Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Shaw, Eric H.

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to construct and empirically test a theoretical model of surprise and its impact on consumer affect and behavior. First the literature on the emotion of surprise was reviewed with particular emphasis on classification and process models of surprise. A theoretical model of surprise was constructed. A new concept called motivated meaning integration (MMI) was proposed. MMI takes place in a setting that includes the interaction of the appraisal process with factors such as environmental uncertainty and consumers’ individual differences. These interactions impact outcomes such as consumer affect and buying behavior. Ten hypotheses were derived from the theoretical model and empirically tested using several pretests and two main studies. The present research designed and evaluated several surprise manipulations and MMI manipulation checks to effectively test the proposed relationships. Participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk). Although many of the hypotheses were not supported, some important ones were. The results provide some support that a consumer’s sense of personal control interacts with MMI to impact a consumer’s likelihood of choosing unknown or mystery products ( e.g. products in a known category such as beauty products but the actual products are selected by the company). Specifically, consumers who experienced a low sense of personal control (compared to a high sense personal control) were more likely to choose mystery products (vs. objectively similar known products) after they encountered surprise with mystery (vs. with known) elements. The results also provided some support that productivity orientation interacts with surprise appraisal to impact consumer affect. Particularly, consumers with high productivity orientation (vs. low) were more likely to experience higher positive affect after encountering surprise with mystery (vs. with known) elements. The primary implication for theory involves refining the conceptualization of surprise appraisal, especially fast MMI, and adopting adequate measure for testing it. The most relevant implication for marketing management is to offer products with mystery elements because consumers are more likely to choose additional mystery products. If this dissertation stimulates others to pursue research on surprise theory in marketing, my efforts to continue developing scientific theory will be worth it.

Extent

153 p.

Comments

Includes bibliography.|Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Includes bibliography.

Identifier

FA00013102

Format

pdf

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