Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Consumer rationality'

This PhD thesis examines the way in which individuals make choices during stated preference experiments (commonly referred subsets of which are called stated choice methods, conjoint analysis and trade-off analysis). Stated preference experiments ask respondents to rank, rate or choose between different product/service options, which are made up of a number of attribute mixes. The responses made by individuals within these experiments allow researchers to estimate consumer preferences. This thesis traces the historical background of stated preference experiments, from the field of utility theory and experimental economics. An understanding of this historical background explains the reliance by practitioners on the assumption that respondents make rational choices during the stated preference experiment (where all the information presented to them within the experiment is traded off in order to come to an overall preference). In light of considerable research evidence within the field of psychology that consumers do not do not conform to this economic concept of rational choice, and recent criticisms within recent stated preference literature, this thesis identifies the choice strategies employed by respondents during three stated preference experiments, where attributes were represented in different ways. Choice based stated preference experiments designed as the context for this research, measure consumers preferences for a newly developed fuel-efficient vehicle, with attributes currently unavailable in the marketplace. The experiments were presented to respondents as a series of choices between the newly developed vehicle and another currently available in the marketplace, described in terms of a number of attributes. The experiments were implemented using `think-aloud' protocol to allow the identification of respondent's choice strategies. The research successfully identifies the choice strategies employed by respondents during the stated preference experiments, and in support of recent criticisms within stated preference literature, finds significant deviations from the economic concept of rational choice. Furthermore, significant differences between the choice strategies employed by respondents are identified between the experiments where the appearance of the vehicles is represented in different ways. Using response data that is simulated to mirror the respondent choice strategies identified in each of the three stated preference experiments, the research tests the implications of these choice strategies on the estimation of consumer utility models. The research identifies significant differences between the parameter estimates derived from responses simulated assuming different choice strategy profiles. The research also identifies significant improvements in the estimated parameter values when the identified choice strategies are used in the analysis of the response data, rather than using the assumption of rational choice as an approximation. This suggests that stated prelcrence practitioners might improve model estimation by identifying the choice strategies used by respondents to inform the analysis of stated preference response data.

This thesis is about ethical consumers. In some business circles ethical consumers are treated simply as one kind of consumer in a market society where a niche can be created to satisfy every preference. Conversely some advocates of more radical change propose consumer activism as part of a movement which will force ethical considerations into the decision-making of capitalist businesses and governments alike. Questions about ethics are central to consumer society. Unlike most recent research into the 'green' or 'socially conscious' consumer that has been based on either extensive quantitative surveys or focus groups, the research presented here analyses consumer decisions in a social context. Sixteen case studies of ethical consumers in differing circumstances are developed in considerable detail. Starting from the theoretical observation that being an ethical consumer presents apparently daunting difficulties, especially with respect to decision making, the research uses bounded rationality theory to explain how these cases maintain their self-image as ethical. From these data I suggest thinking of ethical consumers as adopting coping strategies. Those contributing to the study were seen to be 'distancing' themselves from practices they consider unethical, 'integrating' their lives around addressing the issues current in ethical consumer discourse and/or 'rationalising' their ethical consumption against their acceptance of consumer capitalism. Each strategy can be shown to reduce the scope and/or difficulty of decision making. Finally, consideration is given to the nature of ethical consumption as a political project. Individual consumers respond in diverse ways to a social discourse on any given ethical issue even where strong and clear consumption advice is given. I argue that ethical consumerism is limited by the capacity of individuals to give attention to more than a few actions. Its political significance is nevertheless enhanced by the unpredictability of consumer response.

Cette thèse porte sur le régime de protection des consommateurs qui vise à prévenir les ventes abusives dans les services de conseil en investissement. Elle examine les conflits d'intérêts dus au comportement des conseillers financiers qui peuvent entraîner des ventes abusives. Le fait que la rationalité du consommateur puisse être limitée signifie que les consommateurs financiers traditionnellement considérés comme des clients de détail ou des investisseurs de détail sont en effet exposés au risque de conflits d'intérêts dans le processus de conseil en investissement et nécessitent donc une protection accrue. La directive MIF a récemment renforcé son dispositif afin de protéger plus efficacement les consommateurs contre le problème persistant des ventes abusives. La modification de la réglementation de la protection des consommateurs est significative en ce qu'elle renforce le régime général de protection des consommateurs de la directive MIF en mettant l'accent sur la vulnérabilité réelle des consommateurs. Elle contribue en outre à la promotion du système de protection du consommateur en imposant des devoirs de comportement aux sociétés financières qui doivent gérer des conflits d'intérêts spécifiques dans le cadre du grand principe de la protection des consommateurs. Cependant, même si l’intention à l’origine de son introduction est largement reconnue, la mise en place et la mise en œuvre pratiques de certains règlements devraient rencontrer des difficultés et donc nécessiter que des mesures supplémentaires soient prises
The thesis deals with the consumer protection scheme which aims to prevent mis-selling in investment advice services. It examines the conflicts of interest which appear in the behavior of investment advisors which may ultimately cause mis-selling scandals. The research findings of behavioral economics that the consumer’s rationality can be bounded indicate that financial consumers who are traditionally considered as retail clients or retail investors are indeed vulnerable to the risk of conflicts of interest in investment advisory processes and thus need enhanced consumer protection. MiFID I has recently strengthened its scheme with a view to protecting consumers more effectively from persistent problems of mis-selling. The amendment of the consumer protection regulation is meaningful in that it strengthens the overall consumer protection scheme within the MiFID with a focus on the actual vulnerability of consumers. Furthermore, it contributes to the fostering of the consumer protection system by imposing behavioral duties on financial firms which manage specific conflicts of interest under the important principle of consumer protection. However, even though the intention at the origin of its introduction is widely recognized, it is expected that some difficulties will arise when some of the regulations are virtually introduced and implemented, and thus supplementary measures will have to be established

xiii, 230 p. : ill. (some col.)
I develop a model in which a representative consumer selects an affordable consumption bundle, not as a single choice, but as the end result of a series of smaller, incremental purchase decisions. If the array of such incremental choices facing the consumer is sufficiently complex relative to the consumer's computational abilities, then the consumer may choose to employ a simplifying heuristic or rule-of-thumb to guide her behavior. I demonstrate the existence of a simple and well-defined example of such a strategy, based upon a satisficing decision rule. I further show that in the strategic setting defined by the interaction between consumers and firms that compete in prices, this satisficing strategy can form part of a Nash equilibrium, despite being ex ante only boundedly rational. The use of this satisficing demand strategy fundamentally alters the nature of price competition between firms (relative to the standard Bertrand model), changing the shape of the firm best response functions. The use of a satisficing strategy alters the incentives of firms, and these altered firm incentives lead to pricing behavior which has the effect of rationalizing the satisficing consumption strategy, so that a truly novel class of Nash equilibria in price-competing markets can be shown to exist under certain conditions. We explore the nature of this new class of equilibria, and find that equilibrium prices may be higher than those which would be obtained in the standard Bertrand case. In general, demand curves for each distinct good will have a kinked shape, similar to those found in 1939 papers by both Sweezy and Hall & Hitch. The Nash equilibrium profile will involve the kink in each demand curve coinciding with the equilibrium price for the corresponding good. The equilibrium price vector will therefore be robust to "small" fluctuations in cost (since marginal revenue is discontinuous at the equilibrium price), and under certain conditions, we find that prices may be upwardly flexible but downwardly rigid. We make an argument that the main results of the paper generalize from a representative agent setting to one with a population of heterogeneous consumers.
Committee in charge: Dr. Van Kolpin， Chairperson； Dr. Christopher J. Ellis， Member； Dr. Jeremy Piger， Member； Dr. Renee Irvin， Outside Member

The study aims to understand the underlying factor why McDonald's customers return despite previous failure customer experiences. Why do customers come back to the company that contributes to the former dissatisfaction? McDonald's attempt to maintain unceasing purposeful emergence fail at the local level, where the customer contact occurs. McDonald's offerings and customers' bounded rationality results in that customers are satisfied with an "ok" experience, which adds to their low expectations of McDonalds. This makes clear that McDonald's does not have to make an effort through constant adaptation at the local level to achieve a "great" level of satisfaction. Because the customer is satisfied with an "ok" experience, and not require more to return to McDonalds. If you can lower your customers' expectations so much that they do not care about the previous failure customer experiences, the company's competitive invincible, even without continuous adjustment.

