PhD Defense C. Pieters

This dissertation consists of three essays on process analysis for marketing research. The first essay (Chapter 2) investigates the referral reinforcement effect: referred customers have a higher inclination of making referrals than non-referred customers have. Four studies quantify the referral reinforcement effect and mediation analyses decompose it in satisfaction-mediated and non-satisfaction-mediated pathways. A final study explores customer lay beliefs about potential drivers of the referral reinforcement effect. Implications for marketing theory and practice are discussed. The second essay (Chapter 3) compares six existing moderation methods in the face of random measurement error. A quantitative literature review documents their use in marketing research and Monte Carlo simulations assess their performance.

Recommendations for future usage of the moderation methods are provided. The third essay (Chapter 4) focuses on discriminant validity as a precondition for meaningful process analysis in marketing research. It extends existing bivariate criteria for discriminant validity with multivariate discriminant validity criteria. Case studies taken from a quantitative literature review apply the bivariate and multivariate discriminant validity criteria. An online application is developed to increase the accessibility of the criteria.

Constant Pieters (Oostburg, The Netherlands, 1990) received a BSc. degree in Business Administration (2011), an MSc. degree in Marketing Research (2012), and a Research MSc. degree in Business: Marketing (2014), all at Tilburg University. Before teaching at the Department of Marketing at Tilburg University, he started there as a Ph.D. Candidate in 2014. He is incoming Lecturer at the University of New South Wales, Australia.

• Location: Cobbenhagen building, Aula 
• Supervisor: Prof. F.G.M. Pieters
• Co-supervisor: Dr. A. Lemmens