Skip to main content
eScholarship
Open Access Publications from the University of California

Scholarly Works (4 results)

  • Thesis
  • Peer Reviewed
UC Irvine Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2015)

This research consists of three essays which develop dynamic network models to examine the process of market creation. All three essays use Twitter data from gourmet food trucks operating in Southern California to explore how firms balance cooperation and competition. The first essay explores the role of status and proposes that market creation can be understood as the formation of a social hierarchy. The second essay examines the role of social contagion in influencing how mobile firms make location decisions. The third essay seeks to determine how cooperation emerges and is sustained within a group of competing firms despite rewards for selfish behavior. Taken together, these studies suggest that social processes drawn from research in sociology, anthropology, and evolutionary biology help firms to balance cooperation and competition during market creation. Further, this research provides a general framework for the exploration of dynamic networks in marketing.

    Cover page: Dynamic Network Models for the Analysis of Cooperation and Competition in New Markets
    • Article
    • Peer Reviewed
    Papers (2010)
    Ad campaigns target consumers with information about the company, its products, and sometimes its employees. Ads also reach the organization’s employees and may contain information useful to employees in meeting customer needs. Results from a study involving a high-tech firm indicate that when employees believe ads are effective and value congruent, their customer focus increases. Pride completely mediates the effects of value congruence and effectiveness on customer focus. Organizational identification of employees generally results in a more favorable reaction to ads. A second study involving a regional health facility replicates and extends these findings to include employee portrayal accuracy when employees are featured in ads. Employee portrayal accuracy affects promise accuracy, effectiveness and value-congruence. In addition, employee portrayal accuracy has a direct effect on customer focus.
      Cover page: Employees as internal audience: how advertising affects employees’ customer focus
      • Article
      • Peer Reviewed
      UC Irvine Previously Published Works (2016)
      We examine the cultural dimensions of participation in a debt management program (DMP). Archival data from Consumer Credit Counseling Service provide insights into the behavior of consumers in a DMP. Latino clients differ from Anglo clients, and are ultimately less successful in resolving debt problems. A key difference appears to be the expected monthly payment established for clients. While only debt level determines Latinos' expected payment, Anglos appear to better negotiate an expected payment from creditors, increasing their success. Importantly, homophily increases compliance for Latino debtor-counselor dyads. Overall, this study contributes to the transformative service research (TSR) literature by suggesting ways culture influences adherence to and completion of a DMP, leading to financial freedom for consumers in distress.
        Cover page: Managing consumer debt: Culture, compliance, and completionCreative Commons 'BY' version 4.0 license
        • Article
        • Peer Reviewed
        UC Irvine Previously Published Works (2004)
        This research provides and empirically tests a conceptualization of health care services in which customer compliance outside of the service organization is necessary for successful health outcomes. Using data from service providers and customers in a weight-loss clinic, the authors examine the provider's role in gaining customer compliance. They find that provider expertise and attitudinal homophily play a role in bringing about customer role clarity, ability, and motivation. This study demonstrates that compliance leads to goal attainment, which results in satisfaction. More important, compliance also leads to satisfaction directly; consumers who comply with program requirements have greater satisfaction with the program.
          Cover page: Gaining Compliance and Losing Weight: The Role of the Service Provider in Health Care ServicesCreative Commons 'BY' version 4.0 license
          Top