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The focus of this study is to explore the effect social media have on influencing consumers’ purchase intentions for different brands. More specifically, this paper aims to examine how different social media communication styles for a brand, such as firm generated content (FGC) and user generated content (UGC), influence consumers’ purchase intentions for different brands when valenced either positively or negatively. Firm-generated content is a communication style which is essentially a form of advertising that is completely controlled by a brand and follows a marketing strategy (Schvinski & Dabrowski, 2016). User-generated content is an original communication style created by consumers that are unrelated to any specific brand and is disseminated via the internet (Daugherty, Eastin, & Bright, 2008). The participants of this study were 61 undergraduate liberal arts college students from southern California. Participants in the study were exposed to various brand descriptions and social media posts and tasked with indicating their purchase intentions for these brands. The results of this study imply that different communication styles as well as different brand valences significantly influence consumers’ purchase intentions. Positively valenced brands positively influenced purchase intentions while negatively valenced brands negatively impacted purchase intentions. FGC was shown to have a more positive effect on purchase intentions than UGC, however, UGC was shown to have a strong negative influence on purchase intention when UGC posts were valenced negatively.

This secondary analysis employed data trom portions of the Spanish and Engli sh versions of the RELATionship Evaluation inventory, a self-report questionnaire (RELATE) The present research analyzed conflict resolution types, communication styles, and relationship satisfaction and stability among Latino men and women compared to Caucasian men and women. Multiple linear regression analysis was used for analyzing the data. Communication styles and conflict resolution types were more different than similar among Latino males and females in predicting relationship satisfaction and relationship stability; however, they were more similar than di fferent among Caucasian males and females. The communication style of love was the only statistically significant predictor of relationship satisfaction that was common across gender and ethnicity in this study. Implications for the practice of marriage and family therapy and for research are discussed.

<p>Most multicultural teams are not as successful as expected. Germany and Sweden are close trade partners and one form of cooperation are German-Swedish project teams. In this thesis the reader will get answers to the following questions: What are the problems and benefits among German-Swedish project team members due to cultural differences and in which way can problems be coped with and benefits be enhanced. This thesis does not focus on virtual teams, the leadership of multicultural teams and the formation of German-Swedish project teams.</p><p>The main components of the theoretical framework are cultural models which serve as basis for our analysis are Hofstede’s five dimensional model, Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner’s model and Hall’s model. For our research we interviewed eight members of German-Swedish project teams. We discovered problems among German-Swedish project team members deriving from differences in the communication styles, in the focus on cooperation versus task and in dealing with rules. Beneficial in the German-Swedish collaborations is that the cultures complement each other in focusing on the facts versus broadening the subject and in the focus on team spirit versus goal achievement. Another beneficial characteristic is the similarity of the German and Swedish culture.</p><p>After analysing the problems and benefits due to cultural differences in German-Swedish project teams, we present our concept to reduce the problems in German-Swedish project teams. The concept consists of steps which build up on one another and therefore represent an overall concept which can serve as a basis and inspiration for enhancing the collaboration in German-Swedish project teams. Our concept includes the steps: intercultural training, a mentor system in the team, internal advisors in the company and a cultural evaluation.</p>

Most multicultural teams are not as successful as expected. Germany and Sweden are close trade partners and one form of cooperation are German-Swedish project teams. In this thesis the reader will get answers to the following questions: What are the problems and benefits among German-Swedish project team members due to cultural differences and in which way can problems be coped with and benefits be enhanced. This thesis does not focus on virtual teams, the leadership of multicultural teams and the formation of German-Swedish project teams. The main components of the theoretical framework are cultural models which serve as basis for our analysis are Hofstede’s five dimensional model, Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner’s model and Hall’s model. For our research we interviewed eight members of German-Swedish project teams. We discovered problems among German-Swedish project team members deriving from differences in the communication styles, in the focus on cooperation versus task and in dealing with rules. Beneficial in the German-Swedish collaborations is that the cultures complement each other in focusing on the facts versus broadening the subject and in the focus on team spirit versus goal achievement. Another beneficial characteristic is the similarity of the German and Swedish culture. After analysing the problems and benefits due to cultural differences in German-Swedish project teams, we present our concept to reduce the problems in German-Swedish project teams. The concept consists of steps which build up on one another and therefore represent an overall concept which can serve as a basis and inspiration for enhancing the collaboration in German-Swedish project teams. Our concept includes the steps: intercultural training, a mentor system in the team, internal advisors in the company and a cultural evaluation.

