The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the role of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) on the consumers’ brand perception. It is assumed that if CSR has any effect on the consumers’ brand perception it is supposed to be found as a component of the brand image.  The aim is to get realistic insight into the role of CSR in the consumers’ brand perceptions. Therefore it was needed to overcome essential limitations that previous studies had faced. Past researches have applied similar methods whereby almost no attention was given for the limitations that came along with experiments and quantitative approaches. This study tried to elude such constrains with an approach different to the most that have been conducted previously. Previous researches used to support their respondents either during their studies or beforehand with additional information about CSR in general, companies’ CSR activities or asked right from the beginning, directly and explicit about consumers perception about CSR. This research avoided “feeding” participants with any information on CSR, in the early stages of the in-depth interviews. But in the last stage, interviewers asked directly consumers on how they perceive CSR, in order to be able to compare whether artificial awareness biases or influences consumers’ perception of CSR. By this the topic under study was enlightened from another angle, results could support a holistic overview on the topic from an exceptional perspective.  This thesis applied a qualitative approach as the researchers expected that the results for the complex topic under study would be more meaningful, rich and unveiling than numerical measurements. Therefore, in-depth interviews with German consumers have been conducted. The study illustrates the complexity of the consumers’ perceptual process. The process is influenced by numerous variables and in particular by the individual personality of the consumers. As each human person has its own personality the individual impact is hard to cover. Nevertheless a model was created by using the dimensions “Personal Motives” and “Attitudes toward CSR”. As a result four types of consumers were discovered: “Passivists”, “Cynics”, “Egoists”, “Idealists”. In the model consumers are characterized by their personal motives, their attitudes toward CSR, their general interest in CSR, their attitudes towards perceived motives of the company and their perception of certain causes. It is expected that the model contributes constructively to the research in the field of CSR and that it provides complementary information for decision makers from the economy.

Introduction: Swedish furniture companies have been quite successful in many parts of the world recently, with IKEA being a famous example of that. Meanwhile, Vietnam has one of the fastest-growing economies in South East Asia. However, there has not been any Swedish furniture company established on the Vietnamese market so far. Therefore, it would be useful to see if the Vietnamese furniture consumers would appreciate Swedish furniture, in order to analyze whether Swedish furniture companies could have success in Vietnam as well. Purpose: To study (1) How Vietnamese furniture consumers perceive the typical product values of Swedish furniture and (2) Analyze the potential for establishing Swedish furniture companies on the Vietnamese market. Methodology: Interviews, survey and secondary data. Findings and Analysis: The findings show that Vietnamese furniture consumers would generally appreciate Swedish furniture product values. Although the consumers do not recognize Sweden or Scandinavia as a furniture country or region, their preferences shown in furniture characteristics imply a increasingly positive attitude towards typical Swedish furniture product values. Conclusion and Recommendations: Due to the appreciation of Swedish typical product values, the potential for establishing Swedish furniture companies could be regarded as considerable in terms of product values. It is thus recommended that Swedish furniture companies carry on with creating typical Swedish product values when they enter the Vietnamese market. Index words: Sweden, Vietnam, Furniture, Product Values, Consumer Perception

Globalization has developed more and more within the business world as well as private life during the last decades. Globalization has influenced the way companies are conducting business and their approach towards the consumers which can have an influence on their way of purchasing. Consumers nowadays have more than ever the possibility to get involved and gather experiences from abroad, as well as companies are taking advantage of this globalization. Within this thesis the following question will be discussed: Do consumers see the value companies try to create for them with an identical offer the same way in different markets? This idea is based on Theodore Levitt’s theory of globalization which comprises standardization of an offer since consumer needs are homogenizing globally. Douglas & Wind instead state that segmentation with adaptations is necessary to fulfill all consumer needs. Within this elaboration the question whether standardization is accepted and liked by the consumers is discussed and analyzed by including an empirical research. This research is based on Zeithaml’s model of the Perceived Quality Components, which was the fundamental base behind formulating the survey questions. These were submitted in Germany, the Republic of Ireland and Sweden to be able to discuss and visualize how the consumers of these different markets perceive different aspects of a company’s offer. One particular company, which is seen as doing business globally, was chosen as a test object. Based on the test object Lidl - which consumers were questioned about in the survey - it was possible to conduct a comparison of consumers’ general expectations against components of Lidl’s offer such as price, weekly specials, product range, etc. where differences and similarities between the three countries of Lidl’s fulfillment of these expectations were achieved. They were analyzed to discover to which extent globalization is present. Resulting from the comparison it was concluded that nowadays segmentation is important but developing with time globalization seems to increase in significance. Recommendations for further research about topics which were omitted due to limited resources are presented.

