The purpose of this thesis is to understand how implicit processes determine individual and organisational behaviour in the context of business to business (B2B) decision making. A broad literature review suggests that implicit cognition has a significantly more powerful influence than therefore assumed. The author calls for further research into the motivations driving professional behaviour in B2B situations as new study challenges the classical economic theory of the homo economicus, and focuses on the role of implicit motives as a possible driver. As a first objective, the study attempts to reveal a typical structure of implicit motives based on hierarchy and gender. The second objective is to delineate the interplay between the implicit motives and the decision making process in B2B. The third objective is to examine the consequences and implications for business to business marketing. The methodology is based on an interdisciplinary mixed method approach. To address the gaps in existing knowledge, an experiment and a survey (n=175) in different sectors were conducted. For the analysis, a variety of techniques such as operant motive tests, cluster- and multivariate analysis were employed to analyse the empirical response. Semi-structured qualitative in-depth interviews (n=8) were carried out to detect the consequences and the implications of the new findings for practice. The findings of the research indicate that marketing is much more a selective communication as assumed. The impact of marketing communication is not always consciously perceived by customers and the most part is implicit. In conclusion, there seems to be an interplay between implicit motives and the B2B decision making process. Hypotheses about the interplay of implicit motives and business to business decision making were confirmed in personal, management and group decision experiments. As a contribution to existing theory on the subject, it can be postulated that rational choice in B2B decision making may play a limited role. In addition marketing experts from various industry sectors emphasise the importance and the potential impacts for future B2B marketing. Experts stress the need to reveal the real motivational drivers in marketing communication.

An attempt was made to investigate the decision processes of subjects in a bivariate decision making task, similar to that facing a medical specialist who is required to classify a patient as belonging to one of a number of possible disease populations on the basis of the patient's scores of two predictor cues. It was felt that such tasks had been largely neglected in experimental psychology, where the tendency has been towards requiring subjects to learn relationships between continuous predictor variables and a continuous criterion, rather than between continuous predictor variables and a categorical criterion. When the relationship between the predictor variables is the same in both the populations to be discriminated, the best decision function is based on a linear combination of the cues (Fisher’s Linear Discriminant Function). It was found that the decisions of those subjects who learned to use the cues in a way which was at all valid in such situations, could be well approximated by a model which weighted the two cues equally in a linear combination and based it’s decisions on the result. When the relationship between the predictor variables differs from one population to the other, however, the best decision function becomes more complex, including terms in the squares and cross-products of the cues. It was felt that such situations are particularly relevant to medical decision making where clinicians have frequently claimed that the "pattern" of scores of a patient is important, not Just the individual scores on each cue. It was found that if differences in cue intercorrelation were large, then subjects seemed to inolude in their iii decision processes, some nonlinear term to take account of this fact. If, however, differences in cue intercorrelation were only moderate, or if the correlations involved were large hut negative, this seemed to go unnoticed by the subjects and did not lead to any reliance on nonlinear terms. The results show that previous findings in "real life" tasks, that decision making processes could be adequately represented as linear combinations of cues, may be due more to the linear nature of the tasks than to any predisposition towards linear processes on the part of human decision makers, and that the statistical properties of "real life" tasks must be more thoroughly investigated before it is assumed that they require nonlinear decision processes.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 88-100)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-125).

This is a study of a group of young people that explores their journeys into, and experiences within, the informal economy. Evidence has shown that young people have always been more disadvantaged in a context of high levels of unemployment, limited job opportunities and entitlement to welfare benefits. As an alternative to low paying jobs with poor working conditions, and in addition to strict conditions for claiming benefits, some young people are making the decision to engage in criminal ways of generating income. This study examines the experiences of twenty-six young people from Luton and Cambridge who had engaged in begging, drug dealing and sex work as alternative forms of ‘work’ in their transitions to adulthood. It explores the structural, cultural and biographical factors that influence their informal career decision-making processes, by drawing on Bourdieu’s social field theory. By examining the lived experiences of these young people, the study throws more light on the role of structure and personal agency in the decisions the young people made in engaging in the informal economy. These young people wanted to be seen as ‘normal’ young people. Most were hardworking, and ambitious, and their engagement in informal economic activities was often a ‘means to an end’. This study also identifies strategies that were employed by the young people for their successful navigating of the economy, and highlights the importance of elements like trust, respect and knowledge in their negotiations. It assesses how the issue of risk was managed with the help of what was seen to be an unwritten code of conduct in the field. The study also identified a hierarchy within the field, which was determined by the individual participants, depending on their personal perceptions and perspectives. The data was collected using semi-structured interviews, over a period of a year. The process of collecting data was long and difficult, highlighting the ethical and methodological challenges of conducting research with a ‘hidden’ population. The findings throw new light on the unique challenges young people face both in the formal job market, and in accessing welfare support, in light of the significant changes to social policy in the UK.

