Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2016, Environment and Natural Resources

This thesis includes two studies that examine perceptions of proenvironmental behaviors and whether members of different social groups differ in their perceptions. The first study explores which attributes of behaviors are perceived to be salient. Proenvironmental behaviors encompass a broad range of behaviors with distinctive characteristics. However, relatively little work has been done to sort environmental behaviors into classes that are psychological meaningful to individuals. This is important because behavioral spillover is more likely when behaviors are conceptually linked. To explore this, we used a sample of 71 participants, containing 30 environmental participants and 41 business participants. We used a repertory grid technique to explore the attributes of behaviors that are most salient to members of distinct social groups by having respondents consider the similarities and differences among a set of behaviors. The results of this first study suggest that individuals are more likely to co-perform behaviors with similar non-social external and descriptive attributes (e.g. outcomes, salient place/domain, etc.) than behaviors involving similar internal decision-making processes and social influences for engagement in that behavior (e.g. deliberation, social norms, etc.). The two participant groups differed little in their perceptions regarding the salience of different behavioral attributes. These findings can be used to inform behaviorally oriented policies and interventions on how to create classifications of behaviors that are meaningful to the public and that capitalize on potential spillover effects from one behavior to the next. The second study explores how proenvironmental behaviors related to social status. Perceived status can affect the diffusion of proenvironmental behaviors and sustainable consumption. However, the status of different forms of sustainable consumption has not been adequately explored. Previous studies suggest that curtailment be (open full item for complete abstract)

BA, Oberlin College, 2016, Sociology

In his 2007 book Shopping Our Way to Safety, sociologist Andrew Szasz coined the term inverted quarantine to describe a phenomenon in the way that Americans react to the changing natural environment. Inverted quarantine, or the impulse to remove one's self from perceived environmental dangers, often manifests in consumption behavior such as consuming only organic food, drinking filtered or bottled water, moving from a city to a suburb, or even being enclosed in a gated community. Although inverted quarantine may result in some form of protection, in the long run it is unsustainable in the face of the changing natural environment. Through investigations in literature and in-depth interviews with Ohio farmers, Oberlin College students, and parents in Fairfield County, Connecticut, this study examines the different way that environmental dangers are perceived and addressed across three different demographics.

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2023, Arts and Sciences: Sociology

Neoliberalism is a politico-economic framework that emphasizes deregulation, free trade, and minimal government intervention in the economy; further, it suggests that social issues are best addressed through market mechanisms. Responsibilization occurs when individuals internalize responsibility for addressing problems caused by large social structures, and is a salient instrument in the inculcation of neoliberal ideology. In this study, I examine ethical consumption within the context of cultural neoliberalism by interviewing 50 self-identified ethical consumers about how they experience responsibilization. I explore the spaces in which they deploy their efforts, the ways they attempt to shape the market through their economic agency, the ideologies that inform their approach, and the way they conceptualize their own identities as ethical consumers. By looking at this from the perspective of the shopper, I am able to capture nuanced emotional experiences. My findings reveal the dilemmas intrinsic in the undertaking of ethical consumption, including instances of role strain and role conflict they encounter, and the frustration and sense of futility they sometimes feel in the face of trying to single-handedly fix global capitalism.

MFIS, Kent State University, 2021, College of the Arts / School of Fashion

Fashion renting, a form of collaborative consumption, is an emerging sustainable business model that extends the product life cycle and minimizes waste garments. Fashion renting has been the topic of interest for multiple studies, and as a result, the current fashion discipline possesses a substantial understanding of the factors that encourage consumers to engage in fashion renting. A limitation, however, is that relatively little attention has been placed on consumers who do not engage in fashion renting. This is an important gap in research especially considering the fact that understanding non-users of products or services often lead to valuable and distinct implications. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to investigate both the user and non-user groups of fashion renting services to obtain a better understanding of the phenomenon. Specifically, two separate focus group interviews for users and non-users are conducted. The interview results are then converted into a survey questionnaire and distributed via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Factor Analysis and MANOVA are conducted to explore whether different sets of factors drive consumers' decision to use or not use fashion renting services. The findings of this study provide meaningful results for fashion researchers as well as practitioners.

Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Ohio University, 2019, Business Administration

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the phenomenon of voyeuristic consumption through the context of the video game streaming platform Twitch. Voyeuristic consumption is a consumption activity where one observes someone else performing the activity and experiences the same enjoyment as to that which they would experience performing the activity themselves. Twitch is a culturally prevalent example of this phenomenon. Design: Research was done in four distinct parts: a literature review, naturalistic inquiry, semi- structured qualitative research, and a two-condition, between subjects field experiment. Findings: This research furthers the definition of voyeuristic consumption within the context of Twitch. It finds that Twitch's ability to play different roles for different users attributes to its success. It also shows that voyeuristic consumption can produce the same levels of enjoyment as the active consumption activity that it replicates. Originality: Voyeuristic consumption has only been examined once prior to this research and within a different context. Thus, this research builds out the phenomenon and creates avenues for future research.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1983, Graduate School

Master of Arts in Economics, Youngstown State University, 2015, Lariccia School of Accounting and Finance

Alcohol involvement in auto crashes, violence, homicide and its associated health consequences is an important concern, and the price (tax) for alcohol may have a significant impact on these behaviors. Although some studies have indicated that total alcohol consumption is responsive to price, little work has focused on the effect of specifically, alcoholic beverage price (tax), considering economic, demographic and regional differences and the time trend on the demand for those beverages, while still accounting for substitution between different types of alcoholic beverages. In this study, I examine the price and tax effect on the demand for alcoholic beverages namely, beer, wine and spirits using a variant of an Almost Ideal Demand System (Banks, Blundell and Lewel, 1997) The study used state level aggregate data on consumption of alcoholic beverages and price from NIAAA and ACCRA respectively. The results indicate that taxes on alcoholic beverages would reduce consumption of all the alcoholic beverages. However, the price elasticities vary considerably between the different types of alcoholic beverages. In consequence, if the aim of a tax is to reduce alcohol consumption and its associated effects, then policy makers should target spirits. On the other hand, if the aim is to raise revenue, then policy makers should target beer and wine. The study used publically available state level aggregate data.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Economics

My research studies how fiscal policies affect an economy and uncovers the cause behind the "Jobless Recovery." The first essay "Consumption Response to Tax Cuts in Life-Cycle Economies" studies the aggregate consumption response to a tax cut in a life-cycle economy. I construct a general equilibrium model where households have a finite lifespan and smooth consumption using one asset. The asset is associated with a stochastic adjustment cost. The model replicates the lifetime mean net worth profile observed in the data. The implied aggregate marginal propensity to consume (MPC) out of the tax cut ranges from 14% to 43%. In contrast to the frictionless version, this model generates a substantial rise in aggregate consumption under the tax cut without needing a large aggregate MPC. The model also indicates the quantitative importance of how a tax cut is financed. The second essay "A Model of the Consumption Response to Government Expenditures" develops a structural model to examine the effect of an increase in government spending. The model has finitely-lived households who smooth consumption using two assets. The first asset is a low return free-to-adjust asset lent by the households to the government; the second asset is a high return costly-to-adjust asset used as capital by a representative firm. Working-age households supply a fixed amount of labor to the firm. The government raises taxes to finance its spending and maintains a balanced budget. Prices are perfectly flexible and adjust to clear all markets. The model generates an interesting result: the rise in government spending crowds out investment and drives down total output. Therefore, this paper shows that a rise in government spending can lead to a recession in a general equilibrium model with capital, flexible prices, and a fixed labor supply. The result is reversed if I endogenize labor supply by allowing households to choose their hours of work. Specifically, consumption drops substantially, caus (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2014, Apparel, Textiles, and Merchandising (Education)

Counterfeiting in general has become a worldwide phenomenon, and the production of fashion merchandise is at the forefront of this economic predicament. As severity of the issue rises, businesses and scholars suggest that consumer education and awareness could be the tool to lessening the impact of counterfeit manufacturing (Berman, 2008; Cheek & Easterling, 2008; Juggessur, 2011; Marcketti & Shelley, 2009; Phillips, 2005). This study presents the topic of counterfeiting, its negative consequences and the fight against this illegal business. The study uses consumer education as a method of creative vigilance toward the public in an effort to find out whether this alters future purchase intentions of counterfeit merchandise. Results indicate strong support for the efficacy of a consumer education seminar with regard to knowledge, attitudes, and planned behavior toward the consumption of counterfeit merchandise. Additionally, three variables, parents' annual income, sex, and country of citizenship, introduced some variation among participants that suggest there are differences based on demographic factors. After the educational seminar, students had a greater understanding of counterfeiting, felt more knowledgeable about the topic, acknowledged that it is illegal, realized how it affects the global economy and retailers, and linked it to social issues such as organized crime, terrorism, child labor, and sweatshops. In congruence with scholars who suggest consumer education as a vehicle to decrease counterfeit consumption, participants agreed that this seminar was educational and informative, and an effective means towards minimalizing the consumption patterns of counterfeit merchandise. Because participants gained a significant amount of knowledge in the educational seminar, this could affect preferences for authentic and counterfeit merchandise, and reduce intent to purchase counterfeits. An educational session would be expected to have relatively immediate (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2012, Human Ecology: Family Resource Management

