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1
Groves, Ronald George. "Fourth world consumer culture: Emerging consumer cultures in remote Aboriginal communities of North-Western Australia." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 1999. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1201.
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Over the two centuries since the arrival of European settlers in Australia, the material culture and lifestyle of the indigenous Aboriginal people of Australia has undergone dramatic change. Based on qualitative fieldwork in three remote Aboriginal communities in north-western Australia, this study examines the emergence of unique consumer cultures that appear to differ significantly from mainstream Australia and indeed from other societies. The study finds that the impact of non-indigenous goods and external cultural values upon these communities has been significant. However, although anthropologists feared some fifty years ago that Aboriginal cultural values and traditions had been destroyed, this study concludes that they are still powerful moderating forces in each of the communities studied. The most powerful are non-possessiveness, immediacy in consumption, and a strong sharing ethos. Unlike findings in the so-called Second and Third Worlds, these Fourth World consumer cultures have not developed an unquenchable desire for manufactured consumer goods. Instead, non-traditional consumption practices have been modified by tradition oriented practices. The consumer cultures that have emerged through a synthesis of global and local values and practices have involved Aboriginal adoption, adaption and resistance practices. This process has resulted in both positive and negative impacts on the Aboriginal people of these communities. Ways of dealing with the negative effects have been suggested, while the positive effects have been highlighted as examples of what can possibly be learned from Aboriginal culture. The study also finds differences between the emerging consumer cultures of each community, concluding that this can be attributed to historical and cultural differences. The main conclusion is that the development of a global consumer culture is by no means inevitable.
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Gkaragkounis, Athanasios K. "The consumer society and the Mediterranean town of Rethemnos, Crete, southern Greece." Thesis, Swansea University, 2010. https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa42716.
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Fernand Braudel (1972) in his study The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II suggested, among other things, that the Mediterranean world despite its differences should be conceived of as a unit. The present study is not an attempt to challenge Braudel's entire work on historical, empirical or pragmatological grounds, but an effort to question the unitary and totalitarian conception of the Mediterranean region. Specifically, I explore how a small Mediterranean town, Rethemnos, Crete, Southern Greece, was theorized on the back of this widespread conception that wants the Mediterranean to be a unit, and how a differential reading of the town is possible once various theories and conceptions of postmodernism and poststructuralism are put forward with respect to Rethemnos. I will be drawing on theories of the consumer society (Jean Baudrillard's and Zygmunt Bauman's analyses) in an attempt to document that Rethemnos is a society that is currently organized by recourse to the internal contradictions of the consumer society and on theories of the event and the subject (Alain Badiou's analysis) in order to explain that the Rethemniot subject is undecidable and bound to truth procedures as long as there is an event named after an intervention. Prior to that, I will be challenging, with respect to how the Greek subject was depicted on the back of the unitary fashion of conceiving of the Mediterranean region, a variety of studies of anthropological origin, based on Greece; and I will be also criticizing with respect to how the Greek social formation was dissected, on the back of the same unitary fashion, a variety of other studies of politico-economic origin this time, based on Greece as well, by focusing and drawing on certain aspects of Jacques Derrida's deconstructive strategies and Gilles Deleuze's and Felix Guattari's geo-philosophy's lines of flight.
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Zhang, Ke. "Linking consumer: endorser relationship with source credibility and consumer brand-related responses: a para-social interaction perspective." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2018. https://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_oa/511.
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Previous studies on celebrity endorsement have focused on merits of the celebrity endorser as the key factors for predicting endorsement effectiveness. This research extends previous research by exploring the effects of the consumer's para-social interaction (PSI) with the celebrity. Based on the Source Credibility Model, the proposed model takes PSI as the core variable and examines its relationship with self-brand connection and ideal congruency. Two studies were conducted using online questionnaires to collect consumers' self-reported data. Study 1 tested a partial model using sports celebrities. Study 2 tested the full model using entertainment celebrities. Study 1 had 605 respondents and study 2 had 387 respondents. The respondents were young, well-educated and included both fans and no-fans of the selected celebrities. The results showed that consumer-celebrity PSI was an essential factor in the endorsement process. The perceived attractiveness of a celebrity was an antecedent to PSI, which in turn allowed the consumer to establish a personal connection with the endorsed brand and resulted in positive brand attitude. Furthermore, the results showed that consumers tend to have stronger PSI with a celebrity when they hold a higher degree of ideal congruity with the celebrity. Finally, results indicated that the context in which the celebrity was shown with the brand had significant effects, with a real-life context yielding stronger effects than an ad endorsement context or a product placement context. In sum, this research extended the source attractiveness model by clarifying the endorsement process to include consumer-celebrity PSI and brand-related responses. It also contributed to the audience-celebrity PSI theory. In addition, this research revealed the potential impact of celebrity-brand associations in real-life contexts on endorsement effectiveness, thus providing new insights for research related to the various forms of celebrity endorsement.
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Hanel, Vanessa K., and University of Lethbridge Faculty of Management. "Socially conscious consumer behaviour : the role of ethical self-identity in the use of mental accounting / Vanessa K. Hanel." Thesis, Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Management, 2010, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10133/2598.
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Consumers are becoming more socially conscious in their purchasing behaviours (Freestone & McGoldrick, 2008), and for some it is becoming a more salient aspect of buying criteria (Memery et al., 2005). Individuals‟ conceptions of themselves can influence behaviour (Aquino et al., 2009). An on-line experiment demonstrated the importance of consumers' ethical self-identity (ESI) in the mental processing of socially conscious consumer decisions. Findings reveal not only how individuals process decisions, but how they react to external stimuli. This study categorizes consumers into three levels of ESI, and shows differences and similarities between them. Individuals who feel an ethical orientation is part of their core self-identity were more inclined to mentally consult upon their previous behaviours when considering their current choice. Additional findings indicate that an assimilation effect took place; priming the environment led to more environmental purchase intentions (Herr, 1989). This study provides important insight into socially conscious consumer behaviour.viii, 102 leaves ; 29 cm
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Ahn, Inja Marketing Australian School of Business UNSW. "The impact of national culture on the planning and purchase-consumption behaviour of international leisure travellers." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Marketing, 2005. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/20803.
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This research investigates the influence of national culture on the trip planning and purchase-consumption behaviour of international leisure travellers. This study focuses on achieving a theory-driven, rigorous study that covers a large number of national cultures in empirically testing systematic relations between national values and overseas leisure travel behaviour. The study proposes a conceptual model linking four sets of generalized national value dimensions drawn from the Hofstede, Schwartz and Inglehart studies with trip planning and purchase-consumption behaviours, drawing on and extending the model of a tourism consumption system suggested by Woodside and King (2001). Both country- and individual-level control variables are incorporated in the model. Per capita GDP and statutory annual leave are country-level covariates; prior-destination experience, trip purpose, age and gender are individual-level covariates. In addition to these covariates, trip itinerary planning and total external search are included in models of consumption behaviours. Secondary data obtained from the quarterly Australian International Visitor Survey (from quarter one 2000) is used to test the proposed model. The final sample for the study comprises international leisure travellers from 22 Asian, European and North American countries. Trip planning and consumption behaviours are taken as the dependent variables in a series of weighted and multi-level (HLM) regression models where the independent variables include national values, per capita income and statutory leave (at the country-level) and four travel segments constructed from prior-destination experience and trip purpose, age and gender at the individual-level, as well as trip itinerary planning and total search. The study found that national values play a significant role in influencing both trip planning and purchase-consumption behaviour. National values were found to have a stronger impact on trip planning behaviours than on consumption behaviours at a destination. The four sets of national values differed in explanatory power as did, the three national culture models in an international tourism context, although there was substantial convergent validity across the three models of national culture. The impact of national values on overseas leisure travel behaviour was strongest among the holiday travellers and the youngest (15-24) female tourists, followed by older (45-55plus) tourists. The study contributes a theory-driven, rigorous investigation of national culture and overseas leisure travel behaviour by provision of comprehensive conceptual model and by empirically testing the hypotheses on a large number of countries. It enriches our understanding of the role of national culture on cross-cultural consumer behaviour. The study's findings may assist in developing more effective international destination marketing strategy (e.g., positioning, communication and products-services development) by showing the potential usefulness of national values. Finally, several avenues for future research are suggested including direct measurement of cultural values, further empirical testing based on larger samples, further advances in the conceptual model adding post-purchase behaviour and other confounding variables.
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Shi, Si. "Investigating trust and commitment on brand pages in social networking sites: the antecedents and outcomes." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2014. https://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_oa/21.
