Michael D. Hartline, Professor Directing Dissertation; Annette L. Ranft, University Representative; Demetra Andrews, Committee Member; Frederick L. Bonney, Committee Member; Michael K. Brady, Committee Member.

This dissertation is designed to contribute to our understanding of the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR). In particular, environmental sustainability is examined to better understand its impact on consumers and firm performance. A set of three essays examines the role, and impact, of environmental sustainability from the perspective of consumers. As firms continue to employ environmentally sustainable marketing strategies, ultimately consumers have the final say regarding the effectiveness of such efforts. An examination of CSR research in marketing, as well as other business disciplines, is first presented to better understand the limitations and opportunities that exist. Next, Essay 1 contains a multi-method analysis of the barriers to green consumption to better understand why environmentally friendly products continue to represent only a small portion of total purchases. In Essay 2, the "individual environment" is presented, utilizing both internal and external factors, to predict green behaviors by consumers. Further, as environmental sustainability is becoming increasingly important to consumers, it is critical that firms understand the role that it can have with regards to perceptions of the firm. In the third essay, an examination of consumer perceptions of fit, or the congruence between the corporate associations and environmental sustainability initiatives of the firm, is undertaken to better understand how the actions taken by a firm impact consumer perceptions. Given the growing prevalence and importance of environmental sustainability in the strategic efforts of marketers, and the mixed results exhibited to date from firms that have adopted such initiatives, a better understanding of this influential strategic opportunity appears needed by practitioners as well as academic researchers. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Marketing in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2011. / March 30, 2011. / Sustainability, Environmentally Friendly, Green / Includes bibliographical references. / J. Joseph Cronin, Jr., Professor Directing Dissertation; Jay D. Rayburn, University Representative; Larry C. Giunipero, Committee Member; Jeffery S. Smith, Committee Member.

Direct marketing is to target consumers who are most likely to respond. A number of target selection methods have been employed to select potential customers. These methods either only consider the customer response probability and ignore the profit issue or assume that the estimates of profit are homogenous across customers when considering the expected amount of profit. Furthermore, the traditional analytical techniques based on ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, which focus on the average customer, cannot examine the differences of various customer groups or account for customer heterogeneity in profitability estimates. Quantile regression, instead of the point estimate for the conditional mean, can be used to estimate the whole distribution, especially the upper tail which we are interested in. Quantile regression does not have strict model assumptions as OLS does and is not sensitive to outliers. To model consumer response profit in direct marketing, this thesis tested the endogeneity bias in the recency, frequency, monetary value (RFM) variables using the control function approach, made sample selection bias correction using Heckman’s procedure, and then adopted quantile regression to estimate customer profit and make forecast of the profit distribution of future values. Furthermore, we adopted the recentered influence function (RIF) regression methods proposed by Firpo et al. (2007) to perform unconditional quantile regression for customer profit estimation. The comparison of OLS, conditional and unconditional quantile regression shows that while OLS may induce possible misleading estimation results, conditional and unconditional quantile regression can provide more informative estimation results. The findings can help direct marketers augment the profitability of marketing campaigns and have meaningful implications for solving target marketing forecasting problems given the constraint of limited resources.

In this 'age of turbulence' (Greenspan, 2007), businesses, in response to challenges of globalized competition, escalated customer expectation, and disruptive technological innovations, find innovative value propositions (Slater, 1997) critical for survival and sustained competitiveness. In lined with relationship marketing that suppliers need target valuable custome r to establish long-term relationship for survival in fierce competition (Gronroos, 2000), scholars (e.g. Walter, Ritter & Gemunden, 2001) looking from supplier perspective identify direct and indirect value as two dimensions for supplier-perceived relationship value. Direct value-based drivers of business relationships consist of higher profits from the product and service offering (i.e. profit function), growth of trade volumes (i.e. volume function), and the possibility to sell over-capacity (i.e. safeguard function). Indirect value-based drivers of business relationship consist of customers’ contribution in cooperative development of new products or processes (i.e. innovative function), intelligence about the markets and customers (i.e. market function and scout function), and facilitation of access to important third parties (i.e. access function). To extend prior literatures, this study tries to explore the antecedents of relationship value from both dynamic capability perspective and social capital perspective. Drawing upon a database of 411 manufacturer-channel partner relationships, this study examines the impacts of three dimensions of social capital (i.e. structural, relational, and cognitive dimensions: in the forms of extra- industry ties of principal managers, competence-based trust, and strategic consensus with a specific channel partner), and two types of learning (i.e. exploratory learning and exploitative learning) on the creation of relational value, that in turn, affects relationship performance. Specifically, the findings demonstrate that: (1) relationship value has impact on both relationship performance and market performance; (2) dynamic learning capabilities have significant impacts on the creation of relationship value; (3) social capital of principals contributes a lot to the creation of relationship value; (4) the impacts of social capital on relationship value are partially mediated by exploratory and exploitative learning; and finally (5) knowledge non-redundancy between principals and agents positively moderates the overall linkage between social capital and principal-agent learning. On the basis of current findings, managerial implications and future research directions are drawn.

Global Consumer Culture (GCC) is a term emerged in early 1990s. It refers to generally accepted beliefs and consumer tendencies toward globally shared consumption-related symbols such as brands, product categories, and consumption activities and events. Although researchers sought insights in this area in the last decade, they mainly focused on the specific topic of Brand Positioning method under the context of GCC. Little efforts were made to examine what global consumers actually do and think when making their buying decision, and what the common characteristics global consumers share in the world. The existence and increasing influence of global consumers whose social and cultural differences are overshadowed by their similarities in terms of psychological consumer tendencies was demonstrated by previous research. In addition, there was an initial study to develop an individual customer psychology-based scale of Susceptibility to Global Consumer Culture (SGCC) in order to capture globally shared consumption sentiments. The study demonstrated that SGCC would consist of three major dimensions of SGCC, namely conformity to social norms, desire for social prestige, and quality perception. This thesis suggests that SGCC contain three additional dimensions in the perspective of consumer traits and brand consumption, including consumer innovativeness, consumer ethnocentrism, and Internet technology readiness. It is consisted of two studies. In Study 1, a more comprehensive multiple dimensional scale to measure SGCC is developed and validated. In Study 2, the developed scale is used to predict the consumers’ purchase intentions toward global brand products. Theoretical contributions, managerial contributions, research limitations and future research recommendations are discussed as well.