MARYAM TOFIGHI Department of Marketing John Molson School of Business Concordia University 1450 Guy Street, H3H 0A1 Montreal, Quebec, Canada E-mail: maryam.tofighi@concordia.ca EDUCATION Ph.D., Marketing Concordia University, Montreal, Canada 2011-present Ph.D., Marketing (one year of coursework) 2010-2011 Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Montreal, Canada M.Sc., Marketing 2006-2008 Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran B.Sc., Business Administration 2001-2005 University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran RESEARCH INTERESTS Consumer behavior Retailing and brand management Socially responsible consumption Visual attention in retailing environment REFEREED JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS Tofighi, Maryam and H. Onur Bodur (2015), "Social Responsibility and Its Differential Effects on the Retailers Portfolio of Private Label Brands," International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 43(4/5), 301-313. MANUSCRIPTS UNDER REVIEW Co-authored with H. Onur Bodur and Bianca Grohmann, When Should Private Label Brands Endorse Ethical Attributes? Journal of Retailing (3 rd round). 1
REFEREED CONFERENCE PROCEEDEINGS Bodur, H. Onur, Maryam Tofighi, and Bianca Grohmann (October, 2015), "Ethical Private Label Brands: Understanding the Role of Extrinsic Quality Cues" Association for Consumer Research Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana. Tofighi, Maryam, H. Onur Bodur, and Bianca Grohmann (August, 2015), "Overcoming Stigma: Shelf Locations That Benefit Private-Label Brands," Society for Consumer Psychology (APA) Summer Conference, Toronto, Canada. Bodur, H. Onur, Maryam Tofighi, and Bianca Grohmann (February, 2015), "Ethical Attribute Benefits for Private Label Brands," Society for Consumer Psychology Winter Conference, Phoenix, Arizona. Tofighi, Maryam and Bianca Grohmann (March, 2014), "How Does Shelf Placement of National and Private Label Brands Affect Consumer Evaluation and Purchase Intent?" Society for Consumer Psychology Winter Conference, Miami, Florida. Bodur, H. Onur, Maryam Tofighi, and Bianca Grohmann (March, 2014), "How Private Label Brands Benefit from Ethical Attribute Introduction?" Society for Consumer Psychology Winter Conference, Miami, Florida. Tofighi, Maryam and Ebrahim Mazaheri (June, 2013), "Why do Facebook Users Engage in Nonprofits' Online Contents?" Administrative Sciences Association of Canada Conference, Calgary, Canada. Tofighi, Maryam and H. Onur Bodur (October, 2012), "Is Social Responsibility Beneficial For Private Label Brands?" Association for Consumer Research Conference, Vancouver, Canada. Tofighi, Maryam and H. Onur Bodur (June, 2012), "Differential Effects of Social Responsibility for National and Private Label Brands," Administrative Sciences Association of Canada Conference, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Mashhadi, Mostafa M., Maryam Tofighi, and Vahid Salamat (December, 2007), "Investigating Customers Decision to Accept E-banking Services," IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering & Engineering Management, Singapore. RESEARCH IN PROGRESS Co-authored with H. Onur Bodur and Bianca Grohmann, The Effect of Perceived Congruity between Ethical Attribute and Brand Benefits, Manuscript in preparation to be submitted to Journal of Marketing Research. Co-authored with H. Onur Bodur and Bianca Grohmann, The Effects of Uncertainty and Similarity in Evaluating Private Label Brands, 2 studies completed, eye-tracking studies in progress, targeted at the Journal of Marketing Research. 2
DISSERTATION Three Essays on the Influence of Ethical Attributes on Private Label Brand Evaluations Co-Chairs: Committee Members: Bianca Grohmann, Onur Bodur Darlene Walsh, François Bellavance Brief Overview of Dissertation In recent decades, retailers are more sensitive about doing good and consumers expectation of them to act socially responsible. Despite the proliferation of retailers private label brands (PLBs), the literature investigating the extent to which PLBs benefit from offering socially responsible initiatives is limited. Given the importance of this problem, essay 1 examines the effect of offering socially responsible initiatives on different quality-tiers of PLBs (low-tier vs. top-tier quality). Essay 2 focuses on the effect of ethical attribute alongside with other product attributes that serve as extrinsic quality cues (i.e., price or retailer reputation) and demonstrates the role of quality inferences as the mediating factor. Finally, essay 3 takes into account the