Social enterprises are hybrid organizations which are partly for-profit and partly nonprofit. As entities create social value via market mechanisms, they are influenced by the factors that could impact the market. While social enterprises directly involve in the production of goods or the provision of services in the marketplace, consumer¡¦s awareness and supports are important. Perception, motivation, and satisfaction can influence consumer behavior. Instead of studying social enterprises from the organization perspective like many previous studies, this research attempts to explore social enterprises from consumers¡¦ perspective and to investigate the connections between consumers and social enterprises. The Children Are Us Foundation is social welfare foundation helping people with mental disabilities. It operates affirmative businesses (bakeries and restaurants) to provide training and employment for disadvantaged people, and in order to diversify funding channels. These ventures contribute around 50% of annual revenue. Many literatures in Taiwan recognized it as a social enterprise. The purpose of this research was to explore consumer perception, motivation, and satisfaction for social enterprise. This research has conducted a questionnaire survey on consumers of five bakeries and restaurants that are managed by this foundation. This aim of this survey is to investigate consumer perception, motivation, and satisfaction toward this type of social enterprise. The results revealed that consumer perception correlates with contacting type of social enterprise ventures. The results also indicated that ¡§want to help disadvantaged groups¡¨ appears to be the main reason that consumers consume in these shops. The major satisfactory factor is the service attributes associated with personnel. Significant differences are found among consumers with different demographic attributes on their perception, motivation, and satisfaction. Finally, this paper provides suggestions in two directions: finding the values shared between the social enterprises and the consumers, and cultivating social enterprise consumers.

Widespread adoption of mobile payments has not taken place despite a decade of trials in various countries based upon a mobile phone handset that does not have the technology capabilities of today’s smart phones. However, significant technology developments have led to widespread consumer adoption of smart phones and other devices that may now provide the foundation for wider consumer adoption of mobile payments. Understanding UK consumer cultural perceptions on the new phenomenon is one of the first steps to influencing purchase behaviour. This thesis is based upon a post-positivist philosophy and a social constructionist ontology that explores UK consumer perceptions of mobile payments through human cognitive and affective responses of consumer payment behaviour as these influence attitude that leads to adoption. However, UK consumer interest in mobile payments on its own is unlikely to be enough to change payment behaviour, although meeting specific payment needs can motivate consumers to amend their payment behaviour that can lead to widespread adoption. Inductive empirical research is used to explore UK consumer perceptions of mobile payments through sequential mixed methods. A questionnaire is used as the 1st research instrument with closed questions that explore various aspects of consumer interest in the mobile payments phenomenon. The key themes identified from the numerical analysis of the questionnaire data are used to guide the semi-structured interviews. Content analysis is then undertaken on the qualitative interview data from which new knowledge on consumer perceptions of mobile payments is identified. Analysis of the empirical data suggests that UK consumers have significant technology and security concerns which negatively affect consumer interest. Despite these concerns, UK consumers demonstrate interest in the mobile payments phenomenon when perceived usefulness benefits are identified. The perceived usefulness positively influences attitude that overcomes perceived risks which can lead to amended consumer payment behaviour and widespread adoption. In addition, UK consumers have a significant lack of trust towards unknown organisations as well as new market entrants although there is an increased level of trust in mobile payments provided by UK banks as well as other established organisations. This research fills an important gap in existing literature on consumer payment behaviour as it explores UK consumer cultural perceptions of the mobile payments phenomenon using smart phones and contactless consumer devices; whereas earlier consumer payment research is based upon a mobile phone handset that does not have the technology capabilities of today’s smart phones and has an Asian and Nordic cultural focus. Furthermore, this research provides UK empirical evidence that refines and extends existing research through the use of sequential mixed methods whilst adding to the understanding of UK consumer attitudes related to UK payment instruments.

