University of Groningen Keep your eyes on the goal! The impact of consumer goal pursuit on the effectiveness of subtle marketing cues Sadowski, Sebastian Adam

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Keep your eyes on the goal! The impact of consumer goal pursuit on the effectiveness of

subtle marketing cues

Sadowski, Sebastian Adam

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Publication date: 2019

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Sadowski, S. A. (2019). Keep your eyes on the goal! The impact of consumer goal pursuit on the effectiveness of subtle marketing cues. University of Groningen, SOM research school.

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Acknowledgements

It was definitely quite a journey. Sometimes inspiring, sometimes more bumpy and curvy, sometimes with a light at the end of the tunnel, sometimes covered in total darkness. But here I am, with my dissertation completed and with my heart filled with much less doubt and uncertainty than at the moment I started my PhD in September 2013. I guess the extent to which I have grown as a human being over the course of the past 6 years I will always see as the biggest benefit I derived from my PhD trajectory.

There were definitely quite some people involved in the process that deserve my sincerest gratitude. First of all, a big thank you goes to my supervisors, prof. dr. Bob M. Fennis and prof. dr. ir. Koert van Ittersum for always believing in me. Thank you both also for the numerous valuable lessons on how to conduct solid research and on academic writing. Also, I would like to thank you for the informality that sometimes provided a nice distraction during our meetings and for giving me independence while at the same time helping me deal with the complexity of my doctoral projects.

Further, I would like to thank prof. dr. Luk Warlop, prof. dr. Steven Sweldens and prof. dr. Bernard Nijstad for agreeing to be the members of my external dissertation committee. Thank you for your time and effort spent on reading and evaluating my dissertation and for the valuable feedback you provided. It is a great honour for me to have your names printed on my doctoral work.

My sincerest thanks go to the members of the internal committee that also dedicated their time to internally evaluate the quality of my work and shared their valuable comments with me: prof. dr. Peter Verhoef, dr. Jan Willem Bolderdijk, dr. Mehrad Moeini Jazani – your insights definitely helped me to further improve the quality of my dissertation.

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I think a special place in my acknowledgements should be dedicated to my amazing office mates – Carmen Donato and Martine van der Heijden. You both in your own ways made the struggles of research far more bearable through anecdotes, by sharing thoughts on life and whereabouts, through coffee breaks, support, listening and trying to help when help was needed. My PhD years will be forever connected in my mind with the both of you. Thank you Martine for also agreeing to be my paranymph and for your help in the process leading towards my defence.

I guess I would not even start or finish my doctoral journey without some people that gave me a subtle nudge to start and continue. First of all, big gratitude goes to dr. Jenny Van Doorn who, while being my master thesis supervisor, clearly indicated that maybe I should consider a career in academia. Further, I want to thank Shu Chenchi, who convinced me that I should seriously think about this possibility. Again, prof. dr. Bob M. Fennis for sparking my interest in the field of consumer behaviour and noticing that I could find my ‘scientific home’ in the research lab rather than in between the complex statistical models or largely strategic practical problems. Last but not least, Daniela Cristian for her support and encouragement through maybe the hardest period of my PhD and for convincing me to give more weight to my academic job applications rather than non-academic ones.

I would also like to thank all the PhD students that I met in Groningen during my PhD years. First and foremost, Jan and Marit for the dinners, partying together at conferences, honest chats about career, life, and other far less relevant topics. Further, Alec, Bianca, Evert, Feng, Frank, Huan, Jacob, John, Lisette, Niels, Sander, Roelof, Stefanie, Yi-Chun – thank you for all the corridor talks, coffee breaks, the random chats and the much more focused ones. Additionally, thanks to all the PhDs from other departments whom I often encountered during PhD socials and at other occasions: Aneta, Edin, Elena, Roxana, Jacoba, Sanne, Tim.

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My sincerest gratitude should also definitely go to the members of Marketing department in Groningen. Therefore Bertina, Felix, Hans B., Hans R., Jaap, Janny, Jan Willem, Jenny, Jing, Keyvan, Lara, Laurens, Liane, Lianne, Maarten, Martijn, Mehrad, Tammo - thank you for all the lunches, conferences, seminars, brown bags, bbq’s, department outings. Thank you for making me feel welcome!

There is one person that made all the long hours spent in the lab much more bearable – Reinder. Thank you very much for all your understanding, support and organizational mindset that was always accommodating and allowed to make things work.

I also wanted to thank all the members of my new academic home – department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management at Maastricht University to make me feel instantly integrated and an active part of the big team. Thus Anika, Anouk, Kris, Diogo, Gitta, Golo, Hannah, Joep, Kars, Kimberley, Leticia, Mahdi, Marcia, Mark, Martina, Mathilde, Mohammadreza, Nadine, Niels, Robert, Ruud, Sabine, Sjors, Steffi, Tim, Timna, Tom – big kudos to all of you. And also big big thanks to Bram, Caroline, Dominik, Eefje, Gaby, Janjaap, Jos, Kelly, Lieven, Lisa, Nicole, Nicole, Pascalle!

I also would not have managed all of this without my lifelong friends who always support me no matter where I am and where they are. Thus, also warmest thoughts and multitude of gratitude goes to Edyta, Eliza, Ewa, Hania, Karolina, Tomek. And to other friends that appeared later at different points in my life but who also always are there for me: Rietje, Charles and Outi. Thank you Outi also for agreeing to be my paranymph and being able to listen to my complaints – I guess not everyone has this skill.

Last but definitely not least a big, tremendous, unbelievable thank you goes to my parents who always believed in me, even when I was struggling to believe in myself. Big thank you for your constant support and encouragement, for listening, your kind words and thoughts,

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family laughs from random things and just all the time spent together that always will be there somewhere within me. And to my brother Tomek and his amazing wife Gosia – I feel so glad to have you in my life.