Participants in an intercultural situation of communication, trying to understand the intentions of their co-Iocutors from their own cultural perspective, can frequently commit misinterpretations that lead to misunderstandings of intention and meaning. Intercultural communication studies, for the majority, focus on unveiling and discovering differences that they believe to be at the core of such misunderstandings. Such studies have probed the varying cultural values, to mention a few, on the levels of individualism versus collectivism, of low-context versus high-context, of varying concepts of time or of silence (e.g. Hofstede 1980, Hofstede 1991, Hall 1959, Hall & HaU1990). The present study suggests that the perspective of one's primary socialisation culture should be studied on a more specific level if one is aiming to discover possible cultural differences. The level that is proposed to be studied is the production and interpretations of patterns of talk-in-interaction such as pauses, overlaps, speaker changes, simultaneous talk, prosody and intonation patterns, and so on. It is the stance of the present inquiry that these above-mentioned turntaking patterns play a key role in the processes through which the participants interpret each other's meanings and intentions, although the processes themselves remain mostly entirely subconscious. The present study was inspired by a case study that was conducted comparing the turn-taking behaviour between Americans and French conversing in French (Wieland 1991). Wieland conducted recordings of ordinary dinner table conversations, and later interviewed the participants in order to elicit insights into their interpretations of the interaction. However, little work has been done to further compare the culturally varying interaction patterns and the participants' reactions to them. The majority ofstudies into intercultural communication remain on more abstract levels of cultural values rather than addressing the actual arena of talk-in-interaction, although some have broken this unploughed ground, e.g. Moerman (1988) in his combination of conversation analysis and ethnography. The stance of the present study is that it is this very level of talk-in-interaction that holds the key to understanding what exactly happens in possible misunderstandings in situations of intercultural communication. Studies on talk-in-interaction focus on conversational turn-taking (Psathas 1995, Ten Have & Psathas 1995, Sacks, Schegloff & Jefferson 1974, Schegloff 2000). They therefore bring to light behavioural patterns - and their respective interpretations - that most of the time remain subconscious in the minds of the interactants, as those patterns are learned and internalised early on in the primary socialisation process (Berger & Luckmann 1966). Sample analyses on the conversational overlaps of French speakers carried out previously by the researcher (Kohonen 2000) served as a basis for the hypothesis development. These earlier analyses made evident the importance of gaining access to participants' perceptions on the interaction, as well as the access into parameters that allow a comparative approach. The present research is an exploratory, qualitative case study that allowed comparisons to be made between the overlap patterns of the native French and the native British English participants conversing in native and mixed groups, furthermore gaining access to participants' perceptions of the interaction. The present study is not intended to be taken as a strictly conversation analytical research, as the Literature Review will show. The aim of the present study is on the contrary to explore the possible theoretical and methodological triangulations available in the field of social sciences, and to discover how the triangulation of theories and methods could enhance the study of talk-in-interaction, in both native and intercultural settings.

Background Employee turnover is increasing and in order for companies to retain their workforce, internal marketing (IM) needs to be applied. With internal communication (IC) being seen as the key to implementing employee oriented strategies and activities to motivate employees and coordinate cross-functional efforts within IM, internal social media (ISM), as known for fostering communication among employees, needs to be investigated regarding its influence on employee engagement. Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychological conditions of employee engagement on ISM and their relationship to employee engagement on ISM, moderated by the managerial communication styles assertive, aggressive and passive. Method An explanatory sequential mixed methods design has been applied, combining the advantages of both quantitative and qualitative data collection. Starting with 86 self-completion questionnaires, the findings, obtained by the application of a factor analysis in conjunction with multiple regression analysis, have been deepened with 5 semi-structured interviews with the help of a thematic analysis. Results and Conclusions The psychological conditions of employee engagement on ISM are indeed positively related to employee engagement on ISM. Furthermore, the assertive managerial communication style has shown to have a moderating effect on the relationship between the psychological conditions of employee engagement on ISM and employee engagement on ISM. Even though the moderating effect has been negative, the assertive communication style has been found to have a positive effect on employee engagement on ISM itself.

Constructive management of relationship conflicts, which may be conditioned by the interaction of both romantic partners, is a key factor for mutual satisfaction. Therefore, the main aim of this thesis was to find out a mediating role of conflict communication styles in long-term heterosexual couples. For the Practical part of the thesis was chosen a quantitative research, including data from 76 long-term heterosexual couples between 18 - 40 years of age. Attachment dimensions were measured by The Close Relationship Experience - Revised (ECR-R-16), relationship adjustment by The Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS), and six conflict communication styles (compromising, dominant, separating, submissive, avoidant and reactive) by The Romantic Partner Conflict Scale (RPCS). The effect of conflict communication styles as mediators seems to be predicted by attachment and gender. In men, the mediating function of communication styles between attachment and relationship adjustment was confirmed for reactive and avoidant style, in women for reactive and compromising. The mediating effect of communication styles was not significant for partners' relationship adjustment. Key words: attachment, romantic relationships, communication styles, conflict communication

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This study describes cultural values and communication patterns that are attributable to Ugandans and U.S. Americans in Kampala, Uganda. Value patterns are described within this paper, a mixture of self-attributed and ascripted based on survey and interview data. This information was examined to better understand degrees of variations of communication styles and value orientations and how they contribute to intercultural misunderstanding and potential conflict in a professional setting. The purpose of the study is not merely to contrast Ugandan and U.S. American culture, but to create knowledge to allow better adaption for cross-cultural encounters and add to the scant communication based literature within the African context.