University of Cologne – Marketing Area Prof. Dr. Marc Fischer, Prof. Dr. Werner Reinartz, Prof. Dr. Franziska Völckner Contact Magdalena Bekk: bekk@wiso.uni-koeln.de, +49-221-470-2599

Topic Type of project Supervisor

1 Globale Markenkrisen: Eine empirische Analyse zu unternehmerischem Fehlverhalten Empirical M. Sc. Samuel

Stäbler

2 The Impact of Branding on Firm Risk Optional M. Sc. Kezheng Xu

3 Der Einfluss der Marketingbudgetierung auf den Firmenwert – eine empirische Analyse Empirical Dipl.-Kfm. Alex-

ander Edeling

4 Wie wichtig ist Onlinekommunikation? Eine ver-gleichende Analyse verschiedener Produktkatego-rien (empirisch)

Empirical M. Sc. Birte Diepers

5 Does Migration Background Matter? – An Empirical Assessment of the Effect of Migration Background on Insufficient Effort Responding to Surveys

Empirical Dipl.-Wirt.-Ing. Eric Lennartz

6 Relative Importance of Determinants in Pay-What-You-Want Pricing Decisions – A Cross-Cultural Study

Optional Dipl.-Kfm. Max Backhaus

7 Analyse der Wertschöpfungskette Ernährung-swirtschaft Empirical Prof. Werner

Reinartz

8 The Effect of Sensory Distance on Consumers’ Behavior Optional M. Sc. Vanessa

Junc

9 Consumers in crises – How do consumers adapt their purchase decisions to business cycles? Empirical M. Sc. Julian

Wichmann

10 Rethinking sales channels - The impact of the multi-channel customer journey on salesforce compensation

Empirical Dipl.-Kfm. Manuel Berkmann

11 Mapping the customer’s path to purchase Empirical Dr. Monika Käuferle

12 The conceptualization and operationalization of the influence of marketing

Conceptual M. Sc. Annette Ptok

13 The Relevance of Social Media in Business-to-Business Markets. Qualitative Dr. Mark Elsner

14 Music in marketing – a state-of-the-art Theoretical Dr. Kristina Klein

15 Wirkung und Charakteristika von Social Media Word-of-Mouth Empirisch Dr. Jan-Michael

Becker

Please continue reading on the next page

University of Cologne – Marketing Area Prof. Dr. Marc Fischer, Prof. Dr. Werner Reinartz, Prof. Dr. Franziska Völckner Contact Magdalena Bekk: bekk@wiso.uni-koeln.de, +49-221-470-2599

16 Der Einsatz von Benutzerinnovationen im Pro-duktentwicklungsprozess Empirisch Michael Schulz,

M. Sc.

17

Der Einfluss von verantwortungslosem Verhalten von Unternehmen auf Konsumentenwahrnehmun-gen und –verhalten // The impact of corporate ir-responsible behavior on consumer perceptions and behavior

Empirisch Dipl.-Psych. Magdalena Bekk

18 Playful experience in marketing – why it matters and how it is measured Empirical René Eppmann,

M. Sc.

*In case a project is labeled “optional”, the thesis supervisor will decide together with the re-spective master student how to proceed.

Instructions for applicants:

Read the detailed description of each thesis topic on the following pages. Make a pri-ority list of the three topics that are most intere sting to you and write these three top-ics (starting with your first priority) into the ap plication form. You can download the application form from our webpage: http://www.voelckner.uni-koeln.de/master_the-sis.html . We cannot guarantee that you will be assigned to one of your three priority topics, depending on the number of applicants who h ave chosen the same priorities.

Send the application form together with

• a copy of your Bachelor certificate, • a copy of the current list of your grades provided by the examination office, • and your curriculum vitae

via email to Magdalena Bekk ( bekk[at]wiso.uni-koeln.de ). The deadline for your appli-cation is March, 15, 2015, noon.

University of Cologne – Marketing Area Prof. Dr. Marc Fischer, Prof. Dr. Werner Reinartz, Prof. Dr. Franziska Völckner Contact Magdalena Bekk: bekk@wiso.uni-koeln.de, +49-221-470-2599 1) Globale Markenkrisen: Eine empirische Analyse zu unternehmerischem Fehlverhalten In vielen Ländern der Welt wird das ethische, ökologische und soziale Fehlverhalten von Un-ternehmen zunehmend medial kritisiert. Krisen wie „BP und die explodierte Ölplattform im Golf von Mexiko“, „Apple und illegale Preisabsprachen von Büchern“ oder „Amazon und katastrophale Arbeitsbedingungen in Deutschland“ sind nur wenige Beispiele für sogenannte „globale“ Markenkrisen. Sie zeichnen sich dadurch aus, dass sie weltweit Aufmerksamkeit er-regen und das Image einer Marke beeinträchtigen. Häufig lässt sich die globale Verbreitung von Krisen über den zeitlichen Verlauf beobachten. Es vergehen häufig einige Tage, bis das Ereignis weltweit von den Medien kritisiert wird. Um als Unternehmen schon proaktiv auf die Verbreitung einer Krise einzuwirken ist es wichtig, zu verstehen, wie sich Krisen weltweit ver-breiten und welche Faktoren die Verbreitung beschleunigen, verlangsamen oder gar ganz stoppen. Primäres Ziel dieser Studie ist es daher zu untersuchen, inwieweit sich Informationen über das ethische, ökologische und soziale Fehlverhalten von Unternehmen global verbreiten und wie sich dieser Prozess von Unternehmen steuern lässt. Das Seminar für ABWL, Marke-ting und Marktforschung stellt dem Studierenden einen einzigartigen und umfangreichen Datensatz zur Verfügung, der für die Untersuchung genutzt und erweitert werden kann. Fragestellungen :

• Was sind Markenkrisen? Was versteht man in diesem Zusammenhang unter Corporate Social Irresponsibility?

• Welche Faktoren bestimmen ob eine Krise global ist? Welche Rolle spielt dabei die Bekanntheit und Stärke einer Marke?

• In welchem zeitlichen Rahmen verbreitet sich eine „globalen Krise“ über die Länder hinweg?

• Welche Implikationen für die Krisenbewältigung seitens der Unternehmen sind durch die Erkenntnisse abzuleiten?

Voraussetzungen : • Die Masterarbeit kann auf Deutsch oder Englisch verfasst werden. • Geringe Spanisch- oder Französischkenntnisse (kein notwendiges Kriterium)

Einstiegsliteratur :

• Leeflang, Peter; Wieringa, Jaap; Bijmolt, Tammo; Pauwels, Koen (2015), Modeling Markets, New York: Springer.

• Weyler, Stephan (2013), Wirkungen von Markenkrisen, Wiesbaden: Springer. • Cleeren, Kathleen; Dekimpe, Marnik; Helsen, Kristian (2013), Rising from the Ashes:

How Brands and Categories Can Overcome Product-Harm-Crisis, Journal of Marketing, 77 (2), 58-77.

