Dr. Joe Phua
About: Dr. Phua’s research examines the impact of new and emerging communication technologies, including social media, on advertising and branding, social marketing campaigns for public health issues like obesity and smoking cessation, and sports marketing. His teaching specialties include digital and social communication strategies, advertising and communication management, and digital advertising at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Education
Ph.D., Communication, University of Southern California
M.A., Communication Management, University of Southern California
B.A., Cinema-Television Critical Studies, University of Southern California
Research Interests and Activities
Dr. Phua’s research examines the impact of new and emerging communication technologies, including social media, on advertising and branding, social marketing campaigns for public health issues like obesity and smoking cessation, and sports marketing. His research has been published in top journals in the field, including Journal of Communication, Journal of Advertising, Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, Journal of Health Psychology, Journal of Smoking Cessation, Asian Journal of Communication, International Journal of Sport Communication, Journal of Sports Media, and Social Influence. His research has also received coverage in publications including Newsweek, Men’s Health, Huffington Post, Men’s Fitness, and WebMD magazine, as well as in news outlets like ABC News, Yahoo! News, and NPR Marketplace Tech.
Abstract: Introduction: In October 2019, a heated tobacco product (HTP) IQOS debuted in the United States. This study examined young adults’ attention and cognitions in response to an IQOS ad that carried two mandated textual health warnings (Surgeon General’s warning and nicotine warning), and how their vaping and smoking status may interact with attention patterns […]
Read MoreAbstract: Fans of brand pages are valuable as they help spread positive word-of-mouth on social media, and drive brand recommendations to other social media users. Companies, such as Nike and Coca-Cola, are focusing their social media strategies on identifying ways to motivate fans to share and create brand-related content. Whereas previous studies have shown that […]
Read MoreAbstract: Trust is a significant factor in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) effects. Online, consumers often need to form judgments about others using heuristic cues when they cannot rely on previous cumulative experiences with an online entity. Drawing on the theoretical construct of cue-based trust and signaling theory, this study aimed to identify and examine the efficacy […]
Read MoreAbstract: Introduction: In October 2019, a heated tobacco product (HTP) IQOS debuted in the United States. This study examined young adults’ attention and cognitions in response to an IQOS ad that carried two mandated textual health warnings (Surgeon General’s warning and nicotine warning), and how their vaping and smoking status may interact with attention patterns […]
Read MoreAbstract: Celebrities endorsing veganism may exert social influence on consumers’ attitude toward veganism and behavioral intention to become vegan. A between-subjects online experiment (N=303) examined the effects of consumers’ eating habits (meat eater versus non-meat eater) and celebrities’ vegan identity (altruistic motivation versus egoistic motivation) on various outcomes of health communication about veganism. Results of […]
Read MoreAbstract: Background: The perceived threat of a highly contagious virus may lead people to be distrustful of immigrants and outgroups. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the salient politicized discourses of blaming Chinese people for the virus have fueled over 2,000 reports of anti-Asian racial incidents and hate crimes in the U.S.. Objective: This study investigates relationships […]
Read MoreAbstract: Sports sponsorship has been considered a key branding strategy for various marketing objectives, but little research investigated how consumers perceived sponsor brands through sports competitions. This study aimed to examine whether team performance and gender difference jointly impacted consumers’ perceived brand personality and how team identification and self-brand connection moderated such impacts on perceived […]
Read MoreAbstract: Through two studies, this research examined consumer responses to empowerment hashtags in social media–based fashion advertising. The findings of Study 1 indicated that consumers showed more favorable attitudes toward empowerment-campaign hashtags than brand-name hashtags, and that the perceived information value of hashtags meditated the relationship between hashtag type and attitudes toward the hashtags. Furthermore, […]
Read MorePan, Polin, & Joe Phua (Forthcoming). Connecting Sponsor Brands through Sports Competitions: An Identity Approach to Brand Trust and Brand Loyalty. Accepted for publication in Sport, Business, Management: An International Journal. Abstract: This paper examines the interplay between sport fandom and brand perceptions in the context of sport sponsorship. The effects of sport fans’ self- […]
