Browsing by Author "Bagchi, Rajesh"

Now showing 1 - 20 of 25
  • Thumbnail Image
    $29 for 70 Items or 70 Items for $29? How Presentation Order Affects Package Perceptions
    Bagchi, Rajesh; Davis, Derick F. (University of Chicago Press, 2012-06)
    When consumers consider a package (multi- item) price, which presentation order is more appealing, price first ($29 for 70 items) or item quantity first (70 items for $29)? Will this depend on package size (larger [70 items] vs. smaller [7 items]) or unit price calculation difficulty (higher [$29 for 70 items] vs. lower [$20 for 50 items])? Why? Three studies demonstrate how presentation order affects package evaluations and choice under different levels of package size and unit price calculation difficulty. The first piece of information becomes salient and affects evaluations when packages are larger and unit price calculations are difficult (i. e., priceitem [item-price] makes price [items] salient, negatively [positively] affecting evaluations). These effects do not persist with smaller packages or easier unit price calculations. Our findings contribute to several literatures (e. g., numerosity, computational difficulty) but primarily to the order effects literature and have implications for measurement and practice (e. g., pricing).
  • Thumbnail Image
    Algorithm Versus Human Expert Recommendations Preferences in Decision Support: Two Essays
    Lyvers, Aaron Kenneth (Virginia Tech, 2024-10-04)
    Algorithms refer to the software programs designed to support problem solving in a wide range of decision domains. Given the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution, algorithms have become an integral part of our personal, social, and professional lives. As technology rapidly advances, these algorithms are not only becoming more capable but are also finding a growing array of applications in managerial and consumer decision support. Despite their increasing presence, reactions to algorithms are mixed. While some research highlights a preference for algorithms over human judgment ("algorithm appreciation"), other studies reveal a contrary preference ("algorithm aversion"), where people favor human expertise. This research provides a conceptual framework and empirical evidence regarding factors that may influence preference for algorithmic versus human expert recommendations in business decision contexts. We use experimental psychological methods to investigate how algorithm characteristics, decision-maker psy
  • Thumbnail Image
    Death, Mortality and Consumer Decision Making: Two Essays  
    McGraw, Dwayne Scott (Virginia Tech, 2024-10-03)
    Death, Mortality and Consumer Decision Making: Two Essays Dwayne Scott McGraw ABSTRACT This dissertation presents two essays that address specific aspects of the broad domain of death, mortality and consumer decision making. Essay 1 examines how priming mortality salience (MS) and financial vulnerability (FV) influences insurance policy choices of young, middle aged and senior consumers. Essay 2 investigates how, in funeral planning contexts when consumer may be dealing with significant grief, manipulating choice architecture (via additive vs. subtractive framing of funeral package options) influences the composition and cost of the chosen funeral package. In Essay 1, we use a three-factor design: 2 (MS prime: present/absent) x 2 (FV prime: present/absent) x 3 (Age: Young/Middle-Aged/Senior) to examine how participants evaluate and choose among three hypothetical policies (premium/benefits: low, medium, and high). In a control group (neither prime present), the younger and middle age groups modally select the medium policy whereas the seniors select the high policy. However, the primes affect these choices. When MS alone is primed (FV prime absent), young adults move toward the low policy (assures death benefits at affordable cost). The middle-aged group moves toward the high policy. The seniors remain over-insured with the high policy. When FV is primed, the senior group seems to recognize that their strong financial situation and low obligation levels warrant the medium policy. Interestingly, sensitive to higher financial obligations, the middle-aged tend to buy the high policy. With both MS and FV primed, seniors continue to show affinity toward the medium policy (salience of lower FV tempers the MS effect). Sensitized to their financial situation, younger adults continue to favor the low policy. The middle-aged group remains with the higher policy: both primes have impact. These evaluation data are generally consistent with the choice data. The findings have significant implications for designing life insurance products attuned to the needs of consumers in various age groups. They provide insight into the factors that, if made salient at choice, may facilitate better consumer