Theses and Dissertations - Department of Marketing

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Browsing Theses and Dissertations - Department of Marketing by Author "Bachrach, Daniel G."

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    Applying network theory to the technology to performance profit chain: a social media application
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2014) Andzulis, James Mitchell; Rapp, Adam A.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    It is beyond question that social media has altered the day-to-day lives of individuals in their social interactions. However, less is known about the quantifiable impact of social media on business, especially in the sales domain. As sales has progressed from a transactional, to relational, to co-creation of value endeavor, marked by substantial engagement between customer and salesperson, technology has been a regular facilitator of change, enabling information collection, use and transfer in ways once thought unimaginable. In a similar way, the use of social media technology has that same potential, as the gap between buyer and seller closes around an increasingly important salesperson or boundary spanner, with access to information and the customer like never before. However, little is known about the strategic outcomes and facilitating conditions of such social media technology usage. This research advances deeper understanding by exploring the role of salesperson social media technology usage as an antecedent to three increasingly important strategic outcomes in the sales domain. Using social exchange theory as its primary foundation, this dissertation explores the links between frequency and intensity of social media technology usage and 1) competitive intelligence, 2) communication reciprocity, and 3) value co-creation, finding positive support for each of the three hypothesized primary linear relationships in the conceptual framework. Through network theory, this work also investigates the moderating impact of important salesperson network characteristics, including size, density, heterogeneity, and quality in an effort to identify which organizations and salespeople, specifically, are most likely to benefit from such technology investment and use. Findings support two of the moderating hypotheses, demonstrating that the size of the salesperson's network has a detrimental impact on both communication reciprocity, and value co-creation perhaps as the relationship with each and every individual customer begins to suffer at the expense of servicing the mass. Results also suggest fertile ground for future work potentially exploring the impact of three additional moderating relationships found on the cusp of partial support.
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    Awareness and action: implications and dimensions of salesperson emotional intelligence
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2015) Johnson, Catherine M.; Rapp, Adam A.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    Recently, sales literature has begun to recognize that emotional intelligence (EI), which is a distinct form of intelligence entailing the perception, understanding, facilitation, and management of emotions, is a salesperson characteristic that has the potential to substantively impact interpersonal success and, ultimately, performance. This research explores specific outcomes and boundary conditions of EI in a sales context with a field study including a salesperson sample. Further, it stands to contribute to the considerable debate surrounding emotional intelligence by first empirically comparing competing conceptualizations in the same sample. Second, this research proposes and provides empirical support for a new conceptualization of emotional intelligence as consisting of cognitive and behavioral components which are not only distinct from each other but also are progressive in nature. Finally, moderators are found which impact a salesperson’s ability to translate cognitive EI into behavioral EI.
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    An investigation into the dimensionality of the collaborative economy from a service-dominant logic perspective
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2017) Lindsey Hall, Kristina Kay; Baker, Thomas L.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    The overall purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to a better understanding of the collaborative economy (CE). The CE involves direct or mediated peer-to-peer resource exchanges, which can occur with or without compensation, and allows for ownership transfers as well as access to goods, services, and experiences. Regarding the CE, this dissertation has two primary objectives. The first is to develop a conceptual typology for collaborative exchanges with the second being to investigate factors associated with the use and evaluation of one broad marketplace within the CE. This dissertation represents an initial attempt to systematically and theoretically explore various elements of the CE. First, this research is grounded in Service-Dominant Logic, which acts as an overarching framework as it helps to explicate the nature of mutually beneficial resource exchange by multiple actors within socially constructed and contextually relevant service networks that are governed by social and cultural norms called “institutions”. Next, an in-depth literature review informs the dimensionality of the collaborative economy in order to provide a means for classifying, describing, and evaluating the CE across three key dimensions. Next, a conceptual model of consumer motivations for participation in one key area of the CE, that being collaborative consumption (CC), will be developed and tested. CC includes peer-to-peer service provision or resource exchange, for a fee or some compensation, coordinated by a third party or mediator. One well-known example in this domain, Airbnb, connects consumers looking for lodging with individuals who have accommodations available. As much of this research is exploratory in nature, we follow convention in utilizing a mixed-methods approach, first utilizing qualitative research including open-ended qualitative CIT surveys and semi-structured depth interviews, followed by quantitative survey analysis. Results of this dissertation suggest that there are both social and functional drivers of behavioral intentions relative to CC exchanges. As this new or (re)institutionalized economic model challenges our current understanding of service provision, its continual expansion has significant implications for the future of service delivery.
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    A scale of consumer engagement
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2009) Vivek, Shiri Dalela; Beatty, Sharon E.; Morgan, Robert M.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    The practitioner literature is replete with examples of firm efforts to engage consumers. However, the existing relationship marketing constructs focus primarily on customer retention. This research examines those offerings or activities of firms that aim to engage prospects, potentials, customers and their extended relationships, together addressed as consumers in this research. Contributing to the recent efforts to expand the domain of relationship marketing, this research develops the construct of Consumer Engagement, which is the intensity of the consumer's participation and connection with the organization's offerings and/ or its organized activities. Using several qualitative methods, this research develops the construct of Consumer Engagement, differentiating it from existing constructs, such as involvement and customer communities. The qualitative studies in this research show that consumers may be engaged with offerings (e.g. iPod), activities (e.g. Beauty workshops), institutions (Ikea), or brands (e.g. Apple). These offerings/ activities might come from profit-making or non-profit organizations. Engagement might be in the presence or absence of other consumers, and might happen online or offline. Consumers may also be engaged through activities organized by the businesses or by consumers themselves. Using established quantitative scale development procedures, the consumer engagement scale is developed, refined and validated. Consumer Engagement is a three-dimensional, second-order construct, composed of enthusiasm, conscious participation and social interaction. These dimensions are verified using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and validated on three different data sets, representing product usage, retail service and activity. The exploration of consumer engagement helps us understand the participation and connection of consumers, independent of their commercial transactions with the company. This research shows that even routine products and brands can engage a consumer, which, in turn, positively influences their connection with the firm, and feelings of goodwill towards and intent to do business with the firm.
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    Social capital influences on sales team processes: a generational perspective
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2016) Ogilvie, Jessica Lynn; Rapp, Adam A.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    This dissertation explores the impact of organizational faultlines and their influence on sales team resources, activities, processes, and performance. A review of extant team literature builds a foundation for understanding the role of sales teams within organizations and the implications of team processes on performance outcomes. Characteristics of the generation currently entering the workforce – Millennials – and the diversity implications of this cohort’s presence in the workplace are explored. Applying a social capital perspective, this research advances an input-process-outcome (IPO) model of sales team performance which investigates the implications of (1) faultlines within teams and (2) the effects of generational differences across teams. Specifically, three dimensions of social capital (structural, relational and cognitive) serve as to three facets of team processes (transition, action, and interpersonal). The results indicate that positive relationships exist between each of the input and process components, as well as between the three dimensions of team process and relational and objective measures of sales performance. Finally, faultline strength and generation differences moderate the relationships of the IPO model. These findings suggest that sales team performance is a function not only to the management of the team and its individual components, but to the hypothetical self-identifying groups that form therein, therefore requiring additional attention from the organization and its stakeholders. This work extends application of a social capital theoretical lens to the sales team context, and sets the stage for future work as millennials assume organizational control, and seek to build better relationships with both inter-organizational partners and external buying centers.