Marketers today are currently being challenged to understand the complexities of ethnic markets as their numbers grow throughout the United States and have an increasing interest in determining how ethnic consumers respond to sales promotion efforts. Of particular interest to marketers is the determination of the extent to which ethnic consumers utilize coupons. Prior research suggests that in comparison to their white counterparts, most African-American consumers are light users of coupons. Demographic factors such as education, income, and family size have largely been used to explain differences between these groups of consumers. The current study attempts to look beyond demographics and examines potential motivational factors that may account for differences between blacks and whites in coupon redemption. / This study will test how differences in motivations between African-American and White-American consumers affect their propensity to use coupons. These motivations include value consciousness, time value, perceived image of coupon use, and brand loyalty. In addition, the current study examines specific barriers to coupon use commonly faced by the ethnic consumer, including media use and the perceived availability of coupons. / This study also looks at factors beyond race that may serve as covariates in the determination of coupon use among black and white consumers. These factors include store patronage, frequency of patronage, product category purchases and size of package purchased. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: A, page: 2653. / Major Professor: Richard W. Mizerski. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

According to the literature, academic and social integration in some formal, informal or structural format, are related elements of student persistence in higher education (Metzner & Bean, 1987; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1983; Tinto, 1987; Voorhees, 1987). / Despite the number of enrollment gains made by Black students into higher education, these students continue to experience low retention and graduation rates. In addition, most Black students currently attend predominantly White institutions (PWI), however, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) award a majority of the degrees granted to Black students (Allen, 1985). / More specifically, from 1984 through 1989, Black student enrollment in the state of Florida increased while degrees awarded decreased. Conversely, as White student enrollment increased, so did degree attainment (Florida Board of Regents, 1990). What happens to Black students inside as well as outside of the classroom, after admission to and upon entering the college or university environment? / The purpose of this study was to examine the academic and social integration of full-time, undergraduate, Black students enrolled in selected PWIs in Florida. Pascarella and Terenzini's Academic and Social Integration Inventory (ASII) was used as the measurement tool. / Tinto's (1975, 1987) theory of academic and social integration as the basis for student persistence, is the conceptual framework which guides the research for this study. Tinto's model is supported in both the attrition and retention literature. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-11, Section: A, page: 3429. / Major Professor: Barbara A. Mann. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

The response of white Southern writers to the movement for black civil rights in the 1960s is perhaps best examined in the context of two intertwining Southern traditions: one, a belief in the South as a new Garden of Eden, where generous, honorable, easy-going Southerners enjoyed a way of life vastly superior to that of the driven, avaricious inhabitants of the industrial, urban North; and two, the tradition of separation of the races and the relegation of all black Southerners to underclass status. An examination of Southern writers from John Pendleton Kennedy through the Agrarians reveals the attempts to reconcile the two traditions, largely by insisting that the paternalism of white Southern aristocrats incorporated African Americans into the Southern family. / However, even in the Old South paradise imagined by Kennedy and Thomas Nelson Page, whites' fear of blacks and their consciousness of being surrounded by an alien people undermined the South's pastoral image. Writers like Mark Twain and George Washington Cable dealt openly with the evil of slavery, but they also left the South. It was William Faulkner who brought the tension between loyalty to the Southern way of life and guilt over the treatment of Southern blacks to the surface as he explored the myth of the South as the New Eden and its Fall as a result of slavery. / Thus, white Southern writers of the civil rights era--of which William Styron, Flannery O'Connor, and Walker Percy are representative--found themselves under the shadow of both Faulkner's reputation and the racial dilemma of the South. They resisted the label of Southern writer but found that their Southern identity was not so easily discarded. Remaining loyal to the Southern way of life, these writers identified community, not racial segregation, as the defining quality of that life and alienation between the races, not integration, as the real threat to the South. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-04, Section: A, page: 0963. / Major Professor: Anne E. Rowe. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

Communication use among traditioned small groups in natural settings has been unexplored by many researchers, because of the difficulty in gaining access to the members. / The counterculture is one of those settings, and the motorcycle gang is one of those small groups. In order to assist in understanding the subculture more fully, this study utilized the Naturalistic method of inquiry in the form of an ethnography to explore and describe the use of communication by members of a motorcycle gang. The structure and processes of the group were described in detail. Printed documents, verbal and nonverbal communication were viewed with respect to the structure of the group outlined in the research. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-12, Section: A, page: 3551. / Major Professor: Charles Edward Wotring. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

The transculturative and acculturative influences on bi-musicality were examined in post-revolutionary Cuban popular musical culture and behavior. A comparative approach was applied to the ethnomusicological investigation, focusing on the musical production and consumption of diasporic and resident sample populations across three generational levels. The study also provides an overview of musical life in Havana and Miami, including the musical developments of "revolutionary" musicians shaped by the regime's socialist ideological policies, contrasted with the adaptive expressions of immigrant musicians that function as cultural symbols of a displaced national identity. / A survey was conducted to assess cross-cultural and intergenerational differences in musical preference, music listening and music making frequencies, dance activity, and participation in musical culture. Attitudes concerning musicianship as a vocation versus an avocation were addressed, as well as their implications to the musician's self-perception as a member of society. Normative data were also collected involving familiarity ratings and typicality judgements for items contained in four categories of material and non-material musical culture. Correlations and relative frequency distributions are listed. / Statistical analyses of the data have revealed significant intergroup differences in listening preferences, and musical production, participation and education. The results ascertained the formative impact that the contrasting politico-socio-economic structures have on musical behavior and attitude. Inter-item analyses of 152 musical genres and subgenres were performed, and their respective profiles of popularization, retention, or decline are charted. / The data have provided indexes of balanced versus dominant bi-musicality, reflecting the degree of musical acculturation inherent in the successive generational subgroups. Strong acculturative effects were also observed in item familiarity and categorial prototype formation. The results support the theories of cultural retention, acculturation and syncretism, replication of uniformity, and the organization of diversity. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-04, Section: A, page: 1381. / Major Professor: Dale Olsen. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1996.

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

This study examines two alternative explanations for French and British Catholic fertility differentials in four Canadian provinces. The structural assimilationist hypothesis suggests that incomplete assimilation of French Catholics into the dominant social structure accounts for their fertility being higher than that of British Catholics. The social ecology model posits that structural discrimination and ethnic unity lead to ethnic mobilization and behavioral manifestation of ethnic group membership. One way ethnic group membership is indicated is through high fertility levels. Differential fertility among Canadian Catholics is determined by the greater degree of societal discrimination experienced by the French as compared to the British. Using 1971 Canadian Census data, multiple regression equations are run to test these competing hypotheses on current and cumulative fertility of French and British Catholics. Results indicate that controls for socioeconomic stratification do not eliminate the relationship between structural discrimination and ethnic fertility. French Catholics are found to demonstrate a higher fertility level than British Catholics. Societal competition and ethnic unity are found to influence ethnic fertility levels. Findings support a social ecology model in which the effects of structural discrimination increase the importance of ethnic identity as an organization symbol for resource competition. Fertility is one behavioral manifestation of ethnic group membership / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu