Various constructs are related to predicting consumers' perceptions of brand extensions. Among these, three constructs, perceptions of perceived quality (PQ) associated with the parent brand, product category similarity (PCS) of an extension to its parent brand, and brand breadth (BB) of the parent, are central to many brand extension studies. The purpose of this study is to clarify the roles of these three constructs and to pit predictions from an alternative theoretical perspective — cognitive response theory — against predictions based on categorization theory.

This research aims to investigate the (1) review effects on consumer decision making process, (2) effects of negative reviews on brand equity, and (3) consumers' likely response to a brand's request for reviews. The objective of the first essay is to investigate the nature of the relationship between skepticism and consumer decision making in an online behavior context. Its second objective is to know whether people's belief on their abilities or their hedonic principle moderates the relationship between a person's skepticism toward online reviews and their reliance on online reviews. The objective of the second essay is to explore whether negative online reviews that focus on service quality specific dimensions have a different effect on a service organization's perceived brand equity. Its second objective is to analyze the role of emotional contagion in the relationship between negative reviews related to various service quality dimensions and its effect on perceived brand equity. The main objective of the third essay is to know whether consumers are more likely to write an online review for a brand when the request comes from a higher equity brand. This essay also investigates how message trust and persuasion knowledge influence the relationship between a brand's request …

Location-based ads are defined as any ads that are sent by an identified source to consumers' mobile devices when they are around the advertised product/store. Although mobile ad spending is said to have accounted for 68% of all digital ad spending in 2020, knowledge of how businesses can use mobile and location-based technology to reach their customers effectively is limited. Thus, the purpose of this three-essay format dissertation is to review the literature on LBA and identify the gaps in the literature and attempt to address a few of these gaps in the remaining two essays. The second essay tests an integrated model by examining the effects of the various retailer and consumer-controlled factors on two retail performances. In the third essay, we explore how LBA affects different dimensions of consumer-brand engagement. The results and findings provide important implications for retailers and brands to increase their performances.

Small retailers are searching for a basis of competitive advantage to compete against larger retailers. The independent sales representative (rep) may represent such a basis. Little is known about how the role of reps and their performance is perceived by suppliers and retailers. We do not know what is expected from reps, if the reps' performance meets suppliers and retailers expectations, or whether met expectations lead to a basis of competitive advantage. Primarily, the study was designed to identify the role and contributions reps in the interactions between the supplier and retailer in the channel of distribution.

This dissertation focuses generally on consumer behavior, and particularly on consumer attitudes toward products of foreign origin for the purpose of developing a theory that will assist in explaining and predicting this phenomenon. Existing research in the area of country of origin effects upon consumer attitudes toward foreign-made products demonstrates significant methodological limitations such as single cue approaches., The major objective of this dissertation is to contribute to the development of a theory based upon the expectancy-value attitude concept to better explain and predict consumer attitudes toward products of foreign origin. To achieve this objective, the research attempts to overcome the limitations identified in attitude research and specific methodological deficiencies in research focusing on attitudes toward products of foreign origin by: 1. utilizing the expectancy-value approach; 2. basing operationalization of the attitude concepts on Likert-like scales and subjective conditional probabilities; 3. measuring the operationalized attitudes both directly and indirectly via beliefs and evaluations; 4. simultaneously including multiple extrinsic cues; 5. including pictorial cues in the questionnaire; and 6. performing and reporting validity and reliability tests. The general model developed in this research, representing the theory of attitudes toward products of foreign origin is the Foreign Product Attitude Model (FPAM). This …

The use of influence tactics by sales representatives appears to be related to a number of latent constructs and factors such as, manifest needs, role conflict and role ambiguity, and perception of sales managers' power bases. However, such relationships have not been examined by researchers. These relationships were examined in this study in an effort to improve the current level of understanding of causes and results of the use of influence tactics in a sales environment. The contention of this study was that individuals in work settings engage in a variety of influence tactics, and that the type of influence tactics used are influenced by factors such as personal characteristics of the salespersons, the nature of goals to be achieved, the salespersons' perceptions of their superiors' power bases, and the nature and complexity of the dyadic relationship that exists between supervisor and subordinates.

This research began with the Hill Inventory. Cognitive style preference variables were classified as one of following four types: Theoretical Codes, Qualitative Codes, Social-Cultural Codes or Reasoning Modalities. A consumer behavior perspective was then used to form an alternative structure for the Hill Inventory variables. The following three constructs were proposed: Evaluation Codes, Perceptual Codes, and Reasoning Modalities. The purpose of this research was to assess the structural form and measurement validity of the Hill Inventory. Specific steps taken to accomplish this objective included: developing confirmatory factor and structural equation models; using the LISREL software package to analyze the model specifications; and assessing the validity of the questions used to measure the variables. A descriptive research design was used to compare the model specifications. The research instrument consisted of eight statements for each of twenty-eight variables for a total of 224 questions. Five-point response choices were described by the words: often, sometimes, unsure, rarely, or never. The sample consisted of 285 student subjects in marketing classes at a large university. Data analysis began by comparing the distributions of the data to a normal case. Parameter estimates, root mean square residuals and squared multiple correlations then were obtained using the LISREL …

Because of the high and rapidly increasing cost of health care, wellness has become a significant issue for both health care practitioners and the general public. This research examines the issue of wellness and seeks to develop a model that identifies the factors that are most significant in explaining why people engage in wellness activities. A questionnaire was mailed to a sample (n = 499) randomly selected from the general population of the United States. Predictor variables are the demographic variables of age, income, education and gender together with the cognitive variables of self-actualization, benefits of wellness behavior, health locus of control and threat to health. Dependent variables are the health-seeking behaviors of exercise, stress management, nutrition, health responsibility and social support. Canonical correlation, t-tests, regression and analysis of variance are used to analyze the data. Chapter one presents two existing health models. The first presents prevention or threat to health and the second proposes self-actualization as motivating wellness behavior. The research model combines the two models. Chapter two presents relevant studies in the literature regarding use of multivariate models in consumer behavior, dimensions of wellness and empirical findings of wellness-related research. Chapter three presents the research hypotheses, research design …