Cheng Oi Yin, Carolina. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-62). / Abstract and questionnaire also in Chinese.

The purpose of this research is to determine whether optimal ad placement and page context can significantly impact advertising effects, by extending hemispheric processing theory. This study contributes to the marketing literature by 1) addressing theoretical conflicts regarding optimal hemispheric ad placement (more favorable effects with leftward photo ads and rightward text ads; Janiszewski 1988) and page context (matching activation from "priming" of opposing brain hemispheres Janiszewski 1990), 2) by evaluating multiple advertising effects in relation to mere exposure rather than focusing primarily on attitudes (Janiszewski 1988, 1990), and 3) by addressing an important knowledge gap regarding optimal Web advertising (Dahlen, Rasch and Rosengren 2003). A growing amount of money is being spent on Internet advertising, with revenues totaling $12.5 billion in 2005, up more than 30 percent over 2004 (IAB 2006). However, banner ad click-through rates are low (between .1 and .2 percent for standard ads; DoubleClick 2007) and only 10% of business executives believe that banner advertising is highly effective in generating new business (Forrester 2006). Advertisers continue to use banner ads, perhaps because the "branding" benefits are not limited to clickthroughs (Briggs and Hollis 1997). While numerous ad-related factors have been previously studied (e.g., ad context creative factors, recall/recognition effects, repetition), to the author's knowledge no research has examined the effect of banner ad placement on advertising outcomes such as attention, recognition, brand attitude and purchase intention. / A 2 x 2 x 2 between subjects factorial design was implemented, in which the ad type (pictorial or verbal), ad placement (left or right of Web page), and the page type (text or image-oriented) were manipulated in an online environment. While the results only partially support the hypotheses (rank-ordered stimuli groups from "optimal" to "least optimal" effects) matching activation and hemispheric ad placement appeared to differentially affect advertising outcomes. A supplementary data analysis, which directly compared hemispheric ad placement and matching activation, indicates that matching activation has a greater effect on attention, while hemispheric ad placement has a greater effect on purchase intention. The findings suggest that online advertising efforts should be specifically matched with advertising goals. Managerial implications are discussed. / by Kendall Goodrich. / University Library's copy lacks signatures of Supervisory Committee. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2007. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, FL : 2007 Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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.

Marketers and advertisers have long searched for new and more powerful ways to measure the effectiveness of advertising. One data source that has proven useful is consumers’ moment-to-moment affective responses to advertisements. The first essay of my dissertation examines consumers’ moment-to-moment evaluations of advertisements and presents an application of principal components analysis that allows researchers to understand divergence in consumer response and link this divergence to specific elements of the ad’s storyline. While traditional research has focused on the aggregate peak, final moment and linear trend of consumers’ affect traces in predicting overall evaluations of the advertisement, this application provides better predictions of holdout evaluations. Additionally, I find these traditional measures do not provide insight into consumers’ credibility assessments of the advertisement and illustrate that these evaluations are determined much earlier in the advertisement. The second essay of my dissertation examines how important consumer characteristics (receiver factors), such as prior brand attitude and product category involvement, impact consumers’ moment-to-moment affective responses to advertisements. I also examine how these consumer characteristics moderate the relationship between consumers’ affect traces and important downstream variables such as attitude toward the ad, attitude toward the brand and likelihood to purchase the product. I demonstrate that consumers form biased evaluations based on their prior brand attitude and category involvement and illustrate how advertisers can reduce these biases resulting in greater attitude change in consumers less positively predisposed to the product. / text

