Master Theses under the supervision of Prof. Fuchs

For the winter semester 2025/6, you can submit your application starting 21.04.2025. Deadline: 02.06.2025.

Applying for the topics advertised:

If you are interested in one of the advertised topics, please send your application via e-mail to marketing.unit@univie.ac.at. Your application should include the following:

• exposé in English (max. 5 pages)
• Curriculum Vitae (tabular)
• Current transcript of records

You are expected to complete the thesis within 1 semester!

After finishing the theses: The following documents are required at the administration and at the chair:

• At the administration: 3 hard copies of the final thesis (SSC)
• At the chair: electronic version of your final thesis as Word and PDF as well as raw data and analysis files (e.g. SPSS or NVivo files).

****

Available Topics for the winter semester 2025/6

LOST IN CONSUMPTION

Marketing scholars and practitioners have the questionable custom of referring to human beings as consumers. While this custom may be reasonable for a field primarily focused on market-based behaviors, it serves as anecdotal evidence for a fundamental issue: reducing people to consumers of goods and services is in stark contrast with the environmental crisis. Namely, meeting globally set sustainability goals requires reduced consumption, as the currently predominate strategy of substituting regular products for sustainable alternatives does not suffice. Recent research, however, has shown that reduced consumption is neither top of mind for consumers nor do consumers perceive reduced consumption to be an effective strategy to live more sustainably. How does reduced consumption resonate with consumers? What are the main barriers? How do consumers perceive others who consume less without following a specific goal to attain? Can consumers fathom a life removed from consumerism? Do reputational concerns keep consumers locked in consumption so that, for instance, poorer consumers seek to consume more in an effort not to seem poor?

This topic is suitable for exploratory or confirmatory research. Depending on your research question, you may investigate how consumers perceive reduced consumption and what hurdles my come with it. You may also conduct an experiment by analyzing the literature to find a novel and relevant research topic, setting up hypotheses, and testing these hypotheses.

Related literature

Makri, K., Schlegelmilch, B. B., Mai, R., & Dinhof, K. (2020). What We Know About Anticonsumption: An Attempt To Nail Jelly To The Wall. Psychology & Marketing, 37(2), 177-215.

Giesler, M., & Veresiu, E. (2014). Creating the responsible consumer: Moralistic governance regimes and consumer subjectivity. Journal of Consumer Research, 41(3), 840-857.

SELF-PERCEPTION OF AI USERS

The use of Artificial intelligence (AI) has seen a staggering increase in the last couple of years and with it, research on AI has been propelled. Despite the surge in AI usage, people display an AI aversion and, for instance, prefer humans over AI to make moral decisions, dislike art created by AI and generally favor humans for tasks that require subjectivity. Moreover, recent research shows that people not only dislike AI usage but they also discriminate against AI users. Specifically, AI users are perceived as lacking emotional capacity and similar human traits. If that’s the case, how do people justify their own AI usage? How do people perceive themselves when using AI? Does it depend on the task people are asking AI to perform or do people rationalize their own AI usage? Do peoples’ self-evaluations suffer when using AI? Are there any problems people would not use AI for out of fear of what it may state about themselves?

This topic is suitable for exploratory or confirmatory research. Depending on your research question, you may investigate how people perceive themselves when using AI for specific tasks. You may also conduct an experiment by analyzing the literature to find a novel and relevant research topic, setting up hypotheses, and testing these hypotheses.

Related literature

Dang, J., & Liu, L. (2024). Extended artificial intelligence aversion: People deny humanness to artificial intelligence users. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Castelo, N., Bos, M. W., & Lehmann, D. R. (2019). Task-Dependent Algorithm Aversion. Journal of Marketing Research (JMR), 56(5), 809–825.

Böhm, R., Jörling, M., Reiter, L., & Fuchs, C. (2023). People devalue generative AI’s competence but not its advice in addressing societal and personal challenges. Communications Psychology, 1(1), 32.

MORAL BUSINESSES

Social impact is a focal point for some for-profit businesses: Tony’s Chocolonely is seeking to revolutionize an industry that’s been benefitting from child labor, Ben & Jerry’s has been fighting for human rights for decades, Beyond Meat has set out to remove animal suffering from consumers’ diet and Patagonia arguably is passing on sales in favor of sustainability. Such a moral stance may be in contrast to the necessary evils of doing business as also moral companies may lay off personnel, engage in aggressive competitive tactics or exploit legal loopholes. How do consumers perceive such actions? Are moral businesses forgiven more easily for deliberate transgressions or are moral businesses held to higher standards across all aspects of doing business? How should moral businesses communicate such practices? Do consumers feel wronged if a moral business engages in immoral actions that do not directly affect consumers?

