Cette thèse de doctorat étudie la réponse des consommateurs à la longévité brandée de la marque. En particulier, on explore l'effet de la longévité brandée de la marque sur la fluidité du traitement et la familiarité de la marque dans diverses conditions. Comment réagissent les consommateurs lorsqu'une marque indique sa date de création sur un emballage ou une publicité ? Comment leurs réactions diffèrent­elles en fonction de leur niveau d’implication avec le produit ou de la congruence entre la catégorie de produit et la longévité de la marque? Cette thèse identifie les processus psychologiques qui se produisent lors de l'exposition à la longévité brandée de la marque afin d'expliquer l'effet de la longévité de la marque sur le consommateur. La longévité brandée de la marque est censée susciter une réaction positive chez le consommateur, telle que la confiance dans la marque et la crédibilité de la marque. Cette thèse examine les mécanismes psychologiques qui expliquent ces effets. La fluidité du traitement est considérée comme le cadre théorique pouvant expliquer ces effets. Un modèle démontre que celle­ci est le médiateur entre l’effet de la longévité brandée de la marque et la familiarité de la marque. Ce modèle prend en compte des effets modérateurs tels que l’implication envers le produit et la congruence. / This doctoral dissertation examines consumer response to branded longevity. In particular, it explores the effect of branded longevity on processing fluency and brand familiarity under various conditions. How do consumers react when a brand indicates its founding date on a package or advertisement? How do their reactions differ according to their level of involvement with the product or the congruence between the product category and branded longevity? This thesis identifies the psychological processes that occur during exposure to branded longevity in order to explain the effect of the longevity of the brand on the consumer. Branded longevity is argued to positively influence marketing variables, such as brand confidence and brand credibility. This thesis examines the psychological mechanisms that explain these effects. Processing fluency is considered as the theoretical framework that can explain these effects. Our model shows that processing fluency mediates the effect of branded longevity on brand familiarity. This model takes into account moderating effects such as product involvement and congruence.

Bakgrund och problem: Företag ägnar idag betydande utrymme i sina årsredovisningar till berättande information som ska ge investeraren en helhetsbild av företaget och dess verksamhet, vilket ska öka användbarheten vid beslutsfattande. Investerare värderar den kontextuella informationen högt men anser samtidigt att den saknar aktualitet och objektivitet. Ett problem med den berättande informationen är att företagen kan framställa sina prestationer och framtidsutsikter på ett opportunistiskt sätt. Med utgångspunkt i att framvagnen består av berättande information och är en viktig del av företags årsredovisning är det av vikt att undersöka framvagnen. Läsbarheten av den berättande informationen har visats påverka icke-professionella investerare i en bedömnings- och beslutssituation, varför det är intressant att undersöka hur framvagnens läsbarhet påverkar investeringsbeslutet. Syfte: Syftet är att förstå hur framvagnen används som kommunikationskanal och förklara hur interaktionen mellan framvagnens läsbarhet och nivån på de finansiella nyheterna, positiva respektive negativa, påverkar icke-professionella investerares investeringsbeslut. Metod: Studien utgår från både en kvalitativ och en kvantitativ ansats. För att förstå hur framvagnen används som kommunikationskanal har vi genomfört semistrukturerade intervjuer, med en projektledare för årsredovisningen och två användare av framvagnen för få att deras syn på sambandet mellan framvagnen och de resterande delarna av årsredovisningen samt vikten av läsbarheten av och tilliten till framvagnen. Vi genomförde ett experiment på tredjeårsstudenter på civilekonomprogrammet vid Linköpings universitet där vi undersökte hur interaktionen mellan framvagnens läsbarhet och nivån på de finansiella nyheterna, positiva respektive negativa, påverkar icke-professionella investerares investeringsbeslut. Slutsats: Vi fann att framvagnen används för att kommunicera en berättelse om företaget men även för att sätta de finansiella rapporterna i ett tydligare sammanhang, vilket ska ge investeraren en känsla för varför den ska investera i företaget. En högre läsbarhet av framvagnen underlättar kommunikationen mellan företaget och dess investerare då samtliga investerare förstår informationen samtidigt som det undermedvetet ökar tilliten till informationen. Experimentet indikerade att läsbarheten i kombination med nivån på de finansiella nyheterna har en viss påverkan på icke-professionella investerares sannolikhet att investera och tillit till informationen. En framvagn med en högre läsbarhet som innehåller positiva finansiella nyheter torde öka icke-professionella investerares sannolikhet att investera i företaget. När framvagnen har en högre läsbarhet har de icke-professionella investerarna en större tillit till de positiva finansiella nyheterna. Har framvagnen däremot en lägre läsbarhet har de icke-professionella investerarna en större tillit till de negativa finansiella nyheterna. / Background & Problem: Today, companies devote significant space in their annual reports to narrative information, which provide investors with a complete picture of the company and its operations. The narrative information enhances the documents’ decision usefulness. Investors consider the contextual information valuable even though it is lacking timeliness and objectivity. One problem with the narrative information is that companies can present their achievements and prospect in a favourable way. Because the-state-of-the-company report consists