Recent studies across a number of countries evidence a substantial decline in household consumption expenditure around the time of retirement. This phenomenon, coined as the retirement consumption puzzle, brings a challenge to the traditional life-cycle model. The life-cycle model implies that household consumption should be continuous over time including the transition to retirement, provided that retirement is a foreseeable event. To address the retirement consumption puzzle, this dissertation brings current evidence by carrying out four studies on U.S. household consumption behavior at retirement. Study 1 is a cross-sectional study using the latest available data wave from 2009 HRS CAMS. The main interest is to compare consumption behavior between non-retired and retired households. Based on the life cycle hypothesis, regardless of employment status, households sharing similar socioeconomic characteristics should exhibit similar consumption behavior. The empirical findings, however, show that the consumption behavior between non-retired and retired households is significantly different, holding all other factors constant. Spending for retired households is 8.5% lower than spending for non-retired households. Study 2 is an aggregate-panel study using data from 2001-2009 HRS CAMS. The difference between Study 1 and Study 2 is that Study 2 tracks household consumption behavior over time and investigates whether there is a significant change in consumption pattern after retirement. Fixed-effects analysis is conducted to appropriately account for the effect of individual heterogeneity. The life cycle hypothesis predicts that when retirement is as planned by the household, there is no significant change in consumption after retirement. The fixed-effects regression indicates that there is an insignificant increase of 3% in household consumption after retirement. The discrepancy in the results from Study 1 and Study 2 regarding the retirement consumption puzzle comes fr (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2006, Industrial, Interior and Visual Communic Design

The consumer's perception of energy conservation actions results are very inaccurate. Energy Consumption Display have increasingly become an area of research and development, but there is still a need for investigation on its application in user-oriented products. In this document, we investigate how to develop, from a product and interaction design standpoint, appliances that will give feedback related to energy consumption. The study focused on one specific product, the room air conditioning. The goal was to provide information that would stimulate more efficient use of the air conditioner. Information from many fields informed the development of this product. Initial concepts were presented to focus groups, along with scenarios. The results from the generative research served as basis for a refined Product Requirements list. The final product includes the interface developed for the air conditioner and a few possible applications.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2004, Physical Activity and Educational Services

The purpose of the study was to explore the sport behaviors of Black consumers as a culturally based sport consumption community. To do so, this study examined the manner in which personal values and ethnic identity influenced the sport consumption preferences and sport consumption frequencies of Black students. The study also examined the relationship between sport consumption preferences and sport consumption frequencies in four professional and two college sport activities. The instrument used to capture personal values was Kahle's (1983) List of Values (LOV) scale (which consisted of two subdimensions of internal values and external values). Ethnic identity was captured using Brown, Condor, Mathews, Wade, and Williams' (1986) Ethnic Identity (EID) Scale (which consisted of three subdimensions of self-definition, self-esteem, and affect). Significant relationships were found between the participants' sport consumption preferences and sport consumption frequencies. Results of the study revealed that none of the two dimensions of personal values had significant influence on the sport consumption behavior of research participants. However, two of the three dimensions of ethnic identity (self-definition and self-esteem) did significantly influence sport consumption preferences for and frequencies of basketball and football. Self-definition had a significantly positive influence on the consumption of basketball while self-esteem had a significantly negative influence on football.An important finding of the current research was that gender was not a differentiation factor regarding the influence of personal values and ethnic identity on sport consumption. However, significant gender differences in terms of the sport consumption preferences and frequencies contrasted with previous findings by Armstrong (2002; 2003) which did not reveal any pronounced gender differences among Black sport consumers. The results generally support the infusion of aspects of culture into the (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Business Administration, The Ohio State University, 1961, Graduate School

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 1969, Graduate School

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2006, Graduate School

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Consumer Sciences

Despite the increase in green marketing promotions in the diverse hospitality marketplace, understanding of effective promotional strategies for green products, such as sustainable and healthy products, is still limited. This thesis endeavors to bridge this knowledge gap by exploring the influence of promotional cues—specifically, visual complexity and monetary incentives for sustainable products, alongside price framing and default presentation for healthy products—on consumer behavior. Two experimental studies were conducted to probe this research question. The findings from these studies suggest that promotional cues for both sustainable and healthy products positively influence consumer behavior towards these green products. The results are further substantiated through the exploration of underlying psychological mechanisms, including the mediation of perceived attractiveness for sustainable products, and a serial mediating process of perceived expensiveness and perceived healthiness for healthy products. These mechanisms are critical in driving favorable consumer responses to green products. Consequently, the insights derived from this study offer substantial value to both scholars and industry professionals. They provide strategic guidance on the implementation of effective promotional tactics aimed at promoting green products to consumers, thereby enriching the literature on green marketing and enhancing practical applications in the field.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2024, Mass Communication (Communication)