As economies develop, novel products are created and markets for these products arise. Genetically modified food (GMF) is an example of such a novel product and provides economists with the opportunity to investigate an infant market. Of particular interest with GMF is the impact of consumer reactions on the market. The response of consumers to GMF and their willingness to pay for it has emerged as an important factor in the development of this technology. This research investigates these consumer responses. Prior research suggests that two aspects of consumer behaviour may be relevant for the GMF market. First, consumers may react differently to different types of GMF, so that some products are potentially more economically viable. Secondly, some consumers appear to prefer not having GMF at all. Consumer behaviour is often framed according to neoclassical economic theory. Consumer preferences over goods and the attributes of those goods are generally held to have certain properties. The aspects of consumers’ reactions to GMF noted above, however, may be in conflict with two properties of preferences in neoclassical theory. First, preferences over food attributes are not separable, but may interact with each other. Secondly, some consumers may have preferences regarding GMF that are not continuous. As a result, aggregate impacts of introducing GMF may be difficult to measure, which raises a third issue for investigation, aggregation. Finally, an alternative model of consumer behaviour is bounded rationality, which theorises that choices may be discontinuous as a result of specific protocols. It also suggests that consumers seek to make good-enough choices, rather than attempting to maximise their satisfaction. Thus, optimisation or maximisation is the fourth issue considered in this thesis. In order to investigate these properties of consumers’ preferences, a choice experiment survey was developed. The strength of a choice experiment for examining these issues is its focus on the impact of each product attribute on a respondent’s choices. Thus, it may be possible to identify potentially discontinuous choice patterns and to identify choices affected by interactions between GM technology and other food attributes. Results from a neoclassical analysis of the survey data suggest that some consumers consider the type of benefit created with GM technology in making their choices. In addition, one-quarter to one-half of respondents may have had discontinuous preferences with respect to GMF. Reactions to GMF appear related to respondents’ attitudes, but not to socio-economic or demographic descriptors. As a result, aggregate measures of the impact of GMF may not fully account for consumers’ responses. A boundedly rational model also has reasonable goodness of fit, and may provide a different perspective on consumer behaviour. It is hoped that the results of this research provide a better understanding of consumer behaviour regarding GMF and, by extension, of the process of consumer adoption of novel products. It is further hoped that this attempt to incorporate choice protocols into discrete choice analysis will provide a useful example for further research.

La prémisse de la rationalité décisionnelle des agents, généralement définie comme la « prise de décision optimale sous l’information disponible », occupe une place centrale dans la théorie économique, à tel point que, lorsque la rationalité décisionnelle passe à la loupe, c’est souvent l’ensemble de la science économique qui l’est à sa suite. Pourtant, le quotidien abonde de cas ne se conformant pas à une certaine définition de l’optimalité; pour des décisions de faibles enjeux, les agents économiques pourront couper court à leur réflexion et se contenter d’une décision potentiellement sous-optimale afin de minimiser le coût de la prise de décision. Or, avec l’ubiquité d’Internet, l’information et la puissance de calcul sont plus disponibles que jamais, à tel point où le tri de l’information dans la surabondance d’Internet constitue une nouvelle forme de coût de décision. Ce mémoire s’intéresse donc à deux questions concernant la prise de décision avec échéances; la première est: à quels types de décisions, en fonction de la taille de leur enjeu, les agents économiques consacreront-ils le plus de temps de réflexion? La seconde est: à quels types d’informations les agents se fient-ils le plus? Essentiellement, nous testons si les individus optimisent l’effort qu’ils mettent à optimiser . Nous utilisons une méthodologie expérimentale basée sur un jeu-questionnaire, avec incitatifs financiers à la performance, simulant différentes décisions à caractère économique auxquelles des personnes sont appelées à être exposées au cours de leur vie. Comme résultats, nous trouvons une relation concave entre la taille de l’enjeu sur lequel porte une décision et les ressources allouées à la décision. Cette relation s’estompe lorsque les contraintes de temps se resserrent. Nous tentons également de vérifier s’il existe un lien entre et le choix de sources d’informations à des fins de décision et la familiarité de celles-ci pour l’agent, mais ne trouvons pas de relation significative. De plus, nous ne parvenons pas à établir de relation entre le temps consacré à prendre une décision et l’optimalité de celle-ci.

The aim of this thesis was to explore the efficacy of the rational choice model in the electoral decision making of young people. The initial view was that this was too narrow a concept to apply to a real world situation. Therefore, consumer behaviour theory was reviewed in order to find out how marketers understand consumer decision making and explore if this could add anything to electoral decision making. Using an ideographic approach, this research revealed a number of different groups that did not conform to the rational choice model. Moreover, it was interesting to discover that many voter and non-voter groups exhibit what can be described as irrational behaviour. Using education as a key variable and the Elaboration Likelihood Model as an analytical framework, it was possible to identify the different ways in which the groups built up their political knowledge and what effect this had upon the extent of their engagement with the electoral process. Two models were developed that described the various groups and their electoral behaviour. The thesis concludes by suggesting that engagement is limited to a small number of groups and the level of engagement is determined by a complex mix of education, life stage and the notion of risk.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
This work has as purpose to contribute to the understanding, from a study of case, of the phenomenon of the social and environmental responsibility of the companies. The question is boarded under the perspective of as the social and environmental aspects involved in the activities of the company are treated and prepared for their strategies and policies and how they can contribute to the establishment of their reasons and ways of action. The methodology used was qualitative based in a content analysis on the annual reports of sustainability of the company and on a composed questionnaire of relative questions to the subject answered for the same one. What we found was that Aracruz Celulose incorporates social and environmental variables within a capitalist economic rationality. These variables are operationalized in their strategies and actions to generate competitive advantage, market access, and to generate confidence among the various publics with which the company relates, which, in turn, tends to extend the horizon predictability in social and financial markets, increasing the company's ability to plan their actions. The research highlights the importance of markets and consumers as elements capable of raising issues related to environmental and social interests and values to the category of variables of business management conformation. The work was divided into four chapters, the first three (Social Theory, Environment and Environmental Sociology, Environment vs. Business and Market; Economic Field and Business Racionality) consist of a literature review, the fourth (Case Study: The Social and Environmental Rationality of Aracruz Celulose) deals with the analysis and discussion of results. The last section is for the final remarks.
Este trabalho tem como finalidade contribuir para a elucidação, a partir de um estudo de caso, do fenômeno da responsabilidade socioambiental das empresas. A questão é abordada sob a perspectiva de como os aspectos sociais e ambientais envolvidos nas atividades da empresa são assimilados e elaborados por suas estratégias e políticas, e em que medida podem contribuir para a conformação de suas razões e meios de ação. A metodologia empregue foi qualitativa, baseada numa análise de conteúdo sobre os relatórios anuais de sustentabilidade da empresa e sobre um questionário composto de perguntas relativas ao tema respondido pela mesma. O que se constatou foi que a Aracruz Celulose incorpora as variáveis sociais e ambientais dentro de uma racionalidade econômica capitalista. Estas variáveis são operacionalizadas nas suas estratégias e ações para geração de vantagem competitiva, acesso a mercados, e para a geração de confiança entre os diversos públicos com os quais a empresa relaciona-se, o que, por sua vez, tende a estender o horizonte de previsibilidade nos ambientes sociais e no mercado financeiro, aumentando a capacidade da empresa em planejar suas ações. A pesquisa assinala a importância dos mercados e do consumidor como elementos capazes de elevar aspectos ligados a interesses e valores socioambientais à categoria elementos conformadores da gestão empresarial. O trabalho foi dividido em quatro capítulos, os três primeiros (Teoria Social, Meio Ambiente e a Sociologia Ambiental; Meio Ambiente versus Empresas e Mercado; Campo Econômico e Racionalidade Empresarial) consistem de revisão bibliográfica, o quarto (Estudo de caso: A Racionalidade Socioambiental da Aracruz Celulose) trata da análise e discussão dos resultados. A última seção é destinada às considerações finais.

