Theses and Dissertations - Department of Marketing

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Browsing Theses and Dissertations - Department of Marketing by Author "Allaway, Arthur Warren"

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    Antecedents of the adoption of new consumer packaged goods
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2015) Kim, Kyoungmi; Allaway, Arthur Warren; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    Consumer response to a new product is critical to the product’s success, but understanding of customers’ new product adoption is still limited. Most research has focused only on the first trial purchase and ignored repeat purchases. This study investigates the adoption process as a sequence of purchases and examines how behavioral and marketing antecedents have a different influence on each phase. Marketing-mix variables (e.g., marketing communication, price promotion, and assortment) and consumers’ past behavioral responses (e.g., innovativeness, variety-seeking, and loyalty to the firm’s brands) are proposed as potential antecedents of new product trial purchase timing, repeat purchase timing, and dollar amount of monthly repeat purchase over the twelve months after the trial month. Panel data for sixteen new products from six food categories obtained from Information Resources Inc. (IRI) are utilized in this study. To test the relationships among the behavioral and marketing antecedents and the three outcome variables, two types of econometric models are utilized: a discrete-time hazard model is used for trial and repeat purchase timing and a Type I Tobit model is used for repeat purchase amount in dollars. The results are also discussed.
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    The impact of organizational resources and employee gratitude on frontline employee engagement
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2018) Qi, Ji; Baker, Thomas L.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    Delivering and understanding the drivers of superior customer service can be a critical differentiator in service provision contexts. To this end, drawing from social exchange theory, this study investigates the antecedents of frontline employee engagement. In line with previous studies, our research identifies three types of organizational resources, motivational resources (perceived job autonomy), relational-contextual resources (perceived relationship investment), and socio-emotional resources (perceived organizational support), and suggests that these resources collectively contribute to employee engagement through the psychological mechanism of employee gratitude. In addition, we also explore the role of supervisory feedback as a moderator that enhances the relationship between employee gratitude and employee engagement.
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    Three essays on cultural intelligence, innovation, and institutional distance
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2016) Lorenz, Melanie Petra; Franke, George; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    While cultural differences and related formal and informal distances are often described as creating difficulties and complexity, the ability to understand and to adapt to differences or to leverage those for positive outcomes is an important imperative for individuals and firms operating in an international arena. Innovation, the positive outcome in this study, has particularly shown to be vital for success and long-term survivability of organizations. This dissertation investigates both the impact of cultural abilities, and in particular cultural intelligence (CQ), as well as the impact of cultural distance, as part of the larger institutional distance (ID) framework, on innovation on a micro- and macro level of analysis. The first essay is based on a review of the CQ literature and a reanalysis of past studies. Although research on CQ has increased since the introduction of the concept, the measurement has raised theoretical and empirical concerns. Using a meta-analytic process, we reanalyzed past CQ studies in order to make inferences and generalizations of the antecedents and outcomes of cultural intelligence. In the second essay we use the insights gained from Essay 1 regarding the application of the CQ scale and apply it to the context of innovation on a micro-level of analysis. Examining a sample of 220 expatriates in the U.S. we demonstrate the importance of CQ for international opportunity recognition and innovation. Specifically, we find that expatriates high in metacognitive CQ are better able to recognize international opportunities and to exploit marketable innovations. Finally, in the third essay we turn away from micro-level drivers of innovation to examine the determinants of innovation on a macro-level. Hereby, we reconcile controversial findings from the ID and diversity literature and suggest that sometimes, ID (composed of formal and informal distances) may positively affect innovation. The findings from the analysis of 371 offshoring implementations provide empirical support for the positive effect of certain formal and informal distances on innovation. Taken together, the dissertation demonstrates the importance of possessing cross-cultural skills and the ability of appraising differences for micro- and macro level innovativeness while offering suggestions for future research and applications.