Jeffrey Blodgett

• PhD, Indiana University
• Professor at University of Houston - Victoria

Purpose This study aims to examine the effects of character body size, subject body size and product type on female adolescents’ attitudes toward the character. Given prior research showing that adolescents identify more strongly with those whom they view as similar to themselves, it is possible that heavy and obese adolescents will react more favo...

This study examined the dual forces of national culture and rising consumerism on consumers' propensity to express their service sentiments and how intensely they do so. We text-mined online customer restaurant reviews from China, a transformative nation with rising consumerism (brought on by improved socioeconomic conditions), and compared these w...

Using the framework of the elaboration likelihood model, this study investigated the role of health-consciousness as a motivator for adolescents, 12–17 years of age, to assess a healthy food advertisement. Alternatively, the study investigated whether lower health-conscious youth would use the appearance of characters in advertising as a peripheral...

Childhood obesity is a health epidemic. While we know that food advertising is impacting dietary perceptions of youth, we do not know all of the contributing factors. Health claims are used as heuristic cues, often misleading consumers to perceive foods as healthier than they otherwise would believe. This study investigates how the body weight of c...

Purpose Previous research indicates that dissatisfied consumers in other countries react differently as compared to those in the USA, due to their cultural orientation. These studies, however, have not recognized that retail policies (regarding returns and exchanges) in the USA are much more liberal and “consumer friendly” than in other parts of th...

Over the last several years corporate sponsorships have become prevalent within the U.S. K–12 school system. For corporations, sponsorships can be an effective method for targeting young consumers. For schools, corporate sponsorships are an opportunity to replace state funding that has been lost since the 2007 financial crisis. However, many people...

In today’s “connected” social media environment, marketers recognized more than ever the power of online consumers’ reviews. It is a valuable resource for continual product improvement and for managing the reputation of a firm. While positive reviews may contribute to brand equity and a company’s reputation, the key question is whether organization...

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to review the contribution of the paper, “The Importance of Servicescapes in Leisure Service Settings” to the discipline and to offer directions for further research and developments in the research area. Design/methodology/approach Key findings from research streams in sports and entertainment, leisure and hosp...

The purpose of this study was to determine whether it is beneficial for service providers, such as hotels and restaurants, to respond to online negative reviews, and (a) whether company reputation is moderated by the number of negative versus positive reviews and (b) whether the underlying issue is attributed to controllable versus uncontrollable f...

The concept of culture is very important for all fields of social and behavioral science. As firms expand globally, a greater understanding of the effects of culture becomes increasingly important. Countries throughout the world have different cultural standards and values. For example, what is acceptable in one culture may not be considered legal...

This paper examines the importance of brands and consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence in a high versus a low context culture. Low-context cultures place a high value on precise communication and the specific denotative meaning of the words that are used (Hall 1976). High-context cultures, in contrast, focus on the contextual or connot...

The purpose of this research is to assess the extent to which cross-national differences in customer complaint behavior are due to cultural vs. situational factors. Previous research indicates that in collectivist and high-uncertainty avoidance cultures, dissatisfied customers are unlikely to complain to the seller, and instead are more likely to s...

The purpose of this study was to determine whether voters' attitudes toward political ads are moderated by their level of political involvement. Two studies were conducted, both during national and state elections. The results were consistent. Low-involvement voters view political ads in general, and negative "attack" ads in particular, more favora...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine whether online bidders adjust their offers downward to compensate for shipping fees; whether shipping fees affect the number of bids in an auction, and thus indirectly influence winning bid prices; and whether experienced bidders more fully compensate for shipping fees, as compared to less experie...

Given large numbers of buyers and sellers, with access to a wide variety of information, economic theory suggests that online auction markets should provide an efficient mechanism for establishing equilibrium prices. Previous research on online auction prices, however, is far from conclusive, having produced mixed findings. The seemingly inconsist...

Children increasingly utilize the Internet as a primary medium, a source of consumer information, and an important source of entertainment. This article investigates the influence of Web site design on children's information processing performance. A model is advanced that integrates theories from a variety of disciplines, including developmental p...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the reliability and validity of Hofstede's cultural framework when applied at the individual consumer level. Design/methodology/approach MBA students and faculty in the behavioral sciences were asked to review Hofstede's cultural instrument and to indicate which dimension (power distance, individuali...

Research indicates that adult's gender-role perceptions can influence their responses toward different types of advertising appeals; however, it is not known whether the same is true for young children. Given that children's gender-role stereotypes vary across both age and gender, it is possible that their responses toward different types of advert...

