Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [247]-255).

Thesis (Ph. D.) -- Lincoln University, 2008. / Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.Hous.M.)--University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-84). Also available in print.

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

Thesis (M. Com. (Economics))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic & Business Sciences, 2017 / In this study, I use a computer game based lab experiment to investigate the existence of the Endowment Effect. Previous empirical evidence has been criticised for failing to adequately account for the effects of transactions costs and other frictions. The structure of the game used in this study allows me to control for these effects, and the results provide evidence in support of the existence of an Endowment Effect. The effect is found to be stronger when transactions costs are present. / GR2018

The ways in which individuals act within the world around them and the ways in which individuals engage with commodities as consumers play a vital role in providing insight into innate human values and opportunities for growth. By exploring the seemingly mundane and small but meaningful ways individuals engage in the consumer process and space, fruitful data display an interconnected outline of cyclical pathways toward mending the gap between reality and desired individual values, identity, and behaviors. Building on literature from both sociological and adult learning fields, diverse avenues for decision making and strategic outcomes are highlighted to isolate an array of individual consumer experiences and subsequent triggers for ongoing learning and reflection. While consumer research has an extensive theoretical history, by dissecting the nuanced nature of the individual experience, this literature adds a vital layer to the evolving consumer narrative by integrating the hidden fruit of perceived failure. To achieve this, an exploratory study was designed to dissect the lives of 20 individual consumers and their experiences with the intersectionality between their values, identity, and learned consumption behaviors. Several prevalent findings of the study included the identification of self-directed learning as a driving force for enacting agency and lifelong development, the essential nature of motivational drivers that sustain overt and covert degrees of commitment to individual values and the vital presence of coping mechanisms as accessible entry points to engage with the identification and confrontation of shifting values and identity. By tracing socialized behaviors through seemingly mundane acts of consumerism, individuals unlock opportunities to evolve through the increased exposure of varying experiences of others. As such, by adopting practices grounded in radical transparency with self, innate barriers to aligned behaviors can transform into stepping stones for growth, deep renewal, and empowerment. Thus, by capturing identities and values in action, this narrative displays a portraiture of the distorted consumer space and the individuals that consume and are consumed within it.

The paper presents a review of 128 studies on the behavior of older consumers published in the last 35 years (from 1980 to 2014) in 35 peer-reviewed journals. The purpose of the procedure is twofold: First, we aim to summarize results on agerelated changes in consumer research. Second, by doing so, we evaluate the relative importance of age-related factors (chronological, biological, psychological, and social age as wells as life events and life circumstances) in research on older consumers. Results of the review show that research on older consumers is still dominated by investigations using chronological age. Influences of other aspects of the aging process, although recommended by previous research reviews and providing valuable insights, are still playing a minor role in the investigation of consumer behavior. Research with alternative age measures is still in an early, exploratory stage and future studies should include specific aspects as well as multitheoretical models of aging.

Cheng Yuet Yee. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 41-44). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / ABSTRACT (ENGLISH) --- p.i / ABSTRACT (CHINESE) --- p.ii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.iii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iv / LIST OF TABLES --- p.v / INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.3 / Definition of Loyalty Programs --- p.3 / Background of Loyalty Program Research --- p.3 / Structural Elements of Loyalty Programs --- p.5 / Extension of Consumer-Focused Loyalty Program Research --- p.13 / THEORETICAL FRAMWORK --- p.15 / Motivation as a Function of Goal Distance --- p.15 / Goal Mechanism --- p.17 / EXPERIMENT ONE --- p.21 / Overview --- p.21 / Scenarios --- p.21 / Measures --- p.23 / Results --- p.23 / Discussion --- p.24 / EXPERIEMNT TWO --- p.26 / Overview --- p.26 / Results and Discussion --- p.26 / GENERAL DISCUSSION --- p.32 / Summary of Findings --- p.32 / Theoretical Implications --- p.32 / Managerial Implications --- p.36 / Limitations --- p.36 / APPENDIX (Sample Scenarios) --- p.39 / Condition: Early Stage (one stamp) and Unit Value Absent --- p.39 / Condition: Late Stage (eight stamps) and Unit Value Present --- p.40 / REFERENCES --- p.41

No description available.

During the late 1990s and into the new millennium, excessive claims were made about the internet as an emergent arena of commercial transactions. Electronic commerce, or e-commerce, was deemed elemental to a fundamental shift in economics. However, it was also implicated in a shifting dynamic in which the relative power of producers was diminished in favour of that of consumers. In industry literature, the e-commerce consumer was, and remains, typified as 'empowered'. This study explores this portrayal, examining the socio-historical foundations for its implementation, and also the role of this characterisation within contemporary power relations.