My (Myla) Bui, Ph.D.

Understanding Unitized Food Choice –The Role of Social Context and Marketing Factors in Mitigating Overconsumption

Fronczek, Lane, Maura Scott, Martin Mende, Brennan Davis, and My (Myla) Bui

2024-10-28

The unit bias, which asserts that consumption decreases as a food unit size decreases, is a prominent effect studied in psychology, health, and obesity research domains, yet little is known about when or why this effect occurs, or how marketing plays a role in the effect. To address this gap in the literature, this research extends the current understanding of the unit bias by proposing the social unitization effect, which posits that consumers’ selection of discrete unitized foods is dependent on impression management motives.

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RAISE: Leveraging Responsible AI for Service Excellence

Alkire, Linda, Bilgihan, Anil, Bui, Myla, Buoye, Alexander, Seden, Dogan, and Kim, Seoyoung

2024-04-23

This article introduces the Responsible AI for Service Excellence (RAISE) framework. RAISE is a strategic framework for responsibly integrating AI into service industries. It emphasizes collaborative AI design and deployment that aligns with the evolving global standards and societal well-being while promoting business success and sustainable development.

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Music to the Ears: The Role of Sonic Branding in Advertising

Kemp, Elyria, Yoon-Na Cho, My Bui, and Alex Kintzer

2023-10-27

Marketers are taking note by using music and sound to reinforce a brand’s identity. Sonic branding involves designing an auditory equivalent of a graphic representation of a brand that embodies the brand’s essence, attributes and values. This research examines how the use of sonic logos in advertising can aid in inducing positive emotions in consumers in affect-rich decision contexts. Findings demonstrate that sonic logos have the ability to evoke positive emotions, stimulate engagement and enrich the brand experience, especially for those individuals high in emotion-based decision-making. Implications for how sonic branding can aid in enhancing marketing communications are discussed.

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Healthcare Brands Sound Off: Evaluating the Influence of Sonic Branding in Shaping Consumer Perceptions

Kemp, Elyria, Steven Kopp, and My (Myla) Bui

2023-06-30

Brand management has traditionally enlisted visual branding elements, including the brand’s graphic logo, to distinguish and communicate the personality of the brand. However, as healthcare organizations work to shape how consumers perceive their brand, organizations are also enhancing their brand identity with sound and music by creating a sonic brand. This research paper aims to examine how sonic brands influence consumer emotional reactions and trust in a healthcare provider. It also explores how sonic brands can differentially affect consumers, depending on their level of engagement in their physical and mental health.

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It’s a Force of Habit: Influences of Emotional Eating on Indulgent Tendencies

Bui, My (Myla), Anjala S. Krishen, and Elyria Kemp

2023-02-28

The purpose of this paper is to build upon reward-learning theory and examine the role of indulgent food consumption and habitual eating behaviors as a means of emotional coping.

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Fear of Missing Out in the Digital Age: The Role of Social Media Satisfaction and Advertising Engagement

Bui, My (Myla), Anjala S. Krishen, Eda Analamlier, and Orie Berezan

2022-11-13

We explore the benefits and costs of social networking usage and examine the roles of need to belong and autonomy to contextualize the fear of missing out (FoMO) socio-cultural phenomenon in the digital age. We utilize a self-determination theory-based framework for understanding how the FoMO phenomenon influences positive (negative) mood, information overload, social media satisfaction, and engagement with social media advertising. Study 1 explores how FoMO relates to positive mood through the need to belong. Study 2 demonstrates how FoMO impacts information overload through the mediation of social media interactivity. Furthermore, Study 2 shows how FoMO alters social media satisfaction, and this relationship is mediated by information overload and moderated by autonomy. Study 3 shows that negative emotions serve to mediate the effect of information overload on engagement with social media advertising. Finally, we discuss implications of this study to provide insight into how brand marketers can offer FoMO-reducing mechanisms to consumers to ensure a high level of advertising engagement, how health advocates can leverage social media to promote meaningful engagement with consumers, and how industry practitioners may want to consider aspirational virtual events to create buzz while also satisfying consumers' need to belong to social groups.