• Ho, N. F.; Wang, D. H.; Scott, J. V. (2012), A Global Analysis of Corporate Social Performance: The Effects of Cultural and Geographic Environments, Journal of Business Ethics, 107(4), 423-433.

Betreuer: M. Sc. Samuel Stäbler

University of Cologne – Marketing Area Prof. Dr. Marc Fischer, Prof. Dr. Werner Reinartz, Prof. Dr. Franziska Völckner Contact Magdalena Bekk: bekk@wiso.uni-koeln.de, +49-221-470-2599 2) The Impact of Branding on Firm Risk

Branding is widely recognized as an important marketing activity and marketers are under increas-ing pressure to prove the value relevance of branding for firms. In response to this call, a growing body of literature has dealt with the impact of branding on shareholder value and firm risks. While many studies examine the influence of branding on stock returns of firm, little attention has been paid to its effect on stock returns risk of firm (firm risk). For managers, it is crucial to take firm risk into account, because without doing so, they cannot assess “whether expected returns offer ade-quate compensation for the inherent level of risk” (Anderson, 2006, P. 587). In the literature, firm risk can be viewed from different perspectives. Most studies examine risk from debt-holder and equity-holder perspectives. The equity-holder risk again can be decomposed into systematic and unsystematic equity risk. Recently, researchers have started to distinguish between upside and downside equity risk. The aim of this thesis is to describe the components of firm risk from different perspectives. Moreover, this work is expected to give an extensive literature review on the branding effect on firm risk. Optionally, an own empirical test can be developed in order to prove the results in the extant literature and meanwhile give new and interesting insights on the relationship between branding and firm risk.

The objectives of this work are to : • describe the components of firm risk from different perspectives • give a comprehensive literature review on the impact of branding on firm risk • determine potential mediators or/and moderators that influence the relationship between

branding and firm risk as well as strategies that can be used as risk control mechanisms (e.g. portfolio strategy)

• develop an own empirical test based on the Interbrand data, COMPUSTAT or Datastream (optional)

• show the theoretical and managerial implications as well as limitations.

This master thesis can be written in English or German.

Requirements :

• Good grades, basic knowledge in Finance as well as skills of statistic softwares (e.g. Excel, SPSS) are advantageous

Initial Readings :

• Luo, X. and C. B. Bhattacharya (2009),), "The Debate over Doing Good: Corporate Social Performance, Strategic Marketing Levers, and Firm-Idiosyncratic Risk,"Journal of Market-ing, 73 (6), 198-213.

• Rego, Lopo L., Billett, Matthew T., and Neil A. Morgan (2009), “Consumer-Based Brand Equity and Firm Risk”, Journal of Marketing, 73 (6), 47-60.

• Tuli, K. R. and S. G. Bharadwaj (2009), "Customer Satisfaction and Stock Returns Risk”, Journal of Marketing, 73 (6), 184-197.

• Bharadwaj, S. G., K. R. Tuli, and A. Bonfrer (2011), "The Impact of Brand Quality on Shareholder Wealth”, Journal of Marketing, 75 (5), 88-104.

• Anderson, E. W. (2006), "Invited Commentary - Linking Service and Finance," Marketing Science, 25 (6), 587-589.

Supervisor: M. Sc. Kezheng Xu

University of Cologne – Marketing Area Prof. Dr. Marc Fischer, Prof. Dr. Werner Reinartz, Prof. Dr. Franziska Völckner Contact Magdalena Bekk: bekk@wiso.uni-koeln.de, +49-221-470-2599 3) Der Einfluss der Marketingbudgetierung auf den F irmenwert – eine empirische Ana-lyse Zahlreiche Studien innerhalb der Marketing-Finance Interface Forschung zeigen, dass Marke-tinginvestitionen wie Werbeausgaben einen positiven Effekt auf den Firmenwert, also die Be-wertung eines Unternehmens am Kapitalmarkt ausüben. Ein weiterer Strang der Marketing-wissenschaft beschäftigt sich mit der gewinnoptimalen Gestaltung von Marketingbudgets. Da-bei geht es zum einen um die Bestimmung des optimalen Gesamtbudgets, zum anderen um die optimale Verteilung (Allokation) dieses Budgets auf Marketingeinheiten wie Marketingin-strumente oder Produkte. Bislang mangelt es an Studien in der Literatur, die diese beiden Forschungsfelder integriert. Ziel der Arbeit ist es daher, den Einfluss der Marketingbudgetie-rung auf den Firmenwert auf Basis einer empirischen Studie zu untersuchen.

Mögliche Fragestellungen :

• Welche Zusammenhänge zwischen der Abweichung von optimalem Gesamt-budget/optimaler Budgetallokation und der Aktienrendite eines Unternehmens lassen sich theoretisch herleiten?

• Wie können optimales Gesamtbudget und optimale Budgetallokation im Rahmen eines Stock Return Response Models operationalisiert werden?

• Welche Ergebnisse zeigen sich in der empirischen Analyse? Hat, analog zum „Flat Maximum Principle“, die Optimalität der Budgetallokation einen größeren Einfluss auf die Aktienrendite als die Optimalität des Gesamtbudgets? Von welcher Allokationsre-gel profitieren Unternehmen (und Aktionäre) am meisten?

Hinweis :

Die Datengrundlage wird vom Lehrstuhl zur Verfügung gestellt. Voraussetzung für eine erfolgreiche Arbeit ist ein ausgeprägtes Interesse am empirischen Arbeiten.

Literatur :

• Fischer, Marc, Sönke Albers, Nils Wagner, and Monika Frie (2011), “Dynamic Market-ing Budget Allocation across Countries, Products, and Marketing Activities,“ Market-ing Science, 30 (4), 568-585.

• Fischer, Marc and Alexander Himme (2012), “The Financial Brand Value Chain: Mod-eling and Testing Its Value Relevance,“ working paper, University of Cologne.

• Joshi, Amit and Dominique Hanssens (2010), “The Direct and Indirect Effects of Ad-vertising Spending on Firm Value,“ Journal of Marketing, 74 (January), 20-33.

• Mantrala, Murali K. (2002), “Allocating Marketing Resources, “ in Handbook of Mar-keting, Barton Weitz and Robin Wensley (eds.), London: Sage Publications, 409–435.

