Kevin J. Shanahan

An exploratory study of desired hotel attributes for American tourists vacationing in China and Ireland

The attributes of domestic and international hotels important to American tourists are identified and compared. American tourists typically expect clean rooms at a good price; however, they would offset these expectations for increased security when traveling overseas. In addition, they hold hotels in developing countries to a lower standard than hotels in developed countries. Thus, American tourists may be more satisfied with an international hotel than with a domestic hotel offering equivalent service.

Overcoming Apathy and Classroom Disconnect in Marketing Courses: Employing Karaoke Jeopardy as a Content Retention Tool

Instructors cope with lack of content retention due to apathy and disinterest displayed by students toward their courses. Short attention spans coupled with a lack of active involvement on the part of students can lead to poor performance on exams. We introduce an in-class exam review game that couples karaoke with the popular trivia game show Jeopardy. Results suggest that the implementation of Karaoke Jeopardy as a review tool for exams improves student retention of course content leading to improved student performance.

Violent Commercials in Television Programs for Children

Abstract A study of Saturday morning television suggests children are exposed to more violent acts per minute by commercials promoting upcoming programs than by programming or other commercials. Under the current rating system, parents wanting to shield children from televised violence cannot make informed choices when some commercials, but not programs, are excessively violent. Furthermore, because violent stimuli produce immediate cognitive deficits, children may poorly process advertisements following an excessively violent commercial. That is, child viewers are being retained at the expense of overall advertising efficacy. A proposal that could satisfy all stakeholders—parents, policy makers, advertisers, and broadcasters—is offered.

The Marketing WebQuest: An Internet Based Experiential Learning Tool

The Marketing WebQuest is an innovative teaching tool, which clearly demonstrates the impact of technology on experiential learning techniques. More specifically, the WebQuest provides a unique opportunity to blend the pedagogical advantages of experiential learning, with the practical benefits of Internet-based information and problem solving skills. The paper presents detailed guidelines for developing and managing Marketing WebQuest projects for all levels of marketing curriculum. In addition, a summary of student reactions to the use of this tool in introductory marketing classes provides perspective on the role served by such a tool in current marketing education.

Student Identification of Academic Cheating Typology and the Link to Shoplifting Motivation

Employing and testing shoplifting-based constructs, we develop and validate a new multifaceted cheating behavior scale that allows educators to segment cheating behavior into what students perceive as trivial versus serious cheating. Results confirm that shoplifting-based scales perform well as predictors of cheating and also suggest that from their perspective, students do perceive two different types of cheating behavior: one serious and the other minor. For serious infractions (e.g., copying anothers work) only economic factors play a part in the students decision to engage in cheating behavior. However, for minor infractions (e.g., turning the same paper in for more than one class) economic factors, unattainable grades, and low perceived risk all play a role in the decision to cheat. Interestingly, contrary to anecdotal evidence, peer influence does not influence cheating.

Depictions of self-inflicted versus blameless victims for nonprofits employing print advertisements

Extant literature over the last couple of years has examined factors affecting donor proclivity to contribute to nonprofits. These studies focused on factors such as negative emotional response to the ad and perceived social responsibility of the sponsor on intent to donate to the sponsor, the use of implicature, and truth in advertising. Our research adds to this growing body of literature by investigating the effect of self-inflicted harm versus blameless victimization in nonprofit advertising (locus of control of the harm to the victim). We find that blameless victim portrayal results in higher negative emotional response to the public service announcement (PSA), perceived social responsibility of the sponsor, and willingness to donate to the sponsor of a PSA. Specifically, the use of blameless victims seems to have the added benefit of generating more positive perceptions of the sponsor, which, in turn, also leads to higher intentions to donate.

The Unintended Consequences of Using “Posers” in Nonprofit Public Service Announcements and Proposed Self-Regulatory Disclosure Solutions

Although public service announcements (PSAs) employing undisclosed actor portrayals (posers) in the message are in technical violation of Federal Trade Commission regulations on deception, sponsors of such PSA formats are unlikely to be pursued for such violations. However, when nonprofits use actors in lieu of real victims in their PSA messages, real financial and reputational loss to the nonprofit may occur. In this study, the authors develop and test a model of the antecedents to perceived social responsibility of and peoples subsequent intent to donate to nonprofits that employ PSAs. They also investigate the efficacy of using actor portrayal labels when composites of real victims rather than actual victims are portrayed in the PSAs. The results confirm that viewers experience a stronger emotional connection when the PSA uses real victims, along with greater perceptions of the nonprofits social responsibility and greater subsequent intent to donate to the nonprofit. The authors propose that self-regulation may help mitigate negative reactions to PSA messages that employ actors rather than real victims in the PSAs.

The Influence of Interactivity on Visit and Purchase Frequency: The Moderating Role of Website Informational Features

As Internet use continues to grow and as firms become more sophisticated in their use of the web, the ability to make the online customer experience unique has become increasingly more difficult. One possible solution may lay in the firms ability to manipulate interactive elements of its website. The authors propose and test a model depicting the influence of different dimensions of website interactivity (communication, control, and responsiveness) on customer behaviors including frequency of visit and frequency of purchase from a firms website. They further assess the moderating influence that informational website features, including product specifications, promotions, brand comparisons, and expert ratings have on these relationships. Results show website communication and control significantly influence outcome behaviors. The authors then outline and discuss practical implications drawn from their findings.

A Structured Abstract: Combining Co-creation and CSR (An Investigation into Innovative Service Business Models)

Today’s competitive marketplace increasingly pressures organizations to provide benefits beyond those desired by end consumers, to enhance some facet of the surrounding community (Lacey et al. 2015). In response, many companies express broadening their value delivery aim from the shareholder to a more inclusive arena including multiple stakeholders and social causes. This focus shift is reflected in a variety of corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts in practice—from discrete charitable donations to the development of entirely new service innovations—with the overarching goal of “doing well by doing good” (Rangan et al. 2015). Corporate social responsibility, broadly, refers to organizational activities that benefit society (Brown and Dacin 1997; McWilliams and Siegel 2001) to enhance brand image in the eyes of consumers while stimulating market performance (Bruch and Walter 2005; Luo and Bhattacharya 2009). Specifically, one emerging trend in CSR practices involves incorporating a minority community in need directly into their service offering. In fact, businesses are creating opportunities for minority groups to be frontline employees that provide services to the majority population. These organizations operate with the dual goals of bridging the gap between majority-minority populations while providing tools for subsistence—not targeted aid—for the need community, achieving both through profitable service operations.

Structured Abstract: Using Sharp Numbers to Make a Point—The Affective Impact of Numerical Appeals in STD Prevention Among Young Adults

Skepticism, denial, and social stigma are just a few of the challenges faced by scholars and practitioners alike as they employ health messaging techniques to communicate the danger of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). With 20 million new cases diagnosed each year and incurring approximately