This dissertation aims to better understand how Saudi citizens, particularly Al-Madinah citizens, consume their news via social media platforms. This dissertation employed the uses and gratification theory and adopted a quantitative method through the use of a descriptive online survey (Qualtrics) to answer the research questions and hypotheses. Therefore, snowball sampling tactics were used to reach 233 participants who received the questionnaire between January 15th, 2022, and July 15th, 2022. This dissertation's findings indicate two major motivations for news consumption: information seeking and personal preferences. This dissertation also finds that Saudis, particularly Al-Madinah citizens, tend to consume news via social media urgently, and they tend to consume their news about social events first, followed by the royal decrees' news, then sports news. Furthermore, this dissertation also finds that Saudi citizens in Al-Madinah prefer E-news accounts, which leads to a full belief in consuming news content that is quick, concise, and easy. The findings of this dissertation reveal that being updated about specific fields via specialized organization accounts on social media is a great encouragement for Al-Madinah citizens to consume news. Last, findings also reveal that citizens of Al-Madinah use Twitter as their primary social media platform to consume news, followed by WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Instagram.

Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Geology

Yearly, millions of tons of sediments are dredged from USA lakes and federal navigation channels to maintain the economic activity of ports and harbors. About 1.5 million cubic yards of dredged sediment are excavated yearly from the Western Lake Erie Basin, Ohio. Following the prohibition on dumping dredged material into open water, the State of Ohio recommends finding several beneficial uses for this material, including using the sediment as farm soil amendment. My research examined the health risk assessment of potential heavy metal contamination in specialty crops grown in soils amended with dredged material. The research objectives were to (1) determine the potential bioaccumulation of organic (PAHs) and inorganic (heavy metals) contaminants in specialty crops, (2) determine the expected daily intake of metals, ecological risk coefficient, health risk index, transfer factor, and their implications in soil and human health, and (3) provide insights on ecological and agricultural implications when dredged sediments are used as farm soil amendment. Our soil blends consisted of 100% farm soil, 90% farm soil/10% dredged sediment, and 100% dredged sediment. The ecological risk assessment index (taking into consideration the metal toxicity) indicated that Pb, As, Zn, Cr, Ni, Co, and Cu were below the threshold value of 40 (unitless). Values below 40 represent lower sensitive toxicity to organisms when exposed to the specific metal. Our results indicated a small translocation of Al, Co, Cr, Fe, Mn, Pb, Ni, and Zn into the edible biomass from the mixture soil as reported by the translocation factor. Only arsenic showed enrichment in the edible biomass across all treatments and crops; however, the enrichment decreased as the dredged sediment ratio increased, except for lettuce in the mixture treatment. We also calculated the health risk index that takes into consideration the reference oral dose (maximum exposure with likely no detrimental effects on human health). The a (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2023, Consumer Sciences

Abstract This research sought to comprehend the distinctions in sustainable fashion consumption patterns between female consumers from the U.S. and China. Employing qualitative methods, two focus groups were conducted, one representing each nationality, to discuss perceptions of sustainability and the intersection of cultural values with sustainable fashion choices. Participants, aged between 18-27, were deliberately chosen to exclude those majoring in fashion to diminish potential bias. Preliminary findings suggest that cultural background influences sustainable fashion understanding and purchasing behaviors. The results provide insights for promoting sustainable fashion consumption, with broader implications for lessening the fashion industry's adverse environmental and societal impacts. This study not only sheds light on culturally informed consumer behaviors but also underscores the importance of tailoring sustainability initiatives to diverse audiences.

Bachelor of Science (BS), Ohio University, 2023, Journalism

This study aimed to investigate the news consumption habits of Gen-Z college students and how social media affects their news consumption. The research employed quantitative methods to analyze data gathered from a survey of 499 college students. The study found that trustworthiness significantly impacted news sharing. Women trusted national and global news sources more than men. Social media was a popular source for news consumption among participants, but those who do not trust the news were more likely to fact-check news seen on social media. Trust in news sources was found to influence the platforms used for news sharing. The study's mixed-methods approach provides a comprehensive understanding of the research topic and highlights the importance of trustworthiness in news sources and its impact on news sharing. The results of this study can contribute to improving news and media literacy among college students and promote informed and engaged citizenship in society.