Betreuer: Dipl.-Kfm. Alexander Edeling

University of Cologne – Marketing Area Prof. Dr. Marc Fischer, Prof. Dr. Werner Reinartz, Prof. Dr. Franziska Völckner Contact Magdalena Bekk: bekk@wiso.uni-koeln.de, +49-221-470-2599 4) Wie wichtig ist Onlinekommunikation? Eine vergle ichende Analyse verschiedener Pro-duktkategorien (empirisch)

Mit der zunehmenden Verbreitung des Internets und moderner Kommunikationstechnologien nimmt auch die Anzahl verfügbarer Werbekanäle zu. Die Effektivität einzelner Kommunikationska-näle wird durch verschiedene Faktoren determiniert. Beispielsweise untersuchen Bart, Stephen und Sarvary (2014) welche Produkte am besten für mobile advertising geeignet sind. Über derar-tige Fragen zur Werbeeffektivität hinausgehend stellt sich insgesamt die Frage, wie relevant ein-zelne Kommunikationskanäle für Konsumenten sind. Dabei ist anzunehmen, dass diese Relevanz in Abhängigkeit der Produktkategorie variiert. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, einen Über-blick über verfügbare Medienkanäle zu geben und insbesondere die Relevanz der Onlinekommu-nikation in verschiedenen Produktkategorien (Online Media Relevance in Category) unter Verwen-dung eines standardisierten Fragebogens herauszuarbeiten. Diesen gilt es im Rahmen der Arbeit zu entwickeln, in einer Befragung anzuwenden und schließlich auszuwerten. Gewonnene Erkennt-nisse, Limitationen und Implikationen für Forschung und Praxis werden abgeleitet.

Die Ziele der Arbeit sind : • Welche Medienkanäle stehen für Werbezwecke zur Verfügung? Wann werden einzelne

Kommunikationskanäle verwendet und wann sind sie effektiv? Welche Rolle spielt dabei die jeweilige Produktkategorie?

• Wie kann die Relevanz der Onlinekommunikation in verschiedenen Produktkategorien ge-messen werden? Wie relevant ist die Onlinekommunikation im Vergleich zur Offlinekom-munikation? Gibt es Unterschiede in der Relevanz entlang der Kriterien paid, owned, und earned media?

• Welche Implikationen können daraus für Forschung und Praxis abgeleitet werden?

Diese Masterarbeit kann auf Deutsch oder Englisch verfasst werden.

Literatur :

• Bart, Yakov, Andrew T. Stephen, und Miklos Sarvary (2014), Which Products Are Best Suited to Mobile Advertising? A Field Study of Mobile Display Advertising Effects on Consumer Attitudes and Intentions, Journal of Consumer Research, 51(3), 270-285.

• Fischer, Marc, Franziska Völckner, und Hendrik Sattler (2010), How Important Are Brands? A Cross-Category, Cross-Country Study, Journal of Marketing Research, 47(5), 823-839.

• Danaher, Peter J. and Tracey S. Dagger (2013), Comparing the Relative Effectiveness of Advertising Channels: A Case Study of a Multimedia Blitz Campaign, Journal of Marketing Research, 50(4), 517-534.

• Draganska, Michaela, Wesley R. Hartmann, und Gena Stanglein (2014), Internet Versus Television Advertising: A Brand-Building Comparison, Journal of Marketing Research, 51(5), 578-590.

• Stephen, Andrew T. und Jeff Galak (2012), The Effects of Traditional and Social Earned Media on Sales: A Study of a Microlending Marketplace, Journal of Marketing Research, 49(5), 624-639.

Betreuerin: M. Sc. Birte Diepers

University of Cologne – Marketing Area Prof. Dr. Marc Fischer, Prof. Dr. Werner Reinartz, Prof. Dr. Franziska Völckner Contact Magdalena Bekk: bekk@wiso.uni-koeln.de, +49-221-470-2599 5) Does Migration Background Matter? – An Empirical Assessment of the Effect of Mi-gration Background on Insufficient Effort Respondin g to Surveys

In marketing, measurement on psychological scales is a standard method to assess latent constructs. Measures for these constructs are of uttermost importance for researchers and managers, e.g., for the explanation of consumer behavior. However, their validity may be in-flated because respondents’ answers may reveal an insufficient effort in responding to surveys. Researchers have shown that cultural norms (e.g., Wong, Rindfleisch, and Burroughs 2004) and mental fatigue (e.g., de Jong et al. 2008) drive these biases. Both have lately gained im-portance due to globalization and migration processes. Respondents with cultural back-grounds different to the researcher may experience high difficulties to understand the meaning and connotations of scale items as well as the survey instructions. Their motivation to precisely read instructions and items and to give true answers should be respectively low. However, studies address both aspects only separately yet; research lacks a joined framework and an empirical test of the effect.

The objectives of this project are :

• Literature review on cultural and migration influences on response biases and patterns as well as insufficient effort responding in survey research

• Theoretical conceptualization of the influence of migration background on insufficient effort responding to surveys

• Development of an empirical test to assess the effect • Application of the empirical study, statistical analysis of its results, and implications of

the interaction of migration background and scale length for research and practice

This master thesis can be written in English or German.

Initial Readings :

• Baumgartner, Hans and Jan-Benedict Steenkamp (2001), “Response Styles in Market-ing Research: A Cross-National Investigation,“ Journal of Marketing Research, 38 (2), 143-156.

• De Jong, Martijn G., Jan-Benedict Steenkamp, Jean-Paul Fox and Hans Baumgartner (2008), “Using Item response Theory to Measure Extreme Response Style in Market Research: A Global Investigation,” Journal of Marketing Research, 45 (February), 104-115.

• DeVellis, Robert F. (2012), Scale Development: Theory and Applications, 3rd ed., Los Angeles et al.: Sage.

• Marín, Gerardo, Raymond J. Gamba and Barbara V. Marín (1992), “Extreme Response Style and Acquiescence Among Hispanics,“ Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 23(4), 498-509.

• Wong, Nancy, Aric Rindfleisch and James E. Burroughs (2003), “Do Reverse-Worded Items Confound Measures in Cross-Cultural Consumer Research? The Case of the Material Values Scale,“ Journal of Consumer Research, 30(June), 72-91.

• Oppenheimer, Daniel M., Tom Meyvis, and Nicolas Davidenko (2009), “Instructional Manipulation Checks: Detecting Satisficing to Increase Satistical Power,” Journal of Experimantal Social Psychology, 45, 867-872.

Supervisor: Dipl.-Wirt.-Ing. Eric Lennartz

University of Cologne – Marketing Area Prof. Dr. Marc Fischer, Prof. Dr. Werner Reinartz, Prof. Dr. Franziska Völckner Contact Magdalena Bekk: bekk@wiso.uni-koeln.de, +49-221-470-2599 6) Relative Importance of Determinants in Pay-What- You-Want Pricing Decisions – A Cross-Cultural Study

Finding the optimal price for a product or service is one of the most important managerial decisions with respect to product management. In recent years, participative pricing strategies gained more and more popularity and such strategies are no longer limited to the classic auc-tion model. One specific pricing mechanism called “Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW)”, in which the buyer gains full control over the price of a product, has received more and more attention by practitioners and researchers. Due to the unexpected but considerable economic success of this pricing strategy, ranging from online music offers to lunch buffets and services, both the functionality and the underlying behavioral basis of the innovative pricing mechanism has been subject of recent academic discussion. Nevertheless, most studies focus on the decision mak-ing process itself, but not on the relative importance of factors that influence the purchase decision. Particularly, no study to date focuses on such determinants in a cross-cultural con-text. Hence, this thesis aims on providing a general understanding of the behavioral factors that influence the PWYW mechanism and to identify potential differences in purchase decision across cultures. The objectives of this thesis are to :

• Define which constructs and factors influence consumer behavior when making a pric-ing decision within the PYWY environment.

