Harsha Gangadharbatla

Organizational Virtual Communities:Exploring Motivations Behind Online Panel Participation

One type of virtual community that has emerged prominently within the commercially-driven marketing research industry is the online panel. Online panels are opt-in, informed consent, privacy-protected subject pools recruited for Web-based research. Unlike virtual communities forged from interpersonal motivations, online panels represent a community of participants who have agreed to provide information at regular intervals over a period of time. This study presents and tests a theoretical framework governed by the functional theory of attitude that serves to explain motivations for online panel participation. Analysis of data from a survey administered to an online panel (N=1,822) indicates that a persons attitude toward joining an online panel will vary by his or her source of motivation, and that an online panel is capable of evoking a sense of community despite the lack of social interaction among members.

Soft drink advertising and consumption in the United States 1984–2007

In recent years, the carbonated soft drink (CSD) industry has come in for a lot of criticism from consumer advocacy and special interest groups for producing and marketing a product that is considered one of the causes of obesity. Critics point to advertising as one of the major contributing factors for increased CSD consumption, particularly among children and teens. Surprisingly, there has been no empirical research done in this area to answer this controversial question. The current study is a first of its kind to use an ordinary least squares regression procedure to investigate the link between annual advertising expenditures and consumption for carbonated soft drinks sold in the United States from 1984 to 2007.

Psychophysiological Responses to Background Brand Placements in Video Games

Researchers have typically employed cognitive and affective measures to study the effectiveness of brand placements in video games. A psychophysiological approach to measuring effectiveness has been sorely lacking and is necessary to help both academics and practitioners further their understanding of how brand placements work. The current study measures individuals’ orienting responses in terms of increased skin conductance and decreased heart rate upon exposure to brands in video games. Results indicate that game players register background advertisements subconsciously even though they may not be able to explicitly recall them later. There were no differences between gamers and nongamers in the recall and recognition of brands from the video game. Furthermore, brands with preexisting favorable attitudes automatically received further processing, suggesting orienting response is an indicator of initial perception rather than further elaboration.

What’s changed? Does beer advertising affect consumption in the United States?

This paper provides an analysis of the relationship between annual advertising expenditures and consumption, using a generalised least-squares regression procedure, for beer sold in the United States from 1970 to 2003. Information from these three decades provides the most comprehensive analysis that has been published to date of the relationships of various variables with aggregate beer consumption. The major finding in this study is that advertising has had little impact on aggregate consumption levels for beer in the United States from 1970 to 2003. These findings support the general agreement among researchers that aggregate beer advertising expenditures in the United States have little or no effect on aggregate consumption. This is the first study to confirm this relationship over such an extended period of time, namely 33 years.

Novelty Effects in Augmented Reality Advertising Environments: The Influence of Exposure Time and Self-Efficacy

ABSTRACT While the popularity of augmented reality advertising (ARA) continues to grow, little is known about how users engage with the technology. To better understand ARAs uses and limitations, this study assessed the relationships between ARA exposure time, novelty effects, technological self-efficacy, and brand-based outcomes. The stimulus used in the current study was an ARA application designed by BMW. Using a quasi-experimental design, this studys findings indicated that exposure time was negatively related to participant attitude toward the ARA application. Furthermore, the data indicated that those with high levels of technological self-efficacy transferred these negative evaluations to the brand.

A Comparison of In-Game Brand Placement for Active Versus Passive Players

ABSTRACT Watching other people play video games is becoming a popular online activity. The current study compares the effectiveness of in-game advertising between two groups of people—active gamers and passive watchers. Hypotheses are proposed using the limited capacity model as a theoretical framework and tested using an experimental method. Results suggest that individuals watching someone else play a video game recall at least four times as many brands as actual players of the video game. However, there are no significant differences in attitudes and purchase intentions due to exposure while playing or watching. Implications are drawn and future directions for research are suggested.

Emerging Research and Trends in Gamification

Game design has shifted from the development of games for entertainment to the creation of games with a more meaningful purpose. Game principles and theories can be applied to interactive programs in a variety of fields and professions. Researchers continue to examine the many ways games can be applied to real-world settings. Emerging Research and Trends in Gamification brings together innovative and scholarly research on the use of game-based design and technology in a variety of settings. Including discussions from both industry and academic perspectives, this publication explores the growing research in this interesting and dynamic field, serving as an essential reference source for academicians, professionals, researchers, and upper level students interested in the applications of game-thinking and gaming dynamics across various disciplines including marketing, journalism, education, and human resources. This publication presents timely, research-based chapters on the development of games and the real-world applications of game-thinking and game dynamics, as well as additional topics including, but not limited to, digital development, game design, human resource processes, market research, online journalism, social change, and video game learning.

Propagation of user-generated content online

In this paper, using a large amount of data collected from social media, we test theories of information propagation that are popular and have been applied extensively as theoretical frameworks in advertising and marketing literature. More specifically, we crawled Twitter in two waves for over 30 days to capture information from a sample of 300,000 users to test two-step flow and diffusion of information theories. Findings support the two-step flow theory and suggest that a minority of users account for a majority of influence, opinion leaders follow other opinion leaders to form a community of influencers, and information dissemination on Twitter follows a power-law distribution. These results are contrary to the popular notion that social media are democratic and, without a gatekeeper, everyone with a smartphone can broadcast messages. Managerial implications for advertising professionals are drawn.