First of all, I thank Dr. Emine Sarigollu from my deep heart. She has advised me
sincerely, efficiently and effectively from the beginning through the end of this
dissertation thesis. Furthermore, Dr. Sarigollu gave me tremendous help in collecting the
data to accomplish this dissertation, and has generously provided financial assistance.
Discussing and working with Dr. Sarigollu has been tremendously joyful, comfortable,
and valuable to me. It is the most precious experience in my life and a treasure for my
future. I believe that Dr. Sarigollu and I have been, and will be, perfect combination for
significant research. I would like to thank my committee members, Dr. Demetrios
Vakratsas, and Dr. Georges Zaccour for their insightful and constructive suggestions and
help. Moreover, I thank Dr. Kevin. L. Keller and Dr. Kusum L. Ailawadi for their
valuable suggestions. I also thank Dr. Yoshio Takane and Dr. Alexander Whitmore for
their sincere and valuable help in the statistical analysis techniques. I am particularly
indebted to Ms. Judy Symansky for her sincere help in obtaining the advertising data.
I am also deeply indebted to my husband, Yi Bian. I left home after eight months when
we got married. In the past six years, he endured the separation between us and supported
me selflessly to pursue my dream. He took care of the family as well as my parents. I also
thank my parents (Mr. Wei Huang and Ms Liuying He). As a grown-up daughter, I have
yet to fulfill my responsibility to take good care of my parents, but traveled thousands of
miles away from them to pursue knowledge and accomplish my dream. I thank them for
giving me so much love, bringing me up in a good family and giving me good education
both in terms of the knowledge and of how to be a person. They have been giving me
tremendous support during the six-year Ph.D journey. I would like to thank my brother
(Yong Huang) and my sister-in-law (Haixia Lin). When I am so far away from my
parents, they take good care of our parents and bring so much happiness to them.
I would have never been at this stage without your belief and support. Thank you all!