Les attributs environnementaux, de plus en plus présents sur les produits de consommation, sont des attributs de croyance, renvoyant à un bien non marchand (i.e. la protection de l'environnement) et à des valeurs morales, ce qui les rend difficiles à évaluer par les consommateurs. Ce travail doctoral s'intéresse précisément à la manière dont les consommateurs utilisent un attribut environnemental (certifié ou non certifié) dans leur évaluation de produit. Cette problématique de recherche est abordée selon trois questions de recherche. La première s'intéresse à l'effet du nombre d'attributs (1 vs. 2) sur le poids associé à l'attribut environnemental. Cette question renvoie à l'étude d'un biais appelé effet d'inclusion qui est caractérisé par une insensibilité au nombre d'attributs. La deuxième question étudie le biais lié au mode d'évaluation sur le poids associé à un attribut environnemental. Les effets de deux critères du mode d'évaluation sont étudiés : le mode de réponse (monétaire vs. non monétaire) et le mode de présentation (jointe vs. séparée). La troisième prolonge l'étude du mode d'évaluation et de son effet sur le poids de l'attribut environnemental en étudiant la validité prédictive du mode d'évaluation pour estimer les préférences des consommateurs. Ces biais liés au contexte d'évaluation sont étudiés, montrés et discutés au moyen de cinq expérimentations et pour différents attributs environnementaux et stimuli. La validité prédictive du mode d'évaluation met en évidence l'intérêt d'utiliser le mode « consentement à payer ». D'un point de vue théorique, cette recherche montre l'intérêt de prendre en compte l'effet d'inclusion et le biais lié au mode d'évaluation pour des personnes intéressées par l'évaluation d'attributs environnementaux et montre également la limite potentielle à l'ajout d'un attribut environnemental sur un produit de consommation. D'un point de vue méthodologique, ce travail doctoral propose une approche permettant de comparer les poids obtenus entre les modes d'évaluation. Cette recherche suggère aux chefs de produits de prendre en compte ces caractéristiques contextuelles pour améliorer la précision de l'estimation des préférences des consommateurs pour un produit comportant un attribut environnemental. Ainsi, la valeur associée à un attribut environnemental varie lorsque cet attribut est seul sur le produit ou en présence d'un autre attribut. De même, le mode d'évaluation « consentement à payer » semble mieux prédire les préférences réelles pour un attribut environnemental que le mode d'évaluation « choix entre deux options »
Environmental attributes are increasingly being included in consumption products. Because environmental attributes are credence attributes, they refer to a public good (i.e. environmental protection), and they reference moral values, they are difficult for consumers to assess. This doctoral research specifically focuses on how consumers use an environmental attribute (certified or uncertified) in product evaluation. This core question is addressed through three research questions. The first deals with the effect of attribute number (1 vs. 2) on the weight given to environmental attributes. This study focuses on a counterintuitive effect named the embedding effect, characterized by insensitivity to the number of environmental attributes present. The second question concerns the effect of the method of value measurement on the weight given to an environmental attribute. The effects of two criteria are studied: response mode (pricing vs. non pricing) and evaluation mode (joint vs. separate). The third and last question extends the study of evaluation measure and its effect on the weight of an environmental attribute by testing the predictive validity of the evaluation measure on consumer preferences. These research questions are investigated with five experiments that employ various environmental attributes and stimuli. From a theoretical perspective, this research shows the importance of considering the embedding effect and evaluation measurement bias for people interested in environmental attributes evaluation. It also underlines the potential limit of adding an environmental attribute to a consumption product. In terms of utility measurement, the thesis shows, counterintuitively, that willingness to pay is a better measure of environmental values than is choice. From a methodological standpoint, this doctoral thesis proposes an approach to enable attribute weight comparisons across measures. This research suggests to product managers that they need to be aware of these contextual factors when assessing and predicting consumer preferences for a product with an environmental attribute. If the environmental attribute in the finished product will be alone versus in conjunction with another environmental attribute, for example, affects attribute utility. Likewise, willingness to pay appears to be a better predictor of actual preference for environmental attribute than is choice

Background: A warrant is a derivative that is normally issued over stocks. During the last financial crisis, the trading of warrants reached new records. The high leverage and the complexity of the product make the warrant a risky investment. Financial products such as warrants therefore imply a significant purchase decision for an individual and the consequences of making a poorly thought-out choice can be of considerable importance. Financial products require a high degree of involvement since the decision process is characterized by uncertainty of outcome and complexity of the product. Traditional theories on consumer decision making build on the assumptions of self-interest and rationality. In the context of financial services, the rationality of the decision process has been questioned within the field of behavioral economics, a field that suggests that the consumer is unable to make rational decisions as well as comparative judgments.

Purpose: With a theoretical basis in the traditional consumer decision process, the purpose of this thesis is to examine and describe the decision making of young investors that buy warrants.

Methodology: The study can be described as abdicative, since the subject of this thesis is based on an empirical problem observed in reality as well as based on existing theories on the subject. The thesis is furthermore a mixed qualitative and quantitative study. The empirical information was gathered using an Internet survey that was sent out to young investors that are members or are connected to financial associations or societies at different universities.

Results: The study is considered to show that the decision making of young investors can be described as neither optimal nor rational when buying warrants. The respondents seldom seem to make efficient and as rational decisions as the traditional decision process model implies. Instead, individual characteristics and attitudes of the young investors affect their decision making.

As economies develop, novel products are created and markets for these products arise. Genetically modified food (GMF) is an example of such a novel product and provides economists with the opportunity to investigate an infant market. Of particular interest with GMF is the impact of consumer reactions on the market. The response of consumers to GMF and their willingness to pay for it has emerged as an important factor in the development of this technology. This research investigates these consumer responses. Prior research suggests that two aspects of consumer behaviour may be relevant for the GMF market. First, consumers may react differently to different types of GMF, so that some products are potentially more economically viable. Secondly, some consumers appear to prefer not having GMF at all. Consumer behaviour is often framed according to neoclassical economic theory. Consumer preferences over goods and the attributes of those goods are generally held to have certain properties. The aspects of consumers' reactions to GMF noted above, however, may be in conflict with two properties of preferences in neoclassical theory. First, preferences over food attributes are not separable, but may interact with each other. Secondly, some consumers may have preferences regarding GMF that are not continuous. As a result, aggregate impacts of introducing GMF may be difficult to measure, which raises a third issue for investigation, aggregation. Finally, an alternative model of consumer behaviour is bounded rationality, which theorises that choices may be discontinuous as a result of specific protocols. It also suggests that consumers seek to make good-enough choices, rather than attempting to maximise their satisfaction. Thus, optimisation or maximisation is the fourth issue considered in this thesis. In order to investigate these properties of consumers' preferences, a choice experiment survey was developed. The strength of a choice experiment for examining these issues is its focus on the impact of each product attribute on a respondent's choices. Thus, it may be possible to identify potentially discontinuous choice patterns and to identify choices affected by interactions between GM technology and other food attributes. Results from a neoclassical analysis of the survey data suggest that some consumers consider the type of benefit created with GM technology in making their choices. In addition, one-quarter to one-half of respondents may have had discontinuous preferences with respect to GMF. Reactions to GMF appear related to respondents' attitudes, but not to socio-economic or demographic descriptors. As a result, aggregate measures of the impact of GMF may not fully account for consumers' responses. A boundedly rational model also has reasonable goodness of fit, and may provide a different perspective on consumer behaviour. It is hoped that the results of this research provide a better understanding of consumer behaviour regarding GMF and, by extension, of the process of consumer adoption of novel products. It is further hoped that this attempt to incorporate choice protocols into discrete choice analysis will provide a useful example for further research.

This thesis deals with the black market of enhancing drugs with a particular focus on androgenic anabolic steroids (AAS). Medical studies agree that these substances in the form and quantity abused by athletes to improve performance are damaging the body and therefore author is looking for recommendations for economic policy on how to reduce rate of this abuse. The study of economic literature (especially the Becker's "Theory of rational addiction") shows that users of AAS are rational, often even more rational than users of other harmful substances, because they abuse these substances with long-term plan. The reason of this purposeful approach is that the desired "delight" is derived from hard-earned success unlike other drugs and therefore abuse of AAS is associated with discipline, calculation and hence a (limited ) rationality. Economists building on Becker 's theory point out to cases where this limitation is so significant that it justifies regulation. This thesis is based on the assumption (supported by studies) that prohibition or penalizing the users themselves are ineffective instruments and therefore is the author looking for alternative solution. The author believes that the main stimulators of demand for AAS are misleading media; benevolent government's approach towards bodybuilding competitions; and finally the prohibition leading to the formation of the black market which makes it impossible for (potential ) users to become optimally informed about health risks etc. This hypothesis is being tested in questionnaire survey distributed mainly through social networks. Finally, the author sets out recommendations for economic policy: that restrictive hand of the state should focus attention in the opposite direction than before i.e., the demand side and thereby subtly demotivate users themselves.