• Analyze how the empirical results regarding PWYW pricing can be structured and in-terpreted.

• Derive hypothesis why those determinants should have differential influence across cultures.

• Empirically test for cross-cultural differences. • Interpret the results and derive managerial implications.

Initial Readings :

• Kim, J. Y., M. Natter, and M. Spann (2009), Pay What You Want : A New Participative Pricing Mechanism, Journal of Marketing, 73 (1), 44-58.

• Kim, J. Y., M. Natter, and M. Spann (2010), Kish: Where consumers pay as they wish, Review of Marketing Science, 8 (2), 1-12.

• Leon, F.J., J.A. Noguera, and J.T. Sanchez (2012), How much would you like to pay? Trust, Reciprocity, and Prosocial Motivations in El Trato, Social Sciences Information, 51 (3), 389-417.

• Miller, K.M., R. Hofstetter, H. Krohmer, and Z.J. Zang (2011), How should consumers‘ willingness to pay be measured? An Empirical Comparison of State-Of-The-Art Ap-proaches, Journal of Marketing Research, 48 (1), 172-184.

• DellaViga, S. (2010), Consumers who care, Science, 329 (5989), 287-288.

Supervisor: Dipl.-Kfm. Max Backhaus

University of Cologne – Marketing Area Prof. Dr. Marc Fischer, Prof. Dr. Werner Reinartz, Prof. Dr. Franziska Völckner Contact Magdalena Bekk: bekk@wiso.uni-koeln.de, +49-221-470-2599 7) Analyse der Wertschöpfungskette Ernährungswirtschaft Die Ernährungswirtschaft in Deutschland (und in den westlichen Ländern) ist eine weit entwi-ckelte Branche und sehr bedeutend für die gesamte Volkswirtschaft. Die vertikale Wert-schöpfungskette in der Ernährungswirtschaft besteht, vereinfacht ausgedrückt, aus der Ur-produktion (Landwirtschaft), dem verarbeitenden Gewerbe (Ernährungsindustrie), dem Han-del, und dem Endverbraucher. Im hochkompetitiven Umfeld in Deutschland lässt sich fest-stellen, dass es an vielen Stellen in der Wertschöpfungskette zu Spannungen kommt. Dies äußert sich zum Beispiel durch die z.T. hohe Unzufriedenheit der beteiligten Akteure über die sehr geringe Margen, den sehr hohen Wettbewerbsdruck und die allgemeine Qualität der Wertschöpfung (z.B. Wertschätzung beim Verbraucher, Qualität der Lebensmittel). Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es:

- in Form einer Sektoruntersuchung, die Strukturen und Wettbewerbsbedingungen in dieser vertikalen Wertschöpfungskette zu analysieren und

- anhand von Sekundärdaten Kenntnisse über das Ausmaß der aktuellen Wertschöp-fung in den untersuchten Märkten zu gewinnen.

Voraussetzungen:

• Gute Noten, hohe Motivation an diesem Schnittstellenthema von BWL und VWL zu arbeiten und Interesse an Sekundärdatenanalyse

• Vorwissen in VWL sind von Vorteil Die Masterarbeit soll auf Deutsch verfasst werden. Quellen: Mike Dawson (2015) Mr. Illy talks espresso and illycaffè [http://www.german-retail-blog.com/topic/past-blogs/Coffee-talk-with-Illycaffs-Mr-Illy-319] Bundeskartellamt, Sektoruntersuchungen [http://www.bundeskartellamt.de/DE/Wirtschaftsbereiche/Sektoruntersuchungen/sektorunter-suchungen_node.html] Lebensmittelzeitung (2013) „Journal Wertschöpfung“ 19. April. European Commission (2014), Final report of the “High Level Forum for a better functioning food supply chain” [http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=7838] Betreuer: Prof. Werner Reinartz [Please continue reading on the next page]

University of Cologne – Marketing Area Prof. Dr. Marc Fischer, Prof. Dr. Werner Reinartz, Prof. Dr. Franziska Völckner Contact Magdalena Bekk: bekk@wiso.uni-koeln.de, +49-221-470-2599 8) The Effect of Sensory Distance on Consumers’ Beh avior

Construal level theory (CLT) proposes that psychological distance (i.e., temporal, social, spa-tial, and hypothetical distance) changes people’s responses to future events by changing the way people mentally represent those events. The greater the psychological distance, the more likely are events to be represented in terms of a few abstract features that convey the perceived essence of the events (high-level construals) rather than in terms of more concrete and inci-dental details of the events (low-level construals) (Trope and Liberman 2003). According to CLT, an event, such as the purchase of a product, is psychologically distant when it is not part of one’s direct experience (Trope and Liberman 2003). For example, consumers may evaluate a preannounced new product long before it is available for purchase (temporal distance), or they may evaluate a product for someone else rather than for themselves (social distance) (Bornemann and Homburg 2011).

But what do the results according to CLT mean for the context of sensory distance? How does psychological distance in the context of sensory distance affect consumers’ behavior?

In this master thesis, these questions will be answered by reviewing and structuring the rele-vant literature and developing a conceptual framework concerning the effect of sensory dis-tance on consumers’ behavior and its moderating variables.

The objectives of this project are to :

• Review and structure literature on psychological distance in the context of sensory dis-tance.

• Develop a conceptual framework concerning the effect of sensory distance on consum-ers’ behavior and its boundary conditions.

• Derive implications for retailers and further research.

Requirements : Good grades.

This master thesis can be written in English or German.

Initial Readings :

• Bornemann, Torsten and Christian Homburg (2011), “Psychological Distance and the Dual Role of Price,” Journal of Consumer Research, 38 (3), 490–504.

• Kardes, Frank R., Maria L. Cronley, and John Kim (2006), “Construal-Level Effects on Preference Stability, Preference-Behavior Correspondence, and the Suppression of Competing Brands,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 16 (2), 135–44.

• Liberman, Nira, Yaacov Trope, and Cheryl Wakslak (2007), “Construal Level Theory and Consumer Behavior,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 17 (2), 113–17.

• Trope, Yaacov and Nira Liberman (2003), “Temporal Construal,” Psychological Re-view, 110 (3), 403–21.