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As the growing popularity of social networking sites (SNS) in recent years, many companies have recognized the potential of SNS as a competitive tool to connect with their customers and help them to achieve better business performance. The brand page is a popular product of SNS that allows companies to create their own profiles in SNS and provides companies with a platform to engage with their customers. The brand page can create added values for both companies and customers because it can help companies to increase brand awareness and also help customers to gain more brand knowledge. Past studies consider that increasing customers’ commitment and trust on the brand page are central to improving companies’ performance on the brand page. The aim of this thesis is to gain a better understanding of customers’ commitment and trust on the brand page based on the Commitment-Trust Theory, and use customer values based on the Customer Value Theory to explain the antecedents of customers’ commitment, trust, and relationship outcomes on the brand page. In particular, the thesis focuses on three customer values, namely, functional value, social value, and emotional value. This thesis focuses on four customer relationship outcomes: relationship durability, electronic word of mouth, continued interaction, and functional conflict. To examine the above objectives, this thesis proposes a theoretical model which includes three model components: relationship antecedents (i.e., customer values), relationship mediators (i.e., brand page commitment and trust), and relationship outcomes (i.e., relationship durability, electronic word of mouth, continued interaction, and functional conflict). We propose positive relationships between relationship antecedents and relationship mediators, and between relationship mediators and relationship outcomes. We conceptualized functional value, social value, emotional value, brand page commitment, and brand page trust as second-order constructs. We identify their respective first-order constructs through an extensive literature review. We verify our research model by using a data set collected in a Chinese social networking site – Sina Microblog. A total of 375 questionnaires are collected from users in Sina Microblog who have followed at least one brand page. We adopt established measurement items in previous studies to measure the constructs in this thesis. All measurement items undergo vigorous tests of factor analysis and construct validity. We also assessed the validity of second-order constructs by using theoretical and statistical analysis. We test our proposed model by using statistical technique of structural equation modelling (SEM). Partial least square (PLS) software package is used for data analysis. Our analysis confirms that social and emotional values significantly influence both brand page commitment and trust. Functional value is significantly related to brand page trust but not brand page commitment. In term of relationship outcomes, our findings show that both brand page commitment and trust significantly affect customers’ relationship durability, electronic word of mouth intention, continued interaction, and functional conflict. Our results also confirm the key mediating roles of brand page commitment and trust on the relationships between each of customer values and each of relationship outcomes. In conclusion, this thesis makes two main contributions. First, it provides empirical evidence regarding the process of customer relationship development on the brand page. Our results reveal that customer values are salient drivers of customers’ commitment, trust, and relationship outcomes on the brand page. Second, it contributes to the Commitment-Trust Theory and the Customer Value Theory by exploring the content of each customer values, commitment, and trust in the context of SNS brand pages.
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Botha, Francis-Marie. "An ethno-consumeristic approach to household technologies in Swaziland." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/52101.
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Assignment (MComm) -- University of Stellenbosch, 2001.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: According to Costa and Basommy (1995) ethno-consumerism is the study of consumption from the point of view of a social or cultural group, which is the subject of the study. The purpose of the study was to document and critically analyse the use of modern household technologies by Swazi families and their experiences with them. The focus of analysis was at micro leveL A combined sample (N= 1449), consisting of Swazi females (N=810) and Swazi males (N=639) was requested to complete a questionnaire concerning the research project with issues relating to the adoption of household technologies. To explore the research issues concerning household technologies in Swaziland an ethno consumeristic framework consisting of four elements were developed: The Cultural context, Modernisation in the Swazi Culture, Rising Consumerism in Swaziland and the Technological Context.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Etniese verbruikersgedrag is volgens Costa & Basommy (1995) 'n studie van verbruiking vanuit die oogpunt van 'n kulturele of sosiale groep wat die onderwerp van die studie vorm. Die doel van die studie was om die gebruik van huishoudelike tegnologie deur Swazi families en hulle ondervinding daarmee te dokumenteer en analiseer. Die fokus van analise was op mikro vlak. 'n Gekombineerde steekproef (N=1449) was saamgestel uit Swazi dames (N=810) en Swazi mans (N=639). Die Swazi families het die navorsings projek van inligting voorsien oor kwessies wat verband hou met die aanvaarding van huishoudelike tegnologie. Om die navorsings kwessies aangaande huishoudelike tegnologie te ondersoek was 'n etniese verbruikersraamwerk saamgestel wat uit die volgende vier elemente bestaan het naamlik: Die Swazi se Kulturele Konteks, Modernisering in die Swazi Konteks, Toenemende Verbruikersorientasie en die Tegnologiese Konteks.
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Struwig, Zaskia. "An explorative study of the current practises of greenwashing in social media." Thesis, Nelson Mandela University, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/13658.
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The first section of this paper looks specifically at the concept of greenwashing from a theoretical perspective. It aims to establish exactly what greenwashing is, what it involves and how it has been used. The second section incorporates both the first section of this paper, and delves deeper into how greenwashing has been present in social media. The third section of this paper is a case study. This section has been broken down into three categories of industries in consideration of greenwashing practises. The first is ‘The Obvious’ - this looks at the obvious examples of industries that use greenwashing practises. ‘The Overlooked’ looks at the industries which are often disregarded in terms of greenwashing practises. The last is ‘The Unexpected’ which looks into the industries that focus on supporting the environment and would not commonly be associated with any form of greenwashing practises at all. This case study aims to identify how the selected companies chosen for the study have been associated with greenwashing in the past, and how their current social presence may still be contributing to greenwashed advertising. As the concept of greenwashing is based on a theory developed around two decades ago and mostly consisted of very direct claims and statements using traditional advertising mediums such as billboards and magazine adverts, and considering the amount of well-known corporations who were proven guilty of such greenwashing practises, it would be ignorant to consider that such practises have simply subsided and ceased to occur. Corporations are aware of being called-out with negative press, especially with regards to issues such as false environmental practises, therefore as the advertising industry has changed with time, wouldn’t such greenwashing practises have adapted as well? Corporations in the past have learnt that direct greenwash statements have backfired negatively, therefore in collaboration with the use of social media, the prospect of using subtle, or even subconscious greenwash strategies seem to create an issue which requires investigation.
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Higgins, Kathleen M. "Consumer Compulsive Buying and Hoarding in a World of Fast Fashion." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2014. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc799553/.
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The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to determine the relationships between social media, fashion interest and fast fashion involvement and whether these psychographic variables affect propensity for compulsive clothing buying and (2) to determine whether a relationship exists between compulsive buying and propensity toward hoarding. Data was collected through consumer panel from Qualtrix. Screener questions ensured that all respondents were adult females with an interest in fashion. Responses yielded 232 usable surveys, which were analyzed using SPSS software. Social media was found to be positively related to fashion interest, fast fashion involvement, and compulsive clothing buying. Compulsive clothing buying was found to be positively related to all three compulsive clothes hoarding symptoms: clothing clutter disorganization, clothing acquisition, and difficulty discarding clothing.
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Brock, Kelcey. "Sport consumption patterns in the Eastern Cape: cricket spectators as sporting univores or omnivores." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017534.
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Since its inception, consumption behaviour theory has developed to account for the important social aspect that underpins or at least to some extent can be used to explain consumption behaviour. Modern consumption behaviour theory is anthropocentric in nature, with people and societal influence at the forefront of the theory. To date, empirical studies on consumption behaviour of cultural activities (for example, music and arts), entertainment and sport have used Bourdieu’s (1984) omnivore/univore theory to suggest that consumption of leisure activities is bound up in social ties. To date, no such investigation has been conducted in the context of sport in South Africa. The aim of the study therefore is to investigate whether South African cricket spectators are sporting omnivores or univores, thus, essentially investigating whether sports consumption behaviour in South Africa is bound up in social ties. A number of positive economic and social ramifications could result from gaining a holistic understanding of sports consumption behaviour in South Africa. Given these ramifications, the secondary goal of the research is to identify motives for consumers making specific sport consumption decisions, and determining whether certain characteristics can be attributed to these consumption decisions. Recommendations based on the findings of the research could help various stakeholders understand sports consumption patterns in South Africa, which could in turn lead to the realization of positive economic and social benefits. The study made use of a questionnaire, administered at four different limited overs cricket matches in the 2012/13 cricket season, to obtain a range of responses reflecting specific types of consumption behaviour as well as motives for consumption decisions of cricket spectators in the Eastern Cape. Using individual binary probit models and post estimation F-tests, the results indicate that consumption behaviour of sport within South Africa predominantly differs on the grounds of education and race. This suggests that there are aspects of social connotations underpinning sports consumption behaviour within South Africa
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Zinhumwe, Cephas. "Travelling shoppers' perceptions on the comprehensive servicescape within the South African retail environment." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1013610.
