From Pages to Faces: A Study of Relevant Values for Online to Offline Dating By Guanchen Wang A Thesis Presented to The University of Guelph In partial fulfillment of requirements For the degree of Master of Science In Marketing and Consumer Studies Guelph, Ontario, Canada © Guanchen Wang, August 2018 i ABSTRACT FROM PAGES TO FACES: A STUDY OF RELEVANT VALUES FOR ONLINE TO OFFLINE DATING Guanchen Wang Advisors: University of Guelph, 2018 Professor May Aung & Professor Lianne Foti The prominence of online communication has propelled online services into popularity such as the online dating industry. Most of the online dating studies have focused on the early phases of the online relationship (Bapna, 2016; Prieler, 2017; Whyte, 2017), while the period that follows received less attention. The current research explores values important to online dating couples and these value affect couples as their relationship progresses into the long-term phase. Data is collected from the dating site Plentyoffish.com's community forum using the netnography method, and findings on how values affect different phases of the relationship periods are discussed. This paper provides additional insights on how values mentioned in existing literature change over time. It also reveals two new values (Family and Kindness). The values discovered in the long-term period also have managerial implications as they can potentially lead to the creation of long term phase related services. ii Acknowledgements This paper is not possible without the guidance of my advisor Professor May Aung. I sincerely appreciate the time you took out of your busy schedule to help me flesh out the writing process and review my writing every step along the way. Thank you for your incredible patience and encouragements. My thanks also go to my committee member, Professor Lianne Foti, I truly appreciate the interest you took in my topic and thank you for taking the time to read and improve my writing. I also want to thank you for the tips on writing resources available which I made full use of during the entire editing process. I also want to thank my other committee member, Professor Laila Rohani for your insightful comments and continual support. Finally, I would like to thank my classmate Hao Di for all the helps he provided and tips on thesis defense. iii Table of Contents Abstract....................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... iii List of Symbols, Abbreviations or Nomenclature ...................................................................... viii I. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Online Dating Values ........................................................................................................ 2 1.2 Conceptual Framework ..................................................................................................... 5 1.3 Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 6 1.4 Research Site ................................................................................................................... 7 1.5 Research Contribution ...................................................................................................... 7 2. Literature Review ................................................................................................................... 9 2.1 Literature: General Values Overview ................................................................................ 9 2.1.1 Consumer Oriented Internal Values ..........................................................................10 2.1.2 Consumer Oriented External Values .........................................................................11 2.2 Literature: Dating Service Values Overview .....................................................................13 2.3 Literature: Studies Relating to Values Concept ................................................................15 2.3.1 Initial Signaling Values: .............................................................................................15 2.3.2 Interactive Values: .....................................................................................................17 2.3.3 Long-Term Values .....................................................................................................19 3. Methodology .........................................................................................................................20 3.1 Netnography ....................................................................................................................20 3.2 Research Site ..................................................................................................................21 iv 3.3 Site Selection Criteria ......................................................................................................38 3.4 Data Collection and Analysis ...........................................................................................42 4. Research Findings ................................................................................................................46 4.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................46 4.2 Initial Signaling Values.....................................................................................................48 4.2.1 Humor .......................................................................................................................48 4.2.2 Similarity ...................................................................................................................49 4.2.3 Kindness ...................................................................................................................51 4.3 Interactive Values ............................................................................................................52 4.3.1 Seriousness ..............................................................................................................53 4.3.2 Intimacy ....................................................................................................................54 4.3.3 Individuality ...............................................................................................................55 4.3.4 Reciprocity Rate ........................................................................................................56 4.3.5 Geography ................................................................................................................58 4.4 Long-Term (Offline) Values..............................................................................................59 4.4.1 Family .......................................................................................................................60 4.4.2 Honesty .....................................................................................................................61 5. Summary ..............................................................................................................................63 5.1 Discussion on Relationship Phases .................................................................................64 5.2 Value Summary & Discussion ..........................................................................................65 5.2.1 Existing Values .........................................................................................................66 v 5.2.2 New Values ...............................................................................................................71 5.3 Contribution .....................................................................................................................73 5.3.1 Conceptual Contribution ............................................................................................73 5.3.2 Managerial Contribution ............................................................................................75 5.4 Limitation & Future Research Direction ...........................................................................76 5.4.1 Limitation ..................................................................................................................77 5.4.2 Future Research Direction ........................................................................................78 References ...............................................................................................................................79 Appendices ...............................................................................................................................84 Appendix A: Registration for Plenty of Fish ........................................................................84 Appendix B: Registration Questionnaire .............................................................................85 Appendix C: Personality Quiz Sample ................................................................................86 Appendix D: My Profile Samples ........................................................................................87 Appendix E: Mail Setting: ...................................................................................................88