The present study examined the influences of gender-role stereotypes, gender-role congruity, and the sex-typing of the professor job on performance evaluations of university educators in actual classroom settings. Participants used the Schein Descriptive Index (Schein, 1973) to define gender-role stereotypes, characteristics of their professor/instructor, and the characteristics of an "Effective Professor." Participants used a behavior summary scale (BSS) formatted student assessment of instruction to evaluate their professors/instructors performance after a full semester of class participation. It was hypothesized that a pro-male bias would exist in the sex-typing of the professor job, and that combined with the gender-role stereotypes of participants and the gender-role congruity of professors/instructors, would influence performance evaluations. In support of hypothesized relationships, results demonstrated that male and female participants hold different gender-role stereotypes of Men and Women, that the professor job is sex-typed in favor of men for male participants, and that gender-role stereotypes and the gender-role congruity of actual professors/instructors can influence performance evaluation ratings. Contrary to previous research and hypothesized relationships, the sex-typing of the professor job was not significantly related to performance evaluation scores. Additionally, results of regression analyses revealed no gender differences in performance evaluation ratings; however, age differences were found, in favor of older professors/instructors. Possible explanations for obtained results, as well as study limitations, are discussed.

This proposed study will explore how university racial composition impacts the relationship between cultural mistrust, campus comfort, and help-seeking attitudes in a sample of African American college students. A moderated hierarchical regression will be conducted to determine if the cultural and contextual variables predict a significant amount of variance in help-seeking attitudes, and to discover if the variables’ interaction with university type significantly increased the amount of explained variance. The results will demonstrate how one’s comfort in the university environment and degree of trust in the majority group can contribute to seeking psychological services. Counseling and university policy implications will be delineated from the results. Limitations will also be discussed. / text

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Psychology, 2008. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 37-41).

This thesis investigates a generalisable cross-cultural model for brand loyalty by integrating extant theories of personal cultural orientation (of individualism and collectivism), self-congruity (actual, ideal, social, and ideal social self-congurity), customer satisfaction, attitudinal brand loyalty, and behavioural brand loyalty. Creating brand loyalty is a key branding issue in modern marketing. Brands are faced with the challenge of building, maintaining, and increasing their capacity to drive customer loyalty across borders with consumers of different cultures. Notwithstanding the growth of culturally centered brand loyalty research, the focus of research today continues to be on cross-cultural differences, often overlooking the generalisable cross-cultural path to consumer brand loyalty. This study instead addresses this overlooked topic of cross-cultural generalisabilities across nations. To assess the cross-cultural generalisability of the conceptual model, survey data from a non-student sample were collected from middle-class, Generation Y individuals of the relevant nationality who have always lived in China, Singapore, or the United States. After performing data cleaning procedures, 541 usable responses from three countries were analysed with the use of the SEM model. The findings show that the personal cultural orientation of collectivism has a positive effect on behavioural brand loyalty through ideal social self-congruity, customer satisfaction, and attitudinal brand loyalty. These findings extend brand loyalty research by considering how an individual’s personal cultural orientation impacts brand loyalty. Moreover, the findings offer marketers increased insight into consumers’ brand loyalty formation process in cross-cultural contexts. The limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are also presented.

Trivsel med ledarskap på arbetsplatsen är för många förenat med arbetstillfredsställelse. Syftet med studien är att undersöka vad som uppfattas som positivt respektive negativt ledarskap. Studien vill även undersöka vilka attribut som kännetecknar kvinnligt respektive manligt ledarskap på mansdominerade arbetsplatser i det svenska samhället. En kvalitativ metod valdes och tio personer intervjuades. Tematisk analys användes som analysmetod och utgick ifrån 4 teman, positivt, negativt, manligt och kvinnligt ledarskap. Studien resulterade i 15 subkategorier inom de 4 temana. De resultat som gick att koppla till ett transformativt ledarskap uppfattades som positivt. De resultat som gick att koppla till transaktionellt ledarskap och Laissez-faire upplevdes som mindre önskvärt ledarskap. Både manliga och kvinnliga ledare uppfattades enligt de karaktärsdrag som tidigare forskning benämnt som agentic och communal. Resultatet visade inga tecken på att varken kvinnor eller män sågs som mer önskvärda ledare. Ett jämställt ledarskap efterfrågades av medarbetarna på mansdominerade arbetsplatser.