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The study is on the influence of comprehensive servicescape on shopping behaviour of road and rail travelling shoppers. The comprehensive servicescape is referred to as synchronization of the multidimensional servicescape dimensions, which are the physical environment, social environment, socially symbolic and the natural dimensions into one entity that the travellers encounter during the shopping exercise. The servicescape cues that include shoppers and the physical set-up of the service firm are important in influencing service quality evaluation and consumer satisfaction. The aim of this study was to establish the impact of servicescape on travelling shoppers’ buying behaviour and shopping motivations amongst different shoppers that were identified within the South African bus and railway stations. The bus and railway station environment induces an interesting type of shopping behaviour amongst the travelers. The purpose of the study was also to explore the travelling shoppers’ expectations and perceptions on the comprehensive servicescape within the bus station’s retail environment. Additionally the study attempted to address important gaps in the South African literature in respect of the influence of socialservicescape on the buyer behaviour and hedonic motivation of travelling shopper. The questionnaires used in the study were constructed along five dimensions of service quality containing statements linked to a five-point Likert-type interval scale anchored by “strongly agree” and “strongly disagree. Self administered questionnaires were used for data collection from the travelling shoppers through “mall intercept technique” and 300 questionnaires were collected from respondents. The academia benefits from this study from the comprehensive servicescape model of the South African bus and railway stations that was developed. The study built on literature by nvestigating the influence of the comprehensive servicescapes as perceived by travelling shoppers within the South African retail environment. Additionally it was shown both theoretically and empirically, that, that service quality in high contact service environment like the bus and railway station can best be explained by an analysis of the comprehensive servicescape or the multidimensional and hierarchical model. As a result of this study retailers will have a full picture on the specific needs, perception and expectations of road and rail travellers in relation to the quality of the stations’ servicescape, which retailers have to improve in order to increase customer patronage. It is assumed that retailers will be aware that store image and the store ambience should meet the challenges of the perceptions, motivations and consumer behaviour of travellers within the comprehensive servicescape of the station. This study provides a trigger effect to spatial planners to design high quality servicescape that will attract travellers for both hedonic and utilitarian shopping. Hirschman and Holbrook (1982) believed that shoppers derive pleasure from the experience of shopping itself, regardless of the joy from acquiring goods, this more so with travelling shoppers. A bus station can be both a growth node and a tourist attraction, if its features are attractive, therefore planners can benefit from this study. In this study theory that forms the bases of the influence of social servicescape on the behaviour of travelling shoppers that frequently visit and participate in shopping at various South African bus station retail outlets is provided. Additionally, this study provided empirical information on the relationships that exist amongst the characteristics of the South African Park Stations’ physical retail environments, user perceptions and interpersonal encounters. The behaviour of shopping travellers was extensively discussed to provide the background of theories and various models concerning shopping behaviour of travellers. Through this work, clarity on consumer behavioural trends of travelling shoppers in the South African retail sector is provided, which assist in differentiating retail products, services and segmentation of markets in a way that could enhance marketing effectiveness amongst the travelling shopping segment. Special attention was paid to factors that motivate road travellers’ choice of stores; the type of products they purchase and their decision making processes. Effort were made to identify, categorize and segment shopper typologies and their shopping behaviours. Effort was also made to discuss extensively the social and physical influences of environments in a retail environment such as that of the bus and railway station. The discussions in this study focussed on describing the comprehensive servicescape model dimensions which shoppers encountered during their shopping activity. The study also indicated the significance of the interaction of service staff with the customers in determining the service quality, customer satisfaction and the future intention of travelers. Additionally this study emphasised the importance of social encounters and perceptiveness to cues within the station, which determine whether they actively or passively are involved in the shopping encounter. The research findings reveal that, travellers perceive the servicescape within the bus station as unattractive and lack appropriate facilities. Furthermore travelers considered the two dimensions (store image and store ambience) of the store’s servicescape as one composite unit of the servicescape. This position is supported in literature, where it is argued that people respond to their environment holistically, rather than to individual stimuli. The travelling shoppers reveal that although they always find the shops from the bus station clean and neat, consumers expect a certain level of ambient environmental conditions to be present. The empirical findings in this study indicate that travelling shoppers are not interested in visiting the stores at the bus and railway station for shopping because merchandise from the bus station stores is poor in quality and unreliable; the surroundings at the station as unpleasant and the bus and railway station stores are congested. Thus, hasty shopping and spending more time or stay longer than planned for shopping at the bus and railway station is not useful to travelling shoppers. Therefore, travellers feel strongly that the shopping environment of the station is not conducive to shopping. These facilities (stations) are only used for travelling purposes; therefore there is a need for improvement in the retail and station facilities in order to increase shopping activities within this servicescape. The research findings reveal that shopping at the bus station seems to be driven by traditional needs such as functional and experiential motivations as well as travelrelated needs such as busstation-atmosphere-related and bus station-infrastructurerelated motivations. It was difficult to deduce a particular typology of shoppers in this environment, but due to the stress related to travelling. Passive shopping was observed amongst travellers, which is not a positive shopping behaviour for retailers.
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Raad, Morgan. "The influence of social responsibility initiatives on the South African wine consumers planned behaviour." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/96205.
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Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.The market benefits and competitive advantage of integrating social responsibility initiatives are well known within the global marketing context. More recently, this movement had notably increased within the South African wine industry, where wine producers are integrating philanthropy into their overall business operations. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the marketing of social responsibility initiatives, within the South African wine industry, would lead to a positive consumer attitude towards a brand and result in influencing South African wine consumers’ purchasing behaviour. The literature review was conducted to establish the effect of marketing social responsibility initiatives over consumer attitude, intention and planned behaviour. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. This study indicated that the marketing of social responsibility initiatives are recognised by South African wine consumers as a decision-making factor and do influence consumers’ attitude towards brands, when purchasing wine. Although social responsibility initiatives are regarded as a low decision-making factor, when compared to other factors, the study did indicate that South African wine consumers generally do portray positive attitude towards the South African wine industry’s social responsibility initiatives. Generally, it was found that South African wine consumers portrayed positive planned purchasing behaviour towards most of the South African wine producers’ social responsibility initiatives, with management of quality and environmental conservation initiatives receiving more positive response. Land reformation and legislative responsibility were regarded as lesser important initiatives. Given the fact that social responsibility initiatives are recognised, yet only influences a certain portion of South African wine consumers’ purchasing decisions, the study did indicate that there are opportunities for the South African wine industry to market its social responsibility initiatives. The study concludes with the educational role that the marketing of social responsibility initiatives may have on influencing wine consumers’ planned behaviour and suggests a multi-stakeholder approach towards marketing.
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Baek, Youngsun. "Responsiveness of residential electricity demand to changes in price, information, and policy." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/39581.
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This study analyzes consumers' behavioral responsiveness to changes in price and policy regarding residential electricity consumption, using a hybrid method of econometric analyses and energy market simulations with the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS). First, this study estimates price elasticities of residential electricity demand with the most recent Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) data, collected in 2005, employing a conventional econometric model and a discrete/continuous choice model. Prior to the NEMS experiments with price shocks and consumers' behavioral features, this study uses NEMS to examine how energy policies would affect changes in retail electricity price in the future.
When climate policies are implemented nationally, electricity prices are estimated to increase by 17% in 2030 with a carbon cap and trade initiatives and by 4% with Renewable Electricity Standards (RES). The short-run elasticity of demand estimated from the 2005 RECS is found to be in a range of -0.81 ~ -0.66, which is more elastic than the current NEMS assumption of -0.15. The 2005 RECS dataset details information about American households' energy consumption. This rich source of micro-level data complements the existing econometric analysis based on time series data.
Electricity price (either census-division average price or household average price), annual income and number of rooms are found to be three major determinants of the level of electricity consumption. The difference in short-run price elasticity leads to a difference in social welfare estimates of energy policies and energy market forecasts. This study suggests that the estimate of social welfare loss caused by electricity price increase is overestimated if the elasticity is assumed to be smaller than the actual responsiveness. Supposing that 1) the short-run elasticity of -0.66 reflects the actual consumers' responsiveness to price changes in the present and future and 2) retail
electricity prices permanently increase by 10%, the welfare loss caused by the price increases would be estimated 0.9 billion dollars less than the current estimates with the elasticity of -0.15. This result suggests that if people are assumed to be more elastic to price signals, the time it takes for a policy to accomplish its goal could be shorter.
In addition to assessing potential savings expected from consumers' behavioral changes with the concept of price elasticity of demand in neoclassical economic theory, this study reviews economic and non-economic theories about behavioral features of energy consumers and discusses how existing information programs could be improved.
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Salehan, Mohammad. "Three Essays on Social Media: the Effect of Motivation, Participation, and Sentiment on Performance." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2015. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc804892/.
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In recent years, social media has experienced tremendous growth in the number of users. Facebook alone has more than 1.3 billion active users and Twitter has attracted over 600 million active users. Social media has significantly changed the way humans communicate. Many people use social media to keep in touch with family and friends and receive up-to-date information about what happens around the world. Politicians are using social media to support their campaigns. Use of social media is not restricted to individuals and politicians. Businesses are now using social media to promote their products and services. Many companies maintain Facebook and Twitter accounts to keep in touch with their customers. Consumers also use social media to receive information about products/services. Online product reviews are now an important source of information for consumers. This dissertation aims to address one fundamental research question: how do individual differences among users lead to different levels of performance on social media? More specifically, this dissertation investigates the motivations of use and the predictors of performance in the context of social media. We utilize sentiment mining to predict performance in different types of social media including information diffusion in Twitter and helpfulness and readership of online consumer reviews. The results show how different motivations lead to different levels of participation in social media and level of participation consequently influences performance. We also find that sentiment of the messages posted on social media significantly influence their performance.
