Marketing electronic theses and dissertations (MU)
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The items in this collection are the theses and dissertations written by students of the Department of Marketing. Some items may be viewed only by members of the University of Missouri System and/or University of Missouri-Columbia. Click on one of the browse buttons above for a complete listing of the works.
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Item Who is the ideal worker? How gendered organizations adversely impact women's promotability and development(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2020) Steele, Clarissa R.; Turban, Daniel B.Women tend to earn fewer promotions (Roth et al., 2012) and receive fewer developmental opportunities (King et al., 2012) than men, but little research explains why. I explore the stereotype of the ideal worker, someone who meets their supervisor's expectations and has the potential to be promoted to the top levels of their organization over their career, as one reason for this disparity. I propose that supervisors use this stereotype to assess employee promotability and developmental opportunities. I explore the attributes of the ideal worker stereotype using the theory of gendered organizations (Acker, 1990, 1992), which suggests that firms operate from a masculine perspective because men tend to create and lead organizations. I find that the attributes of the ideal worker are broader than suggested by the theory of gendered organizations and past research on the ideal worker, but that these attributes are not perceived as masculine. In addition, I find no differences between how men and women are rated in terms of promotability, recommended development, and the extent to which they exemplify the attributes of the ideal worker. However, the extent to which employees exemplify ideal worker attributes predicts promotability ratings and development recommended for them. Sexism, an individual difference among raters, moderates the relationship between employee gender and outcomes such that women receive lower ideal worker ratings and less recommended development when raters have high sexism beliefs. I also find that the implicit (unconscious) associations between ideal worker attributes and gender role stereotypes affects recommended development such that those with masculine implicit associations give more development to female employees. My dissertation presents future research opportunities to further investigate the ideal worker stereotype and its impact in the workplace.Item Catch-up innovation in emerging market multinationals(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2020) Chen, Li; Zou, Shaoming[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] In this dissertation, I study how emerging market multinationals innovate to catch up with incumbent global leaders. By extending entrepreneurial perspectives into the emerging market context, I provide a comprehensive framework to account for EMNEs' distinctive innovation practices. In essay one, I conceptualize what I refer to as catch-up innovation as a multi-dimensional construct consisting of scarcity induced decisionmaking coupled with innovative behavior. I develop a measurement model of catch-up innovation and empirically test the validity of the measurement model using a sample of Chinese multinational firms. The results support my theoretical conceptualization. In essay two, I focus on EMNEs' aggressive commercialization practices, a unique behavioral dimension of catch-up innovation. I propose a model to explain how aggressive commercialization is influenced by institutional support factors (i.e., government encouragement and knowledge from research institutions) and resource constraints (i.e., lack of innovation capability, lack of brand equity, and lack of time). I also consider how aggressive commercialization influences EMNEs' product output performance. Additionally, I explore two sets of moderating factors, task-related capabilities and environment-related capabilities, in order to study the relationship between aggressive commercialization and product output performance. Findings from a sample of Chinese multinational firms support a majority of my hypothesesItem The effects of customer participation on service outcomes : a fit perspective(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2010) Dong, Beibei, 1981-; Zou, Shaoming; Evans, Kenneth R.[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Previous research in customer participation argues that customer participation positively influences service quality and customer satisfaction. However, operations management takes a different view by suggesting that decreasing customer contact is desirable. In practice, customers also respond differently toward participation. The inconsistency and confusion in both research and practice motivate this dissertation is to investigate under what conditions customer participation is beneficial. This dissertation includes two empirical studies. Study I empirically verifies that too much participation could have negative effects on customers. Study II further investigates the boundary conditions of the participation - outcome relationships. Adopting a "fit" perspective, this dissertation contends that the effects of customer participation on service outcomes are contingent upon the fit between the co-production task and the customer along a number of dimensions. A fit-related theoretical framework is proposed, with the expectation that increasing customer participation is desirable when customers (1) perceive they have the ability and skills to complete the required tasks, (2) value the benefits provided by the co-production tasks, (3) positively identify with a production/service role, and (4) desire a greater amount of control of the service outcome. The results support the theoretical model. The important theoretical contributions and managerial implications of the dissertation are further discussed.Item Have you seen the new model? : visual design and product newness(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2007) Radford, Scott K., 1973-; Bloch, Peter H.(Peter Hastings)Firms must continually innovate to successfully meet both consumer needs and competitive pressures. Previous investigations of innovation have examined this construct solely from the firms' perspective and only minimal work has examined how consumers evaluate product newness. Consumers' adoption of an innovation is central to marketing and understanding the way that consumers react to new products will be the focus of this dissertation. Specifically, this work explores the changes in visual form that signal newness and the reactions engendered by the product. Three studies were undertaken to explore the construct and test several a prior hypotheses: a sorting task, an attribute elicitation, and a between-subjects experiment. The research revealed that consumers were capable of identifying product newness from visual form alone, however, they were not always certain of the reasons that they made these judgments. It was also clear that different levels of newness tended to elicit different responses, and generally, higher levels of newness received more positive evaluations by the consumers.Item A consumer perspective on mass customization(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2006) Hunt, David M., 1968-; Evans, Kenneth R.This dissertation investigates the influence of individual differences in need for optimization (NFO), centrality of visual product aesthetics (CVPA), and consumer need for uniqueness (CNFU) on perceived value of customized product alternatives. A conceptual model grounded in involvement theory, the functional theory of attitudes, and theories on the desirability of uniqueness is proposed and empirically tested using survey methodology. Generally, data support significant relationships between the three individual differences and the perceived value of mass customized products. Further, support is provided for the mediating role of involvement in the functional and symbolic benefits for a given product category. Results of the study extend consumer research on individual differences into a new domain of consumer behavior and hold implications for segmenting mass customization markets.