Marketers have long observed, or at least assumed, that people buy certain products or brands as a means of expressing themselves. Marketing researchers have studied this phenomenon from the perspective of "self-congruity," assuming that a fit between the consumer's understanding of self (i.e., self-image) and the brand's image (or "brand personality") should drive the consumer's purchase behavior. This stream of research has vigorously explored the relations between the fit (i.e., "self-brand image congruity" or "self-congruity") and various behavioral outcomes. Nonetheless, this research stream has not succeeded in finding clear and strong evidence of the assumed effects on such a vital outcome as emotional brand attachment. Moreover, little research has directly explored the relations between self-congruity and emotional brand attachment. In this context, the main purpose of this dissertation is to shed light on this little understood relationship. Specifically, this research proposes that consumers' brand experience and self-congruity jointly create the strong driving force that directs consumers to an emotional attachment to the brands. Here, brand experience is conceptualized as the positive impact of brand-related stimuli or the "magnitude" of consumer responses to the stimuli that reflects a consumer's past interactions with brands or brand-related information. On the other hand, self-congruity can be understood as the "direction" that indicates which brand image a consumer wants to go with. The existing research has focused exclusively on the "direction." Taking the "magnitude" into account, this research aims to develop the theory that explains the assumed effects of self-congruity on emotional brand attachment as well as clearly demonstrate the effects, by proposing the interaction effects between self-congruity and brand experience. By synthesizing multiple research streams that have been recently growing, a comprehensive explanation was developed to explicate how consumers' perception of self-brand image fit and their past interactions with brands affect the formation of emotional brand attachment. In order to test the hypotheses that were derived from the theory, data were collected from 397 U.S. consumers using an online survey. The proposed interaction effects were clearly detected, along with the direct effects of self-congruity on emotional brand attachment, which the previous study had not been able to identify. The research revealed that brand experience boosts the positive effects of self-congruity on emotional brand attachment.

Forskning har länge bedrivits inom området gällande kvinnors hinder att nå högre chefspositioner. Könsroller, stereotypiska egenskaper, kategoriseringar och negativa attityder tycktes vara centrala i problematiken. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka hur högskolestudenter skattade sina attityder till kvinnor som chefer (n = 193, varav 124 kvinnor). En vinjettstudie med experimentell mellangruppsdesign genomfördes där materialet analyserades med tvåvägs ANOVOR för oberoende mätningar. Resultatet visade att kvinnliga högskolestudenter hade en signifikant mer positiv attityd till kvinnor som chefer jämfört med manliga högskolestudenter. Det påvisades även en signifikant skillnad i skattad attityd till kvinnor som chefer beroende på läst vinjett där kvinnliga högskolestudenter skattade kvinnor som chefer mer positivt efter att ha läst en vinjett om en kvinna som chef. Dock hade utbildning inom beteendevetenskapliga ämnen ingen signifikant inverkan på skattad attityd. Slutsatsen blev att kvinnor som chefer skattades mer positivt än förväntat, och att det tycks ha skett en attitydförändring.