Read MoreJihoon (Jay) Kim (Grady Ph.D student), Joe Phua, Nah Ray Han (Grady Ph.D student), and Taeyeon Kim (Grady Ph.D student), “Investigating the Impact of Immersive Advertising on Attitude toward the Brand: The Mediating Roles of Perceived Novelty, Perceived Interactivity, and Attitude toward the Advertisement” Accepted for presentation at the Association for Education in Journalism and […]
Read MoreMarilyn Primovic and Dr. Joe Phua, Comparing Expectancy Violations Committed by Influencer Advertising Sources on Social Media. To be presented virtually at the AEJMC 103rd Annual Conference in August, 2020. Abstract: Advertisers select influencer sources to promote brands on widely followed social media accounts. This sponsored content is integrated into the content already being posted […]
Read MoreAbstract: This study examined effects of Facebook reaction icons and user comments on brand attitude, trust, information seeking, purchase intention, and eWOM intention towards a health brand, as well as potential moderating effects of SNS use. Results of a 3 (reaction icons: positive/neutral/negative) × 3 (valence of comments: positive/neutral/negative) between-subjects experiment (N = 306) indicated that positive […]
Read MoreAbstract: Through 2 studies, this research examined consumer responses to empowerment hashtags in social media-based fashion advertising. The findings of Study 1 indicated that consumers showed more favorable attitudes towards empowerment campaign hashtags than brand name hashtags, and that perceived information value of hashtags meditated the relationship between hashtag type and attitudes toward the hashtags. […]
Read MoreAbstract: Through two experiments, this study assessed source and message effects of Instagram-based pro-veganism messages. Experiment 1 (N = 294) examined effects of organization (brand versus non-profit) and message types (egoistic versus altruistic) on consumer responses to Instagram-based pro-veganism content. Experiment 2 (N = 288) examined effects of source type (celebrity versus non-celebrity) and message […]
Read MorePaper accepted for presentation at the International Communication Association Annual Conference, Gold Coast, Australia, May 2020. Abstract: Through two experiments, this study assessed source and message effects of Instagram-based pro-veganism messages. Experiment 1 (N = 294) examined effects of organization (brand versus non-profit) and message types (egoistic versus altruistic), while experiment 2 (N = 288) […]
Read MoreAccepted for presentation at the 2020 American Academy of Advertising (AAA) Annual Conference, March 2020, San Diego, CA. Abstract: This study examined effects of match versus mismatch of message concreteness (abstract/concrete) and sender distance (far/close) in Facebook-based posts about energy saving on attitudes and behavior intentions. An online experiment (N=183) revealed that participants in the […]
Read MoreAbstract: This study posits that human values can be used to identify and segment audiences for social media‐based valuable brand activities. Three online surveys were conducted with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram users (ages 18–34) on Amazon Mechanical Turk (N = 491). The relationship between social media users’ values and their reported social media activities was […]
Read MoreAbstract: Companies consider social media‐based consumer engagement behaviors such as sharing, content creation, and reviews for brands as more valuable than “liking” or consuming brand content. Studies show that branded content shared or created by consumers on social media may drive more brand awareness and loyalty than “likes” (Adweek, 2013). Global companies are increasingly focusing […]
Read MoreAbstract: This study examined the effects of joining and actively participating in e-cigarette-related social media communities (SMCs), along with e-cigarette-related subjective norms, and social identification with other e-cigarette users, on current e-cigarette users’ attitudes towards quitting, self-efficacy, and intention to quit. Results (N=1016) indicated that greater e-cigarette-related social media use, more positive e-cigarette-related subjective norms […]
Read MoreAbstract: Social media-based consumer engagement behaviors, such as sharing, content creation and reviews for brands as more valuable than “liking” or consuming brand content. As consumers trust consumer-driven recommendations more than advertising, brand content shared or created by consumers on social media may drive brand awareness and loyalty. Marketing researchers and practitioners are only recently […]
Read MoreAbstract: A between-subjects 2 (source type: celebrity versus non-celebrity) x 2 (message valence: positive versus negative) factorial experiment (N = 288) examined the effects of source type and message valence on various outcomes of Instagram-based advertising messages about veganism. Results of data analyses indicate significant main effects of message valence on perceived information value of […]