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Fraser, Kathryn. "The makeover and other consumerist narratives /." Thesis, McGill University, 2002. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=82875.
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"The Makeover and Other Consumerist Narratives" is an interdisciplinary work in both approach and scope, and reads the construction of feminine desire and identity through what is popularly known as the makeover. Bringing together such diverse areas as film, literature, women's magazines, psychoanalysis, historical analysis and cultural theory, this research is particularly concerned with visual communications media (mostly film and advertising) and spectatorship. Of central import is the relationship of consumerism to feminine identity, desire, and the historical emergence of popular entertainments aimed directly at women.The narrative of the makeover---so prevalent in women's magazines and advertising---works to effectively orient women's desires in a consumerist direction through product promotion and self-commodification. In addition, the makeover is explored in terms of how it might be seen to provide a model by which to understand the workings of late consumer capitalism as a whole. From an excavation of the official commodity-oriented origins of the makeover in the history of women's magazines, the project then moves through a reading of several print advertisements and the phenomenon of the consumer tie-in, and finally to what I call the "Transformation Film." Questions of narrative, desire and class are key here, especially insofar as these films make explicit the connection between self-transformation, commodity consumption, feminine desire and the promise of identity in consumer culture.
At issue is the peculiar problematic of feminine desire as negotiated by Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, as well as the historical implications of female identity as explainable by Marxian commodity theory. It is only by means of examining the objects which cater to feminine desire that we may be able to understand this "culture of the makeover" and women's identity therein.
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Jiang, Mei Jun. "From online live streaming platform to taobao :a preliminary study on perceptions of Wanghong." Thesis, University of Macau, 2018. http://umaclib3.umac.mo/record=b3952609.
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Wiebe, Jeff, and University of Lethbridge Faculty of Management. "Near or far : psychological distance construal and its role in ethical." Thesis, Lethbridge, Alta. :|bUniversity of Lethbridge, Faculty of Management,|cc2013, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10133/3431.
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A focus group and experiment were conducted to test the effects of psychological distance on participant affect, intentions, and behaviours in the realm of ethical consumption. Construal Level Theory (Liberman and Trope, 1998) posits that psychologically-near concepts are viewed differently than their psychologically-far counterparts, and this framework was used to guide the development of predictions relating to four dimensions of distance: temporal, spatial, social, and hypothetical. The study revealed that participants exhibit significantly higher levels of affect and intention when presented stimuli involve psychologically near impacts rather than psychologically-far impacts. This finding did not carry over into actual behaviour, however. Subject disposition toward psychological distance was measured but was found to not impact affect, intentions, or behaviour. Perceived Consumer Effectiveness (Kinnear, Taylor, & Ahmed, 1974) was found to be an important predictor of behaviour.viii, 103 leaves ; 29 cm
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Tran, Gina A. "Investigating E-servicescape, Trust, E-WOM, and Customer Loyalty." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2014. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc699848/.
Full textAbstract:
Old Spice cleverly used a handsome actor to play the Old Spice Man character for a Super Bowl commercial in 2010. After the game, this Old Spice commercial was viewed more than 13 million times on YouTube, a social media video-sharing site. This viral marketing campaign, also known as electronic word-of-mouth (E-WOM), propelled the Old Spice brand into the forefront of consumers’ minds, increased brand awareness, and inspired people to share the video links with their family, friends, and co-workers. The rapid growth of E-WOM is an indication of consumers’ increased willingness to convey marketing messages to others. However, despite this development, marketing academics and practitioners do not fully understand this powerful form of marketing. This dissertation enriches our understanding of E-WOM and how e-servicescape may lead to E-WOM. To that end, stimulus-organism-response theory and the network co-production model of E-WOM are applied to investigate the relationships between e-servicescape, trust, E-WOM intentions, customer loyalty, and purchase intentions. Two forms of E-WOM were examined, namely emails and social network postings. E-servicescape is defined as the online environmental factors of a marketer’s website. E-servicescape is composed of three main dimensions, including aesthetic appeal, financial security, and layout and functionality. This study used cross-sectional customer data from a single e-tailer. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the responses. Customer reviews was added as an additional sub-dimension of e-servicescape. The findings suggest e-servicescape positively impacts trust, which in turn positively influences E-WOM and customer loyalty. Moreover, two groups of customers were compared using multi-group analysis, where one group of users received emails and the other group received social network postings from the same e-tailer. Overall, the results indicated emails had a stronger impact on e-servicescape, E-WOM, and customer loyalty. Social networking site postings had slightly greater influence on trust, and two sub-dimensions of e-servicescape, i.e., interactivity and ease of payment. These findings contribute to the marketing research on E-WOM theory and electronic commerce shopping behavior. In particular, the sub-dimension of customer reviews is added to e-servicescape. This study yields practical implications for marketers in understanding consumers’ perceptions of websites and how to better design sites. In addition, these findings add to knowledge on how to engender consumers’ trust and customer loyalty online. Finally, this research provides suggestions for firms wanting to create marketing campaigns that will lead to E-WOM.
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Fong, John. "Electronic word-of-mouth and country-of-origin effects a cross-cultural analysis of discussion boards /." Phd thesis, Australia : Macquarie University, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/28611.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis by publication.Thesis (PhD) -- Macquarie University, Macquarie Graduate School of Management, 2008.
Bibliography: leaves 124-133.
Introduction - Literature review -- Online word-of-mouth: a comparison of American and Chinese discussion boards -- Electronic word-of-mouth: a comparison of stated and revealed behaviour on electronic discussion boards -- A cross-cultural comparison of electronic word-of-mouth and country-of-origin effects -- Conclusion.
The growth of electronic discussion boards has enabled consumers from different cultures to communicate with people of similar interests. Through this online channel, marketing concepts such as word-of-mouth (WOM) and country-of-origin (CoO) effects have the potential to become more important because of the potentially large number of participants involved. The US and China, being the largest and second-largest online population in the world respectively, are ideal countries to investigate the frequency and extent of these marketing concepts. --The thesis consists of three separate but inter-related papers which have been published in journals or have been accepted for publication. Each paper builds on the one before and analyses different aspects of online consumer behaviour such as information-giving, information-seeking and the CoO statements made by participants of discussion boards. By examining and comparing the frequency and content of discussion postings on discussion boards within US and China based websites, the thesis makes a comparison of the information-giving and information-seeking behaviour of the discussants and also looks at the extent and the content of CoO statements made. Online observation of discussion postings from six different discussion boards (three each from the US and China) was conducted over two 90-day period in 2004 and 2005 and a total of 5,993 discussion postings were downloaded for analysis. In addition, an online survey of 214 participants was conducted to compare the stated and actual (or "revealed") behaviour of discussants on the US and China based discussion boards. -- Overall, the findings indicate consistent differences over a 12-month period in the bahaviour of the US and Chinese discussants. The US discussants were found to provide more information than their Chinese counterparts while the Chinese discussants exhibited more information-seeking bahaviour on the discussion boards. The findings also indicate that the Chinese discussants demonstrated more negative CoO statements and these statements were observed to be related to Japan and/or brands that originated from Japan. The findings suggest that such negative CoO statements can increase rapidly online and it appears that the negative sentiments by the Chinese were apparently unrelated to product quality; instead they appear to have been predominantly associated with war related animosity. -- These findings have important implications for marketers selling to the Chinese as discussion boards appear to be more important as a source of information for the Chinese than the Americans. Also, given that the Chinese discussants demonstrated a high level of negative CoO statements relating to products from Japan, marketers selling Japanese products to the Chinese must understand the underlying issues related to these negativeCoO statements and take steps to prevent non-purchase of Japanese products.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
vii, 133 leaves ill
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Shang, Yue. "The Effects of Social Information, Social Norms and Social Identity on Giving." Thesis, Connect to resource online, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1805/1622.
Full textAbstract:
Indiana University - Purdue University - Indianapolis (IUPUI)This philanthropic studies thesis aims to “increase the understanding of philanthropy, improve its practice, and enhance philanthropic participation” (Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University Overview) by studying the effects of social information, social norms and social identity on giving. It connects philanthropic studies research with theoretical developments in motivations for giving in economics, nonprofit management, nonprofit marketing, consumer behavior, and social psychology. It utilizes personal observations as well as quantitative methods including experiments and surveys on multiple samples including donors, undergraduate students and samples of the U.S. population. It generates actionable and efficacious knowledge to improve the practice of philanthropy. It contributes to the formation and growth of the young field called philanthropic studies - in theory, in methodology and in practice. This thesis includes five chapters. Chapter I will explain how the research question, philosophy and methodology are selected. This discussion will be for the entire thesis. Specific research questions, hypotheses, research designs, findings and implications will be explained in the subsequent chapters. Chapter II demonstrates the immediate and long-term effects of social information on donations and its boundary conditions in existing nonprofit donors in two field experiments. Chapter III shows that the psychological mechanism through which social information influences subsequent giving is perceived descriptive social norms in one field survey of donors and one laboratory experiment on undergraduate students. Chapter IV investigates how social identity congruency moderates the effect of social information on donations. It reports three field experiments on donors and samples of the general U.S. population and two laboratory experiments on undergraduate students. It shows that donors give more money to a public radio station if told that a previous donor with a similar identity also made a large contribution. This effect is more likely to occur when donors have high collective identity esteem and when attention is focused on others. Each chapter provides original fundraising techniques developed from these studies. Chapter V concludes with a discussion of the theoretical, methodological and practical contributions of this thesis and suggests directions for future research in philanthropic studies, and philanthropic psychology in particular.
