Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2001.

Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2000

Thesis (PhD) -- University of South Australia, 1999

Corporate sponsorships have received increased attention from brand managers and academics in recent years. While researchers agree that sponsorship aids in generating favourable images for the sponsor, both at the corporate and brand levels, a lack of theory-guided models has prevented investigation into more complex phenomena. Current understanding of sponsorship effects is largely confined to the single sponsorship context with dominant emphasis on sponsorship awareness. The challenge surrounding sponsorship image measurement is only heightened by the increase in sponsorship activities. A growing number of brands are becoming associated with multiple events or entities. The purpose of the present research is to understand the mechanisms that underlie consumer processing of a brand’s sponsorship portfolio to affect inferences about sponsor brand associations, and in particular brand personality, brand meaning and brand attitude. The present research consolidates a range of conceptual and theory-guided models used by previous researchers, and adds to sponsorship literature by outlining how an accessibility based model can be applied to explain the cognitive processes involved when consumers encounter a brand’s sponsorships sequentially. In the context of a sponsorship portfolio, the associative network memory theory, congruence theory, and accessibility-diagnosticity theory are considered collectively and integrated into a conceptual framework to guide the development of hypotheses. The general theory proposed here is that accessibility of a sponsorship episode determines whether it will be used in subsequent information processing and percolate through to sponsor evaluations. A three-experiment research program is developed to explore the dynamics behind the portfolio effects. Pretests are conducted to identify brands and sponsorship properties that conform to the experimental manipulations but also to control for extraneous variables. Experiment 1 is designed to investigate the impact of perceived sponsorship portfolio fit on sponsor brand associations, and to determine how consumers assess portfolio fit. The experiment employs a 2 (sponsorship category relatedness: related vs. unrelated) x 2 (event personality fit: high fit vs. low fit) x 2 (sponsor product category: apparel vs. watch) between-subjects factorial design. Results point to sponsorship category relatedness as an important reference point in the evaluation of portfolio fit because it pulls sponsorships together when event personality fit is low, showing the predominance of category-based mode of processing. The role of event personality fit emerges when sponsorships lack categorical relatedness, leading to piecemeal-mode processing. Its influence of event personality fit is largely mute when sponsorships are categorically related, possibly because the individual event concepts are overwhelmed by a superordinate categorical imagery. Experiment 2 is designed to (1) allow replication of the portfolio effects with an additional sponsor product and different sets of sponsorship portfolios, and (2) investigate how individuals respond to a sponsorship portfolio which contains sponsorship properties with conflicting categories and personalities. Specifically, Experiment 2 aims to determine whether one sponsorship “frames” the processing of another sponsorship in a portfolio, and if so, determines the direction of framing. The experiment employs a 2 (sponsorship presentation sequence: sports first vs. cause first) x 2 (visual cues: present vs. absent) x 3 (sponsor product replicates: apparel vs. watch vs. juice) mixed factorial design. Two key findings emerge from this experiment. First, inferences about the sponsor brands’ personalities are made in an additive fashion by augmenting event personalities, conforming to the “entitativity” principle. Second, when a sports sponsorship (rather than a cause sponsorship) is presented first in a portfolio, conceptual fluency is enhanced. This is because the sequence of processing is consistent with the way that people naturally think, thus leading to greater processing fluency. Experiment 3 is developed to further test the sponsorship framing effect and to explore the role of articulation in forging a relationship for ostensibly unrelated sponsorships. The experiment uses a 2 (sponsorship frame: sports frame vs. cause frame) x 2 (articulation: present vs. absent) between-subjects factorial design, plus a replicate and two control groups. Results replicate the findings of previous experiment where inferences for the sponsor brand personality are determined in an additive fashion. The findings also provide insights into when and whether using articulation in sponsorship communications can be beneficial. While articulating the relationship between sponsorships increases the perceived brand meaning consistency and clarity, a boomerang effect on brand attitude is observed, possibly because the commercially oriented content attributes a sales-oriented motive to the sponsor, which in turn, leads to a less favourable brand attitude. Theoretically, this research adds to current understanding of consumer-focused sponsorship processing by moving beyond simple pairing of sponsor and event, to consider the relationship between sponsorship properties. Through the integration of accessibility-diagnosticity theory, this research demonstrates that the way sponsorships influence brand evaluations is likely to be more complex than suggested by the existing literature and contributes to the development of methods to measure image transfer process. Practically, this research assists managers who are interested in the formulation of sponsorship policy and strategic design of sponsorship portfolios. The conceptual model developed in this thesis offers useful guidelines in providing input into the decision-making process when considering whether sponsorships could be used as brand building tools.