choices. The results also have important regulatory implications. In Essay 2, we examine if consumers are influenced by how funeral package options are presented at the time of choice. Specifically, we study these effects of choice architecture using manipulations of choice architecture (additive versus subtractive framing of package options). In study1, we examine how grief and related emotions surrounding death influence the effects of additive versus subtractive framing of items. In Study 2, we examine how these effects are moderated by when the funeral is pre-planned or planned at the time of death. These studies shed light on how options framing influence the choice of funeral packages and also the costs and benefits of preplanning funeral events and providing advanced directives for end-of-life care and death related expenses.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Designing Smart Agents to Support Physician-Patient Interactions: The Effect of Varying Communication Styles
    Ravella, Haribabu (Virginia Tech, 2022-01-21)
    This dissertation reports five experiments exploring the use of AI-based smart agents to support physician-patient interactions. In each experiment, a sample of female participants evaluates video tapes of simulated physician-patient interactions in a setting involving early stage breast cancer diagnosis. Experiment 1 manipulates communication style (empathetic/impassive) for both a human physician (played by an actor) and an avatar that mimics the human. Empathetic styles elicit more liking and trust from patients and are also more persuasive. The avatar loses less than the human physician on desirable patient outcomes when communication style changes from empathetic to impassive. A mediation analysis shows that the communication style and physician type effects flow serially through liking and trust to persuasion. Experiment 2 reports an extended replication, adding a new avatar with less resemblance to the human physician. The findings match those of Experiment 1: both avatars have similar effects on liking, trust, and persuasion and are similarly anthropomorphized. Experiment 3 examines whether the patient's mindset (hope/fear about the cancer prognosis) influences likely patient outcomes. The mindset manipulation does not influence patient outcomes, but we find support for the core serial mediation model (from liking to trust to persuasion). Experiment 4 explores whether it matters how the avatar is deployed. Introducing the avatar as the physician's assistant lowers its evaluations perhaps because the patients feel deprioritized. The human physician is evaluated significantly higher on all outcome dimensions. Experiments 1-4 focused on the first phase of a standard three-phased physician-patient interaction protocol. Experiment 5 examines communication style (empathetic/ impassive) and physician type (human/avatar) effects across the three sequential phases. Patient outcomes improve monotonically over the three interaction phases across all study conditions. Overall, our studies show that an empathetic communication style is more effective in eliciting higher levels of liking, trust, and persuasion. The human physician and the avatar elicit similar levels of these desirable patient interaction outcomes. The avatar loses less when communication style changes from empathetic to impassive, suggesting that patients may have lower expectations of empathy from avatars. Thus, if carefully deployed, smart agents acting as physicians' avatars may effectively support physician-patient interactions.
  • Thumbnail Image
    The Effect of Ownership on Consumers' Disposal Decisions: Research on Food Wastage and Recycling Behaviors
    Xie, Jieru (Virginia Tech, 2022-04-11)
    Research in consumer behavior has focused predominantly on how consumers make purchase decisions. However, much less attention has been directed toward examining post-purchase behaviors. In this dissertation, I examine how ownership affects individuals' disposal decisions of their current possessions. In essay 1, I investigate how differences in duration of ownership affect consumers' food waste behaviors. I demonstrate that the same food products are more likely to be wasted as well as wasted more of when they are owned for a longer duration (vs. purchased more recently). I also delineate how this wastage can be reduced. In essay 2, I explore how a specific post-ownership experience, evaluations (positive vs. negative), influences consumers' recycling behaviors, even when these evaluations (e.g., taste of a drink) do not affect recyclability (e.g., of the bottle). I demonstrate that consumers will be more likely to recycle products associated with positive (vs. negative) evaluations, and, thus, will be more likely to recycle a drink's bottle when the taste is evaluated more positively.