The question about how consumer lending benefits or harms society is unresolved. Significant strides have been made in terms of developing a rigorous methodology for assessing the benefits of microcredit using randomised control trials. This approach rules out the shortcomings of selection bias in earlier work. However, studies to date appear prone to anchoring bias associated with the intention of microfinance to eradicate poverty. In South Africa, the volatile socio-economic conditions (slow economic growth, high unemployment levels, heightened levels of labour unrest and high levels of inequality) emphasise the business need for studying the consumer lending market. Financial inclusion could play the role of aiding or harming South Africa s society. This research aimed to determine in what conditions rationally bounded borrowers find loans beneficial using an inductive approach. A two-phased research process was followed firstly, ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with a diverse group of key informants from government, industry, the media and regulators. Secondly, ten borrowers were interviewed and observed drawing on ethnographic research methods. Most of the interviews took place in the home of the respondent and where possible the researcher met the other members of the household. The sample of borrowers were potential positive deviants individuals that derive more benefit from consumer loans than their peers. The research uncovered sustained tension and ideological differences between stakeholders that results in incoherent policy and regulation and inadequate financial inclusion. The landscape is characterised by low levels of savings and a heavy reliance on loans. Borrowers in the sample were selected to participate in the research due to repeat borrowing patterns, yet many expressed a desire to stop or reduce borrowing. This saying-doing gap suggests that a structural and coordinated plan is needed if any behaviour change is likely amongst rationally bounded borrowers. A combination of restrictive regulation and positive incentives is proposed to encourage stakeholders to develop mutually beneficial strategies for achieving financial inclusion. The ability of stakeholders to develop coherence in this landscape will determine whether financial inclusion will make a positive contribution to South African society.
Mini Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2015.
sn2016
Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
MBA
Unrestricted

CASTRO, Emanuel Messias Aguiar de. Para uma crítica a sociedade da adminstração dos afetos: ou sobre quem é digno de viver no capitalismo. 2017. 213f. – Dissertação (Mestrado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia, Fortaleza (CE), 2017.
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The text presented here intends to present a critical diagnosis of the conditions of possibility of the insurgency of life forms in capitalism. In this way, we have evoked throughout the text the relation between capitalism, rationalities and ideology, in order to understand how the forms of domination and exploitation are organized by condensing themselves into the forms of life. The diagnosis, besides composing the objective of this work, is also the method used to achieve it. We’ve tried, throughout the text, to reconstruct the contingencies of capitalism (in its dimension of political economy), of rationalities and ideologies. It was not, however, a question of the reconstruction of the ways of life of the capitalism in the various phases presented here. Instead, from the hegemonic conformations of these concepts, the goal is to present how, at the macro political level, these influence on the dispositions and tendencies of the forms of sociability. The central hypothesis presented here, however, is that such provisions are imbricated in the management of motilities. Underlying the diagnostic work, a complementary diagnosis was necessary: the administration of the affections. With this, in the first part of the text, composed by the first three chapters, one perceives an effort of the forms of rationality in offering an ideal of happiness. However, by evoking psychoanalysis as a critical and analytical tool of this work, fear and anguish arise as affections with a strong power to influence the tendencies and dispositions of life forms. The literature also offered the idea of an affection that does not participate in the management circuit: the helplessness. Before this the questioning about the figures that are placed outside the forms of lives became necessary. The concept of "unworthy life" then emerged as an analytical category. Thus, in the last part of the work the relations between the affective circuits, the forms of life and the "unworthy life" were discussed. The psychoanalytic notion of jouissance was very important for this, since all the final analysis is based on the idea of the passage from a society that regulates through the prohibition to a society that regulates through the incentive. Finally, we tried to answer the question that entitles this text: "who is worth living in capitalism?".
O texto aqui apresentado tem o intuito de apresentar uma diagnóstica crítica das condições de possibilidade da insurgência das formas de vida no capitalismo. Desta maneira, evocamos, ao longo do texto, a relação entre capitalismo, racionalidades e ideologia, para compreender como as formas de dominação e exploração se organizam condensando-se nas formas de vida. A diagnóstica, para além de compor o objetivo desse trabalho, é também o método usado para a realização desse objetivo. Tentamos, ao longo do texto, reconstruir as contingências do capitalismo (em sua dimensão de economia-política), das racionalidades e das ideologias. Não se tratou, contudo, da reconstrução dos modos de vida nas várias fases aqui apresentadas do capitalismo. E sim, a partir das conformações hegemônicas desses conceitos, apresentar como, no plano da macropolítica, estes influenciam nas disposições e tendências das formas de sociabilidade. A hipótese central aqui apresentada, porém, é de que tais disposições estão imbricadas na administração das motilidades. Assim subjacente ao trabalho de diagnóstica,se fez necessário um diagnóstico complementar: o da administração dos afetos. Com isso, na primeira parte do texto, composta pelos três primeiros capítulos, percebe-se um esforço das formas de racionalidade em oferecer um ideal de felicidade. Entretanto, ao evocar a psicanálise, como ferramenta crítica e analítica deste trabalho, o medo e a angústia surgem como afetos com forte poder de influenciar as tendências e disposições das formas de vida. A literatura ofereceu, também, a ideia de um afeto que não participa do circuito gerencial: o desamparo. Diante deste o questionamento sobre as figuras que se situam fora das formas de vidas tornou-se necessário. O conceito de “vida indigna” despontou, então, como categoria analítica. Assim, na última parte do trabalho foram discutidas as relações entre os circuitos afetivos, as formas de vida e a “vida indigna”. A noção psicanalítica de gozo foi de suma importância para isso, pois toda a análise final é pautada na ideia da passagem de uma sociedade que regula através da proibição para uma sociedade que regula através do incentivo. Por fim, buscou-se responder ao questionamento que intitula esse texto: “quem é digno de viver no capitalismo?”.

The thesis consists of four chapters. The introductory chapter clarifies different notions of rationality used by economists and gives a summary of the remainder of the thesis. Chapter 2 proposes an explanation for the common empirical observation of the coexistence of infrequently-changing regular price ceilings and promotion-like price patterns. The results derive from enriching an otherwise standard, albeit stylized, general equilibrium model with two elements. First, the consumer-producer interaction is modeled in the spirit of the price dispersion literature, by introducing oligopolistic markets, consumer search costs and heterogeneity. Second, consumers are assumed to be boundedly-rational: In order to incorporate new information about the general price level, they have to incur a small cognitive cost. The decision whether to re-optimize or act according to the obsolete knowledge about prices is itself a result of optimization. It is shown that in this economy, individual retail prices are capped below the monopoly price, but are otherwise flexible. Moreover, they have the following three properties: 1) An individual price has a positive probability of being equal to the ceiling. 2) Prices have a tendency to fall below the ceiling and then be reset back to the cap value. 3) The ceiling remains constant for extended time intervals even when the mean rate of inflation is positive. Properties 1) and 2) can be associated with promotions and properties 1) and 3) imply the emergence of nominal price rigidity. The results do not rely on any type of direct costs of price adjustment. Instead, price stickiness derives from frictions on the consumers’ side of the market, in line with the results of several managerial surveys. It is shown that the developed theory, compared to the classic menu costs-based approach, does better in matching the stylized facts about the reaction of individual prices to inflation. In terms of quantitative assessment, the model, when calibrated to realistic parameter values, produces median price ceiling durations that match values reported in empirical studies.

The starting point of the essay in Chapter 3 is the observation that the baseline New-Keynesian model, which relies solely on the notion of infrequent price adjustment, cannot account for the observed degree of inflation sluggishness. Therefore, it is a common practice among macro- modelers to introduce an ad hoc additional source of persistence to their models, by assuming that price setters, when adjusting a price of their product, do not set it equal to its unobserved individual optimal level, but instead catch up with the optimal price only gradually. In the paper, a model of incomplete adjustment is built which allows for explicitly testing whether price-setters adjust to the shocks to the unobserved optimal price only gradually and, if so, measure the speed of the catching up process. According to the author, a similar test has not been performed before. It is found that new prices do not generally match their estimated optimal level. However, only in some sectors, e.g. for some industrial goods and services, prices adjust to this level gradually, which should add to the aggregate inflation sluggishness. In other sectors, particularly food, price-setters seem to overreact to shocks, with new prices overshooting the optimal level. These sectors are likely to contribute to decreasing the aggregate inflation sluggishness. Overall, these findings are consistent with the view that price-setters are boundedly-rational. However, they do not provide clear-cut support for the existence of an additional source of inflation persistence due to gradual individual price adjustment. Instead, they suggest that general equilibrium macroeconomic models may need to include at least two types of production sectors, characterized by a contrasting behavior of price-setters. An additional finding stemming from this work is that the idiosyncratic component of the optimal individual price is well approximated by a random walk. This is in line with the assumptions maintained in most of the theoretical literature.