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Artz, Matthew. "An Ethnography of Direct-to-Consumer Genomics [DTCG]: Design Anthropology Insights for the Product Management of a Disruptive Innovation." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2018. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1248393/.
Full textAbstract:
Direct-to-consumer genomics (DTCG) health testing offers great promise to humanity, however to date adoption has lagged as a result of consumer awareness, understanding, and previous government regulations restricting DTCG companies from providing information on an individual's genetic predispositions. But in 2017 the broader DTCG market which also includes genealogical testing demonstrated exponential growth, implying that DTCG is starting to diffuse as an innovation. To better understand the sociocultural forces affecting diffusion, adoption, and satisfaction, qualitative ethnographic research was conducted with DTCG genealogy and health consumers. The data was qualitatively analyzed using thematic analysis to understand the similarities and differences in beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and mediating factors that have influenced consumers. Design anthropology theory and methods were used to produce ethnographically informed insights. The insights were then translated into actionable product management and business strategy recommendations.
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Bianchi, Michelle, and Malin Fredriksson. "Opportunities and barriers to CSR : A qualitative case study of the most important aspects of CSR in medium-sized fashion companies in the moderate price range." Thesis, Högskolan i Borås, Akademin för textil, teknik och ekonomi, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-10720.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis covers a qualitative case study of corporate social responsibility work in medium-sized fashion companies in the moderate price range. The aim of the study was to research the barriers and opportunities to corporate social responsibility in medium-sized fashion companies within the moderate price range in order to understand which aspects that are most important for these companies to focus on. Corporate social responsibility, shortened CSR, means taking environmental, social and financial responsibility for all actions of the company. The industry of the company as well as different company characteristics creates different contexts in which a company may work with CSR. The fashion value chain is a context for fashion companies. In order for a fashion company to be sustainable, the entire value chain should be considered, but it is within the upstream part of the fashion value chain that the most damaging processes occur and it is therefor the upstream part of the value chain that was focused on in this study. The size and price range of a company are characteristics that affects how a company may create successful CSR practices. The study also focused on the consumer perspective and the added value that CSR may bring. The study identified several perceived barriers and opportunities to CSR in medium-sized fashion companies within the moderate price range that may be important to consider in order creating successful CSR practices. Costs, quality assurance, communication and coordination where identified as important barriers. The study also identified that the added value of CSR to the brand and the increased consumer willingness to pay as important opportunities. The study found that cost-consciousness, quality assurance, communication and coordination and the added value perspective may be the most important aspects for medium-sized fashion companies in the moderate price range to focus on in the CSR work. By being aware of these barriers and opportunities, companies may create better CSR strategies, which focus on achieving the opportunities while avoiding the barriers.
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Yang, Yi-Chen. "A comparison of women's roles as portrayed in Taiwanese and Chinese magazine print advertising." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2004. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/2630.
Full textAbstract:
The purpose of this project was to examine the similarities and differences in magazine advertisements directed to women in China and Taiwan. Through content analysis of advertisments in these two countries, the researcher identified how women were portrayed and the social values or lifestyle attributed to them of each society.
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SURRENTI, Silvia. "La domanda di consumo come domanda di esperienza : il consumo di prodotti etnici e i processi di ibridazione culturale nella città contemporanea." Doctoral thesis, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1814/5397.
Full textAbstract:
Defence date: 13 December 2005Examining board: Prof. Peter Wagner (supervisor, European University Institute, Florence) ; Prof. Giandomenico Amendola (co-supervisor, Università degli Studi di Firenze) ; Prof. Franco Bianchini (De Montfort University, Leicester) ; Prof. Bo Strath (European University Institute, Florence)
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017
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Chakraborty, Devarpan. "Is increased consumer control changing media consumption from media business push to media consumer pull?" Diss., 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/43967.
Full textAbstract:
In the war to win the consumer’s attention traditional media is steadily losing ground to new media platforms; which are distributed and consumed digitally, are ubiquitous with the explosive uptake of smart internet connected devices and provide interconnections amongst platforms, devices and even consumers. New media is changing the balance of power in the media landscape from media businesses to media consumers, who now have unlimited choices available to them from which they can decide on what, when, where and how to consume content. So from the traditional outlook of ―mass media‖ there is a transition happening towards ―my media‖ which provide personalised experiences to consumers.
The purpose of this study is to contribute to the discussion on how consumer control is changing the media landscape by applying the dichotomy of push vs. pull in media consumption. The study sought to explore if with increasing consumer empowerment, the consumer instead of passively relying on content push from media businesses is now actively pulling content to fulfil his/her individual needs.
The study was qualitative and exploratory in nature and utilised in depth and semi structured interviews of media consumers and experts to understand in how the role of the consumer is changing in the media landscape, the factors influencing the change, how the empowered consumer is effecting changes in the way he/she consumes content and media business response to the empowered consumer
The study empirically established that consumer control is definitely on the rise in media consumption with consumers preferring to pull content as per their liking. Furthermore it was empirically validated that consumers from lower income levels were as much in control and pulling content as consumers from higher income levels which is a significant departure from the literature. The study also found that even though media businesses acknowledge consumer control in media consumption their response to it is applying certain tactics without any accompanying change in strategies and business models.
The study recommended that for media businesses to stay relevant in the age of consumer control and the accompanying content pull; they need to be more customer centric in their approach where they design their strategies and business models by being consumer focussed and trying to fulfil their needs.Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014.
zkgibs2015
Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
MBA
Unrestricted
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Pather, Melisha. "Factors affecting the consumer decision-making process in Africa: an exploratory study." Diss., 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/43988.
Full textAbstract:
With more consumer product companies analysing the requirements for successful entry into African markets, the main factors they seek to determine are concerned with understanding the African consumer, so that these companies are enabled to provide products and services that relate to the inherent needs and wants of these consumers.
This research study analysed the factors that affect the consumer decision-making process in East and West Africa. The countries that were focused on for this study were Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana.
The results of the study revealed that there is a unique macroeconomic environment in both East and West Africa that has resulted in the rise of low-end and high-end consumers. Profiles of each of these consumer types, as well as regionally specific nuances have been provided. It was also established that there are many factors that affect the consumer decision-making process in these regions. These can be grouped into product factors, marketing factors, environmental factors and purchasing factors.
These behavioural nuances can be used by consumer product companies to properly prepare market entry strategies for East and West African markets in order to meet customer demands.Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014.
zkgibs2015
Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
MBA
Unrestricted
27
Chen, Roger L. "Just do it : an analysis of cultural factors behind the growth of Nike, Inc." Thesis, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/1957/35268.
Full textAbstract:
The success of NIKE, Inc. is deemed miracle by professionals on both Wall
Street and Madison Avenue. Research done in the past tends to credit the growth
of NIKE, Inc. to its marketing strategies. By placing the achievement of the
company in the postmodern context, this study analyzes the cultural factors
which contribute to the company's achievement. A brief yet well-documented
history of NIKE, Inc. is provided. The nature and function of NIKE, Inc.'s athlete
endorsements and contemporary sport are analyzed in a cultural context. The
cultural significance of three representative NIKE advertisements, and the
globalization of NIKE, Inc. are also scrutinized.
A literature review provides theoretical guidelines to the understanding of
the relationship between the business achievement of NIKE, Inc. and the
postmodern reality we are living in today. Interviews with 38 key informants and
questionnaire surveys show that NIKE, Inc. is a dream factory which uses the
American Dream as a selling point to expand its market both within the United
States and overseas. Therefore, the success of NIKE, Inc. should be viewed more
as a cultural phenomenon than as a business achievement.Graduation date: 1995
Best scan available for figures. Original is a black and white photocopy.
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"現代生活的文化想象: 上海白領雜誌ELLE的消費研究." 2003. http://library.cuhk.edu.hk/record=b5896145.
Full textAbstract:
謝佼杏."2003年12月".
論文(哲學碩士)--香港中文大學, 2003.
參考文獻 (leaves 96-100).
附中英文摘要.
"2003 nian 12 yue".
Xie Jiaoxing.
Lun wen (zhe xue shuo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2003.
Can kao wen xian (leaves 96-100).
Fu Zhong Ying wen zhai yao.