This topic is suitable for confirmatory research. You are expected to review the literature to find a novel and relevant research topic, set up hypotheses, and test your hypotheses using an online experiment.

Related literature

Muldoon, J., Davis, P. E., Bendickson, J. S., McDowell, W. C., & Liguori, E. W. (2022). Paved with good intentions: Moral disengagement and social entrepreneurship. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 7(4), 100237

Effron, D. A., & Monin, B. (2010). Letting people off the hook: When do good deeds excuse transgressions? Personality and social psychology bulletin, 36(12), 1618-1634

PRODUCTION, USE, DISPOSAL – WHICH PART OF THE PRODUCT LIFECYCLE AFFECTS THE ENVIRONMENT?

Consumers are generally bad at understanding how environmentally (un)friendly behaviors are. For instance, consumers erroneously believe that recycling is the most sustainable action they can engage in. While this may not come as a surprise given that consumers are constantly confronted with calls to recycle, the implications thereof are unclear. Believing that recycling is a critical behavior likely leads to a preference for recyclable over non-recyclable products but how do other factors (e.g., the durability of a product or the energy used to produce it) factor in here? And where does this belief come from? Is this belief founded in the (mis)understanding that consumers cannot affect how products are being made or how long they last? How do the production and the consumption of products compare to a product’s recyclability? Do consumers believe a product that can be recycled is more sustainable than a product than cannot—irrespective of, for instance, the product’s life cycle or how much energy was used to produce it? Are consumers insensitive to other, possibly more informative cues when products are promoted as being recyclable? How then do consumers perceive products made from recycled material? What about products that are (or can be) refurbished?

This topic is suitable for exploratory or confirmatory research. Depending on your research question, you may investigate what part of the product lifecycle people perceive to affect the environment the most. You may also conduct an experiment by analyzing the literature to find a novel and relevant research topic, setting up hypotheses, and testing these hypotheses.

Related literature

Barnett, M. J., Hancock, P. I., Klotz, L. E., & Attari, S. Z. (2023). Recycling bias and reduction neglect. Nature Sustainability, 6(11), 1418-1425.

Sun, J. J., Bellezza, S., & Paharia, N. (2021). Buy less, buy luxury: Understanding and overcoming product durability neglect for sustainable consumption. Journal of Marketing, 85(3), 28-43.

Master Theses under the supervision of Prof. Eisend

For the winter semester 2025/6, you can submit your application starting 21.04.2025. Deadline: 02.06.2025.

Applying for the topics advertised:

If you are interested in one of the advertised topics, please send your application via e-mail to marketing.unit@univie.ac.at. Your application should include the following:

• exposé in English (max. 5 pages)
• Curriculum Vitae (tabular)
• Current transcript of records

You are expected to complete the thesis within 1 semester!

After finishing the theses: The following documents are required at the administration and at the chair:

• At the administration: 3 hard copies of the final thesis (SSC)
• At the chair: electronic version of your final thesis as Word and PDF as well as raw data and analysis files (e.g. SPSS or NVivo files).

****

Available Topics for the winter semester 2025/6

BRAND PERSONALITY

Brand personality—defined as “the set of human characteristics associated with a brand” (Aaker, 1997, p. 347)—plays an important role in imbuing products with symbolic value, forging emotional connections with consumers, and in building effective positioning and developing specific communication strategies that enhance brand equity. How do consumers respond to (different dimensions of) a brand’s personality?

Please explain and suggest hypotheses on the effects of brand personality (dimensions) on consumers. The hypotheses can be tested by an experimental study that manipulates brand personality (dimensions) together with another independent variable and measures consumer responses as dependent variables or through a survey study that collects data on consumer perceptions and evaluations of brand personality (dimensions) of different brands.

Starting Literature:

Aaker (1997), Dimensions of Brand Personality, Journal of Marketing Research, 34, 347-356.

Park/Roedder John (2010), Got to Get You Into My Life: Do Brand Personalities Rub Off on Consumers?, Journal of Consumer Research, 37, 655-669.

