The following dissertation examines consumer decision-making in two important contexts. The first is in the domain of health
and nutrition decisions. Both governmental entities and corporations alike have tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to provide consumers with a
means of easily judging nutritional content and thus, prompting healthier consumption choices. As such, Essay 1 introduces and empirically
tests a new labeling format designed to aid consumers in making better nutritional choices. The second domain in which consumer
decision-making is studied is within the context of corporate social responsibility (CSR). While extant research has identified numerous
benefits of CSR initiatives, relatively little work offers insight into how the amount of CSR influences the attribution of blame.
Therefore, essay 2 addresses this gap in the literature by examining empirically the idea that CSR initiatives do not uniformly repress
the attribution of blame, nor the intentions to punish, among consumers following a firm-specific irresponsible event. Essay 1 makes a
number of contributions to the transformative consumer research and marketing literatures by introducing a novel concept called
integrative nutrition information as a means of encouraging healthier consumption choices. Integrative nutrition information is defined by
Essay 1 as the provision of nutrition information that explicitly and simultaneously presents nutritional information in a format that
includes both caloric content and required physical activity time to offset consumption. The results of Essay 1 demonstrate that
integrative nutrition information leads to lower rates of consumption when compared to current NLEA-mandated labeling standards. In
particular, this effect is a byproduct of loss aversion and negativity bias associated with the required physical activity. Additionally,
Essay 1 presents boundary conditions on the strength and effectiveness of integrative nutrition information as well as the underlying
mechanism—negative affective forecasting—behind these effects. Essay 1 advances the literature on nutritional information (Grunert,
Willis, and Fernandez-Celemin 2010; Kiszko, Martinez, Abrams, and Elbel 2014) by providing information so as to motivate healthier choices
(Koenigstorfer, Groeppel-Klein, and Kamm 2014; Liu, Roberto, Liu, and Brownell 2012; Vasiljevic, Pechey, and Marteau 2015). Specifically,
Essay 1 answers the call of scholars to consider novel, more innovative ways of motivating healthier consumer choices (Kiszko et al. 2014)
by presenting a labeling format that bridges diet and physical activity, the two aspects of a healthy lifestyle, so as to allow for easier
and more effective ways to make healthful choices. Essay 2 adds to the literature on CSR while also advancing the organizational
literature devoted to perceived psychological contracts. Specifically, Essay 2 extends these literature streams by examining when, and the
degree to which, a company's CSR stance, that is, the position a company publicly takes on participating in socially responsible
initiatives, influences consumer blame subsequent to a socially irresponsible event. The findings of Essay 2 indicate that the attribution
of blame and encouragement of punishment following an irresponsible event is moderated by level of CSR stance. Moreover, Essay 2
identifies the underlying process that accounts for this effect. Specifically, when consumers are made aware of a company-specific
irresponsible event, they tend to experience feelings of betrayal, which precipitate support for company sanctions. This effect is
particularly strong with relatively higher levels of CSR-stances. The insights from Essay 2 make important empirical contributions by
establishing a previously undefined effect - that a relatively higher CSR stance leads consumers to appoint harsher punishments following
an irresponsible event. Without doubt, CSR initiatives are valuable assets to firms (Du, Bhattacharya, and Sen 2007; Morsing 2006;
Torelli, Monga, and Kaikati 2012), but at the same time Essay 2 finds firm managers must recognize the possible negative consequences of a
relatively higher CSR stances. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Marketing in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2016. / March 16, 2016. / Consumer Behavior, corporate social responsibility, csr, Nutrition label, public policy / Includes bibliographical references. / Ronald E. Goldsmith, Professor Directing Dissertation; Elizabeth B. Goldsmith, University
Representative; Michael J. Brusco, Committee Member; Martin Mende, Committee Member; Maura L. Scott, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_360411 |
| Contributors | Montford, William Jonas (authoraut), Goldsmith, Elizabeth B. (university representative), Goldsmith, Ronald Earl (university representative), Brusco, Michael J. (committee member), Mende, Martin (committee member), Scott, Maura L. (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Business (degree granting college), Department of Marketing (degree granting department) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource (132 pages), computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
Page generated in 0.0012 seconds