The research was stimulated by involvement in leading elements of an Education Management programme. Developing part of the teaching material led to the realisation that while pupils' choice of school has been extensively researched it appeared that subject choice, particularly at A level had not. It also became apparent that ideas and models concerning decision making, extensively adopted within the Consumer Behaviour literature had not been applied in this context. Extensive reviews ofthe literature confirmed this position and indicated that the post sixteen school choice was also under researched and further that it was not possible to apply extant consumer behaviour models directly to the A level or School choice contexts. The research programme consisted of a mixture of qualitative and quantitative techniques. Building on elements of theory, from the literature, exploratory research employing focus groups was used to develop an initial model of adolescent pupil decision making. Early in the exploratory research it was found that the decision for adolescents choosing where to study their A levels was inextricably linked to choice of subjects. Choice of A level subjects was added to the research programme. Based on the exploratory results a quantitative study, using questionnaires, was developed to test the model on both single (choosing a school) and multiple (choosing A level subjects) choice situations. The study investigated differences between single-choice and multiple-choice decision making, an area neglected by consumer research, which provides at least a partial explanation of the process used by the pupils when they choose schools/colleges and A level subjects. Findings identify that although some aspects ofthe choice process are similar, there are important differences between the two types of decision. Evoked set are larger for multiple-choice decisions, and multi-choice decisions are likely to involve more stages in the decision making process than single-choice decisions. The results also identified that the parents' role has changed from 'decider', when their children were younger, to 'influencer', with the adolescent pupils becoming the decision makers. Concomitantly, choice criteria are shown to have evolved with 'discipline' decreasing markedly in importance and subject range increasing. The pre-eminence of personal sources of information is confinued but co-orientation emphasised.

Thesis (M. Div.)--Emmanuel School of Religion, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-72).

Social media are increasingly becoming platforms of choice for communication among individuals and groups of the public, and hence organisations are interested in engaging with communities and the public through this form of media to gain intelligence from such engagements to support their decision making processes. Yet, organisations are missing on realising the potential value from using social media for this type of interaction and engagement, while paucity in research addressing practical ways to use social media communication in supporting decision making still persists. This research investigates and proposes a practical framework for using social media – specifically Twitter – as a communications instrument to support the decision making process in police organisations. The research design is based on developing and evaluating a proof of concept representing engagements between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) police as a case study of police organisations with communities and members of the public in the UAE. The proof of concept is designed based on comparing and contrasting current practices by the UAE police with models, trends, and practices discussed in related literature. The research uses the Grounded Theory methodology to guide sampling, data collection, and analysis. The contribution of the research is to both theory and practice. The research addresses a gap in the body of knowledge for a framework that guides the development of models, policies, and practices for the use of social media as a communication instrument to support decision making in governmental organisations, specifically the police. In addition, the framework offers practical insights to policy makers into using different social media to engage with the public in communication, interactions, and knowledge sharing, with the aim of supporting decision making.

Customer insight is at the heart of the big data era. This revolution makesit possible to directly obtain high potential data and in large quantitiesabout customers. Thus we take note that, more than ever, a large volumeof big data is collected by companies.We observe that big data have become a necessary tool within marketing.More and more companies orient their decisions according to theinformations provided by data, with the aim of quickly having betterresults.Nevertheless, in order to integrate these big data in a better way and gaina competitive advantage, companies must face new challenges. Tomeasure and understand the impact of big data in marketing decisions,we propose, with the support of our scientific and theoretical resources, areasoning, demonstrating all the issues. Big data is increasinglyubiquitous and necessary for companies (I). Their impact in decisionsneeds to be taken into account (II) and their use is leading to amanagement revolution (III). Moreover, it modifies the close relationbetween decision and intuition. (IV). In this article, we present aperspective that study all these concepts. We close by offering a modeland a conclusion answering our problematic.

The exponential growth in medical pharmaceuticals and related clinical trials have created a need to better understand the decision-making factors in the processes for developing hospital medication formularies. The purpose of the study was to identify, rank, and compare major factors impacting hospital formulary decision-making among three prescriber groups serving on a hospital's pharmacy and therapeutics (P&T) committee. Prescribers were selected from the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center which is a large, multi-facility, academic oncology hospital. Specifically, the prescriber groups studied were comprised of physicians, midlevel providers, and pharmacists. A self-administered online survey was disseminated to participants. Seven major hospital formulary decision-making factors were identified in the scientific literature. Study participants were asked to respond to questions about each of the hospital formulary decision-making factors and to rank the various formulary decision-making factors from the factor deemed most important to the factor deemed least important. There are five major conclusions drawn from the study including three similarities and two significant differences among the prescriber groups and factors. Similarities include: (1) the factor "pharmacy staff's evaluation of medical evidence including formulary recommendations" was ranked highest for all three prescriber groups; (2) "evaluation of medications by expert physicians" was ranked second for physicians and midlevel providers while pharmacists ranked it third; and (3) the factor, "financial impact of the treatment to the patient" was fifth in terms of hospital formulary decision-making statement and ranking by all three prescriber groups. Two significant differences include: (1) for the hospital-formulary decision making statement, "I consider the number of patients affected by adding, removing, or modifying a drug on the formulary when making hospital medication formulary decisions," midlevel providers considered this factor of significantly greater importance than did physicians; and (2) for the ranked hospital formulary decision-making factor, "financial impact of treatment to the institution," pharmacists ranked this factor significantly higher than did physicians. This study contributes to a greater understanding of the three prescriber groups serving on a P&T committee. Also, the study contributes to the body of literature regarding decision-making processes in medicine and specifically factors impacting hospital formulary decision-making. Furthermore, this study has the potential to impact the operational guidelines for the P&T committee at the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center as well as other hospitals.