07/25/2024
By Sameed Khan

The Department of Marketing, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation invites you to attend a doctoral dissertation proposal by Sameed B. Khan on "Language Assertiveness and Its Relationship with Financial Constraints in Consumption Contexts."

Date: July 29, 2024
Time: 10 to 11:30 a.m.
Location: Via Zoom Passcode: 774018
Thesis/Dissertation Title: Two Essays on Language Assertiveness and Its Relationship With Financial Constraints in Consumption Contexts

Committee

Members

  • Ann Kronrod (Chair), Ph.D., MEI Department, Manning School of Business at the University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Berk M. Talay, Ph.D., MEI Department, Manning School of Business at the University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Andrea W. Luangrath, Ph.D., Marketing Department, Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa

Abstract:
Language assertiveness intensifies whatever is being said (Grinstein and Kronrod 2016) and indicates the refusability of a request/command (Brown and Levinson 1987). The construct can help explain consumers’ compliance with requests (Fitzsimons and Lehmann 2004), brand perceptions (Zemack-Rugar, Moore, and Fitzsimons 2017), and purchase intentions (Kronrod, Grinstein, and Wathieu 2012). Research has also shown that directives – one of the aspects of assertive language – can signal greater reviewer expertise, thereby increasing the reviewer’s influence (Packard and Berger 2017).

Given the effects of assertive language on consumers’ psychological states and behaviors and that consumers are greatly influenced by other consumers through word of mouth, it is crucial to understand what might make the word-of-mouth transmitters use more or less assertive language and how that might impact readers. The answers to these questions can help us better understand language generation and consumption and their downstream impacts. This investigation can also expand the language assertiveness literature beyond the current focus on companies’ marketing communications.

The first essay focuses on the development and validation of a text-analysis tool that researchers can use to measure language assertiveness in a standardized and scalable manner. The tool will incorporate an exhaustive list of linguistic dimensions defining assertiveness, thereby providing a more holistic definition and operationalization of language assertiveness. The second essay focuses on a context often brought about by financial constraints: perceived lack of control. The essay aims to examine how high or low language assertiveness can be a result of perceptions of losing control over one’s life and how using assertive language can alleviate a perceived lack of control.

All interested students and faculty members are invited to attend.