Nancy Spears

University of North Texas | UNT

Visual imagery is one of the most important methods of communicating with consumers, but scholars have generally neglected the role of different forms of visual imagery (representational and abstract). Further, the motivation to engage with and process representational versus abstract imagery has also remained underexamined despite the important ro...

Sound symbolism – the ability of certain phonemes to evoke automatic, implicit associations or meanings – has been documented for a variety of consonants and vowels. However, to date, the literature has not documented shopping-related moderators of sound symbolism, and the role of sound symbolism in online retailing remains understudied. Thus, the...

Purpose New product development (NPD) is increasingly being delegated to consumers, yet little research has investigated consumer-centric factors that may influence this delegation. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to uniquely combine regulatory focus and analogical reasoning to investigate new product ideation and downstream consumer-brand respo...

This investigation seeks to demonstrate that matches between the observable size of a retail store and the size-sound symbolism in the store's name can lead to higher consumer willingness-to-pay (WTP), moderated by store size. Namely, utilizing back vowels and voiced consonants, which are linked to larger sizes (versus front vowels and voiceless co...

Texting and driving is a growing societal concern, yet few studies have examined motivational determinants and elaborative processing driving this behavior. Thus, we combine regulatory focus theory and two elaborative approaches to information processing (imagining versus considering) to examine the issue of texting and driving. The findings demons...

This study investigates the use of mass media, specifically advertising, in cultural transformation projects to weaken cultures and replace them with a crafted pseudo-culture. We rely on Adorno’s theory of pseudo-culture to examine how political ideologies shape cultural transformation using mass-mediated ad images. Following a content analysis and...

Purpose This study aims to investigate how comparing physical aspects of the self to fashion models in mass-mediated images result in body dissatisfaction and what mechanisms could be used to interrupt the potentially harmful emotional and motivational outcomes of such evaluations. Design/methodology/approach Two experimental design studies are...

The present research applies anchoring theory to investigate the influence of retail environments on consumer responses to vanity sized garments. The findings reveal that responses to vanity sized garments in classic retail environments and department stores are diminished, because these retailer environments foster greater anticipation of accurate...

The human imagination has long fascinated scholars and practitioners. Some researchers argue that imagination enables consumers to construct stories in which they are the main characters in a future consumption situation. Schau (2000 p. 50) defined imagination as the “site of knowledge creation” and suggested that the imagination has two key functi...

Some advertising studies have used various conceptualizations of relevance, but no study has yet comprehensively investigated and applied a theoretical aspect of relevance to visuals in advertising. This research addresses a need for the ability to measure relevance when it occurs through pairing of visuals and products in advertising.

The research applies consistency theory to investigate how planning orientation, planner, or reactor combines with situational purchase mindsets. The results of three studies reveal that (i) consistency between planning orientation and situational mindset fosters more action responses in terms of number of stores one intends to visit or actually vi...

With the growth of various forms of non-touch media (e.g., catalog and Internet shopping), individual differences in need for haptic information and the consequences of an inability to touch the products are important to conceptualize and measure. Need for touch (NFT) is the preference for extracting and utilizing information through the haptic sys...

The research proposes that the consumer imagination combines information about a current sensory stimulus (product) with triggered episodic memories to use as inputs in making product evaluations. Two studies reveal that the consumer imagination can be suppressed when preferred haptic sensory information is missing and when a situation is unambiguo...

The study conducts a historical investigation of the linkages among the focused social learning of a few (such as ideas of feminists groups), the amplification of those ideas throughout the masses, and observable female images in ads. The Hegelian sublation or Aufgehoben dialectical framework is applied to deepen understanding of how ad strategies...

The research applies precepts from frustration theory to investigate frustration when a goal is blocked in a consumer context. Predictions are derived, and two studies are designed to investigate the goal-directed sequence following a blocked goal and the role of individual differences in frustration tolerance in a retail checkout encounter. The fi...