Supervisor : M. Sc. Vanessa Junc

University of Cologne – Marketing Area Prof. Dr. Marc Fischer, Prof. Dr. Werner Reinartz, Prof. Dr. Franziska Völckner Contact Magdalena Bekk: bekk@wiso.uni-koeln.de, +49-221-470-2599 9) Consumers in crises – How do consumers adapt the ir purchase decisions to busi-ness cycles?

The recent global economic crisis has sparked a new interest of managers as well as research-ers in the effect of business cycles on consumers purchasing behavior.

Economic cycles are repetitive in nature and affect not only businesses’ profits but also con-sumers’ wages. Faced with changes in their income, consumers adapt their purchasing be-havior. Of special interest in this context are FMCGs (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) as the purchase of many FMCG product categories cannot be postponed even in times of crisis. Hence, consumers need to develop additional adaptive strategies. This adaption behavior, in turn, is not homogeneous across consumers but can be used to group consumers into distinct typologies (Hampson and McGoldrick 2013). Understanding these heterogeneous consumer types and their adaptions in purchase behavior is vital for producers and retailers in order to maximize profits and market shares along the business cycle.

The goal of this thesis is to:

• Literature review on purchasing behavior, on adaption strategies and the underlying rationales, as well as on typologies of consumers in the FMCG retail context.

• Synthesis of literature review into a framework of consumer types regarding their socio-demographics and adaptions in purchase behavior over the business cycle.

• Generate in-depth insights into consumer typologies by performing focus group discus-sions.

Requirements:

• Good grades and an interest in consumer behavior and the psychology of decision making.

• Good interpersonal skills for a successful execution of the focus group discussions.

This master thesis can be written in English or German.

Suggested Readings:

Hampson, Daniel P. and Peter J. McGoldrick(2013), “A typology of adaptive shopping patterns in recession,” Journal of Business Research, 66, 831-8.

Ailawadi, Kusum L., Scott A. Neslin, and Karen Gedenk (2001), “Pursuing the Value-Con-scious Consumer: Store Brands versus National Brand Promotions,” Journal of Marketing, 65 (1), 71–89.

Ang, Swee H., Siew M. Leong, and Philip Kotler (2000), “The Asian Apocalypse: Crisis Mar-keting for Consumers and Businesses,” Long Range Planning, 33, 97-119.

Dutu, Amalia (2014), “Understanding Consumers’ Behaviour Change in Uncertainty Condi-tions: A Psychological Perspective,” in Handbook of Research on Retailer-Consumer Relation-ship Development, Fabio Musso and Elena Druica, (eds.). IGI Global, 45-69.

Schulz, Marlen, Birgit Mack, and Ortwin Renn (Eds.) (2012), Fokusgruppen in der empirischen Sozialwissenschaft, Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

Supervisor: Julian Wichmann (M. Sc.)

University of Cologne – Marketing Area Prof. Dr. Marc Fischer, Prof. Dr. Werner Reinartz, Prof. Dr. Franziska Völckner Contact Magdalena Bekk: bekk@wiso.uni-koeln.de, +49-221-470-2599 10) Rethinking sales channels - The impact of the m ulti-channel customer journey on salesforce compensation

Many industries have traditionally relied on a strong personal sales channel (e.g. insurance, car dealers, and industrial goods) as a means to sell their products to customers. Conse-quently, the salespeople were the “face to the customer” which put them in a powerful position vis-à-vis the firm they represented and provided them with attractive earning opportunities as each “deal” was attributed to their sales performance and compensated respectively. In recent years, the online channel has evolved to an equivalent channel (also covering information search, comparison, advice, purchase, complaint handling, cross-selling, etc.). This is of high relevance for all companies employing large personal sales forces as it has severe implication for the design of the sales force compensation. The goal of this thesis is to review the existing literature on sales force compensation and to identify strategies to cope with the new multi-channel customer journey in compensation design. The objectives of this thesis are the following:

� Create and compile a systematic overview of the existing literature on sales force compensation and channel attribution

� Conduct interviews with sales managers (from both B2C and B2B) to detect relevant contextual variables and principles/requirements for “new” sales force compensation

� Analyze which different factors play an important role both from a theoretical and practical perspective and derive propositions for how these factors impact the optimal design of salesforce compensation

� Deduce implications for managers and identify relevant areas for future research

Requirements: Good grades, high motivation and interest in sales management as well as in working empirically/conducting interviews. This master thesis can be written in English (pre-ferred) or German.

Initial Readings:

Coughlan, Anne T., and Kissan Joseph (2012), “Sales Force Compensation: Research Insights and Research Potential,” in Handbook of Business-to-Business Marketing, G. L. Lilien and R. Grewal, eds., Northhampton, MA: ISBM, Pennsylvania State University, Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc., 473–95.

Krafft, Manfred, Sönke Albers, and Rajiv Lal (2004), “Relative Explanatory Power of Agency Theory and Transaction Cost Analysis in German Salesforces,” International Journal of Research in Marketing, 21(3), 265–83.

Li, Hongshuang (Alice), and P. K. Kannan (2014), “Attributing Conversions in a Multichannel Online Marketing Environment: An Empirical Model and a Field Experiment,” Journal of Marketing Research, 51(1), 40–56.

Palmatier, Robert W., Lisa K. Scheer, and Jan-Benedict E.M. Steenkamp (2007), “Customer Loyalty to Whom? Managing the Benefits and Risks of Salesperson-Owned Loyalty,” Journal of Marketing Research, 44(May), 185–99.

Supervisor: Dipl.-Kfm. Manuel Berkmann

University of Cologne – Marketing Area Prof. Dr. Marc Fischer, Prof. Dr. Werner Reinartz, Prof. Dr. Franziska Völckner Contact Magdalena Bekk: bekk@wiso.uni-koeln.de, +49-221-470-2599 11) Mapping the customer’s path to purchase

For an efficient budget allocation, firms need to be aware of the contribution of each imple-mented marketing channel to the customers’ purchase decision. However, the proper attribu-tion of all relevant channel activities is a challenging task, which requires detailed knowledge on the customers’ paths to purchase. “Suppose consumer A saw firm X’s display advertisement for its product when browsing a webpage, clicked on the ad, and was linked to the product webpage at time t1. Later, she searched for firm X’s product in a search engine and clicked on the firm’s search advertisement there at time t2. Shortly afterward, she made a purchase at firm X’s website at time t3. In this case, how shall we attribute this purchase and evaluate the respective conversion effects of the two advertisement clicks?” (Xu, Duan, and Whinston 2014, p. 1393) While managers and also former cross-channel literature mostly followed the “last-click”-logic, i.e., “value gets attributed solely to the marketing channel that directly preceded the conver-sion” (Anderl et al. 2014, p. 3), a new stream of attribution literature recently emerged, which focuses on the complete customer journey. The goal of this master thesis is to review and structure existing literature on cross-channel effects and channel attribution, to identify the challenges that arise for researchers and firms when mapping the customer’s path to purchase, and to derive theoretical and managerial im-plications. The objectives of this thesis are the following:

• Review and structure the existing cross-channel and channel attribution literature. • Identify the challenges in modeling the path to purchase. • Conduct interviews with managers to figure out how firms deal with this topic. • Derive implications for managers and future research based on these theoretical and

empirical insights.