Zamudio (2016), Matching With the Stars: How Brand Personality Determines Celebrity Endorsement Contract Formation, International Journal of Research in Marketing, 33(2), 409-427.

PERSONALIZATION IN MARKETING COMMUNICATION

Personalization in marketing communication refers to the idea that every recipient in the communication process is an audience of one and receives distinct content based on individual preferences and/or personal characteristics. With the increasing use of AI, personalization of marketing communication messages became more feasible and ubiquitous. Personalization may strengthen the relevance of a message for consumers, and thus the persuasion success of the message, but at the same time may trigger privacy concerns, thus leading to negative reactions of consumers. How can consumers be persuaded by personalized marketing communication?

Please explain and suggest hypotheses on the effects of personalization in marketing communication on consumers and what these effects could depend on. The hypotheses should be tested by an experimental study that manipulates personalization (e.g., personalization absent vs. present or different types/degrees of personalization) along with another independent variable (e.g., product characteristic, AI disclaimers, or consumer characteristics) and measures of consumer responses as dependent variables.

Starting Literature:

Aguirre et al. (2015), Unraveling the Personalization Paradox: The Effect of Information Collection and Trust-Building Strategies on Online Advertisement Effectiveness, Journal of Retailing, 91(1), 34- 49.

Bleier/Eisenbeiss (2015), Personalized Online Advertising Effectiveness: The Interplay of What, When, and Where, Marketing Science, 34(5), 669-88.

Kalyanaraman/Sundar (2006), The Psychological Appeal of Personalized Content in Web Portals: Does Customization Affect Attitudes and Behavior?, Journal of Communication, 56(2), 110-32.

SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS

Social media influencers are individuals who have amassed a following on social media platforms by creating content in niche areas such as specific product categories or lifestyles. Social media influencer marketing involves a company retaining such influencers to promote its products/brands to their followers. While social media influencer marketing has gained popularity, the effects on consumers are still debated in research. When and how do social media influencers persuade consumers?

Please explain and suggest hypotheses on the effects of social media influencers and their characteristics on consumers. The hypotheses should be tested by an experimental study that manipulates social media influencer characteristics (e.g., number of followers) or compares them to other endorsers (e.g., virtual influencers, celebrities) along with another independent variable (e.g., product characteristic or consumer characteristics) and measures consumer responses as dependent variables. Alternatively and if data access and methodlogical capabilities are available, you can scrape data online about consumer responses to different social media influencers and analyze them.

Starting Literature:

Beichert et al. (2024), Revenue Generation Through Influencer Marketing, Journal of Marketing, 88(4), 40-63

Leung et al. (2022), Online Influencer Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 50(2), 226-251.

Wies et al. (2023), Finding Goldilocks Influencers: How Follower Count Drives Social Media Engagement, Journal of Marketing, 87(3), 383-405.

AI-GENERATED ADVERTISING

Advertisers nowadays use artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to generate advertising content and to personalize advertising messages. How do consumers react towards ads that are generated by AI?

Please explain and suggest hypotheses on the effects of different ads that have been generated by AI on consumers and what these effects could depend on. The hypotheses should be tested by an experimental study that manipulates AI-generated ad content along with another independent variable (e.g., product characteristic or consumer characteristics) and measures consumer responses as dependent variables. Consider whether AI disclosures are required.

Starting Literature:

Campbell et al. (2022), Preparing for an Era of Deepfakes and AI-Generated Ads: A Framework for Understanding Responses to Manipulated Advertising, Journal of Advertising, 51(1), 22-38.

Kietzmann et al. (2020), Deepfakes: Perspectives on the Future “Reality” of Advertising and Branding, International Journal of Advertising, 40(3), 473-485.

We/Wen (2021), Understanding AI Advertising From the Consumer Perspective, Journal of Advertising Research, 61(2), 133-146.

OLDER ENDORSERS IN ADVERTISING

Despite the increasing market size and consumption power of older consumers, older endorsers seldom appear in advertising. One of the reasons might be that consumers react more negatively towards portrayals of older consumers as compared to younger consumers, presumably because the depictions of the elderly use negative age stereotpyes. How are older endorsers depicted in advertising?

Please suggest several hypotheses on how elderly are depicted in advertsing. The hypotheses are to be tested based on data from a content analysis of older people in advertising (e.g., print, online, or social media) that assesses how the elderly are depicted.