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the theme of time is used to advertise product benefits by providing a framework that integrates literal expression and relational/nominative, dead/alive metaphors. The model proposes that the linguistic field is composed of metaphoric and literal words that express wider or narrower ranges of inferen...

The purpose of the study is to enhance our understanding of sources of visual–product fit by investigating imagination as a process mechanism in a print ad context. Three studies are presented. In the first study, a scale is developed to measure perceptions of fit. The second study applies the perceptions of fit measure to investigate sources of fi...

Touch is an important source of information for consumers, and there is much to learn about its role in an online purchase decision context where the ability to touch products is not (at least currently) possible. The present investigation examines three nonhaptic situation-specific factors that moderate the relationship between haptic motivation a...

In an exploratory approach, the study examines the relationship between hero and celebrity by reviewing key dimensions of the celebrity/hero debate: shallowness, flawed celebrity/hero, and narrowness of appeal. The cumulative findings of two studies suggest that attitudes toward celebrities in ads are most strongly influenced by attitude toward adv...

Drawing from literatures on haptic modality and information processing, direct measures of information processing strategy are developed and applied to investigate whether touch search is a form of analytical processing. Applying two distinct approaches in the two studies, evidence of the processing style of those high in need for touch, compared w...

Despite the increasing attention to African immigrants in the United States, and the pivotal role that advertising messages play in the immigrant community, examination of African immigrants’ purchasing behavior and perceptions of advertising have been overlooked by marketing scholars. The purpose of this research is to investigate West African imm...

The study revisits the topic of Western time orientations. Drawing from a growing body of academic research that suggests varying orientations toward particular periods, the research explores our commonly accepted views about the singularity of each dimension of time orientation. Findings from a qualitative investigation suggest the presence of two...

The study investigates the oppositional prospect-based emotions of fear and hope in an advertisement context. The broaden-and-build theory of emotions provides a framework for establishing a theoretical link between fear and hope. The findings suggest that: (1) Fear narrows and hope broadens the thought–action repertoire; (2) age moderates the impa...

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of frustration in online search endeavors. The research applies precepts from frustration theory to investigate the nature of search goals for hedonic vs. utilitarian product and the moderating influence of encountered frustration during online searches on attitude toward keyword search advertisi...

The purpose of this paper is to investigate keyword search goals and the barriers to attainment of those momentary goals using precepts from frustration theory. To accomplish this objective, a critical incident survey was conducted. The findings indicate that: (1) there are two broad categories of keyword search goals, relevancy and time savings; (...

This paper utilises an interpretivist perspective to identify dominant motivations for tattoo consumption among young adults. Content analysis was deployed on two types of data: student essays and online blogs and websites depicting stories and discussions of casual tattoo adopters. Our results show that motivations manifest through the meanings of...

Drawing from the optimum stimulation level (OSL) framework, previous researchers have examined a variety of key brand topics, such as the relationships between individual exploratory tendencies, variety seeking and brand attitudes. In spite of these insights, little work to date has examined how the prevailing economic environment relates to indivi...

The research applies the theory of visceral influences to investigate the effects of visceral cues in a weight loss advertising context. Three visceral cues are addressed: proximity of reward, visual prime, and vividness of reward. Predictions are derived and three experiments are designed to examine the effects of visceral cues in weight loss adve...

The research applies the theory of visceral influences to investigate the effects of visceral cues in a weight loss advertising context. Three visceral cues are addressed: proximity of reward, visual prime, and vividness of reward. Predictions are derived and three experiments are designed to examine the effects of visceral cues in weight loss adve...

Promotional tools and services management strategies are often intertwined with changes in the timing of payments for and receipt of products. A series of studies investigates how the timing of payments and the receipt of products impacts purchase intentions and consumer dollar valuations—e.g., how much extra customers would pay to receive a produc...

Purpose The aim of this paper is to investigate bank choice/selection criteria in a range of cultural and country economic scenarios. More specifically, the purpose of this study is to understand international consumers' selection criteria of banks using the USA, Taiwan, and Ghana as illustrations. Design/methodology/approach Following a literatur...

