published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Philosophy

This research investigates consumers' preferences and attitudes towards the packaging of FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) products and the influence that this packaging has on their buying habits and purchasing decisions. Respondents' likes, dislikes as well as key purchase drivers were examined. Focus groups were held to gauge the respondent's attitudes and perceptions towards packaging as well as their expectations of what it should be like. The researcher employed a descriptive research design method using qualitative methods to analyse the data collected. A total of twenty five focus groups were held, with twelve women in each group (ie 300 respondents). Respondents consisted of females residing in the Bedfordview, Sandton, Yeoville and Melville areas in Gauteng. One-hour focus groups were held during July, August and September 2003. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

This study sought to determine differential importance of environmental criteria on product labels as judged by consumers in relation to socio-demographic factors. Five product categories and thirteen criteria were used in this study. Characterizing the `ecologically concerned consumer' may be helpful in developing market segmentation strategies. Findings from this study may provide knowledge about predictors of environmentally responsible consumption behavior. Such research may guide environmental labeling efforts to reduce environmental burdens of consumption.In this study consumers differentially endorsed ecolabel criteria. Further, differential importance was significant for gender, ethnicity, and income. Research is needed to explore the relationships between respondent demographics and eco-label criteria importance.It is necessary to consider importance of criteria to consumers. Without consumer interest, eco-labeling schemes are doomed to fail. Thus, it is recommended that ecolabeling schemes consider the importance of eco-label criteria, particularly, criteria related to social welfare. / Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management

by Glen L. Urban and Scott A. Neslin. / "September 1976." / Bibliography: leaf 25.

Technological developments, Internet expansion and the ubiquity of smartphones have revolutionized modern communication. Millions of people link to countless desktops or mobile e-platforms, and information transfer has never been faster or simpler. Previous research has consistently found that online reviews can mould consumers' attitudes toward a product, thereby influencing sales (Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006; Ante, 2009), and highlighting the importance of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communication as a key factor affecting consumer purchasing decisions. Message quality plays a decisive role in eWOM communication effectiveness (Sweeney, Soutar and Mazzarol, 2008; Cheema and Kaikati, 2010). A persuasive message is comprised of two critical components, message valance and argument strength (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975; Petty and Cacioppo, 1981), but understanding of their characteristics is limited. Until now, most eWOM investigations have ignored the written content of persuasive messages, tending to use quantitative measures, such as product ratings, to study WOM or eWOM communication (Schlosser, 2011). Additionally, the growing role of China in the global economy points to an increasingly important role for Chinese language communication. To-date English has been the primary language used in past eWOM studies, but findings from non-Chinese language studies may not apply to the Chinese language eWOM communications. The current study is intended to fill this gap. Grounded in the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), this study aims to identify the message features of Chinese language eWOM communication and understand the combined effects of valence and argument strength on attitude and purchase intention have varying levels of persuasiveness in eWOM communication. The present study deepens the knowledge of eWOM communication because it integrates message features into the ELM of eWOM influence. It also extends Sweeny, Soutar and Mazzarol's (2012) traditional WOM study to the Chinese language eWOM context. Practically, this study introduces actual themes, languages and presentation approaches to product reviews that significantly or marginally affect a receiver's attitude toward a product and influence purchase intention. It provides an important reference for the eWOM givers on how to strengthen Chinese eWOM message content by understanding the message features of different review types.

A number of lifestyle merchandising and advertising strategies are being used in the home furnishings industry. However, there is limited research regarding the effectiveness of these strategies. The purpose of this study was to explore consumers' attitudes toward the lifestyle concept. Analyses of several consumer behavior variables and descriptors offered noteworthy findings for the home furnishings industry. This study found that although lifestyle orientation is a valuable tool for delineating consumer markets, these segmentations were not significant determinates of consumers' preference for elements of the lifestyle construct. Retailers and manufacturers are not simply creating home furnishing collections that target the needs of specific psychographic segment, but rather creating lifestyles being aspired to obtain. Although respondents scored the attitude variables neutral, the current market environment offers many examples of successfully home furnishing implementations of the lifestyle concept. These success stories coupled with additional findings indicate consumers' positive response to lifestyle merchandising.

This thesis consists of three papers in optimization and revenue management over complex networks: Robust Linear Control in Transmission Systems, Online Learning and Optimization Under a New Linear-Threshold Model with Negative Influence, and Revenue Management with Complementarity Products. This thesis contributes to analytical methods for optimization problems in complex networks, namely, power network, social network and product network. In Chapter 2, we describe a robust multiperiod transmission planning model including renewables and batteries, where battery output is used to partly offset renewable output deviations from forecast. A central element is a nonconvex battery operation model plus a robust model of forecast errors and a linear control scheme. Even though the problem is nonconvex we provide an efficient and theoretically valid algorithm that effectively solves cases on large transmission systems. In Chapter 3, we propose a new class of Linear Threshold Model-based information-diffusion model that incorporates the formation and spread of negative attitude. We call such models negativity-aware. We show that in these models, the expected positive influence is a monotone sub-modular function of the seed set. Thus we can use a greedy algorithm to construct a solution with constant approximation guarantee when the objective is to select a seed set of fixed size to maximize positive influence. Our models are flexible enough to account for both the features of local users and the features of the information being propagated in the diffusion. We analyze an online-learning setting for a multi-round influence-maximization problem, where an agent is actively learning the diffusion parameters over time while trying to maximize total cumulative positive influence. We develop a class of online learning algorithms and provide the theoretical upper bound on the regret. In Chapter 4, we propose a tractable information-diffusion-based framework to capture complementary relationships among products. Using this framework, we investigate how various revenue-management decisions can be optimized. In particular, we prove that several fundamental problems involving complementary products, such as promotional pricing, product recommendation, and category planning, can be formulated as sub-modular maximization problems, and can be solved by tractable greedy algorithms with guarantees on the quality of the solutions. We validate our model using a dataset that contains product reviews and metadata from Amazon from May 1996 to July 2014. We also analyze an online-learning setting for revenue-maximization with complementary products. In this setting, we assume that the retailer has access only to sales observations. That is, she can only observe whether a product is purchased from her. This assumption leads to diffusion models with novel node-level feedback, in contrast to classical models that have edge-level feedback. We conduct confidence region analysis on the maximum likelihood estimator for our models, develop online-learning algorithms, and analyze their performance in both theoretical and practical perspectives.