  • Thumbnail Image
    The Effect of Red Background Color on Willingness-to-Pay: The Moderating Role of Selling Mechanism
    Bagchi, Rajesh; Cheema, Amar (University of Chicago Press, 2013-02)
    The authors investigate the effect of red backgrounds on willingness-to-pay in auctions and negotiations. Data from eBay auctions and the lab show that a red (vs. blue) background elicits higher bid jumps. By contrast, red (vs. blue) backgrounds decrease price offers in negotiations. An investigation of the underlying process reveals that red color induces aggression through arousal. In addition, the selling mechanism-auction or negotiation-alters the effect of color by focusing individuals on primarily competing against other bidders (in auctions) or against the seller (in negotiations). Specifically, aggression is higher with red (vs. blue or gray) color and, therefore, increases bid jumps in auctions but decreases offers in negotiations.
  • Thumbnail Image
    The Expectations, Experience, and Consequences of Curiosity Resolution
    Rabino, Rebecca (Virginia Tech, 2017-04-26)
    This dissertation contributes to a better understanding of curiosity resolution. I investigate the premise that the experience of curiosity resolution is influenced both by the fact that curiosity is resolved, as well as how it is resolved. While the outcome associated with curiosity resolution can be positive or negative in nature, the experience of curiosity resolution itself is predicted to be pleasant in nature. Therefore, I propose that the degree to which each of these two resolution facets is salient will influence curiosity-related evaluations. In this dissertation, I investigate pre-resolution expectations as well as post-resolution downstream consequences. Prior to curiosity resolution, I propose that individuals are likely to be focused on the outcome they will obtain. However, when faced with uncertain outcomes, individuals strategically heighten anticipated feelings of disappointment in order to protect against actual disappointment when the outcome is revealed; thus, I predict and demonstrate in four studies that curious consumers will display heightened levels of pre-resolution feelings of anticipated disappointment. After curiosity resolution, I propose that individuals experience not only positive or negative feelings associated with the outcome obtained, but also positive feelings of resolution itself. In four studies, I investigate the power of curiosity resolution to buffer negative responses to relatively undesirable outcomes. Importantly, I also demonstrate that consumers' focus on either the outcome obtained or on the experience of resolution itself can be experimentally shifted, thereby mitigating the previously described effects.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Exploring Antecedents to Environmentally-Consequential  Consumer Choices and Behaviors
    Stuebi, Richard Theodore (Virginia Tech, 2024-06-25)
    This dissertation presents two essays that explore the antecedents of consumer decision-making when choices or behaviors have significant environmental consequences. The first essay involves theoretical development and experimental testing of a conceptual model describing the process by which a car-buyer evaluates the choice between an electric vehicle (EV) and a gasoline vehicle, while the second essay consists of empirical analysis of a large panel dataset of household-level 15-minute interval electricity consumption data to identify the drivers of different behavioral response patterns to electric utility requests for energy conservation on hot summer afternoons. The first essay is motivated by the observation that increased consumer adoption of battery-powered EVs is important for commercial and environmental reasons, but EV adoption is currently inhibited by both an up-front price disadvantage and the inconveniences associated with battery recharging. The research presented in the first essay leverages the Theory of Reasoned Action as well as the literature on identity signaling to develop a model on how consumers with interests in the environmental and/or technological implications of EV ownership evaluate the potential purchase of an EV versus a conventional automobile. The model generates ten pairs of hypotheses that are tested via estimation of a structural equation model using data from three online experiments. Bayesian pooling of the three sets of estimated path analysis coefficients finds considerable support for the conceptual model. These pooled results show that EV ownership signals the owner's concern about both environmental protection and technology advancement, but the effect of the environmental signal on EV purchase likelihood is positive whereas the effect of the technology signal on EV purchase likelihood is negative. Moreover, in addition to lowering EV purchase likelihood via a direct effect, the perceived inconveniences associated with EV ownership (e.g., needs for battery charging) offset the negative effect of technology signaling on EV purchase likelihood, while the corresponding interaction of inconvenience with environmental signaling value was found to be not significant. Meanwhile, a larger EV price premium had a direct negative effect on EV purchase likelihood but did not moderate the effects of either technology signaling value or environmental signaling value on EV purchase likelihood. Among other