Aim and method: This study aims to investigate the consumer behavior of the cosmetics customers and the consumer perception about the available local and foreign branded cosmetics products in Bangladesh. To achieve the purpose of the study, an effective mixture of qualitative and quantitative method has been utilized by conducting interviews and online survey with local businesspersons and consumers of cosmetics in Bangladesh respectively.   Result and conclusion: Consumer perception regarding cosmetics products in Bangladesh is influenced by seven factors identified in this study. They are country of origin, psychological attributes of the consumers, place where product is sold, external attributes, quality, consumers’ own characteristics and finally increased disposable income of the consumers. We identified all but one of these factors from the existing literature and our analysis showed that findings of the existing literature support our study. One new factor found in the course of this study is that the increasing number of middle to affluent consumers in Bangladesh is another crucial factor that motivates consumer perception towards cosmetics in the context of Bangladesh.   Contribution: The study contributes to literature coherent with consumer behavior and consumer perception regarding the customers of cosmetics products in Bangladesh. As the literature has remained unexplored in context of Bangladesh, this paper would be an insight for local and foreign branded cosmetics regarding how the consumers see the market and the factors that influence their purchase, preference and loyalty decisions. Furthermore, through the findings of the study, recommendations can be prescribed for the local cosmetics manufacturers to strengthen their market share in the future.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent Amanor-Boadu / HEB is a privately-held grocery retailer founded in 1905 in Kerrville, TX. Since then, HEB has grown to 399 stores in 155 communities. Although the majority of its operations have been in southern Texas, nearly 10 percent of HEB’s stores (39) are in Mexico. This may be considered an impressive feat since its entry into Mexico occurred in 1997 to take advantage of the growth opportunities in Mexico and the North American Free Trade Agreement involving Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. The research was conducted using primary data collected through a survey. Secondary data from the Shapiro Index were also employed to explain the observations from the survey. Econometric and statistical models were used in the analyses. Customer quality perception is an important metric for the retail industry. This research evaluates the effect of purchase history, frequency of shopping, price perception, quality and service changes through time on the quality perception of a meat department in a supermarket. The impact of additional labor was analyzed to determine the effect on those variables. The quality perception of the customers of other meat retailers in the same trading areas was also evaluated. The results of the study were then compared to the actual metric used to measure quality perception (Shapiro Index). The study found that the company has a significant higher quality perception than other supermarkets, that labor had a positive effect on quality and service change, customers noticed the change, and with time, it will increase their quality perception. The results show a different perception from customers than the Shapiro Index, customers do not notice a decrement on quality in the meat departments. Based on these results, a further research on the actual methodology used was performed, training and new purchasing specifications were applied to improve the intrinsic characteristics of the products and a new marketing campaign was launched based on quality and freshness.

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate cultural differences in consumer perception of online advertising. As the Internet grows it has become important for companies to adjust website design to cultural differences in online advertising. Internet users are more comfortable with website design related to their own culture. There have been a limited number of previous investigation regarding website design and our study aims to fill this gap. Schwartz cultural values are used to investigate cultural differences on a micro level. Our study aims to compare Sweden and China based on cultural values. The two countries were chosen because of the cultural differences. Schwartz cultural values have been selected since Schwartz investigates cultural differences on an individual level. The result of the dissertation indicates that there are other factors than colour text and image that influence consumers’ perception of the website design. One of the challenges in the dissertation was to connect the conceptual model to the collected data from the focus group interviews. However, some of the Schwartz’s cultural values could be captured where the participants were motivated by the culture in the responses. The result of the study can be used for companies and their website design in connection to Swedish and Chinese culture. The investigation gave us more understanding regarding the area of online advertising in connection to website design.

Food that provides health benefits beyond basic nutrition, by virtue of physiologically active food components are known as functional foods. Soybeans contain some of these phytochemical components such as isoflavones. Due to the lack of relevant data, the aim of this study was to assess South African consumers' perceptions towards soy and soy products. Respondents (n=3001) were randomly selected from 9 metropolitan as well as rural areas in South Africa. The questionnaire consisted of 17 food related topics. Four of these sections (which were also used in this study) probed information on soy and soy products. The data of 81 % respondents (n=2437), who were aware of soy, were used for further statistical analyses. There were no practical significant differences between rural and metropolitan respondents' perceptions regarding each statement. Large practical significant differences were found between racial groups regarding most of the statements. In general Blacks were more positive towards the use and taste of soy, as opposed to Whites. More Indians were aware of meat substitutes made from soy than the other racial groups. Marketing efforts in South Africa should focus on those groups that like the taste of soy best and who would consume soy regularly. / Thesis (M. (Consumer Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.

BACKGROUND Exploring, on the one hand, the literature stream of authenticity and brand authenticity, and on the other hand, that of firm growth, to further connect the two phenomena. AIM Researching whether firms can achieve both above-average industry growth and brandauthenticity METHODOLOGY The study entails 21 firms evolving in three industries (beer, cosmetic and food-processing). Brand authenticity is measured through a consumer survey, while growth is measured through a comparison of financial numbers in an official database (Amadeus). FINDINGS Companies can achieve both above-average industry growth rate and brand authenticity