Chapter 4 of the thesis has been co-authored by Julia Lendvai. In this paper a full-fledged production economy model with Kahneman and Tversky’s Prospect Theory features is constructed. The agents’ objective function is assumed to be a weighted sum of the usual utility over consumption and leisure and the utility over relative changes of agents’ wealth. It is also assumed that agents are loss-averse: They are more sensitive to wealth losses than to gains. Apart from the changes in the utility, the model is set-up in a standard Real Business Cycle framework. The authors study prices of stocks and risk-free bonds in this economy. Their work shows that under plausible parameterizations of the objective function, the model is able to explain a wide set of unconditional asset return moments, including the mean return on risk-free bonds, equity premium and the Sharpe Ratio. When the degree of loss aversion in the model is additionally assumed to be state-dependent, the model also produces countercyclical risk premia. This helps it match an array of conditional moments and in particular the predictability pattern of stock returns.
Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Os Devedores Anônimos são um grupo de ajuda-mútua reunindo indivíduos que se consideram compradores e/ou endividados compulsivos. A partir de pesquisa de campo realizada nos encontros do grupo e de entrevistas aprofundadas com seus membros, são analisadas tanto as condutas econômicas desses agentes antes da entrada no DA, quanto os efeitos que a permanência no grupo tende a engendrar em seu comportamento. Identificando os mecanismos presentes em certas experiências problemáticas no interior da ordem econômica especialmente no que se refere a compras e tomadas de empréstimos vistas pelos próprios implicados como injustificadas, impensadas ou irracionais , este trabalho mostra também como, funcionando à maneira de um dispositivo de racionalização, o grupo incide sobre as condutas econômicas de seus usuários de modo a torná-las mais ajustadas a certas exigências da ordem econômica atual. Isso por meio de mecanismos particulares, que atuam seja incitando a reflexividade e dirigindo a atenção desses agentes para aspectos antes despercebidos das ações econômicas cotidianas (produzindo, assim, um investimento renovado em tais operações), seja suscitando implicitamente dinâmicas afetivas que tendem a conduzi-los na direção de uma maior racionalidade econômica. Demonstra-se, desse modo, não só como certas experiências emocionais contribuem para a realização de ações econômicas que, depois, podem ser motivo de arrependimento, mas também como esse tipo de racionalidade e seu ideal, o modelo do homo oeconomicus não se opõe às emoções, às paixões, mas depende, para sua própria efetivação, de dinâmicas afetivas peculiares.
Debtors Anonymous is a twelve-step, self-help group formed by individuals who consider themselves compulsive buyers and/or compulsive debtors. Based on field research conducted at the encounters of the group and on interviews with its members, it is analyzed the economic behavior of these agents before their entrance in DA and the effects that the permanence in the group tend to cause in their behavior. Along with the identification of the mechanisms present on certain problematic experiences in the midst of the economic order especially buying and credit practices seen by the individuals themselves as unjustified, unthought-of or irrational , this work also shows that, functioning as a rationalization dispositive, the group acts upon the economic behavior of its users in a way that leads them to become more adjusted to certain exigencies of the current economic order. The group does that through particular mechanisms, some of which can incite reflexivity and drive these agents attention to aspects of the everyday economic actions that they werent used to perceive (thus producing a renewed investment on such operations), or others that implicitly generate affective dynamics which tend to conduce these agents in the direction of a greater economic rationality. It is thus demonstrated not only how certain emotional experiences contribute to the realization of buying and credit practices which can later be regretted, but also how that type of rationality and its ideal, the homo oeconomicus model is not opposed to emotions and passions, but depends for its own sake of peculiar affective dynamics.

La théorie du comportement du consommateur s’est considérablement enrichie ces dernières années. Toutefois malgré une progressive intégration des éléments ayant trait au corps, aux émotions et aux affects, la question de l’animisme et des comportements y relevant reste impensée. Un faisceau d’indices probants inclinent pourtant à poser que certaines expériences de consommation seraient rattachables à cette vision du monde. L’objectif de cette thèse estdès lors d’en traquer les manifestations, notamment dans un environnement occidental prétendument acquis à une cosmovision naturaliste. A terme ce travail souhaite suggérer un renouvellement paradigmatique permettant d’intégrer cet impensé
The purpose of our work is to investigate the concept of animism in marketing. The theory of the consumption’s behavior is almost totally dependent on the classic rationality. Now, in the reality, in situation of consumption – including research, data processing and decision -, actors mobilized other forms of rationalities. It’s the case with the animism behavior and mystical participation, still heard mythical, mythological, magical or symbolic thought, that emphasizing the contrast between the mainstream of classical thought and the strong reality hidden of behavior. In this perspective, we propose to build an island of rationality around these concepts. This new paradigm in marketing, looks promising for the study of those « forgotten » of the consumption’s behavior

Les consommateurs disposent d’une rationalité limitée et sont sujets à divers biais cognitifs. La thèse étudie les conséquences des biais de rationalité sur le comportement des consommateurs ainsi que les implications sur la politique de consommation. Chacun des trois chapitres de la thèse est consacré à un biais particulier (surestimation de la qualité, erreurs d’anticipation de l’utilité, biais de projection) dans un contexte concurrentiel déterminé. Les deux premiers chapitres sont bâtis sur des modèles de duopole standards auxquels sont intégrés des biais de rationalité : le premier est un duopole avec différenciation horizontale inspiré de Dixit (1979), tandis que le second envisage un modèle de différenciation verticale adapté de Gabszewicz & Thisse (1979). Le troisième chapitre étend à trois périodes la modélisation du biais de projection proposée par Loewenstein et al. (2003). J’aboutis à la conclusions que, si les biais cognitifs conduisent dans certains cas à des choix sous-optimaux (chapitres 1 et 2), les consommateurs naïfs peuvent également être avantagés par rapport aux agents sophistiqués (chapitre 3). Ce constat plaide en faveur d’une intervention circonstanciée et mesurée sur le marché. Enfin, des recommandations de politiques économiques sont formulées: je prône une approche renouvelée du droit de la consommation, qui ne serait plus fondé principalement sur l’information du consommateur mais davantage sur des mesures de redressement cognitif. Des exemples de mesures concrètes sont discutés tout au long de la thèse
Consumers have bounded rationality and exhibit cognitive biases. The thesis studies the consequences of such biases on consumer choice and implications on consumer policy. Each chapter of the thesis investigates one specific bias (quality bias, utility misperception and projection bias) in a given market structure. The first two chapters focus on stan- dard duopoly models, in whichcognitive biases are incorporated: I build a horizontally differentiated duopoly based on Dixit (1979)in chapter 1, and a vertically differentiated duopoly inspired by Gabszewicz & Thisse (1979) in chapter 2. As for the third chapter, it extends to three periods, in a monopolistic framework, the projection bias model proposed by Loewenstein et al. (2003). I come to the conclusion that, while cognitive biases sometimes lead to suboptimal consumption decisions (chapters 1 and 2), naive consumers can be better off than their sophisticated counterparts(chapter 3). This observation pleads in favor of a non-systematic and context dependant legal intervention to counter cognitive errors. I argue in favor of a new approach of consumer policy, that would focus less on information disclosures in favor of debiasing schemes. Examples of such debiasing policies are discussed throughout the thesis

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Faust: the power of the myth. The myth has itself a transformation power. On it there is a prospect to restore or to destroy, because the myth has a particular characteristic that never let the things on way they are. So this is the Doctor Faust´s myth that the legacy plots like a construct of the modern man representation and at the same time it is an overpowered rage of rationality without heart and soul, property of our contemporary society. Its origins are perfectly searchingly, because it is about a modern myth and beyond that, the myth is alive and palpitate. The historic figure of Johann Georg Faust aggregates during the 16th Century in Germany that brings peculiar characteristic of men like Agrippa von Nettesheim e Paracelso, both alchemist and his contemporaries whose generated a legendary substratum of the myth. After the publication of Faustbuch (1587), a record is not totally veridical about the feat and profanity of Georg Faust, the incipient myth found its way to England bringing at this point personal traits from the Elizabethan wizard, the Doctor John Dee. From this blend between the German myth and the England wizard, it was born the literary Faust through the writing play between 1588 and 1589 by Christopher Marlowe, The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus. Popularized, the story achieved fame in the European market adapted for the puppets theater. And it was the way that the myth reaches the knowledge of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet. Author of Faust: a tragedy, parts I and II (1808 e 1832), Goethe was the responsible for the consolidation of the myth and to make it become universal, it was considered his highly exponent. One life dedicated for this work, the Goethe´s Faust was richly explored by Carl Gustav Jung, who was considerable part of his studies about archetypal psychology of unconscious. It is exactly the archetypal relation of the Doctor Faustus´s myth with the weberian model of Protestant rationality, with the contemporary religion of opulence, the motto of this dissertation.
Fausto: o poder de um mito. O mito traz em si poder transformador. Nele reside a possibilidade de restaurar ou de destruir, pois é próprio do mito nunca deixar as coisas do jeito como elas estão. Assim é o mito do Doutor Fausto, cujo legado urde como constructo da representação do homem moderno e, ao mesmo tempo, da fúria avassaladora da racionalidade sem alma e sem coração própria de nossa sociedade contemporânea. Suas origens são perfeitamente sondáveis, pois trata-se de um mito moderno e, mais, um mito vivo e pulsante. À figura histórica de Johann Georg Faust agregam-se, na Alemanha do século XVI, características bastante peculiares de homens como Agrippa von Nettesheim e Paracelso, ambos alquimistas e seus contemporâneos, gerando o substrato lendário do mito. Após a publicação do Faustbuch (1587), registro não totalmente verídico acerca das façanhas e profanidades de Georg Faust, o mito incipiente chega à Inglaterra agregando desta vez traços personais do mago elizabetano Doutor John Dee. Dessa mescla entre o mito alemão e o mago inglês nasce o Fausto literário por meio da peça escrita entre 1588 e 1589 por Chistopher Marlowe, A Trágica História do Doutor Fausto. Popularizada, a história ganha as feiras européias adaptada para o teatro de marionetes. E, foi assim nesse formato que o mito chegou ao conhecimento de Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poeta alemão. Autor de Fausto: uma tragédia, partes I e II (1808 e 1832), Goethe foi responsável pela consolidação e universalização do mito, sendo considerado seu principal expoente. Trabalho de toda uma vida, o Fausto de Goethe foi amplamente explorado por Carl Gustav Jung, fazendo parte considerável de seus estudos sobre a psicologia arquetípica do inconsciente. É justamente essa relação arquetípica entre o mito do Doutor Fausto e o modelo weberiano de racionalidade protestante, com a religião contemporânea da opulência, o mote deste trabalho.

