This doctoral thesis investigates "gay marketing" as a phenomena in the environment of the Czech Republic market. Gay marketing here is understood in a broad way, as: any activities of companies towards addressing specifically homosexual consumers. The main question of the thesis is if the trend of specifically addressing homosexual consumers can and will come to the Czech market. The goal of the thesis is to recognize consumer behavior of Czech homosexuals, and based on that to find out the specificities of that consumer segment. To be able to meet the ultimate goal, the research and analysis were covering also: analysis of existing literature on that topic, comparison of the homosexuals' consumer behavior with consumer behavior of general Czech population, approach of Czech companies towards "gay marketing" and analysis of Czech press targeting homosexuals.

Chequebook journalism is the convention of paying for stories. It is considered antithetical to good journalism, yet is essentially ignored in many codes of conduct. This research report investigates television actuality programs Carte Blanche, Special Assignment and Third Degree in which the theory, as well as the practice of chequebook journalism was discussed with the journalists and executive producers. Discussion expanded into other contingent, morally suspect areas of payment, and the lines they felt should not be transgressed. Four focus groups of viewers then debated chequebook journalism and the quality of these programs. It was anticipated that the practice of journalism would be in line with audience views yet the standard of journalism as herein established surpassed viewer estimation. Whereas the topic has been written of extensively in many first world Englishspeaking countries, no research has been conducted in South Africa, thus adding valuable information to the study of journalism.

Esta tese descreve a visão dos supermercadistas sobre as relações comerciais com fornecedores. O objetivo é identificar os fatores determinantes desse relacionamento de modo a compreender a gestão de compras das principais redes de supermercado no que diz respeito à seleção dos fornecedores, às atividades de valor que são exercidas em conjunto e aos principais aspectos relacionados à comercialização de marcas líderes. A metodologia do estudo fundamenta-se em duas grandes etapas que se complementam. A primeira refere-se ao levantamento bibliográfico e pesquisa em dados secundários, cujo objetivo era cobrir o referencial teórico de forma abrangente e conhecer os trabalhos já realizados anteriormente. Na segunda etapa foram realizados estudos de caso junto a três principais redes supermercadistas brasileiras que detêm grande parte das vendas do setor, utilizando-se da metodologia exploratória com entrevistas em profundidade. O trabalho oferece detalhes relevantes que apontam para a possibilidade de aperfeiçoamento das relações comerciais entre os supermercadistas e seus fornecedores ao apresentar os fatores determinantes de um forte, duradouro e profícuo relacionamento. No entanto, pontos distintos trazidos pelo estudo mostram que alguns varejistas possuem um maior número de cláusulas em seus contratos de fornecimento que outros, revelando a ausência de padronização. Tal aspecto mostra a existência de condições para que os instrumentos propostos nas teorias convertam-se em novos e importantes determinantes. / This thesis describes a retailing supermarket’s view about its commercial relations with suppliers. The objective of this study is to identify determining factors of this relationship in order to understand the management of purchasing of the main supermarket chains as far as their choice of suppliers, the value activities that take place and the main aspects related to commercializing top brands. The methodology of this study is derived from two steps that are complementary. The first one is founded on bibliographic research and secondary data, whose objective is to cover the theories thoroughly and also to learn from prior studies performed about this subject. The second step comes from case studies performed on three major retailing supermarket chains in Brazil that have a great market share in their sector, which was done through an exploratory research methodology that included careful interviews. This study offers revealing details about improving the commercial relations between retailing supermarkets and their suppliers given to the determining factors that are presented of a strong and long-lasting relationship. There are, however, distinct points brought up by this study that show that some retailers have a greater number of clauses in their supply contracts than others do, and therefore proving that there is a lack of standardization. This aspect proves that it is possible for some instruments proposed by the theories to become new and important determinants.

This thesis deals with a new trend and a marketing tool -- collective buying. The aim of the work is to describe this trend from two different perspectives and to provide a short-term forecast. In the theoretical sections, we give overview of the history of collective buying, basic terms from the field, and the current situation in the Czech Republic and worldwide. We continue with sections describing the operations of a specific company from the field, BonyBony, which entered the market in September 2010. Author of this thesis has been employed in the company since its founding. In these sections we describe basic operation of the company, marketing tools used and advantages over the competition. The future of companies dealing with collective buying is uncertain; many of them are in red numbers. The last part of this work therefore tries to project the short-term forecast for this company using expert view based on the data acquired from a survey.