Cette recherche a pour objet l’étude de l’effet du niveau de congruence entre la couleur de fond d’une annonce presse et la catégorie de produits présente dans l’annonce sur la mémorisation, les émotions et les attitudes des consommateurs exposés à l’annonce. Afin de vérifier nos hypothèses, nous avons développé un protocole expérimental. Dans un premier temps, nous avons conçu à l’aide de pré-tests quatre conditions de congruence et quatre conditions d’incongruence entre la couleur de fond d’annonces presses (bleu ou rouge) et la catégorie de produits présente dans les annonces (quatre catégories de produit). Dans une deuxième étape, nous avons présenté nos annonces cibles dans un magazine fictif à 238 étudiants. Nos résultats montrent que la couleur en tant que telle n’a pas d’effet sur la mémorisation de la catégorie de produits et sur la mémorisation de la marque (rappel et reconnaissance), sur les émotions (plaisir et activation) ni sur l’attitude envers l’annonce. Par contre, nos résultats montrent que le niveau de congruence entre la couleur de fond de l’annonce et la catégorie de produits présente dans l’annonce influence négativement la mémorisation de la catégorie de produits (rappel et reconnaissance), la mémorisation de la marque (rappel), mais qu’elle influence positivement les émotions (plaisir et activation) et l’attitude envers l’annonce. Ces résultats sont modérés par certaines variables telles que l’implication envers la catégorie de produits, l’attitude envers la publicité en général et l’attitude envers la couleur. Ce travail vient souligner l’importance de la prise en compte du niveau de congruence entre la couleur et le reste des éléments d’exécution en persuasion publicitaire. / This research investigates the effect of the level of congruence between the background color of a press advertising and the product category present in the advertising on memorization, emotions and attitudes of the consumers displayed to the advertising. To prove our hypotheses, we developed an experimental protocol. In a first stage, we conceived with the aid of pre-tests four conditions of congruence and four conditions of incongruence between the background color of the press advertising (blue or red) and the product category presented in the advertising (four product categories). In a second stage, using a folder test, we presented our target advertisings to 238 students. Our results show that the color as such does not have effect on memorization of the product category, on memory of brand (recall and recognition), on emotions (pleasure and arousal) and on attitude toward advertisement. On the contrary, our results show that the level of congruence between the background color of advertisement and the present product category in the advertisement influences negatively the memorization of the product category (recall and recognition), the memorization of the brand (recall), but that it influences emotions positively (pleasure and arousal) and the attitude toward advertisement. These results are moderated by some variables: involvement toward product category, the attitude toward advertising in general and attitude toward color. This study comes to underline the importance of the recognition of the level of congruence between the color and the rest of the execution elements.

Social Media has become a place for Social Media Influencers (SMIs) and brands to interact with users. For decades, brands and companies have been engaging in Corporate Social Responsibility, which has recently become highly visible through social media. While not brands, SMIs have also started engaging in and creating social responsibility content on social media platforms, such as Instagram. An experimental design study of 421 participants was conducted to examine and compare consumer perceptions. Using self-presentation theory as a framework and experimental design, this study analyzes consumer perceptions of brand and SMI credibility and authenticity when engaging in social responsibility content on social media.

Technology is changing the face of both the sales and service domains. Honebein and Cammarano (2006) note that properly implemented self-service technologies serve dual purposes of decreasing firm overhead costs, while simultaneously engaging the customer in a way encourages the co-create of value for both parties. To get these benefits stakeholders must be willing to adopt and use the technologies that are available. Traditionally, this has lead to the research question "How do firms do this?" However, according to a recent article by Woodall, Colby and Parasuraman (2007), consumers are now demanding more technology-based options and becoming more technologically savvy. This changes the research focus to answering the question "How can firms be seen as able to deliver technology-based options effectively, efficiently and securely to meet the demands of this new "e-service" model?" The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the role of stakeholder perceptions of firm attitudes toward technology in answering this question. Perceived corporate affinity for technology (Fleming and Artis forthcoming) is a measure stakeholder perception of a firm's general positive affect toward technology, and was developed and validated in sales and services contexts using samples of both employees and customers. The studies of this dissertation test potential antecedents, consequence and boundary conditions of stakeholder perceptions of corporate affinity for technology in three key groups, namely managers, employees and customers. To accomplish this purpose, the following research questions, one for each key group of stakeholders, were proposed for this study: 1) Do manager perceptions of corporate affinity for technology influence employee perceptions of corporate affinity for technology?; 2) Do employee perceptions of corporate affinity for technology influence employee learning behavior?; 3) Do customer perceptions of corporate affinity for technology influence how they perceive the quality of the service delivery and their rating of other key customer service outcomes? Separate conceptual models were developed and tested to answer these questions.