Content area
Abstract
This dissertation examines the impact of consumers' motivation to process information and the type of information on corporate image in a series of three experiments. We conceptualize corporate image as similar to stereotype structures and examine the factors that facilitate stereotype modification and the psychological processes that lead to such changes.
The first experiment showed that corporate stereotypes are more likely to change under low motivation when consumers are exposed to information that is dispersed across several products. The second experiment extended this novel finding by suggesting that stereotype modification occurred only when the information is incongruent with prior expectations. The third experiment suggested that stereotypes can change under high motivation when subjects are instructed to focus on the corporate stereotype. Stereotyping literature and the dual process models of persuasion provided a framework for understanding the process issues underlying stereotype modification.