From amusement parks to casinos, cruises to video games, large sectors of the economy market consumer fun. Yet surprisingly, little research has been devoted to understanding the consumer psychology of fun—both the experience and its main psychological drivers in marketplace settings. This dissertation aims to develop a psychological theory of consumer fun that can help inform how fun experiences are engineered and managed by both businesses and consumers. I use a multimethod approach combining in-depth interviews and narrative analyses with controlled experiments, structural equation modeling, and field data analysis of consumer selfies. Two psychological pillars of consumer fun are identified: (1) hedonic engagement and (2) a sense of liberation. Each pillar in turn rests on two sub-pillars: (1a) perception of novelty and (1b) connectedness, and (2a) a sense of spontaneity and (2b) impressions of boundedness. My dissertation research shows that fun is an experience of liberating engagement, a temporary release from psychological restriction via a hedonically engaging activity. Importantly, a digital ethnography of consumer selfies showed that compared to other positive experiences such as happiness, pride, or relaxation, fun is much more likely to be situated in commercial settings, thus substantiating the business relevance of fun. Through five experiments, I show that marketers can engineer fun by directly activating feelings of liberation through situational cues such as boundedness. Using a proprietary dataset by Brand Asset Valuator, I show that fun emerges as a major brand image attribute that is significantly related to brand preference and key financial outcomes such as revenue. Broadly, my dissertation reveals that fun leads to increased consumer well-being, independently from the meaningful, eudaimonic path toward happiness.

The purpose of the research was to determine the sources of customer satisfaction with apparel factory outlet stores. Six store attributes consisting of physical facilities, location, store service, merchandise, store atmosphere, and promotion were investigated. Data were collected through a mall intercept survey using a self-administered questionnaire. A total of 200 respondents participated in the study. The rate of refusal was estimated to be 42 percent. One-way analysis of variance was used to test for differences in customers' perception of stores on six attributes. Differences were found to exist among the stores on three attributes, specifically, "physical facilities," "store service," and "store atmosphere." ANOVA results for importance attached to store attributes showed no significant differences among the customers of the five stores. Correlation analyses showed high correlations between and among perception/importance combinations for each store attribute and overall satisfaction. Multiple regression gave "merchandise" and "promotion" as the best predictors of overall satisfaction. Correlations, ANOVA, and t-test were used to establish the relationship(s) between customer personal characteristics and overall satisfaction. No relationships were found between demographic characteristics or fashion interest, and overall satisfaction. However, buying behavior patterns were found to be related to overall satisfaction. Chi-square tests were used to determine significant relationship(s) between selected personal characteristic variables. Cramer's V indicated the strength of association between variables. Association was found to be moderately strong only between frequency of shopping and distance traveled. Those who more frequently shopped at the store lived nearer the area. / Ph. D.

Because involvement is believed to influence or determine individua1s' behavioral intentions, the objective of this research was to examine the relationship between involvement and behavioral intentions. But because there is confusion over what precisely involvement is, personal relevance, which is identified by most consumer behaviorists and social psychologists as an important dimension of the involvement construct, served as its surrogate to achieve the objective of this research. The research method used was a mail questionnaire. Virginia Tech engineering alumni residing in the state of Virginia and its vicinity were asked a series of personal relevance questions, which were then followed by two questions regarding their intentions toward enrolling in the Virginia Cooperative Graduate Engineering Program. In this research, correlation analyses of the answers to the two different series of questions were performed to identify the strength of the relationship between personal relevance and behavioral intentions. The results from the correlation analyses provide empirical evidence to support that there exists a positive linear relationship between involvement and behavioral intentions.Because involvement is believed to influence or determine individua1s' behavioral intentions, the objective of this research was to examine the relationship between involvement and behavioral intentions. But because there is confusion over what precisely involvement is, personal relevance, which is identified by most consumer behaviorists and social psychologists as an important dimension of the involvement construct, served as its surrogate to achieve the objective of this research. The research method used was a mail questionnaire. Virginia Tech engineering alumni residing in the state of Virginia and its vicinity were asked a series of personal relevance questions, which were then followed by two questions regarding their intentions toward enrolling in the Virginia Cooperative Graduate Engineering Program. In this research, correlation analyses of the answers to the two different series of questions were performed to identify the strength of the relationship between personal relevance and behavioral intentions. The results from the correlation analyses provide empirical evidence to support that there exists a positive linear relationship between involvement and behavioral intentions. / Master of Science