findings, specific knowledge about how EVs affect technological advancement has a direct positive influence on EV purchase likelihood. However, all downstream effects of specific knowledge about EVs effects on environmental protection are mediated by perceptions of EV effectiveness in benefitting the environment. Meanwhile, the second essay investigates consumer behavior concerning household electricity consumption. Utilities use demand response (DR) programs to induce customers to reduce electricity consumption during selected hot summer afternoons when power generation supplies may be challenged to satisfy regional demand levels. The research presented in the second essay leverages panel data on electricity consumption from households in a community where an experimental pro-social DR program was conducted to explore drivers of household responses to utility requests to voluntarily reduce electricity consumption. Analysis of the panel data shows that, on average, households with solar rooftops respond differently to utility DR notifications than non-solar households: solar households reduce electricity consumption as requested by the utility, whereas non-solar households receiving the same request actually increase electricity consumption. However, although solar households respond favorably to DR notification, they also consume significantly more electricity than non-solar households during most hours. These empirical results – greater responsiveness to DR notifications, but otherwise higher levels of electricity consumption – beg reconciliation and explanation. An experimental research study is proposed for a future examination of alternative psychological explanations for the observed differences in behavioral responses between solar and non-solar households.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Facial Expression Intelligence Scale (FEIS): Recognizing and Interpreting Facial Expressions and Implications for Consumer Behavior
    Pierce, Meghan (Virginia Tech, 2012-03-30)
    Each time we meet a new person, we draw inferences based on our impressions. The first thing we are likely to notice is a person's face. The face functions as one source of information, which we combine with the spoken word, body language, past experience, and the context of the situation to form judgments. Facial expressions serve as pieces of information we use to understand what another person is thinking, saying, or feeling. While there is strong support for the universality of emotion recognition, the ability to identify and interpret facial expressions varies by individual. Existing scales fail to include the dynamicity of the face. Five studies are proposed to examine the viability of the Facial Expression Intelligence Scale (FEIS) to measure individual ability to identify and interpret facial expressions. Consumer behavior implications are discussed.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Focus on Outcomes or on Effort:  The Role of Self-efficacy on Influencing Expectations
    Lee, Yong Kyu (Virginia Tech, 2015-06-12)
    In this dissertation, I investigate how differences in the manner via which individuals pursue goals (judging effort from outcome or outcome from effort) influences expectations (effort vs. outcome). In particular, I focus on the role of self-efficacy, and show that when individuals focus on outcomes, they take self-efficacy into consideration when assessing how much effort is needed. However, when focusing on effort, individuals do not take self-efficacy into consideration when making judgments of outcomes. Thus, I find that irrespective of differences in self-efficacy, individuals expect similar outcomes when effort invested is the same. I report findings from six studies, and discuss theoretical and managerial implications.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Fostering a More Sustainable World through Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle: The Role of Perceived Value in a Circular Economy
    Lai, Yuhang (Virginia Tech, 2023-05-26)
    The last few decades have seen an explosion in population growth and along with this growth we have also witnessed an increase in demand for products. Although our resources are limited, consumers' needs know no bounds. It is not surprising that we are also increasingly demanding more from our environment. It is therefore imperative that we make better use of our resources and reassess how we construe a product's lifecycle. Instead of a linear perspective, which typically follows a product's lifecycle from mining of raw materials to manufacturing, but then stops when products are trashed, we need to use a circular perspective, where we focus on the entire lifecycle of products, from not just manufacturing to usage, but also from usage to creation of new products through recycling. The focus of this dissertation is on understanding two important processes in the circular economy: that of usage and disposal. I focus on the role that consumers' product valuations play in these processes. In essay 1, I show that consumers value products made from recycled materials more than comparable regular products. I also document why this happens and demonstrate how this affects usage. In essay 2, I investigate the relationship between reuse and product disposal. The circular economy is based on what is now referred to as the 3R approach: reduce, reuse, and recycle. However, I show that consumers are more (vs. less) likely to trash products that they have used extensively (vs. rarely). This then leads to a conundrum: if we encourage consumers to reuse products extensively, it appears that they are more likely to trash them. It is therefore imperative that we understand this relationship better and find interventions to mitigate this negative relationship.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Giving Smart Agents a Voice: How a Smart Agent's Voice Influences Its Relationships with Consumers
