Date of Award

Summer 2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

Committee Chair

Scott Whitaker

Abstract

Subscriptions gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic by ensuring that consumers would have access to their products without human contact. As consumers emerged from lockdown, marketers faced the challenge of whether consumers will continue to purchase subscriptions and how to attract customers now that in-store shopping has resumed. The purpose of this study is to investigate how user generated content (UGC), promotion, and trust impact the purchase intention of curated box subscriptions with social media influencers (SMI) serving as a moderating variable. The stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework was used to model how UGC, promotion, and trust can impact curated subscription purchases online. Data was collected through MTURK online surveys and analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). This research will help marketers and firms strategize how and when to utilize SMI to increase sales. Findings from this study also suggest that marketers should tailor curated subscription strategies to specific generational demographics.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

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