Consumer satisfaction is a central topic in marketing. In the literature, a variety of conceptual models have been developed to capture the satisfaction formation process, with the dominant framework being the disconfirmation paradigm. However, despite its widespread acceptance and support, there is still a lack of clarity, especially regarding the role and relative importance of perceived performance in determining satisfaction. It has been suggested that satisfaction research has advanced into a stage where potential moderator variables need to be examined in order to explain previous mixed findings. The current research proposes a contingency model of the satisfaction formation process, which posits that the nature of the relationships between satisfaction and its two key antecedents (i.e., perceived performance and disconfirmation) is contingent on one situational moderator (ambiguity) and two individual moderators (experience and involvement). Empirical testing of the model is in the form of a cross-sectional survey in China's mobile phone services industry using a convenience student sample obtained from one Chinese university. The results show that both disconfirmation and perceived performance have a direct impact on satisfaction under conditions of low experience or high involvement, whereas satisfaction is solely determined by perceived performance in situations of high experience or low involvement. In addition, the results also support a joint moderator influence of ambiguity and experience on the relationships between satisfaction and its antecedents, which is especially true in the case of high ambiguity and low experience.

In today???s highly competitive business environment, client perceived value has become increasingly important to practitioners and business researchers as it is believed to be central to client decision-making, satisfaction and client retention. However, there are few insights as to what constitutes client perceived value and what are its antecedents, especially in the context of international, professional business-to-business (B2B) services. This study thus addressed two key questions: (i) what are the antecedents of client perceived value in an international, professional B2B service setting?; and (ii) how do these determinants influence client perceived performance and value under different contingency conditions (e.g., perceptions of country-oforigin (COO) and client experience)? The research was undertaken in two phases: Phase 1 included a literature review covering services marketing, international marketing, resource-based theory, contingency theory as well as an exploratory research amongst eight dyadic case studies. The objectives were to identify the key variables that contribute to client perceived performance and value; to fine tune the key constructs adopted from the literature; and to verify the linkage between the resource-based view (RBV) of a firm and client perceived value. By drawing on the theories mentioned above, and the results from the exploratory research, a conceptual model and a series of hypotheses were developed. The data used to test the model in Phase 2 was collected from 218 client firms in both Malaysia and Thailand. The data was collected through a mail survey with a net response rate of 32.9%, and was analysed via structural equation modelling, regression analysis and subgroup analysis. The results show that the key antecedents of perceived performance which in turn drives client value, included technical skills, customer orientation, innovation and firm reputation. The findings also suggest that COO moderates the relationships between these antecedents and perceived performance, while client experience moderates the association between perceived performance and value. The results provide a better understanding of value perceived by the B2B clients in an international setting. The academic contributions of this thesis are: the linkage of RBV and the services paradigm in an international context; the understanding of client perceived value and its antecedents; and the establishment of metric equivalence of measures employed across two countries (Malaysia and Thailand). Finally, the managerial contributions include guidance for exporting firms in terms of resource allocation to achieve competitive advantage; utilising the COO effect in promotion; and managing client value perceptions in international markets.