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Preparing for a Crisis: Influence of Fear and Anxiety on Consumption and Compliance

Kemp, Elyria, My (Myla) Bui, and McDowell Porter III

2021-02-05

This research aims to examine the unique emotional distress experienced during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. It explores the role of fear and anxiety, what fueled it and how fear and anxiety impacted consumption and behaviors of conformity and compliance.

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The Internet of Everything: Implications of Marketing Analytics from a Consumer Policy Perspective

Petrescu, Maria, Anjala Krishen, and My (Myla) Bui

2020-08-21

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of internet of everything (IoE) on marketing analytics, the benefits and challenges it presents and the implications of its policy and legal framework.

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Promoting consumer well-being: Examining emotion regulation strategies in social advertising messages

Elyria Kemp, Kelly Cowart and My (Myla) Bui

2020-05-20

Young adults are experiencing a marked increase in anxiety. Several environmental factors, including socially prescribed perfectionism, a form of perfectionism, may account for increasing levels of anxiety. This research examines how social advertising tools can be used to encourage the use of emotion regulation strategies to help promote psychological well-being. Specifically, the efficacy of two emotion regulation strategies is investigated: cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression.

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Dine-in or take-out: Modeling millennials’ cooking motivation and choice

Namin, Aidin, Brian T. Ratchford, Julian K. Saint Clair, My (Myla) Bui, Mitchell L. Hamilton

2020-03-01

Students, in general, get into undesirable eating habits, partly due to the decrease in consumption of unhealthy,
prepared food items (e.g., take-out). This research applies a multi-method approach to modeling the motivations behind cooking behavior for this cohort of young-adult consumers. Focus groups are conducted and findings are incorporated into an integrative framework to develop and estimate three quantitative choice models for predicting millennials’ cooking behavior.

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That’s Not So Bad, I’ll Eat More! Backfire Effects of Calories-per-Serving Information on Snack Consumption

Tangari, Andrea, My (Myla) Bui, Kelly Haws, and Peggy Liu

2019-01-21

This research investigates how provision of calories-per-serving information on serving size labels affects snack consumption quantity. Drawing from expectancy-disconfirmation theory, this research shows that providing calories-per-serving information can ironically create a consumption backfire effect (consumers eat more when presented with calories-per-serving information) for snacks perceived as unhealthy but not for snacks perceived as healthy. The authors find that this effect arises when calorie expectations are higher than the posted calories-per-serving level—a frequent occurrence due to stated serving sizes that are typically smaller than amounts consumed in one sitting. The authors also show that attention to calorie information plays a key role such that the backfire effect occurs among consumers who pay more attention to calorie information. Furthermore, motivational factors including individual differences and perceptions of the risk associated with consuming a snack also play a role in driving consumption differences. The authors offer managerial, policy, and consumer welfare implications, including proposing and testing larger stated serving sizes as an intervention.

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Can Health “Halos” Extend to Food Packaging? An Investigation into Food Healthfulness Perceptions and Serving Sizes on Consumption Decisions

Bui, My, Andrea Tangari, and Kelly Haws

2017-06-14

The purpose of this research is to examine how perceived food healthfulness and package partitioning interact to impact intended and actual consumption. Across three studies, findings indicate that both intended consumption and actual consumption of the perceptually healthier food items increase when packaging is not partitioned. Further, partitioning does not change the intended or actual consumption of foods perceived as less healthy. Accordingly, perceptually healthy foods tend to be consumed more when servings are not partitioned, suggesting a positive health halo leading to a “healthy = eat more” consumption pattern. The role of affect regulation theory and, more specifically, guilt, in this process is examined. These findings have implications for marketers, food manufacturers, and public policymakers interested in reducing obesity.

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Understanding the Power of Hope and Empathy in Healthcare Marketing

2. Kemp, Elyria, My Bui, Anjala Krishen, Pamela M. Homer and Michael S. LaTour

2017-04-18

The dynamic landscape of healthcare has seen significant changes in marketing by the various types of healthcare providers. This research aims to explore the impact of emotions in healthcare advertising.

