06/04/2025
By Sameed Khan

The Department of Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Innovation invites you to attend a doctoral dissertation defense by Sameed B. Khan on "Language Assertiveness and Its Relationship with Financial Constraints in Consumption Contexts."

Date: June 19, 2025
Time: 10:30 a.m. to noon
Location: Via Zoom - Meeting ID: 925 4549 7811 Passcode: 306241
Dissertation Title: Two Essays on Language Assertiveness and Its Relationship With Financial Constraints in Consumption Contexts

Committee Members

  • Ann Kronrod (Chair), Ph.D., MEI Department, Manning School of Business at the University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • M. Berk Talay, Ph.D., MEI Department, Manning School of Business at the University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Andrea W. Luangrath, Ph.D., Marketing Department, Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa

Abstract:
Language assertiveness intensifies whatever is being said (Grinstein and Kronrod 2016) and indicates the refusability of a request/command (Brown and Levinson 1987). The construct can help explain consumers’ compliance with requests (Fitzsimons and Lehmann 2004), brand perceptions (Zemack-Rugar, Moore, and Fitzsimons 2017), and purchase intentions (Kronrod, Grinstein, and Wathieu 2012). Research has also shown that directives – one aspect of assertive language – can signal greater reviewer expertise, thereby increasing the reviewer’s influence (Packard and Berger, 2017).

Given the effects of assertive language on consumers’ psychological states and behaviors, and considering that other consumers greatly influence them through word of mouth, it is crucial to understand what might make word-of-mouth transmitters use more or less assertive language and how that might impact readers. The answers to these questions can help us better understand language generation and consumption, as well as their downstream impacts. This investigation can also expand the language assertiveness literature beyond the current focus on companies’ marketing communications.

The first essay focuses on the development, validation, and application of a text-analysis tool named Text-Assertiveness Detector (TAD) that researchers can use to measure language assertiveness in a standardized and scalable manner. The tool incorporates an exhaustive list of linguistic dimensions defining assertiveness, thereby providing a more holistic definition and operationalization of language assertiveness. The essay also applies the tool in various contexts, such as company communication, consumer complaints, and consumer-AI interactions. The second essay focuses on contexts often brought about by financial constraints: perceived lack of control and a desire to regain that control. Using multiple methods, the essay examines how high or low language assertiveness can result from perceptions of losing control over one’s life and a desire to regain it, caused by perceived financial constraints.

All interested students, faculty members, and members of the public are invited to attend.