Researchers have been quick to illustrate how traditional retail theory can be adapted to e-tail (Spiller and Lohse, 1997, 1998; Eroglu, Machleit and Davis, 2000). Similarly traditional high street retailers (bricks and mortar retailers) have sought to replicate their offering on-line via the internet. Despite the apparent parallels between on-line and in-store retail, practitioners merely replicating their in-store offering on-line have been unable to compete in this new format and in many cases have seen one format cannibalise the other (Chen and Leteney, 2000; Enders and Jalessi, 2000). Although there are obvious differences between the Internet and traditional bricks and mortar retail formats, there are likely to be some retail theories that hold true for both formats. This thesis provides a starting point in determining how existing retail knowledge can be adapted to the Internet by comparing aspects of customer behaviour on and off-line. The advent of the World Wide Web (WWW) signified global opportunities for members and stakeholders of the wine industry. Wine retailers have been quick to trial the on-line format and their trials have been met with varying degrees of success. Wine producers have also seized opportunities to promote and sell their products via the Internet. In recent years tax incentives have been introduced to encourage wine producers to sell directly to the consumer, with most wine producers being located in rural areas the Internet offers an opportunity to bring customers closer to wine products. This thesis utilises data collected through a customer database and via surveys customer behaviour has been compared. The findings of this research show that not only do a unique group of customers use the Internet for their wine purchases, but also that these customers modify their behaviour to maximise the benefit they gain from their on-line transactions. Results show that, contrary to popular belief, customers are not using the Internet to purchase the same products (as they would purchase in-store) at a lower price. A comparison of the same of the same customers purchases on-line and in-store showed customers spent more per item on-line and purchased a greater number of items per transaction on-line compared to in-store. Furthermore, a comparison of these customers' in-store transactions with customers who only purchased in-store, showed that on-line customers spent more per item and purchased in greater quantities than other customers irrespective of format. Individual characteristics identified in this research allow the targeting of customers more likely to adopt the internet as a retail format. By focusing efforts on these individuals marketers can realize optimal results from their efforts. For academic research, the established differences in retail behaviour point to areas where existing retail can be expanded to the Internet and highlight areas for future research. / Thesis (MBusiness-Research)--University of South Australia, 2004

PhD / Self-regulation is a vital function to humanity, and is an important factor in the dominant paradigm of consumer research, whereby consumer decisions are characterised by the battle between long- and short-term interests. The current research examined the relative effectiveness of two self-regulatory strategies: stopping an already-commenced consumption episode, or to not commence one at all. Traditional economic theories, including the principle of diminishing marginal utility, would predict that not starting is harder to accomplish; whereas a proposal by Thaler (1983) suggests that not starting is in fact the optimal strategy. Two studies were conducted whereby participants were asked to either perform a less-favoured task and resist from starting a more-favoured one (Not Start), or to cease performing a more-favoured task to complete the less-favoured task (Stop). Study 1 found that Stop was more difficult than Not Start, which tentatively supported Thaler’s argument; however there was an explanation which could not be ruled out, namely the psychological distance of the anticipated second task. Study 2 addressed this issue by manipulating that factor by incorporating it into the experimental design. It was found that Not Start became as depleting as Stop when psychological distance of the second task was reduced. This research contributed to the literature by establishing a boundary condition upon the strength model of self-regulatory resource depletion, and adds to the discussion on the descriptive validity of the principle of diminishing marginal utility.

