Busler Thesis on Celebrity Endorsement

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Product Differentiation, Celebrity Endorsements and

the Consumer's Perception of Quality

A Thesis

Submitted to the Faculty

of

Drexel University

by

Michael Busler

in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree

of

Doctor of Philosophy

May 2002

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DEDICATIONS

To My Wife and Children

Katherine, Adam, Kaitlyn and Todd

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am greatly indebted to my dissertation committee chair, Professor Bijou Lester

and the other members of my committee: Professor Shawkat Hammoudeh, Professor

Linghui Tang, Professor Bang Jeon and Professor Brian Till. Their support and

motivation were invaluable to me.

I would also like to especially thank other members of the Drexel Faculty who

provided me with a strong base of knowledge. These include Professor Rolph Andersen,

Professor Roger McCain, Professor Jeffery Greenhouse, Professor Andrew Verzilli and

Professor Vibhas Madan. Without their input and guidance this work would not be

possible.

I was also fortunate to work with two high quality doctoral students whose caring and

friendship often lifted my spirits: Michael Destefano and Carter Murdoch.

Appreciation is granted to Stacy Wessel for her help with the editing of the dissertation.

And finally I wish to express special thanks to my wife and life- long partner Katherine

who provided unending support.

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Table of Contents

LIST OF TABLES………………………………………..……………...………………vii

LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………..……………...….viii

ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………...ix

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………1

1.1. Motivation of the study……..……………………………………………….3

1.2. Overview of relevant studies…………………………………………………5

1.3. Study outline …………………….…………………………….……………..6

CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE SEARCH………………………………………………...15

2.1. Quality and variable quality…………………………………………………15

2.2. Economics of information..……….…………………………………………17

2.3. Marketing literature on information in...