This thesis examines the measurement, applications and properties of consumer inflation expectations in the context of eight European Union countries: France, Germany, the UK, Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden. The data proceed mainly from the European Commission's Consumer Survey and are qualitative in nature, therefore requiring quantification prior to use. This study first seeks to determine the optimal quantification methodology among a set of approaches spanning three traditions, associated with Carlson-Parkin (1975), Pesaran (1984) and Seitz (1988). The success of a quantification methodology is assessed on the basis of its ability to match quantitative expectations data and on its behaviour in an important economic application, namely the modelling of wages for our sample countries. The wage equation developed here draws on the theoretical background of the staggered contracts and the wage bargaining literature, and controls carefully for inflation expectations and institutional variables. The Carlson-Parkin variation proposed in Curto Millet (2004) was found to be the most satisfactory. This being established, the wage equations are used to test the hypothesis that the advent of EMU generated an increase in labour market flexibility, which would be reflected in structural breaks. The hypothesis is essentially rejected. Finally, the properties of inflation expectations and perceptions themselves are examined, especially in the context of EMU. Both the rational expectations and rational perceptions hypotheses are rejected. Popular expectations mechanisms, such as the "rule-of-thumb" model or Akerlof et al.'s (2000) "near-rationality hypothesis" are similarly unsupported. On the other hand, evidence is found for the transmission of expert forecasts to consumer expectations in the case of the UK, as in Carroll's (2003) model. The distribution of consumer expectations and perceptions is also considered, showing a tendency for gradual (as in Mankiw and Reis, 2002) but non-rational adjustment. Expectations formation is further shown to have important qualitative features.

碩士
國立東華大學
管理學院高階經營管理碩士在職專班
104
This study investigates the relationships among rationality (visual cues and information cues), inertia (behavioral affective inertia, behavioral-based inertia, and cognitive-based inertia), sensibility (social influence and hedonic motivation), disconfirmation, PAD emotion, fashion involvement, positive and negative behavior, and brand equity for the wearable technology users based on the tricomponemt attitude model proposed by Hovland Rosenberg (1960). The target of this study is wearable device customers. This study collects 586 valid samples and analyzes data with structural equation modeling to verify research hypotheses. The results indicate that disconfirmation, PAD emotion, and fashion involvement are the antecedents of positive and negative behavior and brand equity. In addition, this study proposes three rival models and compares these three rival models with the proposed model. The result indicates that the proposed model is the best model. Furthermore, the research takes disconfirmation, perceived dominance, and fashion involvement as mediators of the relationship between rationality and arousal/pleasure, sensibility and arousal/pleasure, rationality and brand equity, sensibility and brand equity, perceived dominance and uncertainty, personal innovativeness in IT and intention to continue, respectively. The results indicate that disconfirmation, perceived dominance, and fashion involvement are important mediators.

Nowadays when consumers do shopping they can decide if doing it online or instore. Many studies demonstrate that the two channels present similarities but also specific attributes that make each channel unique. The focal point of this thesis is to understand the psychological impact of online and offline shopping contexts in relation to the dual system and dual process models of reasoning and decision making. In particular, we want to investigate if the decision making process changes based on the different buying context (online and offline). Therefore, dual models helped us to understand the implicit and explicit attitude formation and intuitive and deliberate decision processes in consumer psychology. An experimental study was conducted, which had a total of 179 Italian participants. The analysis of the results showed that the shopping context actually has a significant impact on consumers’ thinking style. Nevertheless, the outcomes of this analysis go in the opposite directions by showing the opposite trend compared to what we expected to see.
Hoje em dia, quando os consumidores fazem as suas compras, podem decidir se o fazem através de uma plataforma online ou diretamente na loja. Muitos estudos demonstram que os dois canais apresentam semelhanças, mas também contém atributos específicos que tornam cada canal único. O ponto principal desta tese é compreender o impacto psicológico dos contextos comerciais on-line e off-line em relação ao sistema duplo e aos modelos de processo duplo de raciocínio e tomada de decisão. Queremos investigar principalmente se o processo de tomada de decisão muda com base num contexto comercial diferente (online e offline). Portanto, os modelos duplos ajudaram a entender a tomada de atitudes implícita e explícita e os processos de decisão intuitivos e deliberados na psicologia do consumidor. Foi realizado um estudo experimental que teve um total de 179 participantes italianos. A análise dos resultados mostrou que o contexto comercial realmente tem um impacto significativo no estilo de pensamento dos consumidores. No entanto, os resultados dessa análise foram opostos, mostrando a tendência oposta em comparação com o que esperávamos ver.

This work deals with the indebtedness of consumers. It examines the causes of the debotrs themselves. Based on a secondary analysis of past research in the area of financial literacy, consumer behavior, statistical data, but also of qualitative research in the form of case study seeks to answer the question why the debtor becomes the debtor, the extent to which the indebtedness and indebtedness viewed as rational behavior but also if the debtor is accompanied by rational reasoning or irrational behavior. It concludes that the debtor can not be considered entirely rational. Applied policy then the issue of over-indebtedness problem takes into account the irrational assumptions by the debtor only marginally and does not reflect as one of its main causes.

碩士
南台科技大學
商管專業學院
97
With the competition of market of Hyper-Market Store being heated, if the managers want to continuously develop, they should understand consumer's behavioral intention, so the managers could provide more high-standard service according to consumer's specialties of demand. In the past, the research of consumers' intention and behavior often discussed the factors, such as fare, service quality, customer satisfaction, etc., but lack for discussing the effects of consumer situation, waiting experience and price rationality. In order to find out the key factors of overall service quality more specifically, this study took the constructs of these variables into consideration. We expected that we could understand these key factors of the relationship, which affect the consumer's purchase intentions, as a reference of the marketing strategy for the Hyper-Market Store. The result of the SEM research showed that the main factor which affects the purchase intention is the value of service perceived by consumers. Among the variables that affect the value of service, the positive effects of the overall service quality are larger than those of the reasonability of the fare. And in the variables that affect overall service quality, the positive effects of the consumer situation are larger than those of the waiting experience.