Chapter ´ؤ. --- 導論 --- p.5頁
Chapter 二. --- 消費社會的身份建構 --- p.11頁
Chapter 三. --- 中國的現代生活方式與白領人士 --- p.33頁
Chapter 四. --- 硏究背景與硏究問題 --- p.38頁
Chapter 五. --- 分析部分 --- p.45頁
Chapter 六. --- 結論 --- p.88頁
附錄1被訪者的基本資料 --- p.92頁
附錄2 ELLE的讀者基本情況 --- p.95頁
參考書目 --- p.96頁
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Crapis, Davide. "Pricing Models in the Presence of Informational and Social Externalities." Thesis, 2016. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8222TWP.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis studies three game theoretic models of pricing, in which a seller is interested in optimally pricing and allocating her product or service to a market of agents, in order to maximize her revenue. These markets feature a large number of self-interested agents, who are generally heterogeneous with respect to some payoff relevant feature, e.g., willingness to pay when agents are consumers or private cost when agents are firms. Agents strategically interact with one another, and their actions affect other agents' payoffs, either directly through social influence or competition, or indirectly through a review system. The seller has demand uncertainty and strives to optimize expected discounted revenues. I use either a mean-field approximation or a continuum of agents assumption to reduce the complexity of the problems and provide crisp characterizations of system aggregates and equilibrium policies.
Chapter 2 considers the problem of an information provider who sells information products, such as demand forecasts, to a market of firms that compete with one another in a downstream market. We propose a general model that subsumes both price and quantity competition as special cases. We characterize the optimal selling strategy and find that it depends on both mode and intensity of competition. Several important extensions to heterogeneous production costs, information quality discrimination, and information leakage through aggregate actions are studied.
Chapter 3 considers the problem of optimally extracting a stream of revenues from a sequence of consumers, who have heterogeneous willingness to pay and uncertainty about the quality of the product being sold. Using an intuitive maximum likelihood procedure, we characterize the solution of consumers' quality estimation problem. Then, we use a mean-field approximation to characterize the transient dynamics of quality estimates and demand. These allow us to simplify and solve the monopolist's problem, and ultimately provide a characterization of her optimal pricing policy.
Chapter 4 considers the problem of a seller who is interested in dynamically pricing her product when consumers' utility is influenced by the mass of consumers that have purchased in the past. Two scenarios are studied, one in which the monopolist has commitment power and one in which she does not. We characterize the optimal selling strategy under both scenarios and derive comparisons on equilibrium prices and demands. Our main result is a characterization of the value of price commitment as a function of the social influence level in the market.
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Chen, Hsuan-wei 1980. "Essays on network dynamics and informational value of virtual communities." 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2152/17796.
Full textAbstract:
Public press and companies have increasingly strong interests in the impact on businesses brought about by virtual communities. In recent years, virtual communities have become significant sources of information for consumers and businesses by offering unprecedented opportunities for information sharing. Scholars recognize that information posted in virtual communities has important implications for the behaviors of community members and subsequent economic decisions and market performance. However, relatively less is explored about how the informational value of virtual communities results from an aggregated or fragmented community of information. In particular, the underlying motives and mechanisms of user interactions in virtual communities are challenging to understand because of the amount of information available and the potential noises. To investigate user dynamics and the resulting informational value in virtual communities, I explore three major issues in my dissertation. First, I empirically examine whether community fragmentation or aggregation prevails in the context of virtual investment communities. Results indicate that instead of the common belief of virtual communities serving as melting pots that comprise opinions, online investors, in particular, show strong homophily behavior in virtual investment communities. Second, using data from virtual investment communities, I investigate the interactions among online investors that drive homophily and community fragmentation. I find that psychological needs for supportive opinions mainly drive the information seeking and interaction behaviors of online investors as compared to economic rationales. Following this line of exploration, I also identify the informational impact of virtual communities on user behaviors in the context of electronic markets. With data from online retailers, I examine the possible shrinkage of consumer product consideration that is reinforced by online recommendations. A resultant change of consumer consideration leads to a landscape shift of product competition for online retailers, suggesting strategic implications to manufacturers. All in all, my dissertation contributes to an understanding of the value of virtual communities as informational media, how virtual communities shape online user opinions, and how online user preferences impact businesses and markets in a networked economy. My research pushes the frontier toward understanding virtual communities and sheds light on the insights into exploring online network dynamics.text
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Mwaba, Kambe Naomi. "Personality and content preferences on social network sites in South Africa." Thesis, 2016. https://hdl.handle.net/10539/23837.
Full textAbstract:
A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Strategic Marketing Johannesburg, 2016Worldwide, visual content, such as photos and videos, have increased dramatically on social network sites (SNS), with South Africa being no exception. Due to these developments, marketers are increasingly interested in the factors that impact the usage of these sites, in order to develop branded content that will attract and engage users. However, there is a lack of academic research revealing how individual consumer factors, such as personality, influence SNS users’ preferences for different types of content on SNS, particularly within an emerging market such as South Africa. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between two personality traits – need for cognition (NFC) and need for affect (NFA) – and visual and verbal content preference on SNS in South Africa. The study also briefly examined whether demographic variables (gender and age) and SNS usage factors had an impact on the relationships between these variables. An online survey and pen-and-paper questionnaire were conducted. 307 social network site users were obtained primarily from two South African universities through convenience sampling. Data was analysed using correlation analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and standard multiple linear regression on SPSS. The main findings showed that personality does have an influence (albeit small) on SNS users’ preference for visual or verbal content, and warrants consideration by marketing organisations in the design of SNS content. Visual content preference on SNS was found to have a positive relationship with NFA and a negative relationship with NFC. Verbal content preference had a positive relationship with NFC but no significant relationship with NFA. Demographic and SNS usage variables showed mixed results in their impact on SNS content preference. It was recommended that future studies include other variables that could affect SNS content preference, as well as use more objective measures (rather than self-reporting) to determine SNS users’ actual behaviour. Key words: Social network sites, personality traits, need for cognition, need for affect, visual content, verbal content, South Africa, emerging market
GR2018
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"Lifestyles, cultural values, and the adoption of E-commerce services in Hong Kong." 2001. http://library.cuhk.edu.hk/record=b5890863.
Full textAbstract:
Lai Man-wai Conttia.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-107).
Abstracts in English and Chinese.
ABSTRACT (ENGLISH) --- p.ii
ABSTRACT (CHINESE) --- p.iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS --- p.iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.v
LIST OF TABLES --- p.vi
LIST OF FIGURES --- p.vii
Chapter
Chapter I --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1
Chapter II --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.16
Chapter III --- HYPOTHESES --- p.48
Chapter IV --- METHOD --- p.50
Chapter V --- FINDINGS --- p.65
Chapter VI --- DISCUSSION --- p.73
Chapter VII --- CONCLUSIONS --- p.81
APPENDIX --- p.85
REFERENCES --- p.101
33
Reynolds, Catherine. "Habit and taste : ethical consumption and the intellectual milieu." Phd thesis, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/148366.
Full text
34
Amin, Sabreena Z. "Involvement of Gen Y in online social networking media : role in developing attitude towards brands." Thesis, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:62262.
Full textAbstract:
Attitude is often seen as a precursor of behaviour, including of consumer behaviour regarding brands. Understanding the underlying elements of attitude is crucial for anyone who wants to learn about behaviour or induce desired behaviours. Though, so far, extensive research has been carried out on attitudes and brands, no research has focused on Gen Y’s attitude formation towards brands, particularly in relation to Gen Y’s involvement in online social networking media. In view of this gap in the literature, this research addressed the following research problem: How does Gen Y’s involvement in online social networking media facilitate the development of their attitudes towards brands through their online friends? By analysing relevant current literature, a framework was developed to investigate the effects of involvement in online social networking media, electronic word of mouth and subjective norms on the formation of attitudes towards brands. Informational influence, trust and tie strength were introduced as mediating variables between involvement in online social networking media and electronic word of mouth. Results indicate that there is a positive influence of Gen Y’s involvement in online social networking media on the electronic word of mouth they receive. It was also found that informational influence is a catalyst (partial mediator) between involvement in online social networking media and word of mouth that Gen Y receive from their online social network friends. Electronic word of mouth has a positive effect on subjective norms and attitudes towards brands. Subjective norms also have a positive effect on attitudes towards brands. Although both male and female Gen Y groups share similar beliefs, female attitudes towards brands are more likely to be affected by the electronic word of mouth they receive than are male attitudes towards brands. On the contrary, males are more affected by the subjective norms to develop attitudes towards brands than are females. Results also indicate that there are intra-generational differences on developing attitudes towards brands: the older group of Gen Y is more affected by electronic word of mouth and subjective norms than the younger group of Gen Y.
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"Consumption and advertising in urban China: the construction and pursuit of a middle class way of life." 2001. http://library.cuhk.edu.hk/record=b5890727.
Full textAbstract:
by Chu Sheng Hua.Thesis submitted in: December 2000.
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 126-134).