This study examines two advertising strategies— documentation and visualization—on several measures of ad effectiveness across two different types of service offerings (utilitarian and hedonic). For both service types, a visualization strategy was found to have a positive effect on informativeness, perceived quality, and likelihood of use (but had...

We introduce a new architectural approach to artificial neural network (ANN) choice modeling. The standard ANN design with a polychotomous situation requires an output variable for each alternative. We reconfigure our feedforward network to contain only one output node for a six-level choice problem and network performance improves considerably. We...

Corporate recognition of the interdependence between ecological considerations and the need for sustained economic growth has enforced the need for a paradigm in which environmental considerations are included as a prerequisite for sustained operations. One of the underlying factors driving this philosophy appears to be corporate recognition of the...

Although artificial neural networks (ANNs) are an established marketing support tool, they are criticised for their inability to explain their results. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate a visual approach to ANN variable interpretation. Scanner data are used to build a well-known choice model, first as a multinomial logit and secondly as a...

This study applied Hofstede’s typology to examine the effect of culture on ethical sensitivity toward various stakeholders. It was found that uncertainty avoidance had a positive effect and that power distance and individualism/masculinity had negative effects on ethical sensitivity. The results also indicated that ethical sensitivity to stakeholde...

The purpose of this article is to present a Bayesian network model of the consumer complaint process. The outputs of the Bayesian model—conditional probabilities—provide much insight into the determinants and subsequent behavioral outcomes (e.g., full repatronage, limited repatronage, and exit; negative word-of-mouth behavior [WOM], no WOM, and pos...

As more and more firms operate globally, an understanding of the effects of cultural differences on ethical decision making becomes increasingly important for avoiding potential business pitfalls and for designing effective international marketing management programs. Although several articles have addressed this area in general, differences along...

This research investigates the question: Does the physical environment of service delivery settings influence customers' evaluations of the service experience and subsequent behavioral intentions? Theoretical and empirical data from environmental psychology suggests that customer reactions to the tangible physical environment may be more emotional...

This investigation explores the effects of ad credibility and ad format (direct comparative vs. noncomparative) on consumers' beliefs, attitudes, and purchase intentions for over-the-counter (OTC) medications. It is hypothesized that ad credibility moderates the effects of ad format. To test the hypotheses three different experiments were conducted...

This study examines the effects of distributive, interactional, and procedural justice on complainants' repatronage and negative word-of-mouth intentions. In order to test the hypotheses an experiment was conducted; twelve different scenarios were created, each describing a situation in which a customer was returning a product to a retail store. In...

SERVQUAL, an instrument developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, is currently the most popular measure of service quality. Compares these original studies with subsequent research employing the SERVQUAL instrument. Analyzes its psychometric properties to gain some basic insights into the overall utility of this measure, and offers directions f...

According to a recent study, one of the ten most stressful occupations in the USA is that of a financial services salesperson. Severe job stress has been linked to decreased satisfaction, commitment and productivity, and increased absenteeism, burnout and turnover. Aims to test a model of job stress in the financial services profession, focussing o...

The physical environment of the stadium may have a significant effect on the extent to which spectators will desire to stay and return to the stadium. Specific aspects of the stadium experience may lead directly to spectators' pleasure with the place, while other factors may contribute to negative feelings that may decrease pleasure. This study pro...

Presents a dynamic model of the consumer complaining behavior process. Is unique in that it distinguishes between negative word-of-mouth that occurs prior to seeking redress (or in lieu of seeking redress) and negative word-of-mouth that occurs after seeking redress. Another unique aspect of this study is that it specifically recognizes positive wo...

Services marketing research has largely focussed on measuring service quality and satisfaction associated with the primary service itself, with little attention given to the effect of the physical surroundings of the service setting. Leisure services in particular, may be concerned with how consumers perceive the quality of the “servicescape” and w...

Previous research has found that dissatisfied consumers choose to seek redress, engage in negative word-of-mouth behavior, and exit (i.e., vow never to repatronize the retailer) based upon the perceived likelihood of successful redress, their attitude toward complaining, the level of importance they attach to the defective product, and whether they...

EXTENDED ABSTRACT There has been a great deal of controversy surrounding the use of sex role stereotypes in advertising directed to children. Critics claim that marketers encourage sex role stereotyping by creating gender specific products, such as Mattel's Barbie and Hasbro's G.I. Joe. Toy makers, on the other hand, claim that their products refle...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Indiana University, 1992.