An enterprise can acquire technology either through 'making' (the pursuit of new technology development through internal R&D) or 'buying' (acquisition from external sources). This is known as the

This thesis aims to identify the motivating factors driving consumers home purchase decisions from the consumer's point of view. Although there is an abundance of past real estate research, dating back as far as the 1920's, the factors shaping consumers home choice have not been fully explored. Past research has tended to assume that homebuyers arrive at a decision following a logical and rational decision making process. These studies have also tended to focus on utilitarian or economic factors shaping home choice. Although past research has unquestionably added to the understanding of home purchase behaviour, the focus on utilitarian and economic factors does not explain decisions that are underpinned by deep-seated motives. The present thesis extends past research by exploring the less tangible, non-economic aspects of home choice in order to provide a fuller story of why and how people consume homes. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the unsolicited motives underlying consumers' home choices, therefore, a qualitative technique known as ZMET was employed. Based on the notion of unconscious thoughts, ZMET uses visual images gathered and/or generated by consumers to elicit and probe the metaphors that represent their thoughts and feelings. For the present study, 14 consumers who had recently placed an offer on a home took part in the ZMET interview. The present methodology extends past property research which has predominantly taken a quantitative approach. The findings of the study provide a rich insight into the motivations behind consumer home choice. Firstly, it reveals that the pre-purchase checklists used by many homebuyers and real estate agents are inaccurate representation of consumer home choice, and explains why this is so. Secondly, it demonstrates the influence of twenty four motives, including three central constructs (space, nature and views) on consumer home choice and highlights the fact that autobiographical memories underpins many of the motives to impact on choice. Thirdly, it provides a model mapping out the interaction between utilitarian and hedonic motives, which evokes a network of feelings, sensations and emotions that shape consumer home choice. In doing so, the research provides theoretical insight into the link between the rational information-processing model and the experiential view of hedonic consumption in home purchases. This study has shown that a specific set of utilitarian and deep-seated hedonic factors interrelate to culminate upon one's home choice. The findings in this study maintain that while utilitarian factors are significant determinants of home choice, in themselves, they do not always tell the whole story. This new knowledge of how and why homebuyers chose what they did is valuable to practitioners in predicting accurate property demands and value. Real estate agents can-sell more effectively by matching a property to a homebuyer's hedonic needs. The information in this study also helps homebuyers understand that their home choice is guided by internal images and deep-seated motives derived from many years of past experience but more importantly, they can decide if these motives justify the price they pay for the property. Finally, the model gives future researchers a new framework to access meanings necessary for understanding homebuyer choice and allows a closer examination of the mechanics of these influences on the housing market and its demands.

<p>ABSTRACT</p><p>Online shopping in EU has been shown to a good potential market. The electronic equipment takes a high percent of the individuals shopping. Compared with other goods, online shopping of electronic goods adds great convenience to the life of the people. Buying electronic gadgets online gives customers an opportunity to find a great variety of product online, and customers can review a wide selection of products and find special offers and discount with the best deals online. In the coming years, the development of online retailers is improving and promises a bright future. However, the tangible and intangible problems of electronic product online shopping still exist and the online store retailers lack the customer knowledge in some extent. Therefore, our intention is to explore customer behavior when purchasing electronic products through investigating the factors that can affect online shoppers‟ attitudes, intention and actual buying behavior. Furthermore, through the findings of our research, we offered the online retailers some suggestions to improve their sales and attract more customers.</p><p>Our research was conducted at Umeå University, the participants are students who come from four different departments. We categorized the important influencing factors into customer-oriented and technology-oriented factors. We utilized quantitative method in the term of questionnaire to exam how the respondents think about these factors, and we figured out the relationship between the factors and the consumers‟ attitudes and online buying intention for electronic product.</p><p>Our final findings show that only the experienced shoppers‟ attitudes highly affect their buying intention. Transaction security and product quality as the most important elements of electronic product online shopping in the customer-oriented factors are voted by the respondents; while in the technology- oriented factors, easy to navigate and useful web content are the most important issues which drawn more customers‟ attention. In addition, we suggested that the online retailers should guarantee a safe and accurate transaction process, moreover, make more efforts to web design and enhance the return and refund after-sales service. Our study is expected to contribute the e-commerce, especially focused on the electronic product field, the further research can take our research as a basic and go deeper to investigate.</p><p> </p><p>Key words: online shopping, electronic product, customer buying behavior, factors</p>