perceived benefit (utilitarian versus symbolic) that ethical attribute and PLB have and investigates the effect of perceived congruity between the benefit of ethical attribute and PLB on brand evaluation. Essay 1: Social Responsibility and Its Differential Effects on the Retailers Portfolio of Private Label Brands This essay explores how social responsibility initiatives can be integrated into different private label brands (PLB) tiers. It develops a conceptual model and examines competing hypotheses based on the social responsibility and evolutionary psychology literature. Results of two experiments suggest that social responsibility initiatives enhance consumer evaluations of highquality PLBs, but hurt consumer evaluations of low-tier PLBs. These findings are consistent with an explanation based on resource synergy beliefs, but are not in line with costly signaling theory. Essay 2: When Should Private Label Brands Endorse Ethical Attributes? Essay 2 examines the role of extrinsic cues (i.e., price or retailer reputation) on consumer evaluations of PLBs offering ethical attributes. Two experiments show that ethical attributes enhance consumer evaluations of PLBs in the presence of extrinsic cues signaling high quality (i.e., high price or high retailer reputation). In the context of extrinsic cues signaling low quality (i.e., low price) a PLB benefits from not offering ethical attributes. This effect is mediated by consumers product quality perceptions. Essay 3: The Effect of Perceived Congruity between Ethical Attribute Benefits and Brand Benefits on Brand Evaluations Essay 3 examines to what extent the congruity between the benefit of ethical attribute (utilitarian vs. symbolic) and that of a PLB (utilitarian vs. symbolic) influences consumers brand evaluations. Results from two experiments suggest that ethical attributes have a beneficial effect on PLB evaluations when ethical attribute and brand benefits are congruent. An additional study investigates if this effect is mediated through processing fluency in the benefit congruent condition. 3
TEACHING (CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY) Instructor (Undergraduate) Introduction to Marketing Summer 2015-94 students - Overall rating: 4.5/5 (1=very poor, 5=very good) Introduction to Marketing Summer 2014-93 students - Overall rating: 4.4/5 (1=very poor, 5=very good) Teaching Assistant (Undergraduate) Marketing Management, Dr. Kemal Buyukkurt 2012-2015 Business Communication, John Aylen 2012-2015 Marketing Yourself (Online), Dr. Jordan Lebel 2014-2015 Personal Selling, Dr. Lea Katsanis 2014-2015 Business Communication, Shurna Henry 2012-2013 Business Statistics, Dr. Dale Doreen 2012-2013 Business Statistics, Dr. Meral Buyukkurt 2012 Teaching Assistant (MBA) Statistical Models for Business Decisions, Dr. Dale Doreen 2012-2015 TA Responsibilities: Grading assignments, midterm and final exams. RELEVANT PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Kalleh Dairy Company, Tehran, Iran Sep 2008-July 2009 Product Manager (dairy products) ITOrbit Company, Tehran, Iran June 2007-May 2008 Marketing and Sales Coordinator AWARDS & HONORS Student fellow, AMA-Sheth Doctoral Consortium 2015 Ph.D. dissertation grant, John Molson School of Business 2015-2016 Graduate Fellowship, Concordia University 2011-2014 Ph.D. fellowship, John Molson School of Business 2011-2012 Ph.D. award, John Molson School of Business 2011-2012 Partial tuition scholarship, Concordia University 2011-2012 Conference travel grants, Concordia University 2012-2015 Doctoral consortium travel grant, John Molson School of Business 2015 4
TEACHING INTERESTS Marketing research Consumer behavior Marketing strategy Personal selling Retailing and brand management Marketing management ACADEMIC SERVICES Ad Hoc Reviewer International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management 2015 Association for Consumer Research 2010-present Society for Consumer Psychology 2011-present Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (ASAC) 2011- present Volunteer In Conference Organization and Execution Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (ASAC) 2011 REFERENCES Bianca Grohmann Professor of Marketing Ph: 5148482424 ext. 4845 E-mail: bianca.grohmann@concordia.ca H. Onur Bodur Associate Professor of Marketing Ph: 5148482424 ext. 2903 E-mail: onur.bodur@concordia.ca Darlene Walsh Associate Professor of Marketing Ph: 5148482424 ext. 2945 E-mail: dwalsh@jmsb.concordia.ca François Bellavance Professor of Marketing University of HEC Montréal Ph: 5143406485 E-mail: francois.bellavance@hec.ca 5