    Han, Yegyu (Virginia Tech, 2020-06-04)
    Advances in speech recognition and voice synthesis software now allow "smart agents" (e.g., voice-controlled devices like Amazon's Alexa and Google Home) to interact naturally with humans. The machines have a skills repertoire with which they can "communicate" and form relationships with consumers – managing aspects of their daily lives and providing advice on various issues including purchases. This dissertation develops three essays that examine the role played by the smart agent's voice (rational vs. emotional) in such relationships. The social cognition and persuasion literature on interpersonal communication serves as a comparison backdrop. In Essay 1, I investigate how identical purchase recommendations delivered in a rational or an emotional voice elicit different consumer responses, when the voice is ascribed to a human versus a smart agent. I argue that consumers distinctively categorize smart agents and humans, which, in turn, leads them to have different expectations when interacting with them. In Essay 2, I focus on how a smart agent's vocal tone (rational vs. emotional) influences consumer compliance with the agent's recommendation as well as the role of trust as a mediator of the underlying process. I find that the level of intimacy in the relationship between the smart agent and the human user moderates whether the voice effect on persuasion operates through trust that is cognitively or affectively rooted. In Essay 3, I examine the proposition that consumers may anthropomorphize a smart agent both mindfully (consciously) and mindlessly (non-consciously), depending on the agent's voice. In addition to using extant measures of the degree to which anthropomorphism is explicit (conscious), I develop an auditory analog of the implicit association test (IAT) that assesses implicit (non-conscious) anthropomorphism. In additional experiments, I further assess the robustness of the auditory IAT test and demonstrated a dissociation between the measures of the explicit and implicit subconstructs of anthropomorphism. Taken together, these essays contribute to our understanding of the factors driving consumer relationships with smart agents in the rapidly evolving IoT world.
  • Thumbnail Image
    The Influence of Money on Goal Pursuit and Decision-Making: Understanding Money's Unique Impact on Goal Pursuit
    Moran, Nora (Virginia Tech, 2015-05-07)
    Previous research suggests that activating concepts of money and wealth can increase motivation to achieve personal goals. In this dissertation, I investigate how money affects pursuit of important personal goals, and how this motivation may be affected by goal attainability. In eight studies, I show that priming concepts of money and wealth leads individuals to pursue important personal goals to a greater degree than control groups, but only when a goal is more attainable. In contrast, when a goal is less attainable, those primed with money will be less likely to work towards goals relative to control groups. Furthermore, I examine why money may have a detrimental effect on motivation when individuals are faced with less attainable but important goals, and argue those primed with money become more concerned with maintaining a sense of efficacy, and thus disengage from pursuit when success is less certain. Thus, this research identifies the needs made salient by activating money-"validating one's abilities. Finally, I show the relevance of these findings for consumer behavior, and discuss the additional implications of this work, as well as future research directions.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Intuitive Numerical Information Processes in Consumer Judgment
    Villanova, Daniel Joseph Bodin (Virginia Tech, 2018-04-09)
    Numerical information is ubiquitous in modern life. The prevalence of numerical information in the marketplace necessitates understanding how consumers handle and interpret that information, for both theoretical and practical reasons. Past research has largely focused on consumers’ encoding of numbers, calculative limitations, and usage of heuristics. This dissertation will contribute to this burgeoning literature in several ways. First, I identify a general tendency in how consumers calculate ratios based on an intuitive model of division. Specifically, consumers tend to divide larger numbers by smaller numbers. The intuitive model of division has marketing implications for both consumers’ evaluations of quantity offers and sensitivities to promotions. Next, I examine how consumers draw inferences from distributional information. In contrast to the assumption that consumers utilize means to assess central tendency, I demonstrate that consumers use the modal response to judge what is typical, with implications for consumers’ inferences about product ratings and other social distributions.
