Keywords

Corporate Social Responsibility, Cause Distinctiveness, Authenticity, Cross-Sensory Inference, Vision-Language Models, Multimodal AI

Abstract

As consumers judge companies and products before direct experience, early signals matter. This dissertation studies two kinds of signals and how they shape judgments and actions. Essay 1 shows how cause choice in corporate social responsibility affects perceived authenticity of support. Consumers reward authenticity in corporate social responsibility. When companies support causes different from those supported by others, they appear more authentic in their support for the cause. Across one secondary study and eight experimental studies, cause distinctiveness increases perceived authenticity of support by signaling autonomy and effort. Perceived authenticity of support increases purchase intentions, willingness to spread positive word of mouth about the company, and donate to its cause. These effects hold across different causes and remain significant after accounting for elaboration. The findings show that perceptions of autonomy and effort drive perceived authenticity of support and explain when distinct choices help companies. Essay 2 examines how images guide product expectations before use. Images shape how consumers evaluate products, yet marketers lack tools to test whether and how those visuals create sensory expectations. This research adapts and fine tunes a predictive model that links product images to expected sensory qualities like texture, taste, sound, and smell. Using large scale human annotations and deep learning techniques, the model forecasts cross sensory expectations of consumers in response to digital images. These tools help firms improve image selection, reduce expectation gaps, and personalize content.

Completion Date

2026

Semester

Summer

Committee Chair

Luna, David; Jiang, Juncai

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

Barry S. Miller College of Business

Department

Marketing

Format

PDF

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Release Date

8-15-2028

Download

Available for download on Tuesday, August 15, 2028

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