Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Hospitality Management / Kristin Malek / Kevin R. Roberts / This experimental study explores how different marketing tactics, such as advertising types, message appeals, and social norms, influence attitude toward the advertisement, attitude toward the convention, and pro-environmental intention. This research has three objectives: to determine how message types in green advertising affect attitudes and intentions, to examine how message appeals in green advertising affect attitudes and intentions, and to investigate the role of social norms in green advertising in the formation of those attitudes and intentions. To examine the effects of message type, message appeals, and social norms on convention attendees’ behavioral intentions toward such a convention, a 2 (message type) x 2 (message appeals) x 2 (social norms) experimental design was adopted. This was chosen given its recognized ability to clarify associative relationships by enhancing internal validity and the robustness of findings. Several hypotheses were tested with a sample of convention attendees from the United States using Amazon Mechanical Turk. Specific findings from this study include that fact that green marketing messages combining verbal claims and visual claims were significantly more effective than messages using verbal claims only. Additionally, messages with emotional appeals were significantly more effective than ones with rational appeals and messages with injunctive norm claims were significantly more effective than ones with descriptive norm claims. As the first study of its kind to empirically investigate the use of green advertising in the context of conventions, this research involved several novel applications of various theories and a conceptual model. This study utilizes research from several disciplines whose examples can inform green marketing strategies in the convention industry. At the end, the researcher discusses the possible implications of its own findings for the convention industry in addition to its segment in the broader hospitality industry in the United States.

Background: Environmental sustainability and climate change are of increasing concern. The agriculture and food sector generate a large negative impact on the environment, and whilst the awareness is increasing, limited change in behaviour is visible. This resulted in the exploration of opportunities in relation to this topic, where meat consumption, meat substitutes and reactions to messaging are the main focus.  Purpose: From an environmentally sustainable perspective, to understand how European Millennial and Gen Z consumers react to message appeals on the packaging of meat substitutes, by using the PMT.  Method: A qualitative approach was followed to understand the reactions from European Millennial and Gen Z consumers when showing different message appeals on the packaging of meat substitutes. To explore their feelings, attitudes and perception towards these message appeals, and how this could influence their reaction, semi-structured interviews were conducted.  Conclusion: The results show that message appeals are effective when applying PMT to explore the reaction to reduce meat consumption. The emotional appeal was found to be the most effective. The informational appeal is moderately effective as the effectiveness depends on presentation and communication, and reduce appeal is found ineffective.

網路技術的發展與進步，改變了人們日常生活中的溝通習慣，也讓網路成為人際溝通與獲取資訊的主要來源。對於尋求日常生活不論食、衣、住、行各類資訊的民眾而言，網路無疑是一種既快速又便利的取得資訊來源。透過彼此使用、購買經驗分享與傳授，網友們相互提供的口碑資訊得以在網路的虛擬空間裡不斷地累積擴散。其中，香水虛擬社群成員間的互動與口碑訊息交流，為本研究所感興趣欲進一步研究的議題。 本研究以虛擬社群台大PTT Perfume 板的成員為調查對象，以社會資本理論歸結出的成員特性: 相似性、認同感及信任感三構念，來探討影響社群使用者知識分享交流的動機與其對網路口碑訊息傳遞的影響；另以訊息訴求與訊息框架二構念來研究其對社群使用者溝通效果及後續口碑傳播意願的關聯。本研究以「問卷調查法」進行資料的蒐集，共蒐集有效樣本問卷227 份，使用SPSS 18.0 來進行資料分析，以檢驗本研究模型和相關假說。 研究結果發現: (一)、社群成員的「相似性」不論對成員間的「知識貢獻」、「知識欲求」與「口碑傳播意願」，均有顯著正向的影響。社群成員的「認同感」對成員間的「知識貢獻」與「口碑傳播意願」，有顯著正向的影響；但對成員的「知識欲求」則無顯著影響。社群成員的「信任感」對成員間的「知識欲求」有顯著正向的影響；但對成員的「知識貢獻」與「口碑傳播意願」則無顯著影響。(二)、「正面框架」的訊息表達方式，以及不論「理性」、「感性」、或「自我象徵」的訊息訴求，對於社群使用者均能帶來正向顯著的「溝通效果」；另外，訊息的「溝通效果」，會對社群成員網路口碑傳播的意願帶來顯著正向的影響。(三)、最後，Perfume 板虛擬社群成員間的「知識交流」程度，亦會對社群內的「口碑傳播意願」帶來顯著正向的影響。 / The development and progress of Internet technology has changed human communication, especially interpersonal communication and information searching. Moreover, the Internet has become a convenient communication channel in our daily life for gathering product-related information. Product users can share their purchase and usage experience with one another over the virtual network and the impact of online word-of-mouth is escalating. Accordingly, this study is to discuss the sharing and transmission of the online word-of-mouth about perfume among the virtual community members. Data were collected by an online questionnaire survey from 227 members of PTT_Perfume, which is one of the most famous virtual communities in the area of BBS. The study incorporates similarity, identification, and trust from the perspective of the social capital theory to discuss the knowledge sharing intention and their influences on the word-of-mouth transmission；Besides, it investigates how the message appeals and message framing affect the communication effect and how online word-of-mouth spreads among the virtual community. The data analysis was conducted using SPSS 18.0. The findings of this research reveals that community similarity is positively associated with the knowledge sharing and the intention of online word-of-mouth transmitting；Identification is positively associated with the knowledge contribution and the intention of online word-of-mouth transmitting；Trust is only positively associated with the knowledge acquisition. Second, positive framing, rational, emotional and self-expressive appeals all have positive influences on communication effect. Finally, the communication effect of messages and the degree of knowledge sharing both have positive impacts on the intention of online word-of-mouth transmission.