Christina Chung

Driving Consumers to Become Fans of Brand Pages: A Theoretical Framework

The purpose of this study is to examine factors that affect consumers’ intentions to join brand pages. The findings suggest that utilitarian and hedonic values of advertising on social networks enhance users’ positive attitudes toward brand pages. Belongingness has a positive effect on subjective norm. Both the attitudes toward brand pages and subjective norm variables are significant predictors of consumers’ intentions to join brand pages. However, subjective norm affects intentions to join brand pages more than attitudes toward brand pages do. The conceptual framework underlying the theoretical model provides a useful basis for explaining consumers’ intentions to become fans of brand pages.

‘We’ or ‘Me’ consumer goods: a cross-national look at self-construal and gender in product choice

This study looks at how a dimension of culture, self-construal, which is an individuals self in relation to others, can help explain why certain types of products are enthusiastically chosen by consumers in some cultures but not in others. Results find that self-construal in individualist and collectivist cultures helps explain the types of products chosen by consumers. Data were collected in Australia, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States. Nationality, the independent/interdependent traits of consumers, and gender have an impact. Independent traits are important for product choice in individualist cultures but not in collectivist cultures, whereas interdependent traits can be an important factor in both types of culture.

A Cross-National Study of the Influence of Individualism and Collectivism on Liking Brand Pages

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study is to examine cultural differences between young American (individualist) and Korean (collectivist) consumers’ intentions to become brand page fans. The theory of planned behavior serves as the theoretical underpinning to investigate the relationships between consumers’ attitudes, perceived behavioral control, social influence, intentions to join, and intentions to purchase. The findings reveal that intracultural effects influence young consumers’ intentions to join brand pages in both countries. The interdependent self has a stronger impact on attitudes, social influence, and perceived behavioral control than the independent self. The findings provide marketers with ideas for implementing social media marketing communications programs in the global marketplace.

Student Reactions to Classroom Management Technology: Learning Styles and Attitudes Toward Moodle

The authors look at student perceptions regarding the adoption and usage of Moodle. Self-efficacy theory and the Technology Acceptance Model were applied to understand student reactions to instructor implementation of classroom management software Moodle. They also looked at how the learning styles of students impacted their reactions to Moodle. Results show that students most valued the control Moodle gave them over their educational progress. Communication was also found to be an important benefit students sought in Moodle. Individual student reaction to Moodle was influenced by visual learning and degree of laziness.

Online Consumer Perceptions of Retailer Familiarity and Price Discrimination

Online shopping has become popular and consumers commonly encounter an unfamiliar online retailer who practices an array of price discrimination strategies. Previous research suggests that price strategies are important for product and service differentiation for online businesses. By integrating two theories, the theory of Planned Behavior and the Technology Acceptance Model, this study investigates how consumers’ pre-perceptions toward online and online transactions affect consumers’ online retailer trust, price fairness perceptions, and purchase intentions. The proposed model comprises seven construct: Internet usage for shopping (IS), Perceived Web Risk (PWR), Structural Assurance of the Web (SAW), Online Transaction Trust (OTT), Online Retailer Trust (ORT), Price Fairness (PF), and Purchase Intention (PI). This study views online pre-perceptions including IS, PWR, SAW, and OTT as exogenous constructs of ORT. ORT influences PF and PIN. PF influences PIN. Online retailer familiarity and Price discrimination are operationalized as experimental variables.

Transitions in Classroom Technology: Instructor Implementation of Classroom Management Software

The authors look at how business instructor needs are fulfilled by classroom management software (CMS), such as Moodle, and why instructors are sometimes slow to implement it. Instructors at different universities provided both qualitative and quantitative responses regarding their use of CMS. The results indicate that the top needs fulfilled by CMS are distribution of materials and communication with students. They also suggest that ease of use and usefulness of CMS are related to attitudes toward it, but that confusion in its use is not. Lastly, lack of clarity and time were the primary concerns of those who had not yet adopted CMS. Implications are discussed.

New Technology for Education: Moodle

Moodle stands for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment. Moodle is an open source learning management system (LMS), meaning it is free to anybody under the terms of the General Public License (Brandi, 2005). Many institutions have moved to the Moodle system and usage has grown since its introduction in 2003. Familiarity with Blackboard and WebCT helps with the transition, but Moodle possesses some unique characteristics that make it both better as well as more frustrating than alternative course management systems. Moodle provides a platform to facilitate interaction and create a dynamic learning environment for face-to-face classroom and blended course formats, as well as online courses. However, it can be time-consuming for instructors to learn how to utilize its various features.

Thoughts on “‘We’ or ‘Me’ consumer goods” five years later

Abstract Culture and self-construal impact on how consumers purchase and use products as well as the strategies marketers use to promote and position their products. Consumer behavior in individualist societies can be quite different from that of collectivist societies. Similarly, consumers with an independent self-construal can react quite differently in various contexts from those who have an interdependent self-construal. This paper reviews the consequences of these findings for various contexts in marketing as found in subsequent literature. The topics include purchase of luxury goods through the work of Kastanakis and Balabanis. Secondly, it examines impulse purchases. It also follows the consequences of culture and self-construal on brand strategy. Lastly, this paper takes a look at implications within the context of choice tasks.

Scarcity Appeals in Advertising: Comparison of Product Uniqueness and Popularity Signals—An Abstract

This study examines young American consumers’ perceptions towards product uniqueness and product popularity signal in ads. Two theories, commodity theory and need for uniqueness theory, are used. Keller (2001) posits that consumers’ brand perceptions are driven by their unique needs. Aggarwal and McGill (2012) noticed that scarcity messages will interact significantly with the brand concept as there will be stronger effect on purchase intentions due to symbolism than functionality. In addition, Micu and Chowdhury (2010a, b) agreed that symbolic appeals of product will fulfill consumers’ experiential needs. On the other hand, when there is an excess demand, it means that the product is popular, and the perception of uniqueness and scarcity as a status symbol will decrease.

The Effects of Individualism and Collectivism on Brand Page Fans: A Study of Young US and Chinese Consumers—An Abstract

Social networking sites (SNS) have become the primary source of information. American marketers set up brand pages on SNS to interact and communicate with their customers. However, SNS studies focused mainly on Western consumers’ behaviors, and very little research focuses on Chinese consumers’ brand page perceptions. By examining young American and Chinese consumers to join brand pages on SNS, this study may provide a better understanding of brand page effects on brand-consumer relationships in a cross-cultural context.