  • Thumbnail Image
    An Investigation Into How Sources of Information Influence Consumers' Perceptions and Decision Making
    Essig, Richard Alexander (Virginia Tech, 2021-12-16)
    Consumers rely on sources of information to learn about products and make informed purchasing decisions. In fact, one of the first factors consumer consider when evaluating product information, is the source of that information. Yet despite the importance of the source, research on this topic is sporadic, leaving my unanswered questions. This dissertation advances our understanding of how three different sources of information influence consumers' perceptions and decision making. In the first study, we examine two sources (consumer originated and third party) to determine which one dominates in a persuasion episode. We find consumers overwhelmingly prefer consumer originated versus third party sources because they believe fellow consumers convey information that is diagnostic of future product experiences. In our second study, we show how a subtle firm-dominated characteristic, firm size, influences manufacturing assumptions and purchase behavior. We find consumers prefer small to large firms for unique products, because they assume small firms have a high degree of human intervention in the manufacturing process.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Lonely Consumers: When, How, and Why Does Loneliness Influence Consumer Behavior?
    Kim, Junghyun (Virginia Tech, 2017-04-25)
    Although the advance of social media has enabled people to build social connections much more easily than ever before, loneliness—an aversive feeling of being isolated and disconnected—persists in modern society. In this dissertation, I examine when, how, and why loneliness influences consumer behavior. First, I develop an experimental method to induce loneliness and identify a circumstance that experimenters can obtain a successful loneliness priming effect. Across three experiments, I demonstrate that the same loneliness primes produce different loneliness responses based on the availability of cognitive resources. Specifically, participants who are cognitively depleted tend to rely on responses evoked by the loneliness primes (showing the intended loneliness priming effect) while those with abundant cognitive resources are not affected by the loneliness primes. Building on the findings from Experiments 1-3, I investigate how loneliness affects consumer behaviors in two different marketing contexts, nostalgic product consumption and charitable giving by focusing on how consumers cope with loneliness through consumption. In Experiments 4-5, I demonstrate that consumers who lack cognitive resources tend to form positive attitudes toward nostalgic products when experiencing loneliness. In Experiments 6-7, I show that lonely consumers with limited cognitive resources are likely to donate money to a charitable organization. Additionally, I find that consumers can regulate feelings of loneliness by spending money either for themselves (i.e., nostalgic products) or for others (i.e., charitable giving). This dissertation contributes to our understanding of loneliness in marketing by identifying a circumstance in which such emotional distress significantly influences consumer behavior and by showing how consumers spend money to cope with loneliness.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Mental Health and Wellness among Graduate Students at Virginia Tech: Report of Findings and Recommendations, AY 2019-2020
    Bagchi, Rajesh; Pearce, Annie R.; Hanson, Bryan; Hole, John; Hampton, Cynthia; Robinson, Jessie (Virginia Tech, 2020-09-08)
    The Graduate School is committed to helping students not only survive their graduate education experience, but to thrive during that time. To that end, the Graduate School convened a Mental Health Task Force to review practices and talk with students and their advocates to determine what Virginia Tech can do to promote and support the mental health of our graduate students. The task force released its report, which includes findings and recommendations.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Negative Celebrity Endorsement Publicity and Stock Returns: The Importance of Proactive Firm Reactions
    Hock, Stefan Johannes Michae (Virginia Tech, 2015-04-20)
    Nowadays, about one fourth of all prime time commercials in the United States feature celebrity endorsers. Previous research has identified numerous benefits of this powerful marketing strategy. Unfortunately, celebrities have been increasingly involved in negative publicity in the recent past. Using event study methodology, I examine the influence of negative celebrity endorser publicity on immediate and subsequent stock returns, covering 59 events during a 25 year period from 1988 to 2012. My research shows that firms do not have to take losses for granted. By choosing proactive versus reactive/passive strategies, firms can successfully counteract the subsequent negative stock returns. Thus, it is not the negative event itself that drives the subsequent financial performance, but rather the immediate response of firms. Although immediate firm reactions increase the salience of the event and cause stock prices to drop initially, they also build up investors' trust and confidence again, ultimately leading to increased stock returns in the subsequent weeks. On the flipside, a reactive/passive strategy shows a lack of control and leadership, which can lead to substantial financial losses in the subsequent weeks. I show that this main effect is attenuated for subsidiary (vs. corporate) brands. Further, the appropriateness of the reaction (match between expected and actual firm reaction) is also crucial. Overall, this dissertation helps to advance the knowledge regarding the financial risk of negative celebrity endorser publicity and provides firms with advice to best manage the situation.