Text in English with abstracts in Zulu and Afrikaans
Despite its substantial growth and contribution to the economy of the country, the South African retail industry is faced with various challenges, including customers’ changing buying habits and expectations, the evolution of e-commerce, the entry of giant retailers into the retail market, and the growing importance of the urbanised middle class and its potential purchasing power. This creates risks that are mostly beyond retailers’ control. Therefore, there is a general drive among retail brands to build customer loyalty in order to respond to these contemporary dynamics within the industry and, ultimately, enhance sustainability. It is noted from literature that current understanding of customer behaviour in the South African retail space is largely the result of rational behavioural measurement, while the subconscious behaviour of customers is often neglected. The study on which this thesis reports attempted to address this gap in the current knowledge base. The current study makes a novel contribution to knowledge in using complementary traditional and neuromarketing instruments in a sequential mixed method research design to measure verbal, non-verbal and physiological emotions, which indicate the key influential cognitive and emotive factors shaping shopping decisions. For a comprehensive understanding of customer behaviour, the study primarily explored the emotional antecedents of customer loyalty in the formal retail industry of South Africa. In order to explore and describe both retail brands and customers’ experiences regarding the drivers of retail brand loyalty, the empirical phase of the study adopted a sequential mixed method research design. This design comprised eight individual semi-structured interviews, which focused on and explored the fundamentals of behavioural and attitudinal loyalty within the context of a customer relationship management strategy. x Based on the findings emerging from the quantitative mall intercept survey with 300 retail customers, the study identified the motivating factors of greatest likelihood among customers that best explain retail brand loyalty, namely product quality, convenience of location, customer care, product variety and availability, as well as fair pricing. Furthermore, findings emerging from the inferential analysis (structural equation modelling, two-step cluster analysis, optimal scaling and multivariate binary regression analysis) showed that brand trust, brand affect and attitudinal loyalty are key predictors of behavioural loyalty. Additionally, customer loyalty differs depending on customer predisposition towards the major retail brands tested. In this regard, Pick n Pay, Massmart and Shoprite/Checkers recorded the most favourable perceptions among customers. As Despite its substantial growth and contribution to the economy of the country, the South African retail industry is faced with various challenges, including customers’ changing buying habits and expectations, the evolution of e-commerce, the entry of giant retailers into the retail market, and the growing importance of the urbanised middle class and its potential purchasing power. This creates risks that are mostly beyond retailers’ control. Therefore, there is a general drive among retail brands to build customer loyalty in order to respond to these contemporary dynamics within the industry and, ultimately, enhance sustainability. It is noted from literature that current understanding of customer behaviour in the South African retail space is largely the result of rational behavioural measurement, while the subconscious behaviour of customers is often neglected. The study on which this thesis reports attempted to address this gap in the current knowledge base. The current study makes a novel contribution to knowledge in using complementary traditional and neuromarketing instruments in a sequential mixed method research design to measure verbal, non-verbal and physiological emotions, which indicate the key influential cognitive and emotive factors shaping shopping decisions. For a comprehensive understanding of customer behaviour, the study primarily explored the emotional antecedents of customer loyalty in the formal retail industry of South Africa. In order to explore and describe both retail brands and customers’ experiences regarding the drivers of retail brand loyalty, the empirical phase of the study adopted a sequential mixed method research design. This design comprised eight individual semi-structured interviews, which focused on and explored the fundamentals of behavioural and attitudinal loyalty within the context of a customer relationship management strategy. x Based on the findings emerging from the quantitative mall intercept survey with 300 retail customers, the study identified the motivating factors of greatest likelihood among customers that best explain retail brand loyalty, namely product quality, convenience of location, customer care, product variety and availability, as well as fair pricing. Furthermore, findings emerging from the inferential analysis (structural equation modelling, two-step cluster analysis, optimal scaling and multivariate binary regression analysis) showed that brand trust, brand affect and attitudinal loyalty are key predictors of behavioural loyalty. Additionally, customer loyalty differs depending on customer predisposition towards the major retail brands tested. In this regard, Pick n Pay, Massmart and Shoprite/Checkers recorded the most favourable perceptions among customers. As a complement to the quantitative research phase of the study, a Self-Assessment Manikin attitude measure was applied to a sample of 120 customers. This phase of the study highlighted pertinent emotional elements as key mediators in securing sustainable retail brand loyalty. In this regard, Woolworths and Pick n Pay recorded the most favourable perceptions on four stimuli, namely quality, customer rewards, customer care and brand logos. The study also applied eye tracking and galvanic skin response techniques to a sample of 10 participants to determine customers’ psychophysiological reaction to the four stimuli. Galvanic skin response findings showed that customers were especially engaged with Spar, Shoprite/Checkers and Pick n Pay, while eye tracking findings showed customers’ higher visual engagement with Shoprite/Checkers, Pick n Pay and Spar. A key overall finding of this study was the significant role of feelings and emotions in driving customer loyalty. Retail brands lose relevance when they fail to connect emotionally with customers, and without that emotional attachment, brands can easily be replaced by generic imposters. A comprehensive understanding of customer behaviour remains a quandary for marketing and business practitioners. In an attempt to address this limitation, the current study used insights from non-verbal attitudinal and psychophysiological measures to obtain a more comprehensive behavioural understanding of retail customers.
Nakuba imboni yezitolo ezihwebayo yaseNingizimu Afrika ibonise ukukhula nokudlondlobala okukhulu futhi idlala indima esemqoka emnothweni wezwe, ibhekene nezinselelo eziningana futhi ezihlukahlukene, kubandakanya indlelakuthenga yamakhasimende eguquguqukayo kanye nalokho okulindelwe ngamakhasimende nezimfuno zawo, ukungenisa ngezinkani kwemboni yokuhweba nge-intanethi nobuxhakaxhaka bobuchwepheshe besimanjemanje, ukungena kwezitolo eziyizikhondlakhondla emakethe yezitolo ezihwebayo, kanye nokukhula kokubaluleka kwabantu abahlala emadolobheni abasesigabeni sempilo esimaphakathi kanye namandla abo okuthenga. Lokhu kudala ubungozi obuvamise ukuba ngaphezu kwamandla nolawulo lwezitolo ezihwebayo. Ngakho-ke, kunomkhankaso oqhutshwa yizitolo zonkana ezihlose ngawo ukwakha ubudlelwano namakhasimende kanye nokuqinisekisa ukwethembeka kwamakhasimende ukuze zikwazi ukumelana nezimo ezikhona esikhathini samanje embonini yezitolo ezihwebayo, futhi ekugcineni, ukuze zikwazi ukusimamisa ibhizinisi lazo liqhubeke njalo futhi likhule lidlondlobale. Kuphawulekile emibhalweni efundiwe ukuthi ukuqonda kanye nolwazi olujulile olukhona njengamanje mayelana nokuziphatha kwamakhasimende eNingizimu Afrika emkhakheni wezitolo ezihwebayo ikakhulukazi kuwumphumela wokukalwa kwezinga lokuthatha izinqumo ngobuhlakani nokwenza izinto emva kokucabangisisa, kepha-ke ngakolunye uhlangothi kuvamise ukushaywa indiva ukwenza izinto kwamakhasimende ngaphandle kokuqaphela nokucophelela futhi ngokuthathela izinto phezulu noma ngaphandle kokucabangisisa ngalokho akwenzayo. Lolu cwaningo okubikwa ngalo kulo mbiko wocwaningo luzamile ukubhekana naleli gebe elikhona njengamanje eliphathelene nokuntuleka kolwazi. Lolu cwaningo lwamanje lufaka isandla esinohlonze kanye nemibono ephusile olwazini olukhona, ngokusebenzisa amathuluzi asekelayo ajwayelekile kanye nalawo asebenzisa ubuchwepheshe bokukala ukusebenza kwengqondo, ngaphansi kwedizayini yocwaningo egxile kwindlela-kusebenza exubile yokwenza izinto ngokulandelana kwazo, ngenhloso yokukala imizwa ezwakaliswa