Starting Literature:

Huber et al. (2013), Endorser Age and Stereotypes: Consequences on Brand Age, Journal of Business Research, 66, 207-15.

Kwon et al. (2015), Who Said What: The Effects of Cultural Mindsets on Perceptions of Endorser-Message Relatedness, Journal of Consumer Psychology, 25(3), 389-403.

Prieler/Kohlbacher (2016). Advertising in the Aging Society. Understanding Representations, Practitioners, and Consumers in Japan. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.

Simcock/Sudbury (2006), The Invisible Majority? Older Models in UK Television Advertising, International Journal of Advertising, 25(1), 87-106.

ETHICAL PRODUCTS

Ethical consumption has been increasing over the years. Consumers usually pay a price premium for ethical products and that is why the success of ethical products depends on consumers’ disposable incomes and their price perceptions.When economic conditions become less favorable (e.g., due to increasing inflation) and/or prices of ethical products increase, consumers may be willing to shift their preferences away from ethical products. When are consumers (un-)willing to purchase ethical products?

Please explain and suggest hypotheses on the effects of price variations or variations in economic conditions on consumers’ evaluations of ethical products and their willingness to purchase them. The hypotheses should be tested by an experimental study that manipulates price changes or variations in economic budgets along with another independent variable (e.g., product characteristic or consumer characteristics) and measures price (fairness) perceptions, consumer evaluations, and consumers’ willingness to pay/purchase as dependent variables. Alternatively, develop a survey study that investigates variables related to ethical consumption, price perceptions and evaluations, consumer characteristics, and other variables that control for alternative explanations to investigate the relationship between price sensitivity, price evaluations, economic conditions, and the consumption of ethical products.

Starting Literature:

Carrington et al. (2010), Why Ethical Consumers Don’t Walk Their Talk: Towards a Framework for Understanding the Gap Between the Ethical Purchase Intentions and Actual Buying Behavior of Ethically Minded Consumers, Journal of Business Ethics, 97, 139-158.

Gleim et al. (2013), Against the Green: A Multi-Method Examination of the Barriers to Green Consumption, Journal of Retailing, 89(1), 44-61.

Lee et al. (2015), Consumer Motives for Purchasing Organic Coffee: The Moderating Effects of Ethical Concern and Price Sensitivity, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(6), 1157-1180.

López-Fernández (2020), Price Sensitivity Versus Ethical Consumption: A Study of Millennial Utilitarian Consumer Behavior, Journal of Marketing Analytics, 8(2), 57-68.

GENDER IDENTITY OF SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS

An increasing number of consumers do no longer support or conform to the traditional gender binary but instead view gender as a fluid, dynamic continuum. Companies who work with diverse and nonbinary endorsers, celebrities, or social media influencers can signal progressive values and position themselves as socially conscious, but might run the risk of negative reactions by consumers who support a binary view of gender. How do consumers respond to nonbinary genders of social media influencers?

Please explain and suggest hypotheses on the effects of the gender identity of influencers on consumers and what these effects could depend on. The hypotheses should be tested by an experimental study that manipulates influencer’s gender identity (using binary and non-binary genders) along with another independent variable (e.g., product characteristic or consumer characteristics) and measures of consumer responses as dependent variables.

Starting Literature:

Eisend/Rößner (2022), Breaking Gender Binaries, Journal of Advertising, 51(5), 557-73.

Frankel/Ha (2020), Something Seems Fishy: Mainstream Consumer Response to Drag Queen Imagery, Fashion and Textiles, 7(23), 1-17

Read-Bullock (2018), Social Identity in Advertising: News Stories, Phenotypic Prototypicality, and Model Identity Influence Cognitive Processing and Evaluation of Advertisements, PhD Thesis, Indiana University.

Subject areas:

• Responsible Marketing
• Consumer Well-being
• Balancing Needs in Consumers' various Life Domains
• Work-Life Balance & Employer Branding (ev.: Across Generations)
• Transformative Marketing

Master Theses under the supervision of Prof. Reisinger

For the winter semester 2025/6, you can submit your application starting 21.04.2025. Deadline: 02.06.2025.

The exposé must be prepared in German (max. 5 pages, 1.5 lines) and sent directly to Prof. Reisinger. The exposé should include motivation, research questions, hypotheses, a rough concept for the empirical analysis and selected references (the references do not count towards the page limit).