Abstracts in English and Chinese.
"List of Map, Tables and Figures"
Chapter Chapter 1 --- Consumption: The Prism of Contemporary China
Chapter I. --- Introduction: Consumption in China --- p.1
Chapter II. --- Material Conditions under Communist China --- p.3
Chapter III --- . The Advent into a Consumer Society --- p.4
Chapter ■ --- Increase in the Level of Affluence
Chapter ■ --- De-regularisation of the Marketing System
Chapter ■ --- Emergence of a Capital Owning Class
Chapter ■ --- Explosion of Consumption Information
Chapter ■ --- Change in Consumption Structures --- p.11
Chapter IV. --- Guangzhou: Center of Consumption
Chapter ■ --- Location
Chapter ■ --- One Step Ahead --- p.15
Chapter V. --- Objectives of Study --- p.17
Chapter VI. --- Organisation of Thesis
Chapter Chapter 2 --- Sociological Theorising of Consumption： Thematic Issues
Chapter I. --- The Acknowledgement of Consumption: From Production to Consumption --- p.19
Chapter II. --- Consumption as Communication --- p.21
Chapter III. --- Consumption as Distinction --- p.22
Chapter ■ --- Veblen: Leisure Class and Conspicuous Consumption
Chapter ■ --- "Bourdieu: Habitus, Taste and Cultural Capital"
Chapter ■ --- Lamont: Symbolic Boundaries
Chapter IV. --- Consumption as Pleasure and Play --- p.27
Chapter V. --- "Consumption, Advertising and the Symbolic" --- p.28
Chapter ■ --- Postmodernism and Baudrillard
Chapter ■ --- Consumption and the Symbolic: Theorising Lifestyle
Chapter ■ --- The Polemics
Chapter Chapter 3 --- Research Design
Chapter I. --- Conducting China Studies --- p.32
Chapter II. --- Data Sources --- p.32
Chapter ■ --- The Unobtrusive Method
Chapter ■ --- Sources of Data
Chapter III. --- Data Analysis --- p.35
Chapter ■ --- Content Analysis
Chapter ■ --- Semiotic Analysis
Chapter ■ --- Symbolic Reality and Objective Reality
Chapter IV. --- Data Sampling --- p.39
Chapter V. --- Analysing Advertisements --- p.42
Chapter ■ --- Advertising Categories
Chapter ■ --- Advertising Formats
Chapter ■ --- Covert Advertisements
Chapter Chapter 4 --- "Advertising, Consumption and the New Middle Class"
Chapter I. --- The Re-birth of Advertising in China --- p.47
Chapter ■ --- From Political to Marketing Tool
Chapter ■ --- Advertising Boom
Chapter II. --- A New World of Goods and Dreams --- p.49
Chapter ■ --- Forms and Contents of Advertisements: From Product-oriented to Consumer-oriented
Chapter ■ --- Ownership of Goods
Chapter III. --- Market Segmentation: Locating the Middle Class and Their Consumption Patterns
Chapter ■ --- Market Segmentation and the New Middle Class
Chapter ■ --- Economic Capital and Consumption Patterns
Chapter ■ --- Cultural Capital and Taste
Chapter ■ --- Advertising and Consumption Categories
Chapter Chapter 5 --- Cultivating Differences I： Constructing the Ideal Home
Chapter I. --- Housing Reform and Rising Demand for Commodity Housing --- p.66
Chapter II. --- Housing Advertisements --- p.68
Chapter III. --- Advertising Themes: Alluding to the Middle Class Aspirations --- p.70
Chapter ■ --- Establishing Class and Status Distinction
Chapter ■ --- Emphasis on Superiority/Luxury
Chapter ■ --- Desire of Naturalism
Chapter ■ --- Sports-oriented and Health-conscious
Chapter ■ --- Foreign Lifestyle
Chapter ■ --- Cultural Taste
Chapter ■ --- Education and Learning
Chapter IV. --- Ownership of Lifestyle --- p.84
Chapter Chapter 6 --- Cultivating Differences II： Consuming Technologies
Chapter I. --- Modernisation and Good Life --- p.87
Chapter II. --- The Modern Home Electrification --- p.89
Chapter ■ --- Wither Tidal Wave Consumption?
Chapter ■ --- The Making of a Modern Home
Chapter III. --- Deciphering Information and Communication Technologies --- p.93
Chapter ■ --- The Latest Gadgets
Chapter ■ --- Fashionable Lifestyle and Aesthetic Qualities
Chapter IV. --- Private Cars: Riding on the Tide of Consumerism --- p.99
Chapter ■ --- Car Ownership
Chapter ■ --- Who are the Owners?
Chapter ■ --- Status Symbols
Chapter ■ --- Car as Person: Intelligent but Reserved
Chapter ■ --- Desire for Freedom and Touristic Experience
Chapter Chapter 7 --- Conclusion： Beyond Consumption
Chapter I. --- "Consumption, Advertising and Beyond" --- p.106
Chapter II. --- Social Stratification and the Cultivation of Differences: Towards the Construction and Pursuit of a Middle Class Way of Life --- p.109
Chapter III. --- New Sensibilities & Outlook --- p.111
Chapter ■ --- "Stylisation, Aestheticisation and the Cultivation of a Lifestyle"
Chapter ■ --- Cultural Refinement and Sophistication
Chapter ■ --- Cosmopolitanism
Chapter IV. --- The Politics of Consumption --- p.116
Chapter V. --- Consumption with Chinese Characteristics --- p.119
Chapter VI. --- Suggestions for Future Studies --- p.122
Bibliography --- p.126
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Barbour, Nancy Staton. "Global citizen, global consumer : study abroad, neoliberal convergence, and the Eat, Pray, Love phenomenon." Thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1957/30087.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines the convergence of neoliberal rhetoric across popular media, academic, and institutional discourses, and draws connections between contemporary women's travel literature and common scripts in study abroad promotion. Finding such narratives to be freighted with ethnocentric constructs and tacit endorsements of market-based globalization, I critique the mainstreaming of neoliberal attitudes that depict travel as a commodity primarily valuable for its role in increasing the worth of U.S. American personhood. I question both the prevailing definitions of "global citizenship" and the ubiquitous claims that study abroad prepares students for "success in the global economy" as ideological signifiers of a higher education system that is increasingly corporatized.
Utilizing a postcolonial and transnational feminist theoretical framework, the thesis offers a literary analysis of contemporary women's travel memoirs, examining patterns of narcissism and "othering" in their depictions of cross-cultural encounter, and connects these neoliberal trends to consumerism in higher education, study abroad, and post-second wave feminism. Shared themes in the representation of privileged U.S./Western women abroad and the student-consumer model in higher education bespeak a movement toward individual international engagements that reinforce corporate motives for travel and endorse the commodification of global environments, cultures, and people. In hopes of contesting this paradigm, I argue for the reassertion of a social justice-oriented definition of global citizenship and for educational models that foster self-criticism and the decolonization of knowledge.Graduation date: 2012
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Dzikiti, Lianda Gamuchirai. "Visiting friends and relatives (VFR) travel: expenditure patterns of Zimbabweans travelling between South Africa and Zimbabwe." Thesis, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10539/23605.
Full textAbstract:
A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, June 2017.Tourism contributes to economic development in both developed and developing countries. Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) travel is one of the largest forms of tourism on a global level. However, there has been limited research over the past decades on VFR travel. In recent times, VFR travel has attracted the attention of researchers due to increasing rate of migration resulting in the promotion of regional tourism through VFR travel. Despite the influx of migrants in South Africa, research on international VFR travel has been limited as most research on VFR travel has been on local level from one province to another. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the expenditure pattern of Zimbabweans travelling to and from South Africa for VFR purposes. Furthermore, the study seeks to identify the benefits of VFR travel to individual households in Zimbabwe. Using a quantitative framework, 200 questionnaires were distributed to Zimbabweans and a Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) was used as an analysis tool. The theory of consumer behaviour was implemented to discuss and analyse the findings, revealing that VFR travellers from South Africa spend more than VFR travellers to South Africa on transport cost, food and beverages, entertainment and financial remittances. The expenditure is based on socio-demographic and travel-related characteristics. As a result of VFR travellers’ expenditure, the benefits, which are directed to individual households in Zimbabwe, include household upkeep, education, business investment, health and other reasons. Thus this study focuses attention on international VFR travel and its contribution to the tourism economy in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Key Words: Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR), Tourism, Migration, Expenditure, Regional Tourism, South Africa, Zimbabwe.
XL2018
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Hunt, Catherine Anne. "The impact of motivational states on hedonic snack consumption and implications for disordered eating." Phd thesis, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/151423.