ngomlomo, ngezenzo noma ngeminyakazo yomzimba, okuyinto ebonisa izimo nezici-bunjalo ezisemqoka futhi ezinomthelela omkhulu eziphathelene nokusebenza kwengqondo kanye nemizwa, okuyizona ezilawula izinqumo zamakhasimende eziphathelene nokuthenga. Ngenhloso yokuqonda ngokuphelele ukuziphatha kwamakhasimende, lolu cwaningo lwacubungula futhi lwahlaziya ikakhulukazi izici-bunjalo zemizwa elawula ukwethembeka kwamakhasimende embonini yezitolo ehlelekile yaseNingizimu Afrika. Ukuze kucutshungulwe futhi kuchazwe kokubili izinhlobo zezitolo kanye nezimo ahlangabezane nazo amakhasimende mayelana nezici-bunjalo ezenza amakhasimende athembeke esitolo esithile futhi athenge kusona ngaso sonke isikhathi, isigaba socwaningo esiphathelene nolwazi oluphathekayo nolubonakalayo sasebenzisa idizayini yocwaningo egxile kwindlela-kusebenza exubile yokwenza izinto ngokulandelana kwazo. Le dizayini beyibandakanya ama-semi-structured interviews enziwa nababambiqhaza bocwaningo abayisishiyagalombili, okuyizingxoxo ezabe zigxile ekucubunguleni ukwethembeka kwamakhasimende okuphathelene nokuziphatha kwawo kanye nendlela abuka ngayo izinto ngaphansi kwesimo seqhingasu lokuphathwa kobudlelwano namakhasimende. Ngokususela kwimiphumela eyatholakala kwinhlolovo ebandakanya abathengi abangama-300 okwaxoxiswana nabo ezikhungweni ezinenxanxathela yezitolo, ucwaningo lwahlonza izimo nezi-bunjalo ezikhuthaza futhi zihehe amakhasimende okuyizona ezingasetshenziswa ukuchaza kangcono ukwethembeka kwamakhasimende ezitolo ezithile, okuyikhwalithi yomkhiqizo, ukufinyeleleka kalula kwendawo lapho kutholakala khona isitolo, ukunakekelwa kwamakhasimende, imikhiqizo ehlukahlukene kanye nokutholakala kwayo, ngokunjalo namanani-ntengo angambi eqolo. Ngaphezu kwalokho, imiphumela eyatholakala ohlaziyweni lwezinqumo ezithathwe ngokubheka ubufakazi kanye nokuqonda okujulile (structural equation modelling, two-step cluster analysis, optimal scaling kanye ne-multivariate binary regression analysis) yabonisa ukuthi ukwethenjwa kohlobo lomkhiqizo, ukukhanga nokuthandeka komkhiqizo kanye nokwethembeka okuphathelene nendlela-kubuka kuyizibikezeli ezisemqoka zokuziphatha kwamakhasimende okuhambisana nokwethembeka emikhiqizweni ethile. Futhi ngaphezu kwalokho, ukwethembeka kwamakhasimende kuyehluka, futhi lokhu kuncike ekuhehelekeleni kwamakhasimende ezitolo enkulu ezihloliwe. Mayelana nalokhu-ke, abakwa-Pick n Pay, Massmart kanye nabakwa-Shoprite/Checkers yizona zitolo ezibonise ukuthandwa kakhulu ngamakhasimende. Njengendlela yokweseka nokunezezela phezu kwesigaba socwaningo olukhwantithethivu olwenziwe, kwasetshenziswa isikali sendlela-kubuka esibizwa nge-Self-Assessment Manikin kwisampula yamakhasimende ayi-120. Lesi sigaba socwaningo saqhakambisa izimo nezici-bunjalo eziphathelene nemizwa ezifanelekile njengezinto ezisemqoka kakhulu ekuqinisekiseni ukwethembeka kwamakhasimende esitolo esithile ngokuqhubekayo. Mayelana nalokhu, abakwa-Woolworths kanye nabakwa-Pick n Pay babonisa ukuthandwa kakhulu ngamakhasimende mayelana nezici-bunjalo ezihehayo futhi ezikhuthazayo ezine, okuyikhwalithi, imivuzo yamakhasimende, ukunakekelwa kwamakhasimende kanye nemibala egqamile, igama elidumile nezimpawu zesitolo. Ucwaningo lwasebenzisa futhi nezindlela zokucwaninga eziphathelene nokulandela umkhondo wamehlo amakhasimende kanye nezimpawu zemizwa yamakhasimende ezibonakala esikhumbeni semizimba yawo, okuyizindlela zocwaningo ezasetshenziswa kubabambiqhaza bocwaningo abayi-10 ngenhloso yokuhlonza indlela-kusabela kwamakhasimende ephathelene nengqondo nomzimba kulezi zicibunjalo ezikhuthazayo futhi ezihehayo ezine ezishiwo ngenhla. Imiphumela yendlela yocwaningo ebheka izimpawu zemizwa yamakhasimende ezibonakala esikhumbeni semizimba yawo yabonisa ukuthi amakhasimende ahehelekela ikakhulukazi kwabakwa-Spar, Shoprite/Checkers kanye nabakwa-Pick n Pay, kanti ngakolunye uhlangothi imiphumela yendlela yocwaningo ebheka futhi ilandele umkhondo wamehlo amakhasimende yabonisa ukuheheka kwamehlo okuphakeme ezitolo zabakwa-Shoprite/Checkers, Pick n Pay kanye nabakwa-Spar. Umphumela omkhulu futhi osemqoka otholakale kulolu cwaningo yindima ebaluleke kakhulu edlalwa yimizwa ekukhuthazeni ukwethembeka kwamakhasimende. Izitolo zilahlekelwa yiwozawoza yazo kumakhasimende uma zihluleka ukuxhumana namakhasimende ngokwemizwa, futhi ngaphandle kwalokho kuxhumana ngokwemizwa nokuzwana, izitolo zingazithola kalula zisesimweni lapho indawo yazo isithathwe yizitolo-mbumbulu ezingosandanezwe. Ukuqondakala okuphelele kwendlela aziphatha ngayo amakhasimende futhi enza ngayo izinto kusalokhu kuyinkinga nesithiyo esikhulu kwizazi nezisebenzi ezenza umsebenzi wokukhangisa nokuqhuba ibhizinisi. Njengomzamo wokubhekana nalesi sithiyo, lolu cwaningo lusebenzise ulwazi nokuqonda okujulile okutholakale kwizikali zendlela-kubuka yamakhasimende kanye nezikali zesimo sengqondo nesomzimba samakhasimende ukuze kutholakale ukuqonda okuphelele futhi okujulile okuphathelene nokuziphatha kwamakhasimende athenga ezitolo kanye nendlela enza ngayo izinto.
Ondanks sy stewige groei en aansienlike bydrae tot die landsekonomie, het die Suid-Afrikaanse kleinhandelsbedryf met verskeie uitdagings te kampe. Veranderinge in kliënte se koopgewoontes en verwagtings, groeiende e-handel, reusekleinhandelaars wat die kleinhandelsmark betree, die toenemende invloed van die verstedelikte middelklas en sy potensiële koopkrag is enkele hiervan. Dit gee aanleiding tot risiko’s wat grotendeels buite die beheer van kleinhandelaars is. As gevolg van die hedendaagse dinamiek in die bedryf, poog kleinhandelsmerke om kliëntlojaliteit te verstewig en hulle eie volhoubaarheid te verseker. Dit blyk uit die literatuur dat die kleinhandelsektor se siening van kliëntgedrag in Suid-Afrika op die meting van rasionele gedrag berus, en dat die onbewuste gedrag van kliënte verontagsaam word. Hierdie tesis doen verslag van ʼn studie om hierdie leemte in die huidige kennis te probeer aanvul. Dit lewer ʼn bydrae deur aanvullende tradisionele en neurobemarkingsinstrumente in ʼn opeenvolgende gemengde metode as navorsingsbenadering te gebruik. Verbale, nieverbale en fisiologiese emosies is gemeet aangesien hulle die kognitiewe en emotiewe faktore is wat inkopiebesluite bepaal. Hierdie studie het hoofsaaklik die emosionele antesedente van kliëntlojaliteit in die Suid-Afrikaanse formele kleinhandelsbedryf verken om ʼn grondige begrip van kliëntgedrag te kry. Ten einde kleinhandelsmerke en kliënte se ervarings van die drywers van kleinhandelsmerklojaliteit te beskryf en te verken, is ʼn opeenvolgende gemengdemetode-navorsingsontwerp gevolg. Dit het uit agt halfgestruktureerde, private onderhoude bestaan. Hierin is gekonsentreer op die grondslae van gedragsen houdingslojaliteit teen die agtergrond van ʼn kliënteverhoudingsbestuurstrategie. Op grond van die bevindings van ʼn kwantitatiewe winkelsentrumopname onder 300 kleinhandelskliënte, is die motiveringsfaktore met die grootste waarskynlikheid aangetoon. Hulle is produkgehalte, ʼn gerieflike ligging, kliëntesorg, produkverskeidenheid, beskikbaarheid en billike pryse, en bied die aanneemlikste verklaring vir kleinhandelsmerklojaliteit. Volgens die bevindings van die inferensiële ontleding (struktuurvergelykingmodellering, tweestaptrosontleding, optimale skalering en meerveranderlike binêre regressieanalise) is merkvertroue, merkaffek en houdingslojaliteit betroubare aanwysers van bedragslojaliteit. Afgesien hiervan verskil kliëntlojaliteit na gelang van kliëntpredisposisie jeens kleinhandelsmerke wat getoets is. Kliënte was vir vier stimuli (naamlik gehalte, kliëntbelonings, kliëntesorg en merklogo’s) die ontvanklikste vir Pick n Pay, Massmart en Shoprite/Checkers. Aanvullend tot die kwalitatiewe navorsingsfase van hierdie studie is ʼn selfasseringsmodelhoudingmeting op ʼn steekproef van 120 kliënte toegepas. Hierdie fase het die aandag gevestig op pertinente emosionele elemente as sleuteltussengangers in die opwekking van volhoubare kleinhandelsmerklojaliteit. Vir die vier stimuli (naamlik gehalte, kliëntbelonings, kliëntesorg en merklogo’s) was kliënte se persepsies van Woolworths en Pick n Pay die gunstigste. Hierbenewens is oogvolg- en galvaniese velreaksietegnieke op ʼn steekproef van 10 deelnemers toegepas om hulle psigofisiologiese reaksie op die vier stimuli te bepaal. Die galvaniese velreaksietoetse het aangedui dat kliënte besonder ontvanklik was vir Spar, Shoprite/Checkers en Pick n Pay, en volgens die oogvolgtoetse visueel meer aangetrokke tot Spar, Shoprite/Checkers en Pick n Pay was. Hierdie studie het bevind dat emosies in die algemeen ʼn deurslaggewende rol in kliëntlojaliteit speel. Kleinhandelsmerke raak irrelevant as hulle nie ʼn emosionele band met kliënte smee nie. Sonder hierdie emosionele verbintenis kan generiese bedrieërs maklik die plek van kleinhandelsmerke inneem. Bemarkings- en sakepraktisyns het nie ʼn deeglike begrip van kliëntgedrag nie. Om dit reg te stel, het hierdie studie nieverbale houdings- en psigofisiologiese toetse toegepas om die gedrag van kleinhandelskliënte beter te begryp.
Business Management
D. Com. (Business Management)