Corporate sponsorships have received increased attention from brand managers and academics in recent years. While researchers agree that sponsorship aids in generating favourable images for the sponsor, both at the corporate and brand levels, a lack of theory-guided models has prevented investigation into more complex phenomena. Current understanding of sponsorship effects is largely confined to the single sponsorship context with dominant emphasis on sponsorship awareness. The challenge surrounding sponsorship image measurement is only heightened by the increase in sponsorship activities. A growing number of brands are becoming associated with multiple events or entities. The purpose of the present research is to understand the mechanisms that underlie consumer processing of a brand’s sponsorship portfolio to affect inferences about sponsor brand associations, and in particular brand personality, brand meaning and brand attitude. The present research consolidates a range of conceptual and theory-guided models used by previous researchers, and adds to sponsorship literature by outlining how an accessibility based model can be applied to explain the cognitive processes involved when consumers encounter a brand’s sponsorships sequentially. In the context of a sponsorship portfolio, the associative network memory theory, congruence theory, and accessibility-diagnosticity theory are considered collectively and integrated into a conceptual framework to guide the development of hypotheses. The general theory proposed here is that accessibility of a sponsorship episode determines whether it will be used in subsequent information processing and percolate through to sponsor evaluations. A three-experiment research program is developed to explore the dynamics behind the portfolio effects. Pretests are conducted to identify brands and sponsorship properties that conform to the experimental manipulations but also to control for extraneous variables. Experiment 1 is designed to investigate the impact of perceived sponsorship portfolio fit on sponsor brand associations, and to determine how consumers assess portfolio fit. The experiment employs a 2 (sponsorship category relatedness: related vs. unrelated) x 2 (event personality fit: high fit vs. low fit) x 2 (sponsor product category: apparel vs. watch) between-subjects factorial design. Results point to sponsorship category relatedness as an important reference point in the evaluation of portfolio fit because it pulls sponsorships together when event personality fit is low, showing the predominance of category-based mode of processing. The role of event personality fit emerges when sponsorships lack categorical relatedness, leading to piecemeal-mode processing. Its influence of event personality fit is largely mute when sponsorships are categorically related, possibly because the individual event concepts are overwhelmed by a superordinate categorical imagery. Experiment 2 is designed to (1) allow replication of the portfolio effects with an additional sponsor product and different sets of sponsorship portfolios, and (2) investigate how individuals respond to a sponsorship portfolio which contains sponsorship properties with conflicting categories and personalities. Specifically, Experiment 2 aims to determine whether one sponsorship “frames” the processing of another sponsorship in a portfolio, and if so, determines the direction of framing. The experiment employs a 2 (sponsorship presentation sequence: sports first vs. cause first) x 2 (visual cues: present vs. absent) x 3 (sponsor product replicates: apparel vs. watch vs. juice) mixed factorial design. Two key findings emerge from this experiment. First, inferences about the sponsor brands’ personalities are made in an additive fashion by augmenting event personalities, conforming to the “entitativity” principle. Second, when a sports sponsorship (rather than a cause sponsorship) is presented first in a portfolio, conceptual fluency is enhanced. This is because the sequence of processing is consistent with the way that people naturally think, thus leading to greater processing fluency. Experiment 3 is developed to further test the sponsorship framing effect and to explore the role of articulation in forging a relationship for ostensibly unrelated sponsorships. The experiment uses a 2 (sponsorship frame: sports frame vs. cause frame) x 2 (articulation: present vs. absent) between-subjects factorial design, plus a replicate and two control groups. Results replicate the findings of previous experiment where inferences for the sponsor brand personality are determined in an additive fashion. The findings also provide insights into when and whether using articulation in sponsorship communications can be beneficial. While articulating the relationship between sponsorships increases the perceived brand meaning consistency and clarity, a boomerang effect on brand attitude is observed, possibly because the commercially oriented content attributes a sales-oriented motive to the sponsor, which in turn, leads to a less favourable brand attitude. Theoretically, this research adds to current understanding of consumer-focused sponsorship processing by moving beyond simple pairing of sponsor and event, to consider the relationship between sponsorship properties. Through the integration of accessibility-diagnosticity theory, this research demonstrates that the way sponsorships influence brand evaluations is likely to be more complex than suggested by the existing literature and contributes to the development of methods to measure image transfer process. Practically, this research assists managers who are interested in the formulation of sponsorship policy and strategic design of sponsorship portfolios. The conceptual model developed in this thesis offers useful guidelines in providing input into the decision-making process when considering whether sponsorships could be used as brand building tools.

