Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2010 Conceptualizing the consumer-brand relationship as a truly dyadic process Jamye Foster Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Marketing Commons Recommended Citation Foster, Jamye, "Conceptualizing the consumer-brand relationship as a truly dyadic process" (2010). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 782. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/782 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. CONCEPTUALIZING THE CONSUMER-BRAND RELATIONSHIP AS A TRULY DYADIC PROCESS A Dissertation Submitted to Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy in The Interdepartmental Program In Business Administration (Marketing) by Jamye Foster B.A., Mississippi State University, 1999 M.B.A., University of Southern Mississippi, 2001 May 2010 DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to my husband and Memommie, for supporting me through the long and challenging process. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to all my family, friends, and mentors for their help and support through this long process. Their kind words of encouragement were appreciated, and I couldn’t have done it without them. I can now “look up.” And to Georgia and David, a special thanks for letting me live with them in Baton Rouge for months on end! Thank you to my dissertation chairs, Dr. William Black and Dr. Judith Anne Garretson Folse, for all the time and effort they put into this project. I am especially appreciative for their willingness to work with me when I was living halfway around the world! Thank you to my dissertation committee members, Dr. Alvin Burns and Dr. Jason Hicks, for being generous with feedback, and so flexible with scheduling presentations! It was an especially long process, and it meant so much that they all stuck with me. Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Daryl McKee. As the former chair of my dissertation committee, his feedback and encouragement are part of what saw me through to this point. Even though he wasn’t able to be with me here at the end, his presence is still evident in this work. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION........................................................................................................................................ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT..........................................................................................................................................vii INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................1 ESSAY 1: CONCEPTUALIZING THE CONSUMER-BRAND RELATIONSHIP ...........................3 Introduction..........................................................................................................................................3 What is a Relationship? ........................................................................................................................4 Truly Dyadic Relationships...............................................................................................................7 Parasocial Relationships .................................................................................................................10 Relationship Outcomes ...................................................................................................................11 Is the Consumer-brand Relationship Really a Relationship?................................................................14 What is a Consumer-brand Relationship (CBR)? ................................................................................15 Current Conceptualization of the Consumer-brand Relationship .........................................................16 The Need to Consider a Truly Dyadic CBR ....................................................................................19 Examining the CBR as a Truly Dyadic Process...................................................................................21 The Creation of a Social Bond ........................................................................................................22 The Dyadic CBR Processes.............................................................................................................23 Summary ........................................................................................................................................33 Where Does Brand-loyalty Fit?...........................................................................................................34 Proposed Examination of the Truly Dyadic CBR Process ...................................................................36 Proposed Study 1 (Essay 2).............................................................................................................37 Proposed Study 2 (Essay 3).............................................................................................................38 Discussion and Conclusion .................................................................................................................39 Future Research..............................................................................................................................40 ESSAY 2: EXAMINING CONSUMER-BRAND INTERACTION: A FOCUS ON SOCIAL INTERACTION............................................................................................................................43 Introduction........................................................................................................................................43 The Literature.................................................................................................................................43 Appropriateness of the Qualitative Research Design.......................................................................43 Pretest: Exploratory Interviews.......................................................................................................44 Main Study: In-depth Interviews.....................................................................................................45 The Consumer-Brand Relationship .....................................................................................................45 Current Conceptualization ..............................................................................................................45 Examining the Truly Dyadic Consumer-brand Relationship............................................................46 What is Social Interaction Between Consumers and Brands? ..............................................................47 Background Theory ........................................................................................................................47 Summary ........................................................................................................................................53 Pretest: Exploratory Interviews...........................................................................................................54 Method ...........................................................................................................................................54 Results............................................................................................................................................59 Discussion ......................................................................................................................................65 Summary ........................................................................................................................................68 Main Study: In-depth Interviews.........................................................................................................68 iv Method ...........................................................................................................................................69 Results and Discussion ...................................................................................................................73 Summary ........................................................................................................................................88 General Discussion.............................................................................................................................88 Theoretical Implications .................................................................................................................89 Managerial Implications .................................................................................................................89 Study Limitations ...........................................................................................................................90 Future Research and Conclusion .....................................................................................................91 ESSAY