Environmental awareness has increased rapidly around the globe inrecent years, which has lead to consumer demands for sustainable products. Inreaction to this, companies try to keep up with consumer demands and green theirsupply chain, in hope to acquire a competitive advantage. This research willtherefore determine to what extent these green supply chain practices influence thebuying decision of consumers.Environmental awareness has increased rapidly around the globe inrecent years, which has lead to consumer demands for sustainable products. Inreaction to this, companies try to keep up with consumer demands and green theirsupply chain, in hope to acquire a competitive advantage. This research willtherefore determine to what extent these green supply chain practices influence thebuying decision of consumers.

ABSTRACT Online shopping in EU has been shown to a good potential market. The electronic equipment takes a high percent of the individuals shopping. Compared with other goods, online shopping of electronic goods adds great convenience to the life of the people. Buying electronic gadgets online gives customers an opportunity to find a great variety of product online, and customers can review a wide selection of products and find special offers and discount with the best deals online. In the coming years, the development of online retailers is improving and promises a bright future. However, the tangible and intangible problems of electronic product online shopping still exist and the online store retailers lack the customer knowledge in some extent. Therefore, our intention is to explore customer behavior when purchasing electronic products through investigating the factors that can affect online shoppers‟ attitudes, intention and actual buying behavior. Furthermore, through the findings of our research, we offered the online retailers some suggestions to improve their sales and attract more customers. Our research was conducted at Umeå University, the participants are students who come from four different departments. We categorized the important influencing factors into customer-oriented and technology-oriented factors. We utilized quantitative method in the term of questionnaire to exam how the respondents think about these factors, and we figured out the relationship between the factors and the consumers‟ attitudes and online buying intention for electronic product. Our final findings show that only the experienced shoppers‟ attitudes highly affect their buying intention. Transaction security and product quality as the most important elements of electronic product online shopping in the customer-oriented factors are voted by the respondents; while in the technology- oriented factors, easy to navigate and useful web content are the most important issues which drawn more customers‟ attention. In addition, we suggested that the online retailers should guarantee a safe and accurate transaction process, moreover, make more efforts to web design and enhance the return and refund after-sales service. Our study is expected to contribute the e-commerce, especially focused on the electronic product field, the further research can take our research as a basic and go deeper to investigate.   Key words: online shopping, electronic product, customer buying behavior, factors

The financial crisis has affected every economy during the last decade thus under this changing environment that effect the marketing strategies and these strategies began to change according to the buying behavior of the people. In this research the consumer perspective is examined with the change in mobile phone technology. This is an industry of constant change and innovation in which manufacturers are continually developing new technologies for consumers. As the buying behavior of the consumer is changing but how these changes in mobile phone technologies are effecting the consumer is analyzed in this research. The technologies used in the mobile phone are upgrading quickly that effect the prices and technology of every new version of mobile phone. This made the consumer confused to make a buying decision of mobile phone. We examined the problem with consumer buying behavior, in which the consumers purchase decision and post purchase decision were analyzed under the impact of financial crisis. Furthermore, the buying process of consumer helped us examining the attributes and satisfaction of purchase decision. For this purpose, we formulated four propositions which were based on research problem and these propositions were analyzed through different variables. We conducted questionnaire survey from the consumers in Umea, Sweden and collected data from 150 respondents. To analyze and draw conclusion from the collected data, we ran different univariate and bivariate analysis. The marketing strategies were analyzed through the buying behavior which involved usage situation and source of information for making the decision. The impact of financial crisis was examined through the change in spending of consumer. The change in technology of mobile phone was examined through the features and performance of mobile phone used by the consumer.  Thus, we concluded that the buying behavior of people changed due to change in income, but this change showed more effect on the sales of the mobile phone than on its technology. We analyzed that consumer want to retain their mobile phone for a long period, but the technologies used by the mobile phone manufacturers are attracting them by showing different benefits. As a result, the effect of different marketing strategies attracted the consumer to purchase mobile phone with advanced technologies. On the other hand, financial crisis didn’t show a major impact on the mobile phone market. The spending of the consumer in crisis did not increase the demand for new technology but the change was due to the nature of the mobile phone because it was considered as a commodity by the consumer. Mobile phone performance and technology has built satisfaction in the people mind because mobile phone manufacturers are providing advance technologies to the people.