  • Thumbnail Image
    The Role of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the implementation of Rainwater Harvesting Technologies and Strategies (RwHTS)
    Langar, Sandeep (Virginia Tech, 2013-07-02)
    Sustainable innovations are observed as a major way by which the ill-effects of the built environment can be avoided or offset. The adoption of innovations are critical to the society, as they pave the way for further incremental or radical innovations, depending on the feedback from their users. In this process, the attributes of an innovation play an important role in its adoption. The objective of this study was to determine whether observability, one of many attributes of innovations identified in the literature as affecting their adoption, plays a critical role in the adoption of sustainable innovations, specifically Rainwater Harvesting Technologies and Strategies (RwHTS). Further, the study aimed to determine whether the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) resulted in frequent adoption RwHTS. Last but not least, the study also sought to understand how designers used BIM to enhance the acceptance of RwHTS in capital projects. The stakeholders identified for this study were architectural firms that are geographically located in the southeastern states of the United States, and the study was conducted from their perspective. This study was segregated into two major phases. The first phase involved a survey of 2,200 designers/architects located in seven southeastern states, including Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Virginia, Maryland, and District of Columbia. The survey questions targeted experiences associated with the implementation of RwHTS and the use of BIM for designing and constructing facilities over the last decade by the architectural firms. Based on the responses received, six firms were purposively selected for Phase II, which involved a case study approach that included meeting with the designers, conducting interviews, understanding general firm policies for capital projects, identifying factors that result in the adoption of RwHTS, and developing a process-based profile undertaken by the firm to understand how key decisions were made. By the end of this phase the researcher identified the factors that result in the adoption of RwHTS. In addition, the researcher also found that observability did not emerge as an attribute that played a critical role in the adoption of RwHTS, in comparison to the other attributes. The study also found that the current use of BIM did not result in the frequent adoption of RwHTS. Finally, the study was able to produce a generalized process map that depicted the steps undertaken during the design process for the adoption of RwHTS in capital projects. This study encompassed the basic principles of sustainability in the built environment, adoption of innovation, and Building Information Modeling use within the design industry.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Subjective Assessments of Self and Competitor Expertise: Influences on Bidding and Post-Auction Product Valuation
    Hood, Stephen (Virginia Tech, 2022-01-12)
    This dissertation contains two essays focusing on how Self and Competitor Expertise influence valuation both during and post-auction. The first essay, "Competitor Expertise: Influences on bidding behavior and post-auction values in ascending auctions," considers how a bidder's perception of competitors' expertise types and levels influences valuation both during (bid level), after (WTP/WTA), and over time (∆WTP/∆WTA). Generally, I find that despite normative predictions regarding bidding behavior in a competitive auction environment, bidders tend to bid higher and maintain higher post-auction valuations when competing against experts in the product domain, although not amateurs or experts in other domains (e.g., auction bidding strategies). Post-auction valuation patterns further depended on Auction Outcome. The second essay, "Assessed Self-Expertise: Influences on Bidding Behavior and Post-Auction Values Against Competitors of Varying Expertise Levels," extends our investigation to consider how a bidder's perception of their own expertise type and level also influences valuation both during and post-auction. Broadly, I find additional support that bidders post higher valuations both during and post-auction when competing against Experts vs. Amateurs, but that this behavior is primarily driven by bidders who assess themselves as Experts and further depends on Auction Outcome.