This study provides institutional and economic analysis of the phenomenom of consumerism in China. It identifies confucianism, maoism and dengism as key determinats of its development. As confucianism as well as maoism both declined consumerism as way of life from cultural point of view consumer society could develop in China only after ideological redefinition of what socialism is. As in 1979 chinese socialism was defined as system generating material wealth consumer society together with rapid economic growth started arising. From economic point of as China was agrarian economy with low rate of urbanization only after deep structural economic changes consumerism could arose. That happened after 1979. Deng Xiaoping reforms proved to be key break point for rising Chinese consumer society.

Pomacea bridgesii is a snail species native to tropical and sub-tropical regions, where it usually faces variability in water, temperature and oxygen level. This study of the effect of temperature on mass-specific oxygen consumption (ṀO2) and its relation to body weight shows that the ṀO2 of juvenile snails in normoxia (18-21 kPa) acclimated at temperature of 25°C ranged from 5 to 58 µMol O2/g/h, with a mean of 41.4 ± 18.3 µMol O2/g/h (n=7). Adult snails in normoxia at 25°C show less variation, ranging from 13 to 23 µMol O2/g/h , with a mean of 24.4± 6.1 µMol O2/g/h (n=12). The Q10 value for juvenile snails was higher in the interval 25-30°C (Q 10=5.74) than in the interval 20-25°C (Q10= 0.286). In adult snails, Q10 was higher in the interval 20-25°C (Q10=3.19). ṀO2 of P. bridgesii in relation to body weight showed a negative linear correlation between metabolic rate and body weight with b values between 0.23 and 0.76. Also, both juvenile and adult snails exhibited weak O2 regulation. In general, the different respiratory characteristics between juvenile and adult snails might be related to the differences of individual life history, which caused them to perform differently in face of temperatures change. Additionally, Pomacean snails species originated in tropical habitats where there is a lack of thermal fluctuation. For this reason, Pomacean snails may be less likely to have evolved effective thermal acclimation capabilities.

This study theorises and conceptualises place as an object of consumption, formed, shaped, and affected through practices. The study problematizes place treatments in extant managerial sciences and its contextual interpretations within consumption. It draws from a range of disciplinary inspirations from management studies, social sciences, philosophical, and phenomenological musings to empirically interrogate place construct using ethnography, in itself understood as placemaking practice. It analyses and interprets place through the lens of practice theories and non-representational methods to conceptualise place in consumption, and critically revisits its ontological hierarchy vis-à-vis space. The study delivers several methodological, theoretical, and axiological contributions. It uses an adapted form of historical street ethnography to interrogate place, imbuing it with a critical reflexive standpoint, and positions a revitalised and reinvigorated street ethnography as a critical reflexive epistemic tool of knowledge production in the analytical transitions from phenomenological to post-phenomenological narratives. The study’s theoretical, discipline-specific contributions arise from synchronous examinations of place, consumption, practice, and non-representations. It empirically validates heuristics of non-representation and practices in contextually examining place in consumption, appreciates genomic qualities of practices brigaded through universality of human experiences as pools of actions and competencies articulating consumption, and contemplates place as a processual, aspatial, fluid entity grasped beyond marketplace logic through practices. It expands understandings of marketplace, setting, structure, and actor, and invites attention to the liquefied, flowing nature of market and consumption through place plasticity and path-dependent practices. It emphasises the illocutionary force of place as object of consumption shaped through and in each moment of practice. The study empirically validates the reenchanted ontology of place, resituating it as the universal supreme abstract with space and time as component, co-constitutive elements, thus resituating extant place-space hierarchy. The study’s axiological and managerial contributions highlight mutability of practices in shaping place beyond marketplace logic in its many forms and settings, valorise everyday activities in shaping marketplace, illuminate the role of public, civic, and communal spaces and their contributions in the transition from market economy to marketized society not captured by marketplace discourses, and invite practice and non-representations into depictions of place marketing and consumption.

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The aim of this study is to investigate the interrelationships between place and taste through a multi-sited ethnography of music consumption. Place and taste are important theoretical constructs that have been studied extensively across the humanities and social sciences. Yet, there is a scarcity of research that attempts to bring together these constructs in the fields of marketing and consumer research and beyond. In particular, prior consumer culture theory (CCT) research has not taken into account the spatial processes through which consumers enact, perform and further develop their tastes in the market place. More significantly, little empirical research illustrates how different consumption spaces tend to orchestrate and shape consumers’ tastes. As such, this study focuses on the context of music consumption and aims to explore spatial taste formation processes via consumers’ aesthetic experiences in popular (festival) and classical (concert hall) music places within the fields of indie and classical music consumption respectively. The emergent findings are structured upon four chapters (papers) and develop specific research objectives which revolve around the overarching aim of the study, namely the exploration of the interrelationships between place and taste. This study brings together both structural and experiential dimensions of taste and highlights the ontological significance of phenomenological understandings of space and place for marketing and consumer research.

Social norms have been claimed to influence customer retention when the social network the customer engages with is well aware of a customer’s use of the product or service. This research investigates whether social norms will also influence customer retention for services that are used so infrequently that the social network the customer engages with is not aware that the customer has the product or service. The specific services investigated are also impacted by the fact that the customers themselves are not entirely certain as to their individual need of the product, namely credence goods. The aim of this research is to provide a profile of a customer that would be more influenced by social norms; which knowledge would allow organisations to target specific customers. Using the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests, hypotheses were tested by analysing questionnaire feedback data on 100 active insurance customers and 100 inactive insurance customers from within the South African financial services market. Empirical support for the effect of social norms on customer retention of credence goods is found. Empirical proof that females are more influenced by social norms than males was found as well as the link between culture value orientation to social norms. In this research a link between a customer’s age to social norm influence was not found. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / ccgibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

The interpretive, exploratory research reached conclusions from historical secondary data regarding financing models, namely interest-based and non-interest-based methods of financing with respect to the concept of sustainable consumption. The purpose of the research was to demonstrate that the way we manage our finances has an effect on the concept of sustainable consumption and its goals. The outcome of the research showed us that there is a definite linkage between the variables, especially in light of general systems theory, and concludes that the interest-based financing model is negatively aligned to the goal of sustainable consumption. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

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Background: The HHFKA authorizes funding and establishes policy for USDA’s child nutrition programs including the NSLP and the SBP to align with the DGA. It is inconclusive whether these dietary requirements increase healthy food selection let alone increase consumption because data is difficult to track, and plate waste studies are time consuming and labor intensive. Several studies have shown an association between advertising methods and increased fruit selection. However, research examining the degrees of impact these advertising methods have on student selection and consumption is lacking. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether different methods of advertising in school cafeterias have different effects on influencing children’s food choices. The researchers predicted branding would have the greatest effect on fresh fruit selection and consumption. Fresh fruit selection and consumption were observed in a sixth-grade student population during school lunch with majority of students participating in the free and reduced lunch program. Methods: An average of 412 student selection observations and 200 student consumption observations were collected over six days testing three advertising methods with a control group for each treatment. The three treatment groups consisted of branding, digital advertising, and variety. Results: This study found that digital advertising and variety had a significant effect on students’ fruit selection during school lunch by 8.5% and 17.6%, respectively. Digital advertising and branding had a significant decrease on student consumption, but variety increased consumption by 0.9%. Conclusion: In conclusion, advertising methods can increase the selection of fresh fruit, but additional strategies such as nutrition education, garden-based learning, and taste tests should be implemented to increase fresh fruit consumption.