Requirements: Good grades, high motivation, interest in channel management.

Initial Readings:

• Anderl, Eva, Ingo Becker, Florian v. Wangenheim, and Jan Schumann (2014), “Map-ping the Customer Journey: A Graph-Based Framework for Online Attribution Model-ing,” Working Paper.

• Avery, Jill, Thomas T. Steenburgh, John Deighton, and Maria Caravella (2012), “Add-ing Bricks to Clicks: Predicting the Patterns of Cross-Channel Elasticities Over Time,” Journal of Marketing, 76(3), 96-111.

• Xu, Lizhen, Jason Duan, and Andrew Whinston (2014), “Path to Purchase: A Mutually Exciting Point Process Model for Online Advertising and Conversion,” Management Science, 60 (6), 1392-1412.

Supervisor: Dr. Monika Käuferle

University of Cologne – Marketing Area Prof. Dr. Marc Fischer, Prof. Dr. Werner Reinartz, Prof. Dr. Franziska Völckner Contact Magdalena Bekk: bekk@wiso.uni-koeln.de, +49-221-470-2599 12) The conceptualization and operationalization of the influence of marketing Different marketing constructs are used interchangeably in the marketing literature. This means that constructs such as marketing capability, marketing intensity, and marketing per-formance are either defined or operationalized identically. However, they are distinct from one another. When looking at the conceptualization and operationalization of those constructs, a huge heterogeneity exists in the marketing and management literature. The literature has to be structured according to the relevant marketing constructs. The goal is to identify prominent marketing constructs, misspecifications and overlaps between different marketing constructs and to critically evaluate their appropriateness. Based on a comprehensive review of the man-agement and marketing literature, precise and definable definitions and operationalization for the respective constructs should be derived. The objectives of this project are to :

• Review and systematically structure the marketing and management literature on marketing constructs

• Develop a conceptual framework which gives an overall perspective on the topic • Compile and present the constructs that extant marketing and management literature

uses to capture marketing influence • Compile, classify and evaluate the different marketing constructs and determine the

extent of construct misspecification • Provide recommendations and guidelines for researchers and practitioners for con-

ceptualizing and operationalizing marketing constructs

Requirements : • Excellent grades, high motivation and genuine interest in conceptualization and oper-

ationalization in marketing This master thesis can be written in English or German. Initial Readings :

• Day, George S. (2011), “Closing the Marketing Capabilities Gap,” Journal of Market-ing, 75 (4), 183-195.

• MacInnis, Deborah, J. (2011), “A Framework for Conceptual Contributions in Market-ing,“ Journal of Marketing, 75 (4), 136-154.

• O’Sullivan, Don, and Andrew V. Abela (2007), “Marketing Performance Measurement Ability and Firm Performance,” Journal of Marketing, 71 (April), 79-93.

Supervisor: M. Sc. Annette Ptok

University of Cologne – Marketing Area Prof. Dr. Marc Fischer, Prof. Dr. Werner Reinartz, Prof. Dr. Franziska Völckner Contact Magdalena Bekk: bekk@wiso.uni-koeln.de, +49-221-470-2599 13) The Relevance of Social Media in Business-to-Bu siness Markets.

In recent years communication has evolved from the traditional one-to-many model to a many-to-many model largely based on social media. This development emancipates users and erodes information asymmetries by a democratization of content, a phenomenon well accepted in consumer markets. Further, platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. enable managers to achieve marketing objectives in entirely new ways. They can spread content through social media, e.g. through viral campaigns, thereby reaching out to existing as well as new customers, stimulating electronic word-of-mouth (WOM) communication as well as ob-taining valuable market insights. While the importance of social media is well accepted in con-sumer markets, business-to-business (B2B) markets show considerable differences and do not provide a natural fit with social media. The goal of this master thesis is to examine the role social media play in B2B markets. Students are expected to pursue a grounded theory ap-proach, i.e. to develop a conceptual framework based on qualitative in-depth interviews with industry experts. The objectives of this thesis are the following:

• Review and structure the existing sparse literature on social media in B2B markets as well as to gain expertise in the methodology of grounded theory.

• Conduct and analyze in-depth interviews with managers. • Derive a conceptual framework as well as implications for managers dealing with so-

cial media in B2B markets.

Requirements: Good grades, high motivation to conduct and analyze expert interviews, inter-est in social media and B2B markets.

Initial (Methodological) Readings:

• Byrant, Anthony and Kathy Charmaz (2010) The SAGE Handbook of Grounded The-ory. Sage Publications, London

• Glaser, Barney G. and Anselm L. Strauss (1967) The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Strategies for Qualitative Research. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London

• Kohli, Ajay and Bernard J. Jaworski (1990) Market Orientation: The Construct, Re-search Propositions, and Managerial Implications. Journal of Marketing, 54 (2): 1-18

Supervisor: Dr. Mark Elsner

University of Cologne – Marketing Area Prof. Dr. Marc Fischer, Prof. Dr. Werner Reinartz, Prof. Dr. Franziska Völckner Contact Magdalena Bekk: bekk@wiso.uni-koeln.de, +49-221-470-2599 14) Music in marketing – a state-of-the-art

Music, sounds or songs are omnipresent in marketing activities, e.g. in TV or radio advertising or when consumers enter stores (background music). Sometimes brands are strongly associ-ated with a specific jingle (e.g., Nokia, Telekom) or a piece of music (e.g., Beck’s). Moreover, interactions of music and other marketing or branding variables, e.g. a congruence between color and music, result in improved consumer perceptions compared to incongruence. Addi-tionally, research indicates that specific sounds are associated with specific (product) charac-teristics. For instance, front vowels (compared to back vowels) are associated with perceptions of harshness. As such, music or sound plays a very important role in influencing consumer perceptions and behavior.

The aim of this master thesis is twofold. Firstly, the master thesis should give a comprehensive literature review on the effects of music in various marketing contexts, e.g., shopping environ-ments and advertising. Moreover, research on sound symbolism and audio branding should be revised. Secondly, the master student should develop a comprehensive framework that brings together the results of different research streams.

The objectives of this master thesis are to

• Review and structure the literature on music in marketing and sound symbolism (in a broader sense)

• Summarize the findings of empirical research and develop a conceptual framework which gives an overall perspective on the topic

Requirements :

• Excellent grades • High motivation

This master thesis can be written in English or German. You will receive an intense supervi-sion by us. Initial Readings:

• Bruner, Gordon C. (1990), Music, Mood, and Marketing, Journal of Marketing, 54(4), 94– 104.