of narrative information and is a significant part of the annual report it is of importance to explore. The readability of the narrative information has been shown to influence non-professional investors’ investment decision, therefore it is of interest to explore how the readability of the-state-of-the-company report influences the investment decision. Aim: The aim is to understand how the-state-of-the-company report is used as a communication channel and to explain how the interaction between the readability of the state-of-the-company report and the level of financial news, positive or negative, influence investors’ decisions. Method: The study is based on both a qualitative and a quantitative method. We conducted semi-structured interviews to understand how the-state-of-the-company report is used as communication channel. Interviews were conducted with a project manager for the annual report and two users of the state-of-the-company report. The purpose with the interviews were to get their view of the relationship between the state-of-the-company report and the financial reporting part of the annual report, as well as the importance of the readability of and reliance on the state-of-the-company report. We have conducted an experiment on third grade business students at Linköping University to explain how the interaction between the readability of the state-of-the-company report and the level of financial news, positive or negative, influence non-professional investors’ investment decisions. Conclusion: We found that the state-of-the-company report is used to communicate a story about the company, but also to contextualize the numbers, which gives the investor a sense of why they should invest in the company. A higher readability of the-state-of-the-company report enhances the communication between the company and its investors, since all investors can comprehend the information at the same time as it subconsciously increases their reliance on the information. The experiment indicated that the readability, in combination with the level of financial news (positive or negative), has some influence on non-professional investors’ likelihood to invest and their reliance on the information. A state-of-the-company report with a higher readability consisting positive financial new should increase non-professional investors’ likelihood to invest. When the state-of-the-company report has higher readability, non-professional investors have a greater reliance on the positive financial news. If the state-of-the-company report instead has lower readability, non-professional investors have a greater reliance on the negative financial news. The readability has not the same influence on professional investors because they have a more critical perspective on the state-of-the-company report.

Le réalisme pictural peut être conçu, par-delà la pensée ontologique dualiste, comme expérience perceptive cognitive du spectateur d’avoir l’impression de voir le « réel » dans une configuration imagée picturale. Cette impression de réel n’est pas illusoire, mais subjectivement factuelle, sans être nécessairement consciente. Elle pourrait résulter de la facilité perceptive ou de la fluidité opérationnelle du processus perceptif cognitif. Lorsque l’activité perceptive cognitive opérante dans l’expérience du réalisme pictural est régulée par la valence hédonique immanente à cette fluidité opérationnelle sous-jacente à l’impression de réel, cette expérience « subjective » peut être également « esthétique » pour cette autosuffisance fonctionnelle de la « conduite cognitive » du spectateur. Cependant, l’expérience du réalisme pictural comporte une dimension anthropo-transculutrelle, comme on peut le constater notamment dans les récits littéraires des spectateurs coréens du 18e siècle qui illustrent leurs expériences visuelles des peintures occidentales « illusionnistes » réalisées par des missionnaires jésuites à Pékin. La culture est néanmoins opérante dans l’expérience « esthétique » du réalisme pictural. Son effet est double. D’une part, la culture fonctionne comme une des variables de la fonction complexe de l’apprentissage perceptif qui pourrait modifier la dynamique du processus perceptif cognitif ainsi que l’attention perceptive visuelle. D’autre part, elle pourrait opérer un effet dans la valence hédonique globale en participant à la modélisation de l’« affect idéal » distingué de l’« affect effectif ». / The pictorial realism can be conceived, beyond ontological dualistic thought, as beholder’s perceptual cognitive experience to have the impression of seeing the “real” in a picture. This impression or feeling of real is not illusory, but subjectively factual, without being necessarily conscious. It may result from perceptual easiness or from perceptual cognitive processing fluency. When the perceptual cognitive activity working in the pictorial realism experience is regulated by hedonic valence immanent in this processing fluency that underlies the impression of real, this subjective experience can also be “aesthetic” by functional self-sufficiency of beholder’s “cognitive conduct”. However, the experience of pictorial realism contains an anthropo-transcultural dimension, as we can observe especially in the stories written by 18th century Korean beholders, which illustrate their visual experiences of the western “illusionist” paintings produced by jesuit missionary painters in Beijing. Nevertheless, the culture comes into play in the “esthetic experience” of pictorial realism. Its effect is double. On the one hand, the culture acts as one of the variables of the complexe function of perceptual learning which could make difference in the perceptual cognitive processing dynamics and in the visual or perceptual attention. On the other hand, the culture might influence the global state of hedonic valence by participating in the modeling of “ideal affect” distinguished from “actual affect”.