Browsing by Subject "Consumers--Attitudes"
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Item Design for affect: emotional and behavioral consequences of the tradeoffs between hedonic and utilitarian attributes(2003) Chitturi, Ravindra; Mahajan, Vijay.“Design for Affect” as a research theme explores the mediating and/or moderating role of affect in the relationship between design and consumer behavior. This dissertation focuses on the product-elicited affect. It investigates pre-consumption and post-consumption consumer emotions and behavior as a result of the tradeoffs made between hedonic and utilitarian attributes. The work is presented as two essays. The first essay studies how the direction of the tradeoff between hedonic and functional attributes determines the dominant emotion (guilt or sadness) experienced by the consumer at the time of purchase. It also examines the behavioral consequences of the attribute tradeoffs on consumer choice and willingness to pay. The second essay investigates how the direction of the tradeoff between hedonic and functional attributes at the time of purchase in conjunction with the valence of the consumption experience impacts the type and intensity of the post-consumption emotions of delight and anger. It also compares and contrasts post-consumption delight with post-consumption satisfaction and postconsumption anger with post-consumption dissatisfaction in the context of their relative influence on word of mouth (WOM) behavior and repurchase intentions. The findings suggest that non-optimal combinations of hedonic and functional attributes with respect to customer requirements and the competing product can generate negative emotions of guilt or sadness for consumers. These negative emotions of guilt or sadness can motivate consumer behavior detrimental to a product’s market share and profitability. The direction of the tradeoff between attributes also impacts post-consumption emotions. In the case of a positive consumption experience, consumers who choose a more hedonic product over a more functional product are likely to experience a higher intensity of delight. However, consumers are likely to experience a higher intensity of anger when they choose a more functional product over a more hedonic product, and experience negative disconfirmation with functional attributes. In addition, the results show that the direction of the tradeoff does not impact post-consumption satisfaction and dissatisfaction. In general, consumers who are hedonically delighted and functionally satisfied with the product are more likely to indulge in positive WOM behavior and have higher repurchase intentions compared to consumers who are functionally delighted and hedonically satisfied.Item Happiness, consumption and hedonic adaptation(2009-05) Nicolao, Leonardo, 1976-; Irwin, Julie R.Previous theories have suggested that consumers will be happier if they spend their money on experiences such as travel as opposed to material possessions such as automobiles. I test this experience recommendation and show that it may be misleading in its general form. Valence of the outcome significantly moderates differences in respondents' reported retrospective happiness with material versus experiential purchases. For purchases that turned out positively, experiential purchases lead to more happiness than do material purchases, as the experience recommendation suggests. However, for purchases that turned out negatively, experiences have no benefit over (and, for some types of consumers, induce significantly less happiness than) material possessions. I provide evidence that this purchase type by valence interaction is driven by the fact that consumers adapt more slowly to experiential purchases than to material purchases, leading to both greater happiness and greater unhappiness for experiential purchases. Moreover, I show that this difference in hedonic adaptation rates for material and experiential purchases is being, at least partially, driven by a difference in memory for those types of purchases. I also show that individuals mispredict hedonic adaptation rates for material and experiential purchases. Finally, I discuss implications for consumer choice.Item The market maven : implications for a multicultural environment(2003-05) Cal, Yolanda Rachele; Wilcox, Gary B.; Tharp, Marye C.Item The power of consumer-to-consumer community (network) on the Internet: consumer decision-making, product sales, and product diffusion(2006) Duan, Wenjing; Whinston, Andrew B.; Gu, Bin, Ph. D.The prevalent usage of the Internet and other information technologies (IT) has fundamentally changed the information balance between businesses and consumers. Prior to the information age, businesses carefully controlled the information they fed to the media and consumers through orchestrated marketing efforts. Little else was revealed to consumers except on the rare occasions where the businesses made headlines. The Internet and the resulting mass media, however, have turned a business’s information advantage on its head. Visiting any online retailer today, you will notice that consumers actively share their experiences and product information with each other. The popularity of a product is increasingly determined by such consumer-to-consumer communications instead of a business’s marketing budget. Even so, there is still limited understanding of the influences of consumer-generated media on the Internet, particularly its impact on business strategies. My dissertation investigates the information effect of the electronic communities on consumer decision-making, product sales, and strategic product diffusion. First, my dissertation considers the case where consumers can observe others’ product choices, as well as gain access to public product information on the Internet. In such cases it is shown that consumers engage in significant herd behavior, and my research further investigates the impact of herding on consumer product choices. Second, my dissertation explores how online user feedback systems affect product sales. Using data from the entertainment industry, my research studies the dynamic relationship between online user feedback information and product sales. Following this line of inquiry, my dissertation also examines the impact of the Internet on a firm’s global diffusion strategy. Information can be disseminated on the Web at rocket speed, which will fundamentally transform firms’ and companies’ strategic diffusion processes. In light of such a transformation, my research investigates the impact of the Internet on the international distribution of entertainment products. All in all, my dissertation expects to advance our understanding of the information value of the Internet.Item They placed, I saw, I was conquered : evaluating the effects of persuasion knowledge and prominence of brand placement on viewers' attitudes and behavior(2006-12) Andriasova, Anna Valerii, 1975-; Cunningham, Isabella C. M.With the diminishing value of traditional television advertising – due to fragmented television audiences and the development of commercial skipping technologies such as TiVo – advertisers are looking at ways to integrate brands directly into mass media programming. This phenomenon has come to be known as brand placement, and this study examines the influence of such placements on viewers’ brand-related memory, attitude and behavior. The study proposes that viewers’ attitude towards the programming content, their desire to emulate the character associated with the placement, their awareness of the persuasive intent of brand placement, and the prominence of the placement itself - impact that influence. The study also proposes that low-involvement implicit measures may be more effective than traditional self-reported measures in uncovering the full effects of brand placement. Those proposals formed the basis of a three-study experimental research project. The first study evaluated the use of implicit measures, such as Strength-of-Association (SOA), in brand placement research. The second study evaluated how knowledge of the persuasive intent of brand placement affects viewers’ brand-related memory, attitudes and behavior. The third study evaluated whether the effects of brand placement differ, depending on the placement prominence among viewers with knowledge of persuasion intent. The initial investigation shows that though self-reported brand attitudes did not differ among the viewers exposed to brand placement and those who were not, their brand-related SOAs reflected significant differences. Further results reveal that memory effects are strongest when viewers are aware of the persuasive intent of brand placement. With regards to SOAs, when viewers are not aware of persuasion intent, their attitude towards the programming and desire to emulate the characters may be used to predict their brand-related SOAs. Such SOAs are also affected by the prominence of the placement. In terms of behavior effects, viewers with no knowledge of persuasive intent were more likely to choose a prominently placed brand over competitors’ brands, whereas viewers with such knowledge were more likely to choose subtly placed brands. This study concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and managerial contributions of the findings above, and suggestions for possible extensions of the research conducted.