• Lowrey, Tina M., and L.J. Shrum (2007), Phonetic Symbolism and Brand Name Pref-erence, Journal of Consumer Research, 34(3), 406-414

• Spangenberg, Eric R., Bianca Grohmann, and David E. Sprott (2005), It’s Beginning to Smell (and Sound) a lot like Christmas: The Interactive Effects of Ambient Scent and Music in a Retail Setting, Journal of Business Research, 58(11), 1583–89.

• Zampini, Massimiliano, and Charles Spence (2004), The Role of Auditory Cues in Mod-ulating the Perceived Crispness and Staleness of Potato Chips, Journal of Sensory Studies, 19(5), 347–63.

• Zhu, Rui (Juliet), and Joan Meyers-Levy (2005), Distinguishing between the Meanings of Music: When Background Music Affects Product Perceptions, Journal of Marketing Research, 42(3), 333–45.

Supervisor: Dr. Kristina Klein

University of Cologne – Marketing Area Prof. Dr. Marc Fischer, Prof. Dr. Werner Reinartz, Prof. Dr. Franziska Völckner Contact Magdalena Bekk: bekk@wiso.uni-koeln.de, +49-221-470-2599 15) Wirkung und Charakteristika von Social Media Wo rd-of-Mouth

Word-of-Mouth (WOM) bezeichnet die informelle Kommunikation zwischen Konsumenten über den Besitz, die Nutzung oder Eigenschaften eines Produktes oder einer Dienstleistung. Elektronischer WOM (EWOM) bezeichnet dabei speziell solche Kommunikation, die über das Internet stattfindet, z.B. als Reviews auf Amazon, in Blogs, Foren oder in sozialen Netzwerken. In den letzten Jahren hat die wissenschaftliche Literatur jedoch angefangen, zwischen ver-schiedenen Arten von EWOM zu unterscheiden, denn verschiedene Kanäle unterscheiden sich hinsichtlich ihrer Charakteristika und haben somit auch unterschiedliche Auswirkungen auf das Konsumentenverhalten. Z.B. gibt es Unterschiede, ob WOM anonym als Rezensionen auf Produktbewertungsportalen und in Online-Shops vorliegt oder in sozialen Netzwerken auf-taucht, wo mehr oder minder enge Beziehungen zwischen Sender und Empfänger durch das persönliche Netzwerk gegeben sind.

Im Rahmen dieser Masterarbeit soll untersucht werden, inwieweit verschiedene Arten von Empfehlungen in sozialen Netzwerken die Kaufentscheidung von Konsumenten beeinflussen. Zu diesem Zweck sollen zuerst anhand einer systematischen und breiten Literaturrecherche empirische Studien identifiziert werden, welche sich mit dem Einfluss von EWOM auf die Kau-fentscheidung beschäftigen, wobei ein besonderer Schwerpunkt auf die Unterscheidung ver-schiedener Arten von EWOM gelegt werden soll. Auf Basis der Ergebnisse dieser Literatur-recherche ist ein konzeptioneller Rahmen zu entwickeln, der den bisherigen Stand der Litera-tur zusammenfasst. Zudem soll in enger Zusammenarbeit mit dem Lehrstuhl eine empirische Befragung im Rahmen eines Experiments zum Thema durchgeführt sowie eine erste Daten-auswertung vorgenommen werden. Das Design der Erhebung wird dabei vom Lehrstuhl vor-gegeben.

Anforderungen :

• Gute Noten, hohe Motivation, Interesse am empirischen Arbeiten (d.h. u.a. Fragebo-generstellung, Befragung von Probanden und Ergebnisauswertung)

Die Masterarbeit kann auf Deutsch oder Englisch verfasst werden.

Einstiegsliteratur:

• Eisingerich, A. B., Chun, H. H., Liu, Y., Jia, H., & Bell, S. J. (2014). Why Recommend a Brand Face-to-Face but not on Facebook? How Word-of-Mouth on Online Social Sites Differs from Traditional Word-of-Mouth. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 25(1), 120-128.

• Hennig-Thurau, T., Wiertz, C., & Feldhaus, F. (2014). Does Twitter Matter? The Impact of Microblogging Word of Mouth on Consumers’ Adoption of New Movies. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Forthcoming.

• King, R. A., Racherla, P., & Bush, V. D. (2014). What We Know and Don't Know About Online Word-of-Mouth: A Review and Synthesis of the Literature. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 28(3), 167-183.

Betreuer: Dr. Jan-Michael Becker

University of Cologne – Marketing Area Prof. Dr. Marc Fischer, Prof. Dr. Werner Reinartz, Prof. Dr. Franziska Völckner Contact Magdalena Bekk: bekk@wiso.uni-koeln.de, +49-221-470-2599 16) Der Einsatz von Benutzerinnovationen im Produktentw icklungsprozess Im Rahmen von Produktentwicklungsprozessen werden Produktentwürfe und -designs in Un-ternehmen im klassischen Sinne von eigens darauf spezialisierten Mitarbeitern erstellt. In den letzten Jahren zeichnet sich ab, dass dieser Ansatz zunehmend durch eine neue Form der Produktentwicklung ergänzt und im bestimmten Fällen vollständig ersetzt wird. Durch die In-tegration von Endverbrauchern in den Produktentwicklungsprozess kommt dem Konsumenten als Entwickler und Designer eine neue Rolle zu. In Bezug auf diesen Ansatz konnte gezeigt werden, dass diese Art der Produktentwicklung einen Einfluss auf Größen wie das Kaufver-halten der Kunden, die wahrgenommene Innovationsfähigkeit des Unternehmens oder das Statusempfinden der Kunden hat. Das Ziel der Arbeit ist es, zunächst einen Überblick über den Stand der Forschung zum Thema Benutzerinnovationen im Produktentwicklungsprozess zu geben. Hierzu soll eine Analyse von relevanten empirischen Studien in einschlägigen internationalen und nationalen Fachzeit-schriften durchgeführt werden. Die Ergebnisse der Analyse sollen systematisch aufbereitet und übersichtlich in tabellarischer Form zusammengefasst werden. Die in den Studien unter-suchten Wirkzusammenhänge sollen in einem konzeptionellen Gesamtmodell visualisiert wer-den. Anschließend soll im Rahmen einer empirischen Studie ein Pretest zu diesem Thema durchgeführt werden. Das Untersuchungsdesign und der Fragebogen werden dabei vom Lehr-stuhl vorgegeben. Anforderungen : • Gute Noten, hohe Motivation, Interesse an der Analyse empirischer Studienergebnisse

und selbstständigen Datenauswertungen. Die Masterarbeit kann auf Deutsch oder Englisch verfasst werden. Einstiegsliteratur :

• Fuchs et al. (2013): All That Is Users Might Not Be Gold: How Labeling Products as User Designed Backfires in the Context of Luxury Fashion Brands, in: Journal of Mar-keting, 77, September 2013, S. 75 – 91.

