An Empirical Test of a Theoretical Model of Surprise in Marketing by Irina T. Toteva A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Business In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, FL August, 2018 Copyright 2018 by Irina T. Toteva ii An Empirical Test of a Theoretical Model of Surprise in Marketing by Irina T. Toteva This dissertation proposal was prepared under the direction of the candidate's dissertation advisor, Dr. Eric H. Shaw, Department of Marketing, and has been approved by the members of his supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty of the College of Business and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. a Dissertation Advisor Daniel Gropper, Dean, College of Business �� Khaled Sobhan, Ph.D. Date Interim Dean, Graduate College lll Acknowledgements I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my dissertation chair Dr. Eric Shaw. Dr. Shaw’s guidance and mentorship throughout my doctoral program was essential to the effectiveness and success of my education process. His continued focus on the writing and theory-development process has taught me to be a better writer and researcher. Dr. Shaw has been instrumental to the fulfillment of my proposal with his helpful and important feedback. I would like to thank Dr. Richard J. Lutz at the University of Florida for his support and helpful feedback related to the hypotheses reasoning and the methodology development. Consistently working with me remotely via phone conferencing or emailing and still providing invaluable advice and support, Dr. Lutz has been an important part in the completion of this dissertation proposal. I would also like to thank Dr. Sang Wook Hong and Dr. Tamara Mangleburg for their helpful comments and support throughout the writing process. A special thank you to Dr. Cheryl Burke Jarvis for meeting with me a number of times to provide me with invaluable feedback from a professional reviewer’s point of view, helping me improve my writing and be a better researcher. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for their unwavering support and patience throughout the dissertation process. I would also like to thank everyone else who supported me with their encouragement during my dissertation process: Dr. iv Gopalkrishnan Iyer, Dr. Allen Smith, Dr. Paul Koku, and Florida Atlantic Doctoral Students. Thank You. v Abstract Author: Irina T. Toteva Title: An Empirical Test of a Theoretical Model of Surprise in Marketing Institution: Florida Atlantic University Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Eric H. Shaw Degree: Doctorate of Philosophy Year: 2018 The purpose of this research was to construct and empirically test a theoretical model of surprise and its impact on consumer affect and behavior. First the literature on the emotion of surprise was reviewed with particular emphasis on classification and process models of surprise. A theoretical model of surprise was constructed. A new concept called motivated meaning integration (MMI) was proposed. MMI takes place in a setting that includes the interaction of the appraisal process with factors such as environmental uncertainty and consumers’ individual differences. These interactions impact outcomes such as consumer affect and buying behavior. Ten hypotheses were derived from the theoretical model and empirically tested using several pretests and two main studies. The present research designed and evaluated several surprise manipulations and MMI manipulation checks to effectively test the proposed relationships. Participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk). vi Although many of the hypotheses were not supported, some important ones were. The results provide some support that a consumer’s sense of personal control interacts with MMI to impact a consumer’s likelihood of choosing unknown or mystery products ( e.g. products in a known category such as beauty products but the actual products are selected by the company). Specifically, consumers who experienced a low sense of personal control (compared to a high sense personal control) were more likely to choose mystery products (vs. objectively similar known products) after they encountered surprise with mystery (vs. with known) elements. The results also provided some support that productivity orientation interacts with surprise appraisal to impact consumer affect. Particularly, consumers with high productivity orientation (vs. low) were more likely to experience higher positive affect after encountering surprise with mystery (vs. with known) elements. The primary implication for theory involves refining the conceptualization of surprise appraisal, especially fast MMI, and adopting adequate measure for testing it. The most relevant implication for marketing management is to offer products with mystery elements because consumers are more likely to choose additional mystery products. If this dissertation stimulates others to pursue research on surprise theory in marketing, my efforts to continue developing scientific theory will be worth it. vii An Empirical Test of a Theoretical Model of Surprise in Marketing List of Tables .................................................................................................................... xii List of Figures .................................................................................................................. xiv Chapter 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 2 Literature Review ............................................................................................... 5 2.1. The Emotion of Surprise ........................................................................................ 5 2.1.1. Classifications of Surprise .............................................................................9 2.1.2. Process Models of Surprise ..........................................................................12 2.1.3. Critique of Models of Surprise ....................................................................19 2.2. The Appraisal Process.......................................................................................... 20 2.2.1. Sensemaking ................................................................................................20 2.2.2. Critique of Sensemaking ..............................................................................30 Chapter 3 Theoretical Model Of Surprise ......................................................................... 32 3.1. Stimuli and Setting ............................................................................................... 33 3.2. Surprise .............................................................................................................. 34 3.3. Appraisal .............................................................................................................. 34 3.3.1. Sensemaking ................................................................................................35 3.3.2. Conventional Sensemaking vs. Motivated Meaning Integration .................36 3.4. Moderators of Appraisal: Uncertainty and Sense of Personal Control ................ 46 3.5. Moderators of Appraisal: Individual Differences (Productivity Orientation) ..... 53 3.6. Summary .............................................................................................................. 58 viii Chapter 4 Methodology .................................................................................................... 61 4.1. Study 1: The Influence of Sense of Personal Control and Surprise Appraisal on Affect and Purchase Intention ......................................................... 61 4.1.1. Purpose and Context ....................................................................................61 4.1.2.Operationalizations .......................................................................................61 4.1.3. Main Study Experimental Design and Measures .........................................72 4.1.4. Participants and Procedure ...........................................................................73 4.1.5. Protocol ........................................................................................................73 4.2. Study 2: The Influence of Productivity Orientation and Surprise Appraisal on Affect and Purchase Intention .............................................................. 75 4.2.1. Purpose and Context ....................................................................................75 4.2.2. Operationalizations ......................................................................................76 4.2.3. Main Study Experimental Design and Measures .........................................78 4.2.4. Participants and Procedure ...........................................................................79 4.2.5. Protocol ........................................................................................................79 4.3. Chapter Summary ................................................................................................ 80 Chapter 5 Results .............................................................................................................. 81 5.1. Study 1: The Influence of Sense of Personal Control and Surprise Appraisal on Affect and Purchase Intention - Hypotheses Testing ...................... 82 5.1.1.