Using print advertisements from 1900 to 2000, we investigate changing and evolving executions with animals in the 20th century and how these executions relate to economic, political, and social changes across a century. We present a theoretical account to address changes in executions within and between decades of the twentieth century. The results...

A content analysis of 1,223 print advertisements with animals spanning the 20 century is used to investigate green sentiments. A framework is provided that integrates green movements and advertisers' depictions of animals and values. For the early years, green sentiments in advertisements yielded proportionately more controlled animal depictions, m...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to focus on the feeling associated with being rejected by the preferred service brand, and its effect on consumer assessment of the alternate brand. Design/methodology/approach The data were collected using a self‐administered questionnaire in the context of higher education services targeted at the internation...

The article introduces a new approach for assessing corporate associations, the Unique Corporate Association Valence (UCAV) measure. The UCAV integrates the quantitative and qualitative approaches with the specific intent of capturing the advantages while avoiding some of the disadvantages of either approach. The initial qualitative and quantitativ...

The purpose of the study is to apply the Elemental Congruence Model to investigate the use of visual and verbal symbols in advertising services that are dominated by maximal-self contexts versus minimal-self contexts. Utilizing a content analysis of service ads, the findings demonstrate that advertisers use proportionately more verbal presentations...

This article proposes and tests a model of regret minimization in the consumer decision-making context of sales promotions. The work examines how regret is minimized in a risk-avoiding planned purchase by conducting information search and primarily rejoicing afterwards. For risk-seeking impulse purchases, the model proposes a one-or two-pronged str...

A home page is the gateway to an organization's Web site. To design effective Web home pages, it is necessary to understand the fundamental drivers of user's perception of Web pages. Not only do designers have to understand potential users' frame of mind, they also have at their choosing a stupefying array of attributes - including numerous font ty...

Attitude toward the brand (Ab) and purchase intentions (PI) are two pivotal and popular constructs that have been routinely used by advertising scholars and practitioners. Despite their popularity, standard scales, with known psychometric properties, for measuring Ab and PI are not available. Furthermore, these two constructs might not be empirical...

Financial services are inherently intangible and high on experience and credence qualities. In order to promote them effectively, a service provider must first identify the dimensions used by consumers to evaluate the service quality of banks prior to becoming a customer. Based on responses from customers of a credit union, the current study identi...

This paper applies the visual rhetoric model to celebrity gender images in magazine advertising. A content analysis of 207 ads containing celebrity endorsers was conducted. Results suggest that male celebrities are associated more with a visual plus verbal presentation mode and with functional product benefits. Conversely, female celebrities are as...

The purpose of this study is to investigate differences in time pressure and information between two broad classes of promotional offers: (1) “advanced receipts” in which consumers are encouraged to expedite the purchase of a good or service to take advantage of coupons, rebates, price-offs, premiums, etc.; and (2) “delayed payments,” in which cons...

The study details the psychometric properties of a time orientation scale initially developed in the United States and examines this scale not only in the United States but in two trading partners with maximally different time orientations, China and Mexico. The scale is compared across the three countries by examining the number of factors that em...

Borrowing from Allport (1961), we propose a hierarchical approach in which cardinal psychological traits predict central traits, which in turn predict surface traits. The hierarchical perspective was employed to investigate the surface trait of compulsive buying among college students—a growing problem at U.S. universities. In Study 1, traits from...

The research proposes a theory that organizational design mediates completely the effect of context on quality management. The results show that the greater the level of the organizational design variables (formalization, technocratic specialization, and strategic decentralization), the greater the level of quality management. The context variables...

Typescript (lithograph copy). Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oklahoma State University, 1998. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 144-154).

A model is proposed for understanding the impact of the use of animals in advertising. The model proposes that the culturally constituted world is composed of a variety of entities that can be given symbolic meaning. These symbols and their meanings are linked to products and then communicated by the media to the consumer. A content analysis of app...