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Making Small Food Units Seem Regular: How Larger Table Sizes Reduce Calories to be Consumed

2016-01-01

People compensate for small food-unit sizes by eating more units compared to regular-sized units, but
the aggregate of calories people consume of smaller versus regular units is still less because each unit consumed increases perceptions of overindulgence and impulsivity. This suggests that if perceptions of a food unit's smallness could be disrupted, people may not need to compensate, resulting in a further reduction in aggregate food chosen and consumed.

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The Power of Promoting a Healthy Brand: Familiarity and Commitment in Healthy Product Decision Making

2015-12-14

This research investigates consumer decision making and brand commitment for brands promoted as “healthy.” The authors examine the relationship of brand familiarity to brand credibility, brand quality, purchase intentions, and brand commitment. The findings indicate that familiarity can help increase purchase intentions and brand commitment for healthy brands with low credibility. However, to go beyond a transactional exchange to one that is relational in nature, familiarity, credibility, and quality are all crucial for fostering brand commitment.

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So Close Yet So Far Away: The Moderating Effect of Regulatory Focus Orientation on Health Behavioral Intentions

2015-05-01

The purpose of this study is to further understand ideal self-goals and regulatory focus orientation
within the context of consumer health decisions. To do so, the present research examines the
intersection of ideal weight goal progress and regulatory orientation on consumer health-related
decisions. Across two experimental studies, findings suggest that those far away from their ideal
weight goals are more inclined to participate in adaptive health behaviors.

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Fear Advertisements: Influencing Consumers to Make Better Health Decisions

2015-02-02

From a goal-theoretic framework, this paper proposes that fear-based framing of health messages can lead to positive decision intentions, thus helping consumers make better future health-related choices.

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Weighing the Bad and Good: Examining Attitudinal Ambivalence towards Actions and the Outcome of Losing Weight

2014-04-01

This research takes a new look at individuals’ attitudes and intentions towards losing weight. Study 1 examines the relationship among those interested in losing weight and individual self-evaluative ambivalence on attitude towards trying to achieve a weight loss goal and the intentions to achieve the weight loss goal. For Study 2, a between-subjects experimental design, where attitudinal ambivalence and prior outcome feedback were manipulated and self-efficacy was measured, is conducted to examine attitude towards eating healthier and intention to change eating behaviours.

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Front-of-Package Product Labels: Influences of Varying Nutritional Food Labels on Parental Decisions

2013-07-01

This research aims to examine the effects of varying front-of-package (FOP) nutrition information type on parents’ food product choices for children.

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Considering Technological Impacts When Selecting Food Suppliers: Comparing Retailers' Buying Behavior in the United States and Europe

2013-05-06

The research investigates the impact of emergent technologies, specifically supply-chain technology and food-production technology (i.e., genetically modified organisms [GMO]), on global food retailers’ supplier decisions.

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When Food is More Than Nutrition: Understanding Emotional Eating and Overconsumption

2013-02-25

This research examines how more proximal or immediate goals of affect regulation impact goals of weight loss and maintenance. Findings suggest that both psychological and social factors play a role in eating behavior and food overconsumption.

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E-tail Emotion Regulation: Examining Online Hedonic Product Purchases

2013-04-02

This research examines how hedonic shopping experiences for online music impact emotion regulation processes and how feelings regarding previous online music purchases influence repeat purchase behaviour. The paper aims to introduce a model that explains and examines the meditating role of consumers’ attitudes, emotion regulation and subjective norms in the shopping experience for online music.

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When Kiosk Retailing Intimidates Shoppers: How Gender-Focused Advertising Can Mitigate the Perceived Risks of the Unfamiliar

2012-09-01

This study addresses kiosk-based shopping behavior among female consumers. The authors sought to build upon existing promotional retail research that showed and explained gender differences in experiential shopping environments. Upon confirming extant literature findings of gender differences as they apply to perceptions of shopping risk in kiosk environments, the current study manipulates levels of anticipated regret for males and females when shopping in kiosks versus traditional department stores in a between-subjects experimental design incorporating a diverse non-student sample.