Full textAbstract:
The research presented in this thesis explores the role of regulatory focus (promotion versus prevention foci), and related attentional scope (global versus local processing), in influencing people's consumption of pleasurable snack food in the absence of physical need - an eating style that is contributing to growing rates of obesity worldwide. In the first two studies, male and female undergraduates were invited to help themselves to a bowl of M&Ms while they engaged in a global processing, local processing, or control task. Attempts to manipulate local processing using a rhyming task were successful in both studies, evidenced by significant increases in left hemispheric activation from baseline. This local processing, as predicted, had an inhibitory effect on participants' M&M consumption relative to the control task in both studies, which was interpreted as a regulatory misfit between the food type and the scope of attention. Compared to local processing, the manipulation of global processing proved more difficult. In Study 1, mental rotation was employed as the global processing task, however, against prediction it failed to significantly activate the right hemisphere or facilitate M&M consumption. In Study 2, mental rotation was replaced with insight problem-solving which showed a trend (although non-significant) towards right hemispheric activation and greater M&M consumption relative to the control task, suggestive of a fit between the food type and the attentional scope.
Prompted by evidence that pleasurable snack food may serve a distinct safety/protective function for eating disordered individuals who engage in regular binge eating, the second two studies of this thesis investigated whether promotion and prevention foci impact the snack consumption of these individuals differently. In Study 3, non-clinical female university students were invited to eat M&Ms as they worked on a set of promotion focus, prevention focus, or control mazes. As predicted, consumption by no/mild binge eaters (based on a sample split of scores on the Binge Eating Scale) was substantially facilitated by the snack-compatible promotion focus mazes. However, against prediction, the supposedly snack-incompatible prevention focus mazes failed to have an inhibitory effect. As hypothesised, moderate binge eaters exhibited a very different pattern of results. Specifically, they showed a significant increase in M&M consumption in response to the prevention focus mazes, and a slight (but non-significant) decrease in consumption in response to the promotion focus mazes, compared to no/mild binge eaters primed with the same foci. These findings were replicated by Study 4 which pre-screened prospective participants to ensure a greater proportion of clinically significant cases of disordered eating. Using a "taste test" cover story, Study 4 also extended Study 3 by adding a follow-up "tasting" period in order to examine the longevity of the foci's effects on consumption. The results demonstrated that the effects are transient. Regardless of the level of disordered eating, the best predictor of snack consumption at the second tasting period was not regulatory focus, but the amount consumed at the first tasting period.
Consistent across all four studies, the effects of regulatory focus and attentional scope on snack consumption were not associated with changes in hemispheric activation or mood. Furthermore, conscious desire to eat the snack remained unaffected despite impacts on consumption, suggesting that the manipulations were leading participants to approach or avoid the tasty snack at an unconscious or automatic level. In conclusion, this thesis points to motivational and attentional strategies for curbing overeating and binge eating that are highly contingent on where an individual lies on the disordered eating continuum.
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Pieterse, Hanlie. "An evaluation of mature consumer needs in the banking sector." Thesis, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/3208.
Full textAbstract:
The mature market presents challenges to marketers because much of the
information about the marketplace is based on younger consumers, differing from
older consumers in many important ways. The research project was commisioned
with two main objectives: to determine what is required to cater for customers
falling into the age bracket of 60-75, enabling marketers to successfully target the
mature consumer and retain these customers.
A qualitative methodology was selected to collect and analyse information to
enhance understanding of the perceptions with regard to the functional, social and
emotional needs of the mature market sector.
Abraham Maslow is known for postulating the 'Hierarchy of Needs Theory', stating
that human beings are motivated by their unsatisfied needs. It is necessary to
understand and investigate the relative importance of the functional, emotional and
actualisation components of mature consumer needs.Thesis (M.A. (Psychology ))
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Heurtebis, Solene. "An investigation into the level of socio-economic empowerment of women by identifying their lingerie buying behaviour in the Durban area." Thesis, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10321/1983.
Full textAbstract:
Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Master's Degree of Technology: Marketing in the Department of Marketing, Technikon Natal, 2001.The purpose of this investigation is to define the level of socio-economic empowerment of South African women by identifying their lingerie buying behaviour in the Durban area. This research set out to establish if there are relationships between the following three variables: * The level of emancipation of women - If they are high or low In socio-economic emancipation according to criteria identified in the literature review * Their buying motivations - When buying lingerie, do they consider it as a pleasurable and enjoyable experience or a task to complete? * The type of shops they patronise - Shops with a high level of service or self-service shops In order to reach this aim, the literature review provided information about the evolution of women since the beginning of the 1960's, about the evolution of South African women, especially since the end of the Apartheid system, and finally, about the influence of these evolutionary changes on fashion and on the lingerie field in particular. The purpose was to emphasise the link that exists between the level of empowerment of women and their fashion buying habits. Thus, it has been established that women do not only buy to please the members of their family, but also to affirm their personal identity. Moreover, four categories of women were identified according to their level of emancipation; that is, whether they are career oriented (plan to work or career women) or whether they are home ivprevent
M
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Ijabadeniyi, Abosede. "The influence of cultural diversity on marketing communication : a comparison of Africans and Indians in Durban." Thesis, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10321/999.
Full textAbstract:
Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Technology: Marketing, Durban University of Technology, 2014.Consumer behaviour towards marketing communication has a cultural undertone. The forces of globalisation have made it imperative for marketing practitioners to further integrate culturally sensitive variations in marketing strategies. While cultural values are changing due to global trends, culturally sensitive consumer behaviour has attracted more complexities due to media learning. Therefore, the journey to creating a sustainable competitive advantage in a multicultural market such as South Africa entails the realisation of the growing individualistic tendencies of consumers’ cultural dispositions toward marketing communication. The study aimed at investigating the influence of cultural diversity on the perceptions of Africans and Indians in Durban toward marketing communication. The study investigated respondents’ cultural values in terms of the individualism-collectivism (IC) constructs based on marketing communication-specific cultural values (MCSCV). A quantitative study was conducted to attain the objectives of the study, with the use of a self-administrated questionnaire. African and Indian respondents were recruited using judgmental sampling at the main shopping malls in Umlazi and Chatsworth, respectively. The sample selection was based on the representation of respondents’ population in Durban. The study covered a sample size of 283 Africans and 92 Indians. The SPSS software was used to analyse data. The findings of the study reveal that both races showed more individualistic rather than collectivistic tendencies toward marketing communication. The choice of media of Africans and Indians is significantly influenced by their racial identities. Overall, the findings suggest that it is erroneous to direct stereotypic marketing strategies at culturally homogeneous/diverse groups. The study recommends that a thorough study of prevailing cultural cues in ethnic segments should precede the development of marketing communication strategies.
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Gayatri, Gita. "Re-specifying a service quality instrument to an Islamic perspective." Phd thesis, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/149955.
Full text
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Hawkins, Raymond Hilary. "Marketing implications of hip-hop culture in the greater Durban area." Thesis, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10321/572.
Full textAbstract:
Dissertation submitted in compliance with requirements for the Master Degree in Technology: Marketing, Durban University of Technology, 2010.Hip-Hop culture has created a lot of interest and controversy around the world. Most people have used and engaged in debates without having a clear understanding of it. Although there are numerous articles to be found on Hip-Hop culture, very little research has been done on this particular topic. The confusion that surrounds Hip-Hop culture highlights the need for marketers to conduct more research on this particular area. This particular study was conducted within the South African marketplace, in four Durban areas using a quantitative research method. The sample for the study was supposed to consist of 400 hundred respondents, but only 350 respondents were selected using a convenience sampling. Respondents were required to complete a six paged questionnaire with the interviewer's assistance. The main objective of the research was to identify and analyze the marketing implications of Hip-Hop culture in the greater Durban area. The results revealed that 60% of the respondents are strongly committed to Hip-Hop culture and they are brand fanatics. Therefore, this seeks to say, that marketers need concentrate on promoting Hip-Hop products and services. And is the high time to know the Hip-Hop culture's needs and wants.
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Van, Niekerk Claudette. "The perception of social media as a promotional mix element in star-graded accommodation establishments in the Western Cape province of South Africa." Diss., 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/18496.
Full textAbstract:
Since the advent of the Internet, the number of individuals and organisations
using tools such as the World Wide Web and cell phones has increased, and is
continuing to grow at a rapid pace. Social media has provoked fundamentally
different ways of doing business, and organisations rapidly had to get on this
social media bandwagon to stay up to date with the latest market trends and
ahead of the competition. Although social media is already broadly used among
South African businesses, the perception regarding the use of social media as a
promotional mix element has not been investigated sufficiently in South Africa.
The primary purpose of this study was therefore to determine the perception of
star-graded accommodation establishments, operating in the Western Cape
province of South Africa, regarding the use of social media as a promotional mix
element. A broad and in-depth literature review was conducted on the use of
social media and social media as a probable promotional mix element. An
empirical study was conducted, in which data was collected from star-graded
accommodation establishments operating in the Western Cape by means of a
web-based (computer-assisted) self-administered questionnaire. A quantitative
approach was followed in order to satisfy the research objectives of this study.
The results of this research study indicate that social media is perceived to be
an instrumental marketing element in star-graded accommodation establishments
and can indeed be considered an element of the promotional mix.Business Management
MCOM (Business Management)