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We examine whether the precepts of what have been termed 'close', 'intimate', or, more specifically, 'communal' relationships in Social Psychology may be communicated via Web site content and whether this positively impacts Site-Loyalty. We introduce a variable called Site-Communality defined as the extent to which Web site content signals that a company's relationship with its customers goes beyond the formal, 'tit for tat' business dealings that are typically expected from purely commercial exchanges, and instead, more closely abide by the norms and behaviours evocative of friendships and/or family relations. We develop multi-dimensional measures of Site-Communality and Site-Loyalty. Using Structural Equation Modelling (LISREL VIII), we then empirically investigate the influence of Site-Communality on the attitudes and behavioural intentions associated with Site-Loyalty using cross-sectional data collected from 305 subjects asked to explore and evaluate one among many real Web sites chosen so as to maximize variability on Site-Communality. / Our results show that Site-Communality has a strong, direct, positive effect on the attitudes and behavioural intentions associated with Site-Loyalty. This directly contradicts conjectures from several authors dismissing as unimportant or irrelevant to Web site design, the affective/relational aspects more closely associated with traditional, interpersonal, face-to-face commercial encounters (e.g., Cox & Dale, 2001; Zeithaml, Parasuraman, & Malhotra, 2001, 2002). Generally, such factors were believed to loose their relevance in self-service, Web-based commercial environments, at best, becoming contingently important only when customer/employee communications actually occurs (i.e., emails/telephone conversations). / However, contrary to our expectations, our results show that the positive relationship between Site-Communality and Site-Loyalty is attenuated (rather than accentuated) by the visitor's 'Communal-Orientation in Traditional Commercial Environments' which is defined as the extent to which a consumer enjoys 'getting to know' employees (i.e., waitress, bank teller, hair stylist) and relating with them on a more personal-level than is typically required for the effective delivery of a service. One possible explanation for this unexpected result is that when highly communally-orientated consumers are exposed to a Web site high in Site-Communality, they may be reminded of what they are missing out on if they choose to conduct their business online rather than in more traditional business environments.

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.

Many consumers are now considering the effects of general corporate behavior (e.g., political views, charitable contributions, environmental disasters) and of the product's manufacture, consumption or disposal (e.g., animal testing, ecological harm) on society's overall well-being. These situations involve the issue of individual social responsibility and are good examples of complex decisions that are not readily explained by traditional decision theories. Abstract attributes (e.g., product "greenness" or lack of harm to the environment) and the active role of the decision maker's values, principles, and ethics are problematic. The primary purpose of this research is to develop a conceptual framework for consumer decision making in the presence of a social responsibility issue. The secondary purpose of the study is to assess the value of image theory for explaining the decision process. Image theory (Beach and Mitchell 1987; Beach 1990), a relatively recent development in decision making, provides a compatible decision framework for these types of decisions due to its emphasis on an individual's values and on the screening of alternatives using value-laden attributes. Survey methodology and consumer preference tasks are utilized, and the hypothesized models are tested by structural equation modeling. The findings suggest that image theory provides a credible explanation of socially responsible consumer choice. In terms of this study's context, a consumer who has a strongly held social responsibility principle, values a clean environment, has a high level of environmental concern, and believes that his/her actions make a difference, is more likely to be committed to a pro-environmental plan of action and to use certain decision processes. These specific processes are screening alternatives to eliminate those that are not environmentally friendly and weighting the greenness attribute heavily in evaluating options. Using image theory's terminology and structure, social responsibility and environmental value form the value image. Environmental concern and perceived consumer effectiveness form the trajectory image. The strategic image is reflected in the plan (commitment to pro-environmental behaviors) and tactics (using the social responsibility attribute in the decision process). This research demonstrates that enduring values and principles guide consumer behavior involving social responsibility issues.

M.Comm. (Industrial Psychology) / The current study investigated, by means of an experiment, the influence of nonconscious incidental haptic sensation, encountered when completing self-report questionnaires, on formal ratings of a consumer brand. In total, 178 university students (mean age = 19.82 years, males = 31.5%, females = 68.5%) participated in the study. Participants were allocated to one of two groups with Group 1 (n=88) completing a questionnaire printed on rigid paper while Group 2 (n=90) completed the same questionnaire printed on flimsy paper. The questionnaire scale was constructed using 28 sets of biploar pairs of adjectives related to the language association of rigidity and strength. An independent t-test revealed no differences between groups (t = 0.67, p = 0.50), but differences of distribution and polarisation of scores, evidenced by differences in kurtosis across groups (Group 1: kurtosis = 1.49, Group 2: kurtosis = 0.11), were apparent. In conclusion it appeared that a physically grounded mental framework, consistent with an embodied cognition approach to mental processes, had led to participants forming stronger product judgments when encountering an incidental, nonconscious, tactile experience of strength in a consumer context.