• Schreier, Fuchs und Dahl (2012): The Innovation Effect of User Design: Exploring Con-sumers' Innovation Perceptions of Firms Selling Products Designed by Users, in: Jour-nal of Marketing, 76, September 2012, S. 18 – 32.

• Fuchs und Schreier (2011): Customer Empowerment in New Product Development, in: Journal of Product Innovation Management, 28, January 2011, 17 – 32.

• Hoyer et al. (2010): Consumer Cocreation in New Product Development, in: Journal of Service Research, 13, August 2010, 283 – 296.

Betreuung: Michael Schulz, M.Sc.

University of Cologne – Marketing Area Prof. Dr. Marc Fischer, Prof. Dr. Werner Reinartz, Prof. Dr. Franziska Völckner Contact Magdalena Bekk: bekk@wiso.uni-koeln.de, +49-221-470-2599 17) Der Einfluss von verantwortungslosem Verhalten von Unternehmen auf Konsu-mentenwahrnehmungen und -verhalten//The impact of c orporate irresponsible beha-vior on consumer perceptions and behavior

We live in a world in which companies for many years have caused adverse effects to the environment and disregarded problematic social issues. This is gradually changing, as con-sumers are not satisfied any more with companies just providing products or services of quality at a low price, but rather expect companies to take responsibility for social and environmental issues. For example, honey bees are in great danger but many of our foods rely on honey bees to pollinate the plants. To help save the bees (and with it some of their most important product ingredients) the brand Häagen-Dazs started to donate money to research on honey bees and even set up a bee friendly garden to serve as a model of how a bee friendly environment should look like. In order to satisfy consumers, most companies claim to behave socially and environmentally responsible. But how do consumers react if a company does not live up to its claimed standards? It is the aim of this master thesis to empirically examine how irresponsible actions of a corpo-ration influence consumers’ behavior. A specific focus in this master thesis will be the rele-vance, which the irresponsible actions have to the consumer. An experimental research design shall be developed and tested. This will be done under very close supervision of the Depart-ment of Marketing and Brand Management. The objectives of this project are to :

• Review the literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR). • Empirically test the impact of corporate irresponsible behavior on consumer behavior. • Derive recommendations for theory and practice.

Requirements :

• High motivation and a genuine interest in CSR and consumer behavior. • Creative thinking. • Declared intention to work with statistical software (e.g. SPSS) and photo editing soft-

ware. Knowledge of the software is not required. This master thesis can be written in English or German. Initial Readings :

• Bhattacharya, C. B., & Sen, S. (2004). Doing better at doing good: When, why and how consumers respond to corporate social initiatives. California Management Review, 47, 9−24.

• Grappi, S., Romani, S., & Bagozzi, R. P. (2013). Consumer response to corporate irre-sponsible behavior: Moral emotions and virtues. Journal of Business Research.

• Maignan, I., & Ferrell, O. C. (2004). Corporate social responsibility and marketing: An integrative framework. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 32, 3–19.

• Öberseder, M., Schlegelmilch, B. B., & Murphy, P. E. (2013). CSR practices and con-sumer perceptions. Journal of Business Research, 66, 1839–1851.

• Sen, S., & Bhattacharya, C. B. (2001). Does doing good always lead to doing better? Consumer reactions to corporate social responsibility. Journal of Marketing Research, 38, 225−243.

Supervisor: Dipl.-Psych. Magdalena Bekk

University of Cologne – Marketing Area Prof. Dr. Marc Fischer, Prof. Dr. Werner Reinartz, Prof. Dr. Franziska Völckner Contact Magdalena Bekk: bekk@wiso.uni-koeln.de, +49-221-470-2599 18) Playful experience in marketing – why it matter s and how it is measured Gamification is a new topic in marketing. It is defined as the use of game elements to make a product, brand, application or activity more exciting, immersive, and fun. In other words, gam-ification is a means to render marketing activities and marketing communication more playful and, thus, more engaging for consumers. However, the idea of enhancing consumers’ experi-ence through the addition of “play- or gameful experience” is not completely new. Research on the implementation of advertisements in games (i.e., in-game advertising like product place-ments in sports games; e.g., AUDI, BMW etc. in a Formula 1 racing game), as well as the deployment of branded games (i.e., advergames such as Moorhuhn or Red Bull Racers) has already studied the link between playful experience and consumer outcomes. Unfortunately, no established measure for playful experience exists that could universally be used in different contexts. The aim of this master thesis is twofold. Firstly, a comprehensive literature review on gamifi-cation, advergames, and in-game advertising should reflect the state of the art of existing re-search on the influence of playful experience (or its sub-dimensions) on consumer outcome variables. To understand what playful experience really is, that is, which sub-dimensions this construct comprises, a prior literature research in related areas (e.g., gaming research, game-based learning, etc.) is required and part of this master thesis. Secondly, the master thesis involves an empirical part (the student will receive the survey design and items from us) under very close supervision by the Department of Marketing and Brand Management. After the data collection process, for which the student will be partly responsible, the student will analyze the survey data to establish the validity of a playful experience scale newly developed by the De-partment of Marketing and Brand Management. The objectives of this master thesis are to

• Review the literature on gamification, advergames and in-game advertising. • Summarize the findings of prior empirical research on the link between (sub-dimen-

sions of) playful experience and consumer outcomes. • Analyze the validity of a new playful experience scale.

Requirements :

• Excellent grades and high motivation. • A genuine interest in empirical research and data analysis. • Experience with statistical software (e.g., SPSS) is desirable • The data collection process starts early in April 2015 and requires the student’s physi-

cal presence in Cologne as well as fluent German language skills.

This master thesis can be written in English or German. Initial readings :

• Brockmyer, J. H., Fox, C. M., Curtiss, K. A., McBroom, E., Burkhart, K. M., & Pidruzny, J. N. (2009). The development of the Game Engagement Questionnaire: A measure of engagement in video game-playing. Journal Of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(4), 624-634.

• Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., & Nacke, L. (2011). From game design elements to gamefulness: Defining "gamification". Paper presented at the 15th International

University of Cologne – Marketing Area Prof. Dr. Marc Fischer, Prof. Dr. Werner Reinartz, Prof. Dr. Franziska Völckner Contact Magdalena Bekk: bekk@wiso.uni-koeln.de, +49-221-470-2599

Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments, Tampere, Finland.

• Norman, K. L. (2013). GEQ (Game Engagement/Experience Questionnaire): A Review of Two Papers. Interacting With Computers, 25(4), 278-283.

• Terlutter, R., & Capella, M. L. (2013). The Gamification of Advertising: Analysis and Research Directions of In-Game Advertising, Advergames, and Advertising in Social Network Games. Journal Of Advertising, 42(2/3), 95-112.

Supervisor: René Eppmann, M. Sc.