Corporate sponsorships have received increased attention from brand managers and academics in recent years. While researchers agree that sponsorship aids in generating favourable images for the sponsor, both at the corporate and brand levels, a lack of theory-guided models has prevented investigation into more complex phenomena. Current understanding of sponsorship effects is largely confined to the single sponsorship context with dominant emphasis on sponsorship awareness. The challenge surrounding sponsorship image measurement is only heightened by the increase in sponsorship activities. A growing number of brands are becoming associated with multiple events or entities. The purpose of the present research is to understand the mechanisms that underlie consumer processing of a brand’s sponsorship portfolio to affect inferences about sponsor brand associations, and in particular brand personality, brand meaning and brand attitude. The present research consolidates a range of conceptual and theory-guided models used by previous researchers, and adds to sponsorship literature by outlining how an accessibility based model can be applied to explain the cognitive processes involved when consumers encounter a brand’s sponsorships sequentially. In the context of a sponsorship portfolio, the associative network memory theory, congruence theory, and accessibility-diagnosticity theory are considered collectively and integrated into a conceptual framework to guide the development of hypotheses. The general theory proposed here is that accessibility of a sponsorship episode determines whether it will be used in subsequent information processing and percolate through to sponsor evaluations. A three-experiment research program is developed to explore the dynamics behind the portfolio effects. Pretests are conducted to identify brands and sponsorship properties that conform to the experimental manipulations but also to control for extraneous variables. Experiment 1 is designed to investigate the impact of perceived sponsorship portfolio fit on sponsor brand associations, and to determine how consumers assess portfolio fit. The experiment employs a 2 (sponsorship category relatedness: related vs. unrelated) x 2 (event personality fit: high fit vs. low fit) x 2 (sponsor product category: apparel vs. watch) between-subjects factorial design. Results point to sponsorship category relatedness as an important reference point in the evaluation of portfolio fit because it pulls sponsorships together when event personality fit is low, showing the predominance of category-based mode of processing. The role of event personality fit emerges when sponsorships lack categorical relatedness, leading to piecemeal-mode processing. Its influence of event personality fit is largely mute when sponsorships are categorically related, possibly because the individual event concepts are overwhelmed by a superordinate categorical imagery. Experiment 2 is designed to (1) allow replication of the portfolio effects with an additional sponsor product and different sets of sponsorship portfolios, and (2) investigate how individuals respond to a sponsorship portfolio which contains sponsorship properties with conflicting categories and personalities. Specifically, Experiment 2 aims to determine whether one sponsorship “frames” the processing of another sponsorship in a portfolio, and if so, determines the direction of framing. The experiment employs a 2 (sponsorship presentation sequence: sports first vs. cause first) x 2 (visual cues: present vs. absent) x 3 (sponsor product replicates: apparel vs. watch vs. juice) mixed factorial design. Two key findings emerge from this experiment. First, inferences about the sponsor brands’ personalities are made in an additive fashion by augmenting event personalities, conforming to the “entitativity” principle. Second, when a sports sponsorship (rather than a cause sponsorship) is presented first in a portfolio, conceptual fluency is enhanced. This is because the sequence of processing is consistent with the way that people naturally think, thus leading to greater processing fluency. Experiment 3 is developed to further test the sponsorship framing effect and to explore the role of articulation in forging a relationship for ostensibly unrelated sponsorships. The experiment uses a 2 (sponsorship frame: sports frame vs. cause frame) x 2 (articulation: present vs. absent) between-subjects factorial design, plus a replicate and two control groups. Results replicate the findings of previous experiment where inferences for the sponsor brand personality are determined in an additive fashion. The findings also provide insights into when and whether using articulation in sponsorship communications can be beneficial. While articulating the relationship between sponsorships increases the perceived brand meaning consistency and clarity, a boomerang effect on brand attitude is observed, possibly because the commercially oriented content attributes a sales-oriented motive to the sponsor, which in turn, leads to a less favourable brand attitude. Theoretically, this research adds to current understanding of consumer-focused sponsorship processing by moving beyond simple pairing of sponsor and event, to consider the relationship between sponsorship properties. Through the integration of accessibility-diagnosticity theory, this research demonstrates that the way sponsorships influence brand evaluations is likely to be more complex than suggested by the existing literature and contributes to the development of methods to measure image transfer process. Practically, this research assists managers who are interested in the formulation of sponsorship policy and strategic design of sponsorship portfolios. The conceptual model developed in this thesis offers useful guidelines in providing input into the decision-making process when considering whether sponsorships could be used as brand building tools.