Read MoreAbstract: This study examined exposure to three types of e-cigarette marketing—sponsored advertisements, brand pages, and user-created groups—on social networking sites and their influence on health-related outcomes. Results (N = 1,016) indicated that e-cigarette users who joined user-created groups had significantly more negative attitudes toward quitting and lower behavioral control, intention to quit, and self-efficacy than […]
Read MoreAbstract: Celebrities endorsing veganism may exert social influence on consumers’ attitude toward veganism and behavioral intention to become vegan. A between-subjects online experiment (N = 303) examined the effects of consumers’ eating habits (meat eater versus non-meat eater) and celebrities’ vegan identity (altruistic motivation versus egoistic motivation) on various outcomes of health communication about veganism. […]
Read MoreAbstract: With an estimated 10.8 million adult users, particularly amongst 18 to 24-year olds, e-cigarette use is an increasingly serious health issue within the United States. These products are often promoted as smoking cessation devices for use in quitting smoking and nicotine replacement therapy. JUUL, a leading brand of e-cigarettes, is also heavily featured in […]
Read MoreAbstract: This study examined effects of hashtag type (brand name versus empowering campaign hashtag) on information value and attitude towards hashtags. Results indicated that consumers showed more favorable attitudes towards empowering campaign hashtags than brand name hashtags, and that perceived information value of hashtags meditated the relationship between hashtag type and attitude toward the hashtags. […]
Read MoreAbstract: Through a 2×3 between-subjects experiment, this study examined effects of health warning labels (presence or absence) and advertising message claims (“Quit smoking using e-cigarettes,” “Healthier than regular cigarettes” or none) in celebrity-endorsed Instagram e-cigarette brand advertisements. Results indicated health warning labels exerted significant main effects on attitude towards e-cigarettes, intention to use e-cigarettes, and […]
Read MoreAbstract: Snapchat geofilter advertisements use augmented reality (AR) technology to place consumers in photographs embellished with branded content. This study examined the joint influence of self-brand congruity, self-referencing and perceived humor in these self-endorsed geofilter brand advertisements on consumers’ brand-related preferences. Results revealed that self-brand congruity, self-referencing and perceived humor exerted significant main effects on […]
Read MoreAbstract: Celebrities endorsing e-cigarette brands on social media may exert a strong influence on e-cigarette uptake. Using a between-subject experiment, this study examines the effects of endorser type (celebrities, non-celebrities and products only) in e-cigarette brand Instagram advertisements on e-cigarette attitudes and smoking intentions. Results showed that celebrity endorsers significantly increased positive attitudes towards e-cigarettes […]
Read MoreAbstract: Purpose – Applying social identity theory, the social identity-brand equity model and excitation-transfer theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine effects of game outcome (win/loss) and location (home/away) on sport fans’ brand attitude and purchase intention toward a brand endorsed by their favorite sport team on Facebook, as well as the mediating […]
Read MoreAbstract: This study examined effects of Facebook reaction icons and user comments on brand attitude, trust, information seeking, purchase intention, and eWOM intention towards a health brand, as well as potential moderating effects of SNS use. Results of a 3 (reaction icons: positive/neutral/negative) x 3 (valence of comments: positive/neutral/negative) between-subjects experiment (N = 306) indicated […]
Read MoreTeaching Specialties
Dr. Phua’s teaching specialties include digital and social communication strategies, advertising and communication management, and digital advertising at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Experience
Dr. Phua has worked in corporate communications at MTV networks, account management at Dailey and Associates Advertising, and in film production at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood, California, before attending the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California, where he earned his Ph.D. in 2011.
Awards and Fellowships
Dissertation of the Year Award 2012, NCA Health Communication Division, National Communication Association (NCA) Conference, Orlando, Florida, November 2012
Dissertation of the Year Award 2012, ICA Health Communication Division, International Communication Association (ICA) Conference, Phoenix, Arizona, May 2012
CTL Lilly Teaching Fellows 2012-2014, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
International Dissertation Research Award 2010-2011, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Top Student Paper, Human Communication and Technology Division, National Communication Association (NCA) Conference, Chicago, IL, November 2009
Top Student Paper, Intergroup Communication Interest Group, International Communication Association (ICA) Conference, Montreal, Canada, May 2008