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Hold the Salt! Effects of Sodium Information Provision, Sodium Content, and Hypertension on Perceived Cardiovascular Disease Risk and Purchase Intentions

2012-04-01

Excessive sodium intake is a major cause of hypertension, a significant risk factor for several forms of cardiovascular disease, including coronary heart disease, stroke, and heart failure. Despite this finding, the average intake among Americans is 150% of the maximum recommended level. The goal of this research is to obtain greater consumer insight into this important public health issue. The authors analyze data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005–2006 and conduct two experiments using a nationwide panel of consumers. The results indicate that hypertension status has a significant effect on consumers’ attention to sodium on the Nutrition Facts panel (Study 1) and moderates the influence of sodium disclosure on perceived cardiovascular disease risk and purchase intentions for restaurant items (Study 2).

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The Role of Advertising in Consumer Emotion Management

2012-03-01

Consumer research has demonstrated that emotions play an important role in the decisionmaking process. Individuals may use consumption or purchasing as a way to manage their emotions. This research develops a model to help explain the process by which individuals engage in consumption to manage their emotions, and examines the efficacy of an advertisement for a hedonic product that uses affect-laden language to stimulate such a process.

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Modeling Regret Effects on Consumer Post- Purchase Decisions

2011-11-01

The purpose of this paper is to assess how regret affects consumer satisfaction levels, extent of rumination, and brand-switching intention. The paper also seeks to examine any mediating effects between regret and rumination that can be found due to consumers’ negative emotions.

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Healthy Brands: Establishing Brand Credibility, Commitment and Connection Among Consumers

2011-06-01

With a segment of consumers growing more health conscious, food manufacturers are feeding consumers’ desire for more healthy products by “reformulating” their products to create healthier versions as well as positioning complete product lines as “healthier alternatives.” The present research aims to examine variables crucial in the brand-building process for brands that are perceived as “healthy.”

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The Fight Against Obesity: Influences of Self-Efficacy on Exercise Regularity

2011-07-20

Given the current social problem of obesity, past and current research efforts have examined consumer choice and decisionmaking regarding food consumption. However, preventative health behaviors such as exercise are also instrumental in combating the obesity epidemic. Limited studies in the marketing literature have explored how internal and psychological characteristics influence physical activity and exercise regularity. Thus, this study seeks to examine how individual self-efficacy impacts exercise behavior.

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Eating Their Feelings: Examining Emotional Eating in At-Risk Groups in the United States

2010-12-31

Emotional eating affects many individuals and can lead to food overconsumption. The present research provides a theoretical foundation for examining the influence of food advertising, social norms, and related mediating influences on emotional eating. Insight offered through interviews with emotional eaters and an emotional eating conceptual model demonstrate that emotional eating is heavily influenced by food advertising, which can incite desire and ruminative thoughts about food.

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Retail Kiosks: How Regret and Variety Influence Consumption

2010-11-01

The purpose of this paper is to gain insight regarding the impact of consumer regret on shopping in mall kiosks and its relationship with consumer variety-seeking tendencies.

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What Am I Drinking? An Exploration of the Effects of Serving Facts Information on Alcoholic Beverage Containers

2008-04-01

Excessive alcohol consumption is associated with numerous adverse health conditions and is the third leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Unlike manufacturers of most other packaged food and beverage products, alcohol beverage producers are not required to disclose product nutrition information. The primary purpose of this research was to test predictions and provide insight regarding consumers’ potential responses to the provision of Serving Facts information on alcohol beverage labels. Implications of the results for public policy makers and consumer welfare are offered.

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On the Success of Marketing Doctoral Programs: Can Understanding Doctoral Students’ Evaluations Help?

2007-06-01

The purpose of this study is to understand how a doctoral student’s experiences during a doctoral program influence the student’s perceived (1) satisfaction and (2) perceived success. In addition, we also look at the role that burnout plays in these relationships. Results show that supervisor